Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is a lesson 112. Well. Today we're going to look at the
difference between hug, embrace and cuddle.. You know basically. This is another one where students
will often ask well what's the difference and there are some clear
differences could there be a little bit of crossover? Yeah maybe because you know
I mean every embrace starts off as a hug you know once it gets tighter and holds
longer it becomes an embrace. Cuddles could be a partial sort of hug
so there is a little bit of a crossover but again I'm going to try to show you the
differences between them. So let's look at the first one. Hug if a person hugs
somebody or something you know it could be like the child hugging a stuffed toy too.
They place their arms around and hold them usually for a short time.
Yeah if it's short we're most likely going to be using hug. Hugs tend to be
shorter and embrace by definition is usually a little longer. This is often
done as a way of showing you like or love somebody of course.
Well they're all that. It can also be done as a type of greeting to show that
you are happy to see them or sometimes as a way of showing affection for
someone who is leaving for a long time or on a trip. Yeah so a lot of times we
just hug somebody hello uh you know that we haven't seen for a long time.
That would be hug. That's usually not embrace we don't usually hold on for a
real long time. Not usually. I don't know maybe husband
and wife might they might he might like I said it could be a hug that turns into
an embrace or you know just basically a hug goodbye.
So those hellos and goodbyes tend will probably be more hugs not the other two
All right let's look at embrace the word embrace well first thing to note is
embrace is more formal so it's a more formal usage and it's often used to
imply that two people are holding on longer
Just like I said especially in a romantic or affectionate way yeah the
more romantic it is and the longer you're holding the more likely you want
to use the word embrace. An embrace, it often tends to be tighter too so it's a
tighter hug too Again which is usually more romantic as well than an average
hug. Okay good let's look at cuddle to put oneself in a comfortable or cozy
position against someone. Yeah I underlined comfortable or cozy because
that's an important part of cuddle, Cuddle you want kind of like warmth and
comfort and this actually might be the longest of all sometimes because
sometimes you cuddle as you go to sleep holding something or lying on the couch
maybe for for like you know even for an hour
well longer. Okay good so it could be a hug or a partial hug. Yeah sometimes it could be
just like to the side you know like that or simply leaning one's body against
someone else in an affectionate way so it doesn't have to be a hug at all. It
could be just kind of leaning closer like that. You know with a couple or something.
So that's kind of cuddle. All right, so let's look at the examples as soon as her son
exited the customs area his mother hugged him to welcome him
home. Yeah probably just you know a hello you know welcome home hug. Definitely not
you know not a romantic one or anything like that. And probably not that long. Number
two, after opening her gift she hugged her friend as a way of saying thank you,
Yeah maybe she bought her something she she really wanted and it's a way of
saying thank you. Oh thank you. Okay all right Clark embraced his wife to
give her a romantic kiss. Yeah again if they hold on longer, and they hold on tighter
and we're a little more likely to use embrace in this sort of situation,
That couple embraced on the dance floor as they slowly danced to a romantic song.
All right . Again it's definitely longer than hug and you know it's not that short but it
could be you know probably just for one song or two songs. However long the DJ
plays the you know slow romantic songs but yeah you could say that you could be
they could be embraced on the dance floor while while they're dancing very
slowly. Good let's look at the last couple here
That couple cuddle together on the sofa as they watch a romantic movie. It doesn't
even have to be a romantic movie but if you know a couple whether they're
married or not married they kind of leaning comfortably against each other.
Like I said this doesn't even have to be a hug or a partial hug although it could
be , So then we usually use cuddle again the key part about cuddle is like
comfort or cozy or nice and warm. Okay let's look at the last example. That
child cuddled his teddy bear in bed. Yeah so maybe also he's getting some comfort
from it and it's warm and you know so that could be also cuddle we wouldn't
use embrace in that situation that would sound weird. It sounds too romantic for a child.
Yeah so probably cuddle especially cuddle focuses again on the comfort and
warmth and coziness of something. All right so again I hope that's clear Like
I say most hugs you know actually could turn into an embrace so that that's
where you get the closeness of it and cuddle focuses more on comfort or being
cozy or being warm and again embrace is also probably the one that's a little
bit most romantic. Okay well I hope that clarifies it thank you for your time