Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Hmm, do you know these tricky words? Can you use them correctly in English? Let's talk about it.
Have you ever experienced this before? You're having an English conversation
and then all of a sudden bleh, bleh, bleh, you don't have the word that you're searching for.
It's somewhere in there, but it's covered with dust and you just can't search for it and reach
for it at the right time. Well, never fear, today, in this lesson, I'm going to help you
master some tricky words in English and hopefully make them easier for you to understand.
To help you with this process, I have created a free PDF worksheet that you can download with the
link in the description. In this PDF worksheet, you can find all of the sample sentences, all
of the meanings, some little tips and tricks for how to use these words, and at the end of the PDF,
you can answer Vanessa's Challenge Question so that you can use and remember what you've learned.
For all of these tricky words, I'm going to be quizzing you. I'll give you a sentence and you
need to choose which of the two words fits best in that sentence and, of course, as your teacher,
I will be giving you some explanations to help you so that you can feel empowered to use them
yourself. But be careful, one of these questions is a trick question. Are you ready? Let's start.
I can't believe how ... your son is now. Last time I saw him, he was only four years old.
I can't believe how high your son is. I can't believe how tall your son is.
Which one of these simple words, but it's a little bit tricky which one is correct,
which one of these words is right? And only one of them is correct. I'll give you three seconds to
think. 3, 2, 1. I can't believe how tall your son is now. Hmm, if we said, "I can't believe how high
your son is now," do you know what that means? It means that he is taking drugs. If someone is high,
that means they're taking drugs. But if someone is tall, that means that they are,
well, tall. Taller than someone who is short. So here's a little tip and trick for how to
use high versus tall. Usually we use high for something that's not touching the ground. So
you could say the airplane is high. Or, sometimes we say the airplane is high up. It's not touching
the ground. But you can say the building is tall because the building is touching the ground.
Your son is tall because his feet are touching the ground. So we have this difference between
high and tall, two seemingly simple words that can be tricky if you use them in the wrong way.
All right, are you ready for the second one? Let's do it. Boy, have I had a ... day!
Boy, have I had a mad day! Boy, have I had a crazy day! Hmm, which one of these words is best to use?
2, 1. Boy, have I had a crazy day! Oh, when something is crazy, it feels out of control,
so many things are happening. When something is mad, well, we usually use this for people.
I'm mad. I'm angry. But the thing that's tricky here, and a little tip for you,
is that in Old English, the word mad was often substituted for the word crazy. So take a look
at this movie poster. This is a famous movie and it's called It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
They're not talking about being angry; they're talking about being crazy. This world is crazy.
But nowadays we never use the word mad in this type of situation. We only use the word crazy.
So if you're talking about something that's hectic and chaotic and it's out of control, it is crazy.
It's not mad. You are mad, you're angry. But when something is out of control, it's crazy.
Tricky word pair number three: His essay about courage was only one sentence,
"This is courage," and the rest of the paper was ...
Hmm, the rest of the paper was blank. The rest of the paper was empty. Hmm,
which one of these two words is best to use. I'll give you three seconds to think about it. Hmm,
the rest of the paper was blank. Usually, something that's flat is blank, so a piece
of paper with nothing on it is blank. What about empty? Well, you can't really pour water
into a piece of paper, we need a container. Well, if there is nothing in a container,
it's empty. This is the idea here: something that's flat is blank and something that can be ...
have something go inside of it, can be filled with something else, a container, is empty.
There is one phrase that I'd like to share with you that kind of breaks this rule or we should say
bends this rule a little bit, and that is when we say my mind is blank. Well,
your brain is not really flat, but it's not really a typical container that can
just have something poured into it, but we use this phrase, "My mind is blank,"
to mean I can't think of the answer. I don't know what you're talking about. I have nothing
going on here. My mind is blank. Sorry, I can't remember what to say. My mind is blank.
Wonderful. All right, let's go to the next pair. I'm so excited about my ... car.
I'm so excited about my young car. I'm so excited about my new car. Which one of these is best?
I'm so excited about my new car. Well, usually we use new for things and young for people. The child
is young. The car is new. But a little tip, there is an exception to this,
something that can use both new and young, and that is a country. So we might say,
"Well, relative to other countries, the United States is a young country," or "The United
States is a new country. It wasn't United under one leader until the last couple hundred years,
but a lot of countries have been around for a long time." So we might say the United States
is a new country or the United States is a relatively young country. For a country,
we can use either of these words. My cat learned a new trick. He's so ... Hmm,
he's so smart; he's so wise. Which one of these is the best for my cat?
3, 2, 1. My cat learned a new trick. He's so smart. The cat is smart, but the old man
is wise. Usually, we use smart for some kind of innate knowledge, something that's inside of you,
but it can also be learned knowledge. So what's the difference between smart and wise? Well, wise
usually has to do with making good decisions. It's not about knowing the correct answer. It's about a
deeper type of knowledge about the world and that comes from a lot of experience.
You're not born being wise. Only people who have a lot of life experience can be wise. So in this
situation, my cat learned a new trick. He's pretty smart, but he doesn't have life experience that he
can share with other cats. He's not very wise, but you know what, sometimes he can be pretty smart.
The movie star drove a ... car. The movie star drove a rich car
or the movie star drove an expensive car. Which one of these two words about money is correct?
I'll give you three seconds. 3, 2, 1. The movie star drove an expensive car.
Rich is for people. The movie star is rich, but expensive is for things. The car is
expensive. This is an excellent distinction. People are rich; things are expensive.
The thief broke into the safe and stole something ... And stole something valuable?
And stole something invaluable? Which one of these is correct? 3, 2, 1. The thief broke into the safe
and stole something valuable. Or, the thief broke into the safe and stole something invaluable.
Sorry, this was the trick question. Both of these words, valuable and invaluable,
have a similar meaning. Now, the thing that's weird about this is that usually in-, the prefix
in-, makes it a negative word. But what about this valuable, invaluable? They have very
similar meanings and let me tell you about it. The Royal jewels are valuable. This means that
they're expensive. They have a big cost. They have a lot of value. The Royal jewels are valuable. But
if we said the Royal jewels are invaluable, this implies that, yes, they're expensive,
but they also have another layer of value. Maybe it's some kind of personal value. It's some kind
of value that we can't even imagine. It's so important that we can't even put a number on it.
We can't say that is $1,000 because there's a kind of deeper value. So if there is something that is
passed down in your family, maybe it's something that's invaluable. Your great grandmother made
a quilt and it's been passed down in your family. Well, that quilt is invaluable. No
amount of money can put a price on how important that is to you. It's invaluable.
So some things are both valuable and invaluable, like the Royal jewels,
but maybe your great-grandmother's quilt isn't worth a lot of money, maybe it's not
valuable, but it is invaluable to you. It is more than important to you. What about
learning English? Learning English is a valuable skill. Great, it's something that's important.
But you can also say learning English is an invaluable skill. You cannot place a dollar
value on learning English because the ways that English can change your life is without a price.
There's so many wonderful things that can happen when you can speak confidently, understand other
people, travel easily, have great work relations. This is invaluable. It's not just a dollar number,
it's something in your heart as well. Great. Do you ... the teacher's name? Do you remind
the teacher's name? Do you remember the teacher's name? Hmm, remind, remember,
I'll give you three seconds. 3, 2, 1. Do you remember the teacher's name?
This is a common mistake I often hear English learners make. They say, "Can you remember me
about the test tomorrow?" The biggest difference between remind and remember is who is doing it.
Who is the subject? So let's take a look at these two sentences. You will remember
the teacher's name. Who is remembering? It's you. You will remember the teacher's name.
But take a look at this one: "I will remind you of the teacher's name."
I'm the one who's speaking. I will remind you of the teacher's name. So it depends on who is the
subject. Usually, students need to remember about a test, but if a student forgets about a test,
the teacher will remind the students about a test. So make sure as an English learner that you do
not say, "Can you remember me about the event?" No. If someone else is helping you, you can say,
"Can you remind me about the event?" "Hey, would you mind sending me a text? Can you remind me
about the event? That would be really helpful because I often forget about these types of
things. It's difficult for me to remember, so can you remind me about the event, please? Excellent."
My ... sister loves to ride horses. My little sister loves to ride horses or my small sister
loves to ride horses. Which one of these is best? And there's only one answer here. 3, 2, 1. My
little sister loves to ride horses. Maybe you learned a long time ago in elementary school,
I have a younger sister. I have an older sister and, yes, in daily conversation
we use young and old, but we also use little and big as well. So you might say I have a big sister.
I have a little sister. I have a big brother. I have a little brother. We also use little and big
for people when they're related to us, especially for a sibling, a brother or a sister. For small,
usually this is for an item. My sister's clothes are small. The shoes are too small. For the word
small, when we're talking about an item, well, we often use both of these words. If I said that the
butterfly is very small. The butterfly is very little. Look at the little butterfly. Look at this
small butterfly. Both of these are fine. They're for non-human things. The shirt is too small. The
shirt is too little. I can't wear it anymore. It's too little. It's too small for items,
but for people, when we're talking about your relations, your brother or sister, we can use
my little sister or my big sister. Excellent. My computer is from 2005. It's so ...
It's so antique or it's so old, which one of these words is the best in this sentence? Three,
two, what? My computer is from 2005. It's so old. For an electronic, this is pretty old. Usually,
we don't have electronics for 16 years. It's a little bit unusual so we could say it's so old.
Now, technically, I think the real definition of the word antique is something that's 100 years old
or older. But in colloquial daily conversation, sometimes we use this in a more flexible way. So
you might say, "The record player is an antique" or "It's antique," and maybe it's from the 1940s.
That's not technically 100 years, but it's something that's old. It's really old. At least,
it seems really old and that's what we're talking about here is relatively, does it seem old?
It doesn't have to be exactly 100 years old, but we could say that record player is an
antique. It's been passed down from my grandparents and it's really cool. It still works.
That is an antique, using it as a noun, or it's antique, using it as an adjective.
I do want to let you know, as a little bonus tip, that sometimes we use the word antique as
an exaggeration. So back to the original example of my computer from 2005, this is really old
for a computer, right? I imagine most of you don't still have the same computer from 2005.
So you could say, "Yeah, I still have my computer from 2005. It's practically an antique." So we
can add that word practically, "It's pretty much an antique. I can't believe I still have
it." So we're kind of softening the language a little bit because antique is really something
pretty old, but for an electronic, 2005 is relatively old so we could say, "My computer is
practically an antique. I can't believe it's still working. It's practically an antique."
You're already finished eating? Did you even ... the salmon? What can we say here? Did you even
taste the salmon? Did you even eat the salmon? Which one of these words is the best here?
3, 2, 1. You're already finished eating? Did you even taste the salmon?
Now, both of these words have to do with your tongue and food, but the difference here is that
taste is for a small bite. "Did you even taste the salmon?" compared to "I ate the salmon."
That means you pretty much finished the salmon. We often use this for children and say, "Just
taste the food and give it a try." This means just a small bite and you can judge if it's
something that you would like more of or you don't want any more of it. Just give it a taste.
Just have a little taste and see what you think about it.
Your new haircut ... like it's comfortable for the hot summer weather.
Your new haircut looks like it's comfortable. Your new haircut appears like it's comfortable.
Which one of these is the best here. As you can tell, a lot of these words seem to have
a similar meaning, but their nuances are important to know so that you use them correctly. I'll give
you three seconds. 3, 2, 1. Your new haircut looks like it's comfortable for the hot summer weather.
If you have a short haircut especially, this can be very comfortable for hot
summer weather. Unlike my hair, my hair is always very hot so I almost always wear it up because
it's not comfortable in the hot summer weather. So what's the difference between look and appear?
Let me take a look at these sentences with you. Your haircut looks like it's comfortable.
Your haircut appears to be comfortable. When I say your haircut looks like it's comfortable,
okay, that's just a statement. When I see your haircut, it looks comfortable. But when I say
your haircut appears to be comfortable, we have an underlying nuance here.
That means it appears, on the surface, it appears to be comfortable, but really it's not.
Let me give you a common situation where we use a appear. Everyone on Instagram appears
to be having a great life. If you've ever looked at Instagram, you know that that's
the way it seems. People choose the best pictures, happiest family, wonderful vacations, great food,
but life isn't always like that. Life is real and not always perfect. That's
not possible. So we can use this word, appear, to show the difference between the appearance
and reality. Everyone on Instagram appears to be having a nice life. But I know that in reality,
that's not the case. So if you ever follow a certain people on social media and it seems
like their life is great and then all of a sudden, they say, "Actually we're getting a divorce," oh,
it might be really shocking to you because they seem to be having a great life, they're appearing
to have a great life, and then in reality, that's not the case. So we often use the word appear to
show this difference between what something seems like or looks like and the reality.
Great, all right, let's go to our next pair of tricky words. I try to ... my house at the end
of the day. I try to clean my house or I try to wash my house. 3, 2, 1. I try to clean my house
at the end of the day. The biggest difference between these two words is that clean is general
and wash always involves water. So we could use both of these words to talk about a carpet.
I tried to clean the carpet. Okay, maybe there's a spot and you're trying to get the spot out.
Or, maybe you're taking some toys off of the carpet or you're trying to get a couple things
off of the carpet. But if we say I'm trying to wash the carpet, that means you are soaking it
in water. Maybe you're using a washing machine. Maybe you're using some kind of a carpet
cleaner device, but it always includes water. I have a weird ... about this. I have a weird
emotion about this or I have a weird feeling about this. Which one of these two words is best? 3, 2,
1. I have a weird feeling about this. Do you ever say anything in your native language and you don't
know exactly why you say that, but you know it's right? This is how I feel about these two words,
emotion and feeling. Now, psychologists generally break these two words into saying that emotions
are physical and feelings are mental, but it was a little bit confusing to me to try to read articles
and break it down and explain it to you. So, instead, we're going to take a look at some fixed
phrases that use emotion or feel and feeling so that you can use them correctly yourself.
I felt a lack of emotion when I was fired from my job. I just didn't care. I felt a lack of emotion.
So here, emotion might be sadness, anger. These are emotions. I felt a lack of emotion
when I was fired from my job, I just didn't care. Why did he feel a lack of emotion?
It seems like something you should feel emotional about. Take a look at this sentence: But later I
had some strong feelings about being fired. So maybe in the moment you had a lack of emotion,
but later you had some strong feelings about it. It's something that you can't
really stop. It just comes from inside of you. So at our original sentence when I said
I have a weird feeling about this, there's something inside of me. It wasn't conscious;
it's just a weird feeling. As I walked down that dark street, I had a weird feeling about this,
kind of my intuition. Or, in our second example, we'd say, I had some strong feelings about being
fired later on. So something that came from within me, some strong feelings.
I'd like to give you a phrase that you can use either emotions or feelings with. You could say,
"I have mixed emotions about moving to a new city" or "I have mixed feelings about moving
to a new city." In this phrase, to have mixed feelings or to have mixed emotions,
you can use either of these words. This means sometimes I feel really excited about it, but
I'm going to miss my family and, oh, I can't wait for new adventures, but, oh, I'm not sure if I'll
succeed. You have mixed emotions or mixed feelings about moving to a new city. So as you can see,
there are some exceptions to this as well. So how did you do? Some of these words appear
to be easy, but, remember, the more you practice, the better it will be. So don't forget to download
the free PDF worksheet for all of these tricky pairs of words that appear to be simple, but are
actually a little bit tricky. When you download the PDF worksheet, you can review everything
that you learned in this lesson and you can also answer Vanessa's Challenge Question at the end of
the worksheet so that you'll never forget what you've learned. And now, I have a question for
you. Let me know, do you have a little sister or a little brother? Let me know in the comments.
I can't wait to learn more about you and about your family, and I'll see you again next Friday
for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free PDF
worksheet for this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master today's lesson
and never forget what you have learned. You can be a confident English speaker. Don't
forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.