Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is lesson 341. The title of today's lesson is
the difference between middle age and the Middle Ages. Yes. Sometimes students
will get confused between these two terms. I see it writing a little bit more
than in regular speech , but you could find it both ways. All right. Let's , let's
continue. Let's look at middle age first. Now middle age that's a part of our
lifespan. So middle age is the period of one's life that starts around one's mid-
30s and goes up to about the age of 60 or retirement age . It could vary slightly
you know, some dictionaries might have it start at 30. I've even seen some
dictionaries haven't start at 40. But basically it's around the mid-30s right
up to about 60. I would say that's generally the area most often that is
thought of as middle age. Okay. All right. Now let's look at the Middle Ages. Now
the Middle Ages is a historical time period. So a couple of things one we
usually almost always use a 'the' with it, and the age has to be ages. It has to
be plural and the M and the A is capitalized. Time periods are capitalized.
So the Middle Ages was a time period in Europe around 1100 to 1500 AD. Some
people and dictionaries say ... because sometimes there is a variance in
dictionaries. They don't always completely agree , include the Dark Ages
as part of the Middle Ages. So sometimes you look at a dictionary and they also
say the Middle Ages from 1100 to 1500 AD. Some include the Dark Ages as part of
the Middle Ages. Now what was the Dark Ages ? The Dark Ages would be the earlier
part. That's the part right after the Roman Empire collapsed and Rome or all
of Europe at that time was it was in chaos. So a lot of records were lost. We
lost a lot of history during that time. So when they call it the Dark Ages
that's why they call it the Dark Ages because there's a lot we don't
know about it. We didn't lose all of the history of course, but ironically we know
a lot more about the Greek and the Roman history than this early period of the
Middle Ages because so many records were lost. So that's why they called it the
Middle Ages or the Dark Ages. Yeah remember being the earlier part of the
Middle Ages. Okay. It's also good to know this. The adjective for Middle Ages is
medieval. Because sometimes students will make a mistake like that. They may also
think middle age is an adjective for Middle Ages. No the adjective for Middle
Ages is medieval. Okay. Let's continue. All right. So let's give some examples where
some students might mess up. Where you might make a mistake with the X this is
wrong. The Black Plague dates back to the middle age. No the black plague plague
dates back to the Middle Ages here. Here you want this historical time period. So
it's definitely not the middle age here. Okay. All right. Let's also note this. This
is remember Middle Ages is a noun phrase when you hit middle age, your metabolism
starts to slow down and it is more difficult to lose weight. Yeah. We often
kind of cover this or I've often talked about this in class. Usually when you hit
around 30. You start to notice that it's not as easy as it used to be to lose
weight, and then as you get a little older , your metabolism slows a little
more. So when you hit 40 or if you hit 50 it seems to keep slowing a little bit more
and it gets more and more difficult. If you put on some weight to get the weight
off. Like when you were very young and in your youth you know, all you could do is
just you know skip a meal or do a little bit more exercise in the weight, it's
gone. It's not quite the same when you are middle... When you're when you're in
your middle age basically or when you become a middle-aged person. Okay. Let's
continue here. Let's also look at the note. It is important to note middle age
is a noun phrase. Just like I said and not an adjective just like I said.
Sometimes students will use it as an edge
the adjectives would be middle-aged. Okay So again, here's an X where this could be
wrong. The suspect was a middle-age man. No. You have to say the suspect was a
middle-aged man. So the adjective of middle age is
middle-aged. The adjective in the Middle Ages is medieval.
Okay. I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.