Hello! Welcome to my new lesson. My name is Emmelda and in today’s lesson, we will be
learning about phrases in which there are different words, which mean completely different
things, but when they come together they create an effect. Not sure what am I talking about?
Today we will be learning about Oxymorons.
What is an oxymoron? As I said they are phrases
in which two words come together, but they have different meaning. But when they come,
they have an effect and they’re very useful when you are speaking to someone. For example,
a very good example of oxymoron is, happily married, got you. Let’s look at the example,
let’s look at some of the examples that we have today. The first one that I have for
you is, Act naturally. What is act? Act is to pretend or to be unreal. Act means to pretend
or to be unreal. They are unreal emotions, when people come up with saying, Oh my dear
love, I love you. Practically they don’t mean it, but they are fake emotions. Act means
fake, act means pretend, act means unreal. Have you ever noticed actors getting awards
like Oscar or Emmy to act naturally? Why? Because their emotions appear so natural,
that you feel their emotion. If I remember correctly, how about Titanic? Yes the actors
acted naturally in the movie Titanic. Got it? Moving on to the next one, clearly misunderstood,
this has happened so many times with me. I would tell something peacefully and politely
and I’m talking about directions, boss you wanna take right then you take a left and
then you go straight and then you take a you turn. And then he says ahh yeah I wanna take
left, right, I take a you turn and then I go straight. See he got clearly misunderstood.
What do I mean? Clearly means precise, however misunderstood means wrong or making a mistake.
So clearly although it means very precise, correct on the dot. But wrong and misunderstood
are completely opposite than what we have here, so clearly misunderstood is one of the
oxymoron, when you are trying to tell someone, dude you clearly misunderstood me. I want
you to follow my direction in this way, so that’s clearly misunderstood for you. Now
moving on to I have the educated guess. You will see this phrase in lot of Hollywood movies,
especially in a Si-fi movies, scientific or fiction movies. Why would you say educated?
Educated means in fun that means you calculate, well the moon sets, the sun sets in the west
and it rise in the east. That means my house which faces the west is actually on the east.
So that’s educated, but it’s a guess, you’re not sure of it. Well, educated means
informed, that means you are being informed, you’re being calculated , two plus two is
four , but you make a guess. I don’t know if two plus two makes a four or a six? You
make an educated guess. Two opposite word but when they come together they mean informed
but unsure educated guess. Got it? Let’s move on to the other one, Found missing. If
you go to airports or railway stations or bus terminals. You may have this term lost
and found, another oxymoron lost and found. Found means being discovered and lost means,
of course lost means lost, you can’t discover it anyways. But you will have phrases like
found missing. If you read newspapers, you’ll have this phrase, Oh an item such as a suitcase
or a bag or a dress or a phone was found missing that means they discovered that they have
lost the item. Again discovered means when you find something, you actually got it, but
lost means, when you don’t see it anymore, so found missing, two opposite word. Moving
on to my favorite Jumbo shrimp. This oxymoron goes very well for all those who love sea
food. And I’m pretty sure, people would know what shrimp means. Shrimp actually means
a small tiny little sea food that has tentacles and you know you break open the shell and
then you eat the flesh inside. Shrimp is actually really small, it’s only this small. It’s
considered one of the tiniest sea food that you will ever have, but imagine you have a
Jumbo shrimp, jumbo means big. It was supposed to say like jumbo elephant. I think jumbo
is associated to the animal elephant and imagine elephant with a shrimp, two opposite, but
shrimp. If you know what jumbo shrimp, jumbo shrimp will be little bigger than the regular
one. It has a hard shell on the top, crack open it and you have it. So jumbo means big,
shrimp is a very tiny small sea food. So next time if you go to a restaurant, you may want
to order a jumbo shrimp for your dinner or your lunch.Moving on to the only option. Well,
to be honest your wife is your only option. What I meant is, only means solo. It means
single. However option means a choice, that means let’s say you want to choose a girlfriend
and you have Tina, you have Clara, you have Isabelle. But imagine Tina and Clara they
ditched you, they dumped on you and they said sorry John I’m not interested. So Isabelle
becomes your only option. Option means having a choice between two or three. It’s two
or three, having a choice between two or three. But when you don’t have those choice, you
can either say Isabelle is your only option to be a wife or Isabelle is your only choice
to be a wife. Practically you don’t have a choice anymore. You are stuck with someone
or you are stuck with an option. The only option also only choice. Moving on to the
second last one that I have is pretty ugly. Now both these phrases pretty and ugly refer
to something that you wanna see or you wanna look at, pretty actually means very beautiful.
For example, Miss Universe has a very pretty face, but ugly is something very unpleasant
to look at, maybe the so called modern art of an artist, where something that you don’t
really understand and it’s kind of ehhh bring that sensation, it’s pretty ugly.
However pretty actually here means “Very”, now that’s a phrase that we are actually
using. Pretty here means just very, if you say very ugly or pretty ugly, it practically
means the same. It means a particular picture or a statue or a monument or something that
you wanna look at, it’s not pleasant, it’s very unpleasant to your eyes and you are saying
that thing is pretty ugly. Shall we move on to the last one? The best is the last or the
last is the best one , Small crowd. There is a saying two is a company, three is a crowd.
But what is a crowd? Crowd means a large group of people, it has to be more than two, however
some people call two also a group. For example, if you are doing a presentation or a meeting
or you are doing some workshop, you are divided into a group of two or a crowd of two. So
crowd means large group of people, but small means small less than usual. You see it’s
less than usual for small, but for crowd it is large group. So sometimes when you have
people for just forming a group probably three or four, you can’t call them a small group
of people. So usually you would refer a small crowd as three or four people come together
and they do an activity or they are doing something or they are just being in a particular
place, so that’s a small crowd. Now please understand small crowd is actually very relative.
For example, if you are going for a movie in a theatre, if the theatre is full, you
may want to say it’s a large crowd. But if a theatre has a capacity of probably hundred
seats and only twenty people are there then you will say it’s a small crowd. Again what
I mean is it’s very relative. Normally three to four people are considered a small crowd.
This brings us to the end of the lesson. I hope you understood what oxymoron actually
mean? So next time I will be seeing you with another lesson that will be very interesting.
Till then have fun stay healthy, be beautiful and keep learning English. Chao!