327: You Know It, But Can You Say It. Verb Patterns in Action / Verb patterns w praktyce

Hey there, this is Teacher Ola Podcast, episode 327. You know it, but can you say it? Verb patterns in action. You read English. You understand English. You've been learning for years. But when it's time to speak, your mind just freezes and the words don't come out. That sounds familiar. You're not alone. My name's Ola and this is Teacher Ola Podcast. I'm here to help you finally speak out loud. This isn't about perfect grammar or fancy vocabulary. This is about your voice, your words, your real English. You've been listening to this podcast for years. You understand almost everything. You do the tests, you use the apps, you watch series in English, you read.

Your passive knowledge is at least B1, often much more. And yet when you open your mouth, it feels like you're using 5% of what you know. If that's you, I want you to listen carefully. Enrolment to my 12-week program Say It Out Loud Seoul is closing on Sunday, 22nd of February, 2026. The speaking club starts on 26th of February, 2026 at 7.35 PM. And once we close the door, that's it. But inside, you get a full 12-week program on the platform. 12 hours of live conversations with me and with the group, daily speaking practice with my individual feedback on WhatsApp, monthly extra classes with me, bonuses and lifetime access to everything, including my feedback on WhatsApp and all future updates.

But this is not about the features. It's about your decision. In 12 weeks you can still be the person who listens, understands, buys new materials and waits for something to click. Because you hope that it finally will click on its own. Or you can be the person who trains speaking regularly, opens their mouth and reacts naturally, stops chasing perfection and finally feels at ease in conversations. Same intelligence, same history, same amount of time, different method. If you already know, you understand a lot, but you don't speak freely, go to siol.pl and reserve your spot.

If you're not 100% sure whether your passive knowledge is really B1 or higher, message me at kontakt at teacherola.com or write to me on Instagram, TikTok or Messenger. Just reach out. I'll tell you honestly if this is for you. And now, let's move on to today's topic, because this is exactly the kind of knowledge you probably already understand passively. Verb patterns are one of the keys to sounding natural in English. Some verbs are followed by a gerund, which is the ING form, and others are followed by two plus the infinitive, but we will focus today on one type, only the gerund one. These patterns are fixed, you cannot usually change them, so you need to learn the verb together with its pattern.

So if you haven't been learning like this... All kinds of verbs to be honest. That's a shame, but this changes today. So today we're going to do things differently, okay? So this time I want you to repeat after me. So the practical part of the episode is the whole episode really today. So there will be one more at the end of the episode, but listen and repeat throughout the whole show today. Additionally, I want you to think about your answers to my questions. Say your answers out loud while listening to this very podcast, okay? Let's get started. Let's look at the verbs followed by the gerund first.

1. Avoid. Avoid is used when we talk about not doing something on purpose. For example, she avoids eating sugar during the week. She avoids eating sugar during the week. Say it out loud. Well done! She avoids eating sugar during the week. So now I need you to think about the answer to this question. What do you avoid doing? 2. Keep. Keep often expresses continuation.

For example, he keeps checking his phone every 5 minutes. He keeps checking his phone every five minutes. The question is what do you keep doing? 3. Recommend. Recommend is used to give advice. For example, the doctor recommended taking more vitamins. Your turn.

Well done! The doctor recommended taking more vitamins. Now imagine somebody needs your advice on losing weight. What do you recommend doing? Suggest. Suggest is very, very close to recommend, but often more neutral. For example, She suggested going for a walk after dinner. Your turn. Well done! She suggested going for a walk after dinner.

Ok, so it's a lovely wintry day. It's a weekend and we are in your location. What do you suggest doing? Mind Mind is often used in questions and negatives to ask about annoyance or to talk about something that annoys you or something that doesn't annoy you. For example, do you mind closing the window? Do you mind closing the window? Great! Do you mind closing the window? Ok, think about something that most people hate, but actually you don't.

You don't mind. For example, I don't mind cooking every day. How about you? What don't you mind doing? 6. Finish. Finish is used when something is completed. I finished writing the report last night. Your turn. Yes, I finished writing the report last night. So, tell me now, what have you finished doing?

7. Fancy Fancy is informal and means feel like or be interested in. For instance, do you fancy watching a movie tonight? Do you fancy watching a movie tonight? Now you say it out loud. Well done. Do you fancy watching a movie tonight? Now tell me, what do you fancy doing in general? Awesome work today. We're going to practice a little more, so be patient, wait for it. And now just a quick tip. A useful way to remember gerund verbs is to connect them with the idea of experience, you know?

Ongoing experience or activity. Many of them refer to actions in progress, repetitions, general activities. For example, avoid doing, keep doing, finish doing. You can imagine them as verbs that look back at something or describe an activity. You can also group them by meaning. Notice how recommend and suggest both give advice and both take gerund. Fancy, like and hate, all of them describe your preferences and they also Take the gerund. Learning them in small logical groups makes them easier to remember than memorizing a random list.

So if you always learn a verb together with its pattern like we did today, for example, avoid doing, keep doing, you will start to feel I this is exactly the difference between knowing and using. You probably understood everything I've just said. Nothing here was shocking. Let's be honest. Nothing. Nothing new, really. And yet, the real question is can you use it smoothly in a conversation without freezing? If you're tired of learning more and more and instead want to just train speaking for real with regular conversation, structured practice and my feedback, this is your moment.

Enrollments to Say It Out Loud closes on Sunday, 22nd of February, 2026. The Speaking Club starts on the 26th of February on Thursday, 7.35 pm. We'll be meeting every Thursday at 7.35 pm. And this Thursday you could already be after your first session. In six weeks you could feel a completely different level of ease in conversation. In 12 weeks you could look back at this very moment and smile knowing that this was the decision that changed everything. Go to siol.pl and book your spot now. And if you still have questions, write to me at kontakt at teacherola.com or message me on social media.

I'll be there. Let's recap today's sentences. She avoids eating sugar during the week. He keeps checking his phone every five minutes. The doctor recommended taking more vitamins. She suggested going for a walk after dinner. Do you mind closing the window?

She avoids eating sugar during the week. Do you fancy watching a movie tonight? That's all from me for now. Don't forget to head to teacherola.com forward slash 327 and grab your free worksheet. Learning is revising, so grab that worksheet and practice. And if you want to practice speaking regularly... Learn grammar and vocabulary with me inside the SIOL program. Join us now at siol.pl. The program starts on the 26th of February, 2026, so there's not much time left. Go to siol.pl.

Thank you so much for listening. Stay fearless, take care and say it out loud. I love you, I believe in you and I know That you are ready to speak English. I'm your teacher, Teacher Ola and you've been listening to Teacher Ola Podcast. Bye for now!