what's going on Aubry how are you I'm great Lindsay I have a question for you okay this
is a tricky one I actually saw this quiz on Tick Tock and only maybe one to five percent of native
English speakers got it right so don't be upset if you get it wrong I'm ready I'm ready there's
a lot on the line here let's there is a lot on the light okay the question is what is the
opposite of allow the verb allow and here are your options a forbid B disallow C prohibit or D deny
okay this is tricky this is hard because I would say I would say they're almost there what they
all mean they're all very synonymous oh wow I'm gonna learn a lot today because to me these all
are the opposite of allow in my head's that way right when you first look at them the only one
it's definitely opposite of allow and I'm sure it's a trick question right we're going back to
the like the original meaning of allow or the true meaning of allow I'm sure no no it's not
a trick question I love that you would expect that of me all right then I'm going to use the process
of elimination here so I'm going to eliminate deny because it doesn't quite mean the same thing right
it's not an exact uh opposite so that's good um so then I have forbid disallow or prohibit uh I
think it's between forbid or prohibit and I gotta say prohibit you're so close you did get it down
to the 50 50. you needed the phone a friend you needed to use the eliminate one of the 50 50. yeah
you were so close it's forbid but I didn't realize that either I looked at all four of these and same
as you I thought these all mean don't allow right yeah how what is the difference because
it is a little bit subtle but they do each have more specific meanings they do you guys I am so
excited for you because you can after this episode you'll be able to ask your native English speaking
friends this question and stump them because very few of them will get it right they won't know they
won't know it's so good it's so good guys this is fun we're gonna learn this together today right so
we're gonna learn in parallel so let's go into it Aubrey so are we gonna figure out what the
key differences are here between these four words words wow okay yes I know so interesting right I
love this I know you guys love vocabulary this is very high level um but it's just fascinating and
the thing is you can't always trust the thesaurus we talk about this over on IELTS energy Jessica
and I if you guys are preparing for aisle to make sure to follow that podcast because often
a mistake that IELTS students will make is they'll take a word from the thesaurus and use it to mean
something that it actually doesn't mean because it'll be like a synonym in certain contexts but
in other contexts it does not mean the same thing so you have to be careful you can't just find your
parallels your synonyms from the thesaurus you have to learn what they mean in different contexts
all right let's get into it then in that case good so let's go straight to forbid so all right what
so what does this mean yeah it means to not allow this was the winning answer this is the winning
answer right it is the opposite of allow it means to not allow okay so you would like you could say
she forbids her children to eat dessert that means she doesn't not allow her children to eat dessert
but here's what's interesting about the word forbid it's a little harsh it's a little extreme
I would never say I forbid my children to eat I would just say you can't have dessert or yeah I
don't let my children have dessert we really avoid using forbid because it's so extreme it's so harsh
it might be a little bit old-fashioned or too formal it makes me think so right now I'm watching
handmaid's tale did I tell you this before I love that show oh it's so intense it honestly it's hard
to watch it is really really hard to watch if you guys haven't but disturbing it's not yeah right
it's not taking us back into the past it's like an alternate universe where if something had happened
politically something else would happen but I imagine them using that in that show right they're
in traditional dress it feels like they're in the 1800s but they're not right so I forbid you right
you cannot do that a lot of things are forbidden right it's a dystopian so you hear Utopia for
like an Ideal World dystopia is the opposite of that it's like a worst case scenario for
maybe something post-apocalyptic so that'll definitely be in the app you guys dystopian
because that's such an interesting word yeah it's crazy so check out your show if you can handle it
I don't know if I'll be ready have a glass of wine maybe yes all right what's interesting
about forbid is that we do use it jokingly I use it jokingly a lot I might say I forbid you to eat
any more cookies because I want the cookies right we will say this for humor to be funny telling
someone we forbid them something that we're not really allowed to forbid them to do right I love
it so what's the recommendation for our listeners here should they use this only just in the joking
sense if they're having fun but generally not really using it in terms of telling people
what they can't do right because it's kind of old-fashioned out of style yeah exactly very much
so right this does mean the opposite of allow but there are other ways that natives are especially
in conversation we're just gonna say I can't do that you can't do that instead of I forbid it
okay I love it and then okay number two disallow now I see why it's not the opposite of allow if
we look at the definition right which is to refuse to declare valid okay that's different from saying
I allow this exactly so here's some good examples right the judge disallowed her testimony oh yeah
so it isn't about not allowing it's that there is something that exists and you are not going
to declare it as valid or accept it as valid okay so it's involving a more formal scenario like a
process an Institutional scenario the evidence was disallowed in court in the institution of
the court right right and that might be because the police didn't have a warrant something like
that right so the evidence exists but the court is not seeing it as valid for some reason that makes
sense and what's the third example so this is in sports you'll hear this a lot the officials should
disallow the goal because like maybe there was a goal but oh there was a penalty or something so
they're going to disallow it they're not going to see it as valid right so this really isn't
something that you're going to have in your conversation necessarily it's probably more
something you're going to see in the news or read in a newspaper about official proceedings right
now you know what it means and it's fascinating if you ask a native speaker this question they will
often choose disallow because that we have that prefix dis yeah and we think oh that means the
opposite that must be right some people this is a really tricky one English so rude so unfair to
treat us like this right but like you know you take the SAT you you understand the tricks and
traps that these tests have right you know it's not that easy it's not that easy so let's go into
the third one prohibit and this is again if you understand the definition you realize it means
a little something different it's too officially forbid something by law or rule yes okay I can't
say I prohibit my children from eating dessert there's no official law or rule there but I could
say drinking alcohol is prohibited in the United States if you're under the age of 21 yeah and that
was in my head when I was choosing prohibited I thought there might be a reason why this could
be wrong and it was I was envisioning a sign in a bar an official sign in a bar that says it's
prohibited to drink if you're under 21. so that means Yeah official laws things that are written
on signs on walls right that kind of thing see why even native speakers make this mistake because it
can be oh that means drinking's not allowed in here yeah you don't think about okay let's see
what's the actual Nuance of this word it means there's an official rule or law exactly or you
may may see this as like a no trespassing sign on a fence prohibited entry prohibited official entry
like without official documentation or something like that right yes definitely or we might say
the company's HR policy prohibits harassment something like that right it doesn't necessarily
have to be an official law if it's a policy some kind of rule you can say something is prohibited
and then there's kind of a second meaning here right for it which is to make something
impossible so this is more conversational right Aubry yes right you might say uh the high walls
of the pr the prison prohibit Escape okay that it makes Escape impossible still sounds formal to me
though definitely very high level but we wouldn't use this at work right if we might say you know
limited funds are prohibiting our success right yeah that means it's making it impossible the way
I actually use this more I don't use it in this way I use the word prohibitive it's prohibitive
yes right like an adjective yeah like we talk about inflation happening right now in the U.S
it's getting pretty bad we thought it was going to get better in August and then we see the data
from August it's gotten worse right so the cost of eating out has almost become prohibitive for a lot
of Americans that I use in conversation yeah yes I use that adjective meaning like something is being
made impossible because of something else ooh good point that's very native and natural to call
something of okay Aubry so now let's move into our number four here that fourth word our listeners
are gonna be so good at vocabulary by the time we finish today are better than most natives this one
most native speakers at least a lot in what I saw chose deny because you can see that doesn't that
mean to not allow but just like you said Lindsay right it has a little bit of a different meaning
right if opposite is approve so it means to refuse to approve or Grant something and it really helps
to think about like an insurance claim or a bond you would say you approve it or you deny it you
wouldn't say you allow it right this implies kind of a process an approval process right a system of
process right so you know he denied her the chance to interview for the job right yes another one was
denied access to the company's intranet meaning like you're in interior internet Network yes oh
my God they're so subtly different but they're a little bit different friend let's show our
listeners in a role play where these might come up shall we perfect yes so in this role play
we're chatting about your dog keeper Kiefer yeah you know it's so funny a lot of uh people think
his name is keeper with a p right keeper when I pass people on the in the park they're like oh
keeper that's such a cutie like it's not keeper but I think you're saying keeper that's really
cute it's Kiefer Kiefer and it actually means uh in Gaelic I guess it means cherished actually I
just found that out so I love that I assumed you named him after Kiefer Sutherland yeah I know
her but I kind of love keeper to be like he's a keeper yeah something that we would want to
keep and adorable that's really tacky adorable but tacky yeah yeah all right here we go here we
go all right I'll start us out are there any rules you've had to establish for your puppy definitely
oh we forbid him to jump on the furniture does he obey sometimes he would try to jump up but
we've always denied access what fun places are you able to take him unfortunately dogs are prohibited
at our favorite Pub oh no you should submit a formal petition for them to change their rules
unfortunately I think they disallow it oh that sounds very formal formal conversation yeah some
of these some of these words are a little formal So It's tricky to try and sort of force them into
role play a conversation we might actually have because yeah we can point those out as
we go along you know I probably wouldn't say you probably wouldn't say we forbid him to jump maybe
if you're joking we forbid him to jump on the furniture yeah yeah like we don't let him we don't
let him jump on the furniture yeah for sure for sure these words I feel like would be like you'd
be more likely to use them in a conversation if you have to call the police department or a talk
with a lawyer or something like that right very official yeah absolutely for sure okay so I said
definitely you said are there any rules you've had to establish for your puppy definitely we forbid
him to jump on the furniture as you said Aubrey what's next and then you're saying he would try
to jump up but we've always denied access and this is the meaning right to refuse to Grant him
access and maybe you would say it formally like this sort of for to be funny but we really would
probably just say but we've never let him right so he's trying to jump up but we don't let him
yeah I think people might say this in a funny way no like access to nod right like you might
be joking around and trying to act like a robot or something people make jokes like that they act
weird sometimes like that using that phrase sure but just in like everyday conversation we we would
take we would remove these sort of more formal words I agree yeah we don't we don't let him
okay okay and then you said dogs are prohibited at our favorite Pub I guess you maybe say we probably
would in this case say you know dogs are not allowed or they don't let dogs in they don't
let dogs in yeah meaning you definitely could say dogs are prohibited there exactly I mean the
good news is that here in Colorado it's a very dog friendly State most people can bring their
pups to a brewery and hang out Outdoors they're not prohibited through very many places no it's
great not inside but yeah outside for sure and then to use disallow I said oh you should do a
formal petition he said I think it would disallow it yeah yeah yeah so this is good because we're
showing you an example we're bringing it into a casual conversation but out in the real world
guys this would yeah this would happen more and let's say you have you let's say you get called
in for jury duty and you can test that and you have to call and that would be where these would
come up something like that right definitely you might get disallowed as a juror yeah maybe or yeah
your excuse is disallowed or something right oh it's so interesting I mean this is it is going
to be really helpful for you guys to understand these when you do see them in the news on TV and
especially you know True Crime shows you're going to see all of these like you said in a courtroom
but definitely don't stress about using the right one and often you're going to want to choose more
like natives to say something like I don't I don't let them do that I don't I don't let them do it
yeah very simple I love it so guys yeah don't be afraid to kind of stump your native speaker
friends if you're in the right mood maybe you're joking around having fun with the person you're on
a guy would love that pop this quiz on them right just have fun with it why not why not so good that
was so fun awesome Lindsay this is really fun yeah good stuff and guys if you want more great
episodes from Ollie's English remember we publish four days a week if not more so go over and hit
follow on allers English all right awesome thanks Lindsay I'll see you next time talk soon bye
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