Hi this is this is Tutor Nick P and this is lesson 327. The, the lesson today is the
difference between fatal, deadly, and lethal . This is one that's come up a
number of times. Obviously, they all have something to do with death and people
dying, but you know students will often ask well what's the difference between
them ? Because really, you look at the definition it does seem quite
similar. So let's take a look the notes here. So we can distinguish how to use
each one and in which case one is more likely to be used than another. All right.
So let's look at fatal. Fatal describes conditions, situations or events that
caused or could lead to one's death such as accidents. Here we often use fatal
with accidents, crashes, collisions, falls, etc. Okay. Fatal is often used with attack.
Like we might say a fatal attack , fatal injury, fatal blows. So that last
strike that killed somebody. Fatal wounds, fatal shot... Maybe you know, in the
movie , maybe the guy got shot several times , but the one shot that was
the fatal shot was the one that caused him to die. Yeah. I think like with a
maybe with Kennedy I think the the shot right to his head was the fatal shot.
Some of the other ones maybe could have survived them, but the one to his head
was the one that finished him off. That would have been the fatal shot. Okay. Let's go
on. All right. Let's look at deadly. Now. deadly means capable of killing used with
such words as poison, virus, a threat, etc. Now there's an important part of the
note here. However, it does not need to refer to a specific death. So you might
say that's a deadly poison, but you're not talking about somebody that
specifically died from it. You .mean that poison has the ability to
cause somebody's death. The same thing with the virus when you're using it that way.
A deadly threat is the same way. Maybe nothing really happened, but the
threat is deadly. It could cause a lot of danger.
Hopefully the threat will never become realized. Maybe nothing will ever happen.
But it's a deadly threat. All right. Now when we say fatal it's probably used with
things that did happen and already caused someone to die or came very close
to causing someone to die. Okay. Let's go on. Lethal. Okay. Lethal is used for
something that refers to an agent. Yeah especially like a chemical agent. You
know, remember during Vietnam, they used Agent Orange. So all right. There's a
couple of things here. One , lethal feels like it is more intent on wanting to
kill somebody. Where you know fatal could be more like an accident.
Another thing about lethal, we should look at this part here. Lethal is often
used with a mixture of something. So an agent is a mixture of something. It is a
mixture of chemicals. So we're more likely to use lethal with something like
that. So lethal is used with something that refers to an agent or something created
for the purpose of killing or executing someone , such as a lethal injection. This,
this is a this is probably one of the most common uses that we use with lethal.
You know, in the US. today when someone is going to be... put to death or sentenced
to death , this is the most common way to kill them. They think this is the most
painless. We don't really use the electric chair anymore. All right. I don't
think any states do, and you know they don't hang them. So this is the most
common one. So here, we got it for two ways. One definitely intends to kill and it is
another mixture of chemicals to kill so lethal is really the most suitable here.
A lethal dose of medicine. All right it's another one. It probably means that
somebody was given too much medicine or more than their body could handle. Maybe
if they had a lower dose, maybe it may not have killed them. Okay. So again we
also use it with medicine, with mixtures. A lethal cocktail. Yeah. This is one we
hear a lot. You know, in recent years, especially with a lot of celebrities. It
could mean a number of things. Usually it was the mixture of often ... very often it is
legal drugs. but sometimes or they could be mixed with illegal drugs or
alcohol and it's the combination of taking them all at the same time that
may have caused the death. This could again happen with a celebrity. Celebrities
often have different doctors that prescribe them different things and one
doctor may not know what the other doctor prescribed them. And you know, they
put together, this is what could happen. All right, Let's go on. Lethal weapon. Well this
is a weapon specifically designed to kill someone not necessarily just for
protection but you know it's you know it's job is to to kill so etc. Let's go
on. Lethal is often used with a mixture of something we covered that already.
It could kill. Okay. So a disease could either be fatal or deadly. Yeah. So there
is some crossover. There is some overlap. Although probably we're more likely to
use fatal with someone that already got the disease and the disease is killing
them off. And when we say deadly disease were probably maybe nobody got the
disease yet we just mean that this disease has the ability of killing them
so it's more likely to be used that way. So even though you may use both words
with disease you may be using it from different perspectives. Different points
of view that you're looking at it from. All right. Let's let's cover all these
examples we have here. Example number one. A fatal accident is only one in which
someone dies. At least one person has to die. It could be more than one person.
It could be several people died and luckily most accidents nobody dies. So that's
just an accident. It's only fatal if at least one person dies. All right. Number two. That
mountain climber lost his life from a fatal fall. So it's the fall itself that
caused his death. So that's why we're saying a fatal fall. Again this is not
one way we would like to say deadly fall because we didn't know that was going to
happen. Now if we reverse the sentence around and you say Falls from that
mountain could be deadly, you might be able to use it that way. Meaning that it
has the ability to cause a death, but in most cases probably you know, with one
that already happened. Somebody already fell ,
we'll use fatal because that's what caused that particular person to die. All right.
Let's look at number three here. That soldier survived the battle, but later
died from a fatal wound. So I guess in this case at the end of the battle he
was still alive but he had this serious wound already and maybe there was
complications in which he could still survive maybe he died many hours
later. Okay. Let's look at number four. That chess
player made a fatal error which cost him the game. All right., again this is one where
you could only use fatal. You don't say deadly error or you don't say lethal error
and again in this particular case probably nobody died. He just lost the
game. So he you lose something. You did something wrong and it cost you. It hurt
you. It could maybe it hurt you financially, hurt you in your personal life. But
caused you to lose something. All right. Let's look at number five. A bite from
that snake would contain deadly poison. Again here you're just looking at it
from the point it it has the possibility of killing someone. Maybe that snake did
not bite anybody yet. You know, maybe talking about that specific one , but it
has the potential to kill someone. All right. Number six.
SARS has the potential to be a deadly virus. Yeah. To be honest the majority
of people who got SARS did not die. Some people did
unfortunately. So you could has the potential to kill you. But again, that's
the way we we're looking at it. From that perspective. Number seven. The fact that
this country has nuclear weapons is a deadly threat. Now again maybe the
nuclear weapons were never used. Maybe they never will be used. But it's a
deadly threat. So again fatal would probably be more
likely if something was used and people did die but deadly is talking more about
the possibility of it happening. All right. Number eight. That convict
was put to death by a lethal injection. Again this is probably our most common
one with lethal. All right number nine. They claimed Heath Ledger died from a
lethal cocktail. Again this is another one where it talked about the
celebrities. I did look it up and then I think they said that it was actually
mostly legal drugs that he was taking. But again it was the combination. He
wasn't supposed to be taking them all together and somehow it caused him to to
die. Okay All right. Let's look and the last one
down here. Many claimed that CIA has a lethal weapon that could shoot a dart
into somebody to cause a heart attack. Yeah. I've seen, I've seen old clips of
this. They have seen them actually in front of Congress talking about it. And supposedly
when the dart goes in, it dissolves and it doesn't leave any evidence. So it
could just cause a heart attack as a way of .. you know, it's a way of assassinating
somebody basically or killing somebody executing somebody that they want to
disappear. But anyway that we would use lethal in this sort of situation. Okay.
Anyway I hope you got it. Again I hope you could see more clearly when you're
more likely to use one of these than the others. Okay. I hope it was informative. All right.
Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.