Talking about Skills in English

Talking about Skills in English

Hello English learners. Welcome to a new lesson. We will look at some vocabulary you need for talking about skills in English.

You have probably been to a job interview or filled in the application form. One of the most common questions the interviewers ask is about your skills. By the way, skill refers to your ability to perform a job and it usually comes from practice.

The English teachers at My Lingua Academy are happy to help you improve your English. You can attend our online individual and group private lessons or learn English for free with our blog posts where you will find loads of grammar and vocabulary lessons, as well as exercises and quizzes. Let’s look at some useful vocabulary and phrases you need to talk about skills in English:

Good/bad at

Good at

We can say that somebody is skilled by using the structure good at + gerund or noun

• Our teacher is very good at motivating students.
• Mark is very good at drawing and painting. He wants to be an artist.
• Jane is not very good at dancing but she’s excellent at playing tennis.
• If you want to be good at football you have to train a lot.

Bad at

We can use the same pattern to say that someone is bad at something.

• Martin is bad at Maths but his sister is even worse.
• I’m very bad at chess. Let’s play something else.
• Susan has always been quite bad at writing essays.

We can use some other adjectives + at and different phrases to talk about skills in English:

• Although she was a single mother of two, Mary was excellent at keeping her children under control.
• George is really great at playing the piano. We love listening to him play.
• John is quite efficient at doing his job because he learned how to manage his time.
• Sandra is a doctor who is brilliant at handling her patients.
• Key is no good at giving people advice.
• Terry is horrible at basketball but he’s fantastic at table tennis.
• Farmers are usually terrible at paperwork.
• I’m useless at remembering people’s names.
• I am hopeless at playing this game. Can we play something else?
• Are you any good at making speeches?

Good/bad with

We can use the phrases good with or bad with + noun to talk about skills.

• Monica is very good with numbers. She’s a great accountant.
• For this position, you need to be good with people.
• Politicians have to be good with words.
• You are supposed to be a lot better with computers for this job.
• Patrick is very bad with time management. He’s always late.
• Our boss is terrible with languages.

To have skills

We can also say that somebody have/has … skills.

• Tony has listening skills. He’s a very good listener.
• Our employees have people skills. They are extremely kind and helpful.
• Tim has leadership skills; he’s the best boss we’ve ever had.
• People who have presentation skills are very good at explaining things.
• The hotel’s staff don’t have very good customer skills. They can be quite rude at times.
• People who work in tourism should have good language skills.
• Kevin is an excellent real estate agent with great negotiating skills.
• This course will help you improve your problem-solving skills.
• Not all bus drivers have good communication skills.

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