Acumen – Formal Vocabulary

Acumen is regarded as a formal word and, thus, can be used in formal situation, such as used as vocabulary for IELTS. To continue the series of Formal Vocabulary, let’s learn a new word today. First and foremost, let’s look at its Pronunciation, Meaning, and Implication in the IELTS test.

Video Introducing Acumen – Formal Vocabulary

The Pronunciation of Acumen

,first of all, is relatively special in that there are two possible way to pronounce the word. You can either say

/ˈækjəmən/ or

/əˈkjuːmən/

And please note that it is not dependable to the American or British accent. Simply put, you can pronounce in either way no matter you are using British or American accent. Well, I suggest using Longman Dictionary or Oxford Dictionary for further information.

As for the Meaning of Acumen

its meaning is rather straightforward. As the dictionary says: the ability to think quickly and make good judgments. Therefore, it is positive, stating the ability to think, to use information and reach a good decision in a short amount of time. In this sense, let’s look at some examples:

1. The firm’s success is largely due to Brannon’s commercial acumen.
2. I respect her business flair, her acumen.
3. Requests from group spokesmen illustrated varying degrees of preparation and political acumen.

The collocation of the formal word acumen,

if we look closely enough, is as below:

_Adjective:

In short, we can use virtually all adjectives that indicate a particular field. Political, Financial, Psychological, just to name a few. These adjectives will “limit the range” of acumen that you are using. It restricts the meaning just to the field that is being mentioned.

_Verb:

Before Acumen, there are frequently used Verbs:

Show and Demonstrate

all of which can be basically understood as “display”.

_Last but not least, adjective of degree

First, To “decrease” the level of acumen, we can use

• Poor
• Limited
• Insufficient

Second, To “increase” the level of acumen, we can use

• Great
• Considerable
• Extraordinary

Now, about using ACUMEN in the IELTS test,

there are at least two potential candidates.

In IELTS Writing Task 2

When discussing about any topics that relating to people and their ability, it is advisable that we use this word to indicate anything positive. For example,Technology replaces teachers; we can open our paragraph with a topic sentence:

There is no doubt it is here to stay that technology can hardly replaced the pedagogical acumen of teachers in classroom.

Advantages of studying abroad can be backed up with a supporting sentence:

Living independently can be conducive to students’ development of their finance and time-management acumen.

In IELTS Speaking Part 2

When mentioning people’s character (which you should do), you can use Acumen as one of your subject merit. I admire him for his sensible acumen.

Alrighty, that’s everything I think we should take into consideration when learning this word! In case you need to find more formal words, please visit Project Fancy.