Hi. My name's Rebecca from www.engvid.com. Nowadays, it's very common to talk about extreme
things. We hear about extreme fitness, extreme sports, extreme weather. Well, today's lesson
is about extreme English. What do I mean by extreme English? Well, often, in informal
conversation, people use a lot of exaggerated expressions to express their feelings, and
that's what we're going to learn here. You should try your best not to use this in formal
situations because it's really not meant for that, but you will hear a lot of people using
it in regular conversation. So, let's have a look at some examples.
So, the examples that I have on the board show you verbs which can be exaggerated, adjectives
that can be exaggerated, and adverbs. Okay?
Let's look at some example. So, for example, let's say you're hungry. Right? So, instead
of just saying: "I'm really hungry." People tend to say: "Oh my god. I'm starving." Now,
does it mean they're actually starving? No. Of course not. Not the person who's saying
that. The person who's probably actually starving doesn't have the strength to say they're starving,
but... So, we say: "I'm starving. Let's get something to eat."
Or, if it's really cold and you say: "I'm freezing." Okay? Instead of just saying: "I'm
really cold", "I'm freezing." Okay? This is the extreme part of it. Or: "My shoes are
killing me." Of course you're not going to die. It's just a way of speaking. "My shoes
are hurting." Right? Okay. All right.
Adjectives, let's see how we can use extreme English when it comes to adjectives. "Oh my
god. There's a gigantic spider on my bed." It's probably not a gigantic spider, but it's
a large spider as far as you're concerned. So, that's where the exaggeration takes place.
Or: "I have a million emails to answer." Probably not a million, but we mean a lot of emails.
Adverbs. "I'm totally exhausted today." It would have been enough to say that you're
exhausted, because after that, it's kind of repetitive or redundant. But sometimes people
add that just to exaggerate it. Or: "She's absolutely gorgeous." Or: "He's absolutely
gorgeous." Right? So, that's how we can have the extreme part of it, the exaggeration.
We often apply this also to certain areas, such as when we're talking about numbers,
or amounts, or time, or space. For example: "There were 100's of people in line outside
the store." Now, it's extreme or exaggerated only if there weren't actually hundreds, just
meant a lot. But you say hundreds because hundreds represents a lot. Or: "I have 1000's
of things to do before I leave next week." Okay? Again, you probably don't have thousands
of things, but you've got a lot of things to do.
Amounts. "Oh, we've got tonnes of homework." We don't have tonnes of homework. We've got
a lot of homework. Or: "There were piles of paper everywhere." Okay? Exaggeration again.
Sometimes when we exaggerate time, we can exaggerate it in two directions. We can make
it shorter than it actually is, or we can make it longer than it actually is. For example:
"Could I talk to you for a minute? I know you're busy. It'll just take 5 seconds." Now,
isn't that an exaggeration? It is, because it's going to take you more than five seconds,
but you're exaggerating it in another way, you're shrinking it. Right? Or: "Oh my god.
I met my friend. I haven't seen her in years." Okay? Maybe it's true, but it could be an
exaggeration. Or, you could say: "In ages", that's another expression where you exaggerate
the amount of time. Right?
Or: "Oh my god. I can't live here. This is such a tiny closet." Okay? "I need a big closet."
All right? It's probably not tiny, but in your view, from your perspective, it's tiny.
Or: "This is a huge bedroom." Okay? Again, these are relative terms, but we're also exaggerating
it to express our emotions, as well as our... The objective reality. Okay? Again, the objective
reality was not a gigantic spider, just a large one; and not a tiny closet, but just
a small one. Okay? But by using this kind of extreme English, you'll sound a little
bit more like a native speaker when you're speaking in informal situations. Okay?
If you'd like to do a little quiz on this to master it, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.
Thanks very much for watching. Good luck with your English. Bye for now.