hi welcome to ink vidcom I'm Adam
today's lesson is a little bit special
and a little bit you have to be careful
with it so I want to give you a little
bit of a warning before we even start
because I'm gonna show you some ways to
say crazy and stupid I'm gonna show you
you expressions that we use to talk
about a person who's a little bit crazy
or you think is stupid without actually
using the words crazy or stupid now on
the other hand I'm also going to show
you some ways to say a person is very
smart or sharp now sharp generally means
smart but it could also mean very aware
or very in control of a situation now
all of these expressions they're very
creative and you can play with them a
lot I'm going to show you basics and
then show you how to expand on them and
I want you to understand them because
they are very common and especially if
you're watching TV shows or movies and I
get a lot of students say to me I can
understand all the English but I don't
know what they're saying on in the
movies well the thing you have to
remember in the movies their audience
their target audience is native English
speakers
which means they can use slang and they
can use idioms and they can use all
kinds of cultural expressions that a
non-native speaker that someone who's
learning English simply won't understand
until it is explained to him or her so
that's what we're gonna do here so we're
going to start with crazy and stupid
expressions and then we're gonna look at
smart and sharp expressions okay
now a very common expression and the
reason I'm starting with this is because
you can be very creative with this one
you are a person is something short of
something or shy of something now before
I continue shy everybody knows shy means
you know you get nervous when you talk
to strangers or your face gets red shy
to be shy of means to have less than
complete okay so there's a new meaning
of the word shy for you and if those of
you taking an English test this is a
good word to use in your essay keep that
in mind so let's go look at a few
examples a few cards short of a full
deck so a full deck of cards has what I
think 52 cards so this person only has
45 so he's
playing a complete game means something
a little bit missing so either crazy or
stupid okay without actually saying
those words but everybody will
understand now this is this structure
you can use anything you want on either
end and people get very creative some
that person is a few sandwiches short of
a picnic you can't have a picnic if you
don't have all the sandwiches there so a
little bit not a hundred percent right
oh that's another expression something
to say he is not 100 percent means
something a little bit missing a few
beers short of a six-pack a few french
fries short of a happy meal the list
goes on and on and on and on you can
hear all kinds just remember this part
of it and you'll understand what's going
on
now another other expressions he's not
playing with a full deck so basically
the same meaning is this but just a
different construct oh that guy's not
playing with a full deck be careful
about him means he's a little bit crazy
he's not a hundred percent another
expression and this is again we use it
with these two sharpest and brightest
now sharp generally means smart bright
also means smart so somebody's bright
clever somebody's sharp clever but if
somebody is not the sharpest knife in
the drawer
I mean he's not very sharp he's actually
quite blunt so there's a little bit
stupid if somebody's not the brightest
star in the sky say meaning not very
smart a little bit stupid okay another
ways the lights are on but nobody's home
so eyes are open he's alive and seeing
everything but nobody's home nothing is
going on inside the brain the person is
out to lunch so the body is here but the
brain is outside having lunch somewhere
so not present you can also say the
person has a loose screw or has a few
loose screws means not everything's
tight and working properly the this
purse is cheese slid off his cracker so
again the list goes on and on and on
make sure you understand them make sure
you know you recognize them for what
they mean but if you're going to use
be very very careful because if
sometimes I've heard students mix up
expressions and the other person doesn't
understand what they're saying and they
can get themselves into a little bit of
trouble so be careful about that let's
look at a few expressions to talk about
somebody being smart or sharp or on the
ball as we'll see okay so now we're
going to look at the other side of the
coin okay we're gonna look at some ways
that you say good things about people so
if say if we say somebody is the cream
of the crop means he's the best of the
best or she's the best of the best so if
you're taking if you're looking at a
group of students all of them are ah
sorry all of them are very smart but
this one in particular he is the cream
of the crop he's the best of the best
he's the smartest the most talented etc
when we talk about smarts there are two
types of descriptions of smarts so
there's book smarts I mean somebody who
studied a lot and knows everything in
theory and then there are street smarts
so if we say this guy not so much book
smarts but his street smarts will get
him very far okay means he knows how to
handle himself he knows how to deal with
people he knows how to get the things he
wants he might not know very much about
books or what's in them but he knows how
to deal with the world he lives in or
she lives in whereas book smarts a
person can graduate with a PhD and then
go out into the real world to work and
not know what's going on because this
person lacks street smarts so it's good
to have a combination of both if you can
if somebody is on the ball on the ball
means in control aware of the situation
ready to act in any circumstance okay
very prepared very ready if somebody was
not born yesterday
not what if I say I wasn't born
yesterday it doesn't mean I'm smart but
it means I'm not stupid I wasn't born
yesterday I've been around long enough I
understand how things work so not born
yesterday not stupid not necessarily
smart but not stupid
if somebody knows the score if you know
the score it means you know what's going
on so if we think about a bass
basketball game or a hockey game in the
middle of the arena there's a big
scoreboard so everybody knows the score
it's right there so if somebody says I
know the score means I know what's going
on I know the situation I'm aware of
what's happening I can take care of it
I'm ready for whatever it's coming if
somebody doesn't miss a tick it means
that this person notices everything so
this person is very sharp he or she
always knows what's going on sees
everything that's happening knows what
everybody's doing is very aware of the
situation very sharp okay if we say
somebody's a sharp cookie means smart so
she's a sharp cookie she knows how
exactly what he's trying to do etc same
thing sharp is attack attack is a little
piece of metal that you put on the wall
to hold the paper or whatever picture
you have you just tack it to the wall
right it's very sharp so if you're sharp
is attack means you're very smart now if
you're whatever savvy
avv why tech savvy computer savvy
internet savvy whatever it is you're
savvy which means you're very good at
you're very knowledgeable about you're
very aware of you know how to use etc so
the most common these days is tech savvy
so children today are much more tech
savvy than their grandparents because
they the children are born to a digital
world whereas the grandparents are still
writing in pen and paper so they don't
know they're not tech savvy and you
could say somebody is quick if somebody
is quick it means smart very sharp can
process information very quickly if
somebody is a bit slow then a little bit
dumb not so smart not necessarily stupid
just not necessarily very smart either
but somebody who's quick is actually
very smart ok now again very important
to know how to use these and to know how
to use them correctly if you're not sure
don't use it but when you watch movies
when you watch TV shows when you speak
to native speakers and you hear these
expressions at least you know what's
going
you can be on the ball ready for
whatever the Congress wherever the
conversation leads okay if you have any
questions about any of these please go
to Ingrid comm and ask me on the forum
there there's also a quiz at this on the
site where you can test your knowledge
of these expressions if you liked the
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I'll see you again soon with some new
videos of new things to learn bye bye