AMERICAN SLANG EXTRA CRINGEY BASIC
It’s the summer of slang and today we’re
going over the terms ‘extra’, ‘cringey’, and ‘basic’.
This summer, we’re exploring American slang.
Today we’re going over some terms that you
don’t want anyone saying when they’re
referring to you.
‘Extra’ means trying too hard, over the
top, excessive,
maybe a little dramatic.
Doing more than what the situation calls for.
Often inappropriate.
Like, if someone’s laughing really hard
at all your jokes, and it’s unnatural and
too much, your jokes aren’t that funny,
you might say, ‘He’s so extra’.
Or, if someone wants to go to the doctor because
she has a little cough, she’s so extra.
She doesn’t need to go to the doctor.
It’s a criticism.
Okay, cringey.
Like ‘on fleek’, which we went over in
video 1,
this is not a real word in American English.
Cringe is, cringed, cringes.
But ‘cringey’, turning this verb into
and adjective, is not in most dictionaries yet.
Cringey, which can be spelled one of two ways,
means, embarrassing to look at or see.
Full of awkwardness.
An adjective describing something at which
you might cringe.
Ughh
For example, if there is someone who is very
awkward hard to carry on a conversation with,
and you’re trying to talk to them, your
friend my say, I saw you trying to talk to John.
Cringey.
Or, she tripped in the hallway and then started
crying.
It was so cringey.
Or, if someone’s really nervous and doing
a terrible job with his presentation,
you might say, ‘This is cringey.’
And, finally, basic.
If someone or something is basic, it’s uninteresting,
uncool, boring, very mainstream.
Should I come to the party?
No, it’s basic.
I’m leaving.
What do you think of Megan’s new boyfriend?
He’s kind of basic.
Hopefully no one calls my videos basic.
If they do, I know I need to start thinking
of something more interesting,
a better approach to teaching English.
These are all two-syllable words with stress
on the first syllable.
Extra. DA-da.
Cringey.
Basic.
They all have that DA-da feel.
Have you ever heard these terms used?
Challenge: put one of them in a sentence and
put it in the comments below.
Don’t be basic.
Try it!
Want to learn lots more slang?
Click here to see all my Summer of Slang videos.