England VS America Five Different Adjectives
I’m Vanessa from speak English with
Vanessa calm and today I have my friend
Victoria hi from England and I’m from
America so today we’re going to be
comparing some adjectives that are
different in England and America five
adjectives alright the first one is
proper hmm what does that mean in
England I guess you would say proper
means something is really legit or it’s
a real thing so giving an example of
what did we say a proper breakfast is
what winner a proper breakfast be so I
mean if I think someone is somebody’s
not having a proper breakfast say
they’re just having a chocolate bar or a
cereal bar and they’re running out of
the door I would stop them and say no no
no no you need to have a proper
breakfast to sit down have a glass of
orange juice have a bowl of cereal have
an apple and then you can go so it’s got
to be Sarah it’s got to be what we
consider to be the right thing like oh
it’s like a real legitimate break from a
real legitimate breakfast like if you
just have a cereal but that’s not a
proper breakfast hmm so I think I would
say in that instance if someone was
running out the door eating a candy bar
instead of having a nice wholesome
breakfast I would say ah you need to eat
a real breakfast but I think I could
also say that is not a legit breakfast
because I’m a young person I can say the
legit which is short for legitimate but
I think maybe some older people could
say legit it’s becoming more popular but
in America usually it’s just younger
people this ain’t legit but I was gonna
say if we said you need to have a real
breakfast even though we would
understand that it sounds a little bit
like well I’ve had a fake opposite of
real is fake okay so that’s why we say
you probably cause hmm just need to make
it more so it’s a little more specific
than real yeah I like it all right
number two is dulcis so I would if I put
this into context I could say you could
be in a dodgy part of town which would
translate into American as maybe a shady
part of town or a sketchy part of town
like a dangerous part of town yeah so
katakana means it’s dangerous maybe it’s
it’s insecure but it could also mean
that something’s broken so if you have a
trolley and what’s a trolley Oh a cart
with wheels special think ah okay yes
I’m a shopping cart using petroleum
jelly okay right we’re on the same page
we’re on the same page so if you have a
trolley that your weeny one in the
supermarket but it’s going of the wrong
direction because one of the wheels is
broken you could say ah this is a dodgy
wheel it’s broken
uh-huh okay so it’s going to mean it’s
kind of like a dangerous part of town
something that’s dangerous something
that’s shady I think yeah and you smash
ad or something that’s broken yeah huh
don’t you what good word we’re number
three is an adjective that’s usually
used enough phrase yeah the word is
fancy but we often say fancy dress and
then the this specific context is when
you have a party a bit like you have
Halloween in the gates and everybody
dresses up as the character you just up
as whatever you want to be like I’m
gonna go as Superman
I’m gonna go as a gorilla mmm I’m gonna
go as a unicorn I’m gonna go on so I’ve
heard of poor little American students
coming to fancy dress parties in the UK
thinking that it’s just when you dress
up all fancy
meaning nice long dresses long girl
girls
jewelry and then arriving and seeing
people in onesies dressed as animals
that are characters so in America if you
said I’m going to a fancy dress party I
would think that that means you should
wear a really nice really expensive
dress or a suit or a tie but if I went
to your fancy dress party dress like
that you think it was dressing up like
the Queen I think you know have to come
as Marilyn Monroe dress outfit well I
think for me if I were to describe that
kind of party I in America I wouldn’t
say oh you’re invited to my fancy dress
party I’d say costume party my costume
party or dress-up party it makes more
sense I don’t know why we call it fancy
dress that we do sure all right number
four number four links leads quite
nicely into it isn’t it yes clothing it
is smart but nothing to do with being
intelligent yes another way to use smart
yes so you can just dress smart or dress
smartly you can say either and that just
means well how would you explain that
well at the moment are you dressed
smartly no I’m wearing a jacket that me
just sort of hoodie you this is not
smart where would you dress smartly I
would just smiley in the office or if I
was to school I would be wearing in
England school uniform so I be wearing
small beautiful so you think like more
professional clothing yes I think that
maybe has a collar or something that you
could wear to an office or to a job
interview and look presentable yes
so something nice and posh you say posh
posh that’s I think another British ism
I understand I think it’s coming into
coming into America a little bit but I
think if you were to say to me do you
have any smart clothing as if you are
inviting me to go to some event and I
needed to wear something a little
dressier or fancier mm-hm and you said
you have any smart clothing like if I
wear this clothing I become smart I
become intelligent like a smartphone or
like a Smart TV smart clothing Wow
amazing invention so I had that you can
be your friend just with your sleeve
it’s incredible
yeah so we wouldn’t use that at all so
it’s quite British which is why it’s on
the list
all right and the final one is number 5
which is thick so there’s two meanings
to thick yeah so the literal meaning of
thick is just I mean imagine bread it
just means it’s a wide slice like if you
have slices of bread you can get thin
slices little bitty and thick slices
nice and wide
but what we’re gonna talk about more is
the figurative meaning which is just
means stupid so a person is thick so you
wouldn’t say all the stupid machine this
machine is thick hmm it’s it’s kind of
about brains so ah she’s a bit if you
say somebody is if you say somebody is
thick it’s an insult yeah so I think
there so there’s not very nice so don’t
try this at home children and even in
America if you said someone is thick it
wouldn’t mean mentally thick it would
mean a nice way of saying they’re fat Oh
so we would say if somebody is fat and
we didn’t want to say oh she’s so
overweight while she is just obese I
wouldn’t want to say that because that’s
kind of impolite I could say well she’s
she’s thick and it would mean in a nice
way that she’s not thin but she’s not
fat she’s just thick okay that’s maybe a
kinder way of saying someone’s that but
you still probably shouldn’t comment on
people’s weight in America or in England
do it at your peril at your own risk
so I think in America if we were to say
someone is not smart thick we would say
just oh he’s not smart or he’s not too
bright and maybe in that way it’s
showing what it’s like a negative like
we’re not saying he’s stupid he’s dumb
it’s like it’s just seeing the negative
yeah like he’s not smart he’s not too
bright not so maybe when I think you in
a more positive word but in a negative
way where is in Britain we’re just
really rude that’s not true all the time
well next time that you go to a proper
part of town
that’s not dodgy don’t forget to wear
your fancy dress costume and not your
smart clothing otherwise you might come
across a bit thick ah ha ha that was a
beautiful sentence well thank you for
watching I hope you learned some new
exciting words in America and from
England and if you know any other
adjectives that are different in these
two countries be sure to write them and
we’ll learn something new yeah All Right
see you later
hi
you