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hi everybody welcome back to top words
my name is alicia and today we’re going
to talk about 10 different ways to
remember
words so these are actually some ways to
remember words that you
have sent in to us so i’m really excited
to see what your recommendations are i
study other languages so
let’s talk about it let’s see i
associate new words with words that
sound similar in my native language
if you’re studying english your native
language might share some words
so like i’m studying japanese and for
example the word chocolate
sounds very very similar in in japanese
so
in english the word is chocolate in
japanese the word is chocoreto
so it sounds similar so that’s an easy
word for me to remember
i learn about the roots of words and how
different words are related to each
other
many words in english have roots in
very very old languages like latin so a
word like
omniscient for example can be broken
down into maybe two
parts the omni omni meaning all or
everything and shint the sheen part
relates to
knowledge or knowing so together the
word means all
knowing omniscient maybe you can guess
the meaning even if it’s the first time
you’ve seen the word
okay i listen to songs and memorize the
lyrics
this is also a common way to to help
kids learn things too
through songs opposite of b plus or
minus the square root b
squared minus 4ac all over 2a it’s a
quadratic function equation
because it’s a song it’s still in my
head thank you mrs time
i often watch tv or youtube videos that
are designed for young children
that’s how children in the native
language learn so it’s a great tool for
you don’t be embarrassed to do that i do
that
in english we have dora the explorer we
have sesame street
i speak as often as possible with native
speakers a native speaker can go ah
that’s that’s a strange thing that
you’re saying so there are a lot of
small
factors that you can’t get unless you’re
speaking with a native speaker
so this is a really really great tip if
you’re interested in doing this with
us we have on englishclass101.com
a special subscription which is called
the elite level of subscription where
you get to actually study with one of
our teachers here
so if if you don’t have somebody that
you can study with now that might be a
way to do it
please check that out if you’re
interested i try to use the language
routinely in the context of daily life
when you’re alone uh just doing stuff at
home like making breakfast or cooking or
doing the laundry if you
use the language just to say like now
i’m going to
i don’t know cut vegetables or oh i need
to do laundry later today or
thinking about your appointment whatever
another good example is really i put my
phone into my target language
you’re telling little stories when
you’re having conversations with people
so get used to telling yourself the
story
i use repetition reading writing and
speaking words over and over again
keep repeating in your studies even if
it feels like
you know you’re not making any progress
you are just just the act of doing that
repetition can be helpful for you
if a football player never throws a
football he’s not going
to be able to throw it very well is he
you have to repeat repeat repeat and
then when you’re
faced with the actual situation where
you need to throw the football you need
to use that vocabulary word you’re ready
you already know how to say the word so
yes repeat it’s good
i try to think in english so it becomes
natural to my thought process
i do this i think about what i need to
do i think about what i have done
i think about what i’m going to do and
so in that way you can practice
past tense future tense and present
tense recently this has been happening
to me i’ve started dreaming in japanese
from time to time or i dream bilingually
it’s exciting i think
i try to use the word in a simple
sentence so i learn whole phrases
not just individual words yes this is a
huge
tip so vocabulary is important of course
if you don’t know a key
word you might miss the meaning of
something but
context is important too so there might
be two words which seem very similar
like big and large
for example but when should i use large
when should i use big like if you’re
close shopping and you say
do you have this in a big size it might
not be
the correct way to use the word instead
do you have this in a large size
is the correct phrase so learning how to
use the correct vocabulary word at the
correct
time is important and you can do that
through studying sentences and phrases
instead of just vocabulary
this is why reading is important i feel
reading as much as possible
especially the newspaper helps me to
remember words when i was a kid i just
read
everything i was i was so into reading i
loved it
and i think that it helped it actually
helped my language skills improve even
in my
native language again at first it’s
really hard to do and you might have to
use a dictionary a lot
but you’ll learn gradually more natural
speaking patterns more natural writing
patterns too which will help you to
sound more natural when you speak
and maybe it can help your listening
skills too when you can listen for those
patterns that you see in textbooks that
you see in newspapers in novels whatever
it’s a great tool reading and thank
goodness that’s the end so those are 10
tips that you can use to remember new
words and new phrases try them out i’m
going to be doing my best with my target
language i hope that you do too
thank you very much for watching please
please please subscribe to our channel
if you have not already
and we will see you again soon for more
exciting information bye
i have to go to the bathroom
[Music]
first word is esoteric when something is
esoteric
it’s all right so the word esoteric
refers to
something that requires specialized
knowledge so
in a conversation somebody might use
this word to say sorry to be esoteric
and then they’ll continue talking about
some subject or some concept that
requires a certain level of knowledge in
the given field
next word superfluous superfluous just
means extra
really can a person be superfluous so
superfluous yeah just just refers to
stuff that’s um maybe not necessary or
the x
the extra just stuff or extra extra
things
uh in a given context so maybe you know
like oh i have so much superfluous stuff
in my kitchen of course
using superfluous in such a casual way
like that is very unnatural but you
could do it
if you really wanted to sound smart
acquiesce
acquiesce means to um
like you might have oh like can i say a
line from pirates of the caribbean
something like
he will not acquiesce to your request or
she will not acquiesce to your request
it just means she won’t obey
or listen or do as told um
but that’s it’s the same exact meaning
to acquiesce to accept something
uh yeah to go along with angst angst
refers to just kind of this
like that that unhappy feeling this sort
of angry or maybe melancholy
or just feeling like you know you’re
misunderstood so a teenager
or i suppose a teenager themselves might
not use this word but the parents of the
teenager might say
oh my teenager is so filled with angst
kitsch kitsch kitsch refers to in my
mind anyway
just um junk honestly it’s the little
things that
you know might crowd your house like a
snow globe or special little ornaments
or just um you know decorative
knickknacks you might say oh my aunt’s
apartment is really kitschy
it means she has maybe like a lot of
knickknacks or the style is just kind of
thinking outside the box this is a
phrase that means just
thinking differently or you know outside
the norms of regular thinking which
would be inside the box
and then choosing to think about
something in a different way might be
considered
outside the box so it’s usually a
compliment like great job thinking
outside the box stevens
the next word is the bottom line the
bottom line
just refers to kind of the um the
end-all of the situation like
in a sentence the bottom line is we have
to make more sales next month
meaning this is the one thing that we
really need to focus on
the next word is hit the ground running
it just means to start well
if you think about a runner of course a
runner as soon as maybe they touch the
ground at a race they are running
and it’s sort of the same thing here
except in a business sense so as soon as
a project
starts they’re going they’re you know
pushing forward on the project
you might say um next week we’re going
to start the new project let’s hit the
ground running
we need to get a good start next word is
giving 110 percent
it just means giving your all or making
your best
effort to do something so of course 100
percent is the maximum in a given
situation
but giving 110 means um that you know
your boss
presumably wants you to give more than
your best so it just means work really
hard as in
um hey we have that meeting coming up
next month let’s give 110
to make sure all of the materials are
finished by then it is what it is it is
what it is
it’s just a phrase that often wraps up a
conversation sometimes it can be a
negative situation
like you hear oh sales are down this
month well it is what it is
meaning there’s nothing we can do or
that’s just the situation right now
um it’s just uh yeah
just a filler phrase really my stomach’s
making noise
curriculum vitae is that how you say
that curriculum vitae
vitae curriculum vitae
vitae curriculum vitae
you might see this abbreviated as cv
when you’re looking for jobs most of the
people who are looking for
applicants will request your cv or your
curriculum vitae
which is really just a record of your
life your history often your work
history
you might see it written on a job form
something like all applicants must
submit their curriculum vitae
to be considered for the position but
most of the time i see it as
cv in american english though i should
point out that um
you might see resume instead which is
the same the same exact thing that’s
asking for your work history
next is ad homonym ad hominem
means to attack somebody like when
you’re arguing or having a discussion
but you’re not actually addressing what
the other person is saying you’re just
attacking that person
so you might say he was arguing ad
hominem
meaning in other words he was not
actually debating the issue
but he was just attacking the other
person in the argument deus ex machina
is the next word this is a fun word
especially
if you like watching movies deus ex
machina
literally means god from the machinery
so any time you’re watching a movie
and suddenly out of nowhere somebody
comes in to save the main character for
for example that’s an example of deus ex
machina
so if you’re writing for example if
you’re writing a story
it’s typically a good idea not to use
deus ex machina your teacher might say
don’t use deus ex machina in your
writing because it seems kind of cheap
right you know your main character gets
in a jam and then something amazing
happens and they’re saved
what’s the fun in that the next word
next phrase rather
is magnum opus magnum opus just refers
to
usually a masterpiece or someone’s
life’s work a huge work
so like uh maybe beethoven’s magnum opus
would have been his uh
fifth beethoven’s fifth what was that a
symphony
yeah uh beethoven’s fifth symphony was
hit and perhaps as magnum opus
um hey there’s a sample sentence right
there
so if you if you have a big project that
you’re working on maybe
maybe you’re an architect maybe you’re a
painter whatever it is whatever’s the
biggest thing in your project portfolio
maybe you could refer to as your magnum
opus
it’s your your great work whatever is
the biggest thing for you
the next word is alter ego alter ego is
kind of a fun word
it means your other self so
you might have seen characters in movies
that have an alter ego in one situation
they behave like one character but in
another situation they behave like
someone else their alter ego
maybe even some of you have an alter ego
and it bothers your friends
when you have you know when you behave a
certain way with one group of people in
a different way with another group of
people
um that’s your your alter ego coming out
it’s not always necessarily a negative
thing
like superheroes have alter egos so
clark kent for example clark kent’s
alter ego
is superman it’s his other self he’s
clark kent and he’s superman
but in different situations he’s one or
the other zany
z-a-n-y i don’t need to spell it they’re
going to see it on the screen zany just
means something that’s amusing or
different
or a little bit weird perhaps so you
might say my friend is so
zany she bought a new kids on the block
lunchbox last week
first thing came to mind the next word
is zillion zillion is just a word that
we use in place of a very large number
so you probably know million
billion trillion for example but when
you just want to emphasize that
something is a huge number
there’s a lot of something you can say a
zillion for example there were a zillion
ants in my backyard last week
the next word is zoom the word zoom
actually has two meanings
the first word is on a camera for
example you can zoom
in to get closer to the subject or you
can zoom out to get further away from
the subject
i think are you gonna zoom now zoom in
zoom out
okay uh zoom also is an onomatopoeia an
onomatopoeia means a word that sounds
something like what it’s supposed to be
representing
this onomatopoeia means to go very fast
so you might say
i’m looking forward to getting in this
new car i hear it zooms
the next word is zest zest means to do
something with great enthusiasm like you
might say i have a zest for
life meaning you’re really interested in
life and you have a lot of energy for it
zest also has a second meaning which is
used
in cooking a lot like you might take the
zest from a lemon meaning a little
little tiny particles of something and
put it
in your food so those there those are
some things the next word is zoology
zoology refers to the study of animals
you might have it
in your university if you’re a
university student there might be a
zoology department
um so you might run into somebody one
day who says oh yes my major is in
zoology what are you studying
lager lager is a word that i know very
well
a lager refers to a kind of beer um so
when you go to a beer festival like
oktoberfest for example you might say
this year i’m planning to drink a lot of
lager
or a lot of lager beer it’s a type of
beer the next word is wanderlust this is
a nice word
wanderlust just means that you have a
desire to travel somewhere you want to
go somewhere
you might say i’ve been seeing all the
photos that my friends have been posting
on the internet lately
it’s giving me wanderlust meaning i
really want to go travel i really want
to be out there doing
those things the next word is zeppelin
zeppelin this is um a big airship
oh there’s isn’t there like an indiana
jones thing where he tests
tosses a guy out of a zeppelin it’s just
it’s uh what do we call it now a blimp
right a blimp we say blimp a lot now but
zeppelin i think was the first word that
was used to describe these things
because i think they they were made out
of metal
so for example you might know the band
led zeppelin
that could be related to the first
zeppelin
i don’t actually know is it um so in a
sentence you might use this
m to say something like oh someday i’d
really like to take a ride on a zeppelin
that sounds like fun next word is
dachshund
dachshund you probably know what a
dachshund is we commonly call them
wiener dogs
in america because they’re long
sometimes they have long hair too but
they look like you know
a hot dog so dachshunds i think are
popular breeds all around the world
you might say my friend got a new
dachshund i can’t wait to play with it
yeah uh gezunteit is the next word
gazoontite is used
often when people sneeze so americans
like to say bless you after somebody
sneezes but you might also hear
gezunteit after someone sneezes um it’s
usually just used
as one word we don’t really say it in a
sentence very much but when your friend
sneezes or somebody you know sneezes you
can say
gesundheit bass as in a type of fish
or bass which refers to someone’s voice
it’s also a type of instrument it kind
of looks like a guitar there’s also a
string bass that’s usually a really tall
instrument that you play standing up so
in a sentence when you’re fishing you
might say
oh hey i hope i catch a bass today
if you’re a musically inclined person
you might say
my favorite instrument is the bass
great those are pretty good uh next is
wind as in the air
blowing blowing air and wind
as in like to wrap something around
something else
wind uh you might say the wind is really
strong today
uh i should have brought my kite to the
park okay
i don’t know every once in a while these
oddly specific sentences
uh wind like maybe you have a ball of
string at your house
and it’s gotten all tangled up it’s
really really messy
and you find it one day and you think to
yourself oh i really need to
wind this ball of string into a clean
like tidy ball
next a tear a rip in something
like you might tear a piece of paper in
half the same spelling
can also make uh the word tear
which is uh that drop of water that
comes out of a person’s
eye when they’re sad or sometimes when
they’re very happy use them both in one
sentence
whenever i tear a piece of paper a tear
comes from my eye because i feel bad for
ruining trees or
my my friend made me tear up
my favorite love letter and i
shed many tears as a result that one was
slightly better
all right next is dove dove can be a
bird it’s a white bird it often
represents peace
and it can also be pronounced dove which
is the past
tense of the verb to dive so you might
say
the dove dove into
what is a dove dive into the dove dove
into oncoming traffic
the dove dove into the pond to take a
bath
next is close meaning to be near
and the other pronunciation is close
meaning to shut or it can also mean to
end
so in a sentence let’s see if we can use
them both in the same sentence
um please close the door that is close
to you
um because the show is coming to a close
oh yeah hyperbole hyperbole
um it’s not hyperbole though it does
sound very funny to say that
hyperbole just means to exaggerate
something um
or to make to blow something up make it
really extreme
my friend uses a lot of hyperbole when
she talks about her life stories i
really don’t think some of those things
happen to her
hyperbole not hyperbole next
antarctic not ah
oh i see antarctic is the correct
pronunciation of this word
some people say and and tar antarctic
really oh i guess when you’re saying
this word quickly you might leave out
that
first c in the antarctic so don’t say
that don’t do that
say antarctic the the very very cold
region the arctic is the north cold
region on the planet earth the south is
the antarctic
there’s sort of like almost a hiccup in
the word they’re antarctic
oh uh in a sentence i’m thinking about
taking a cruise to the antarctic what do
you think i need
a penguin suit etc not
etc oh yeah okay i’ve heard i hear this
ek x thing a lot etc is just used at the
end of a list
to imply that you mean other things
so the list is not exclusive to the
things that you’ve listed other things
can also be included in it
so in a sample sentence um types of
fruits
are apples oranges peaches etc
there are others as well so don’t say
etc
that’s not correct etc it’s good
the next word is jewelry what
not my names the next word is
jewelry jewelry i think i’m probably
guilty of this mispronunciation
i can’t say that word mispronunciation
where the word kind of gets a little bit
smushed together
and we say jewelry instead we miss that
that
second e sound in there it should be jew
ellery
uh in a sample sentence maybe you would
say i’m shopping for some jewelry for my
mother for her birthday
jewelry we’re too lazy prescription
not prescription okay a prescription is
something that
a doctor gives you when you’re sick and
you require medicine the doctor will
write you a prescription
some people might say prescription
wow okay i didn’t even notice and i was
doing it while i was telling you guys
not to do it
that’s embarrassing prescription a
doctor writes you a prescription not a
prescription uh when you go to the
doctor’s office the doctor might say
here is your prescription
photosynthesis photosynthesis is an
eighth grade american science
school word is an eighth grade science
word this refers to the process
that plants use to convert sunlight to
oxygen
the process of photosynthesis is vitally
important to the survival of humans
right the next word is imperturbable
imperturbable uh means someone who
can’t really get uh upset or excited
like it’s hard to
um change the emotions of a person
so you might say i have a friend who is
imperturbable no matter what we do or
what we say he doesn’t get angry with us
onward the next is counterintuitive
counterintuitive is a good word which
means
it’s the opposite of common sense so we
talked about the word intuitive
in a previous episode of weekly words
where intuitive
means able to sense something or able to
do something correctly without
knowing having to know much about it
counter-intuitive however on the other
hand means
not intuitive or it seems like something
that just doesn’t make much sense it’s
not a common sense thing so maybe
let’s see something that um doesn’t seem
to make very much sense to you maybe
on your office building for example you
have to first
push the door and then pull it in order
to open it you might say uh
the way the doors work in this building
is very counter-intuitive it doesn’t
make much sense
the next word is presumptuously
presumptuously means
failing to observe the limits of what is
permitted
or appropriate oh this is a tough one to
use in a sentence
so anytime somebody does something
that’s just beyond the limits of what is
considered normal in your culture
you can say that they’re being
presumptuous or they’re acting
presumptuously
so if for example a salesman comes to
your door for some reason
but they enter the house and sit down on
your sofa you might say the salesman
presumptuously entered my house and sat
down on my sofa i couldn’t believe it
what this big manometer sphygmomanometer
an instrument for measuring blood
pressure this is a new one for me too
sphygmomanometer is this word
isn’t this called really long words that
are actually used
i have only been familiar with this word
in terms of the blood pressure cuff when
you go to the doctor and they need to
check your blood pressure they’ll put
this thing this figmenometer
on your arm usually and then they’ll
kind of pump it up and check your blood
pressure
so it’s a very technical word the doctor
might say to a nurse or to another
doctor
can you please get me this fig
mommanometer we need to check this
patient’s blood pressure
philtrum is the first word philtrum the
groove located just below the nose and
above the middle of the lips
that has a word philtrum
that’s this i guess in a sentence maybe
you would say
how can you use this in a sentence let’s
see i’m thinking of getting my philtrum
pierced what do you think
about that idea it’s gross
i hurt my philtrum in football practice
yesterday
who says philtrum next is larynx
the larynx is the the voice box where
your voice comes from
there’s quite a definition here the
hollow muscular organ forming an
air passage to the lungs and holding the
vocal cords
usually i think we just say the voice
box so
i think the larynx in particular is
really important for singers and people
who need to use their voice
a lot and i think that there are even
you know special techniques that some
people use to
protect their larynx as well in a
sentence maybe
i have to be careful not to damage my
larynx because i need to be performing
regularly
and my voice is very important to my job
for example
all right next is navel naval
is commonly referred to as your belly
button it’s that you know for some
people it’s
indented for some people it kind of
protrudes a little bit
but the navel is just your belly button
uh
to use it in a sentence let’s see oh i’m
thinking
i’m piercing my navel oh oh i have an
example now
maybe if you’ve had to have surgery on
your on your stomach
that’s near your navel um your navel the
shape of it might be impacted i’ve
this happened to my mom i thought it was
when you meet with your doctor
the doctor might say during the surgery
some of the skin near your navel might
be affected by what we’re going to do
next is pinky your pinky is the smallest
finger
on either one of your hands you can use
a pinky finger alternatively
your pinky toe your small toe is also
referred to as your pinky
in a sentence you might say oh no i
broke my pinky finger
i have a piano recital in three days
that actually happened to me when i was
little
that’s not a lie that’s a real story i
broke my
this pinky finger that was good day
anyway
next scapula scapula is your shoulder
blade on
the back of your body your scapula yeah
what else can i say about that your
scapula
your shoulder blade you have two i think
yes
maybe if you’re a physical therapist or
if you’re someone who needs to train
athletes you might need to
stretch uh their scapula from time to
time
to make sure that it’s healthy or in
good shape
make sure to stretch your scapula before
and after every workout to make sure
that you don’t damage it
anarchism anarchism is a belief that
there should be no government the
society should just rule
itself so some groups of people might
say
let anarchism reign the next word is
altruism
altruism is the idea that everyone
should just be selfless we should always
just act on behalf of other people
right altruism is the key to world peace
feminism feminism is just advocating for
women’s rights supporting women’s rights
equal rights for women and really just
equal rights for people in general i
support feminism something like that
all right next is pacifism pacifism
is the belief that violence is never
justified we should never use violence
pacifism
is great pacifism
leads to peaceful cultures the next word
is sensationalism it’s all about making
a story a new story sensational so even
if the facts aren’t necessarily
true facts we don’t know all the
information the news media might kind of
make things up
uh sensationalism only hurts the
audience because they don’t know
what’s truly going on paint the town red
is kind of an old-fashioned phrase it
just means to go out and have a really
good time
you might have seen in an old movie that
says come on we’re going to go out and
paint the town red tonight
let’s go good to be in the red
you don’t want to be in the red to be in
the red means that you owe someone money
you have
debt our company is in the red for the
last quarter we really need to
improve our sales strategy yeah
i don’t know what this was we really
need to improve our sales strategy
this will help red idiom is a red flag
red flag is a great phrase to know i
think
a sign that something is wrong you might
say oh that person was acting really
really weird that was kind of a red flag
to me
mean if i say these things five red
flags for me and people
i’ll talk no action always bumming money
off their friends
no ambition no skills or no no desire to
develop skills
another one is ah don’t know
when it’s their turn to talk i don’t
like that watch english in three minutes
to learn more about developing these
skills these very important skills
onward the next is to catch someone
red-handed this is used when you catch
someone doing something bad
uh the teacher caught the student
red-handed
he was trying to steal
the hamster from the school’s petting
zoo
i don’t know the teacher caught the
student red-handed trying to steal the
class
pet caught him red-handed right in the
middle in the act of trying to do
something bad that’s the key there
the next one is red carpet treatment red
carpet treatment maybe you’ve seen this
at awards shows there’s always a red
carpet in front of where the famous
actors and actresses and producers and
film people
enter red carpet treatment means to be
treated very well to be treated like
royalty really
you might say oh we got the red carpet
treatment
at the event last week it was great to
be head over heels for someone to be
head over heels for somebody means that
you’re really interested in them maybe
you’ve just met them and you can’t stop
thinking about them
first love butterflies in your stomach
sort of thing
that’s kind of an idiom too i suppose he
was head over heels for the girl that he
met at the party the week before
we’re building a story here we’re
building a story here oh no
our story what’s going to happen next in
our story to be on the rocks
this phrase means to be having problems
in your relationship
it means that you’re struggling or
having trouble in a sentence
my friend told me about that girl that
he met at the party last weekend and he
said they went out for a few dates
wow this is all happening so fast they
went out for a few dates and now they’re
on the rocks
okay next is to be an item to be an item
just means to be in a relationship with
somebody you’re officially
uh in a relationship with someone and
your friends might say you’re an item
now to continue our little story
even though my friend said he was on the
rocks with that girl he met at the party
a few weeks ago it seems that they are
now an
item this is weird that’s really weird
the next one is to pop the question to
pop the question means to ask someone to
marry you
yeah remember that girl that my friend
met at the party like a couple years ago
yeah he finally popped the question to
his girlfriend
means he asked her to marry him the next
one is
to tie the knot to tie the knot means to
get married so two people come together
and tie a knot they won’t be separated
in other words
so maybe maybe this is the end of our
story i don’t know
so my friend ended up uh tying the knot
with the girl that he met at the party a
few years ago
acrophobia a fear of heights uh if you
don’t like going up into tall buildings
for example you can say i have
acrophobia i don’t like going into
skyscrapers you don’t like to see things
far below you ah yeah
the next word is arachnophobia means a
fear of spiders you might have seen a
movie called arachnophobia that had a
lot of spiders in it as you might be
able to guess
in a sentence you could say oh will you
please kill that spider for me i don’t
want to go near it i have arachnophobia
okay
next word is claustrophobia
claustrophobia is a fear of small spaces
so
if for whatever reason you find yourself
like on a crammed train for example
you feel really uncomfortable and you
want to get off the train that’s called
claustrophobia in a sentence you might
say oh i don’t want to take the rush
hour subway i have claustrophobia and
the commute makes me really really
nervous
next is agoraphobia agoraphobia means
a fear of going outside so someone who
prefers to stay inside to stay at home
more often than not might be
agoraphobic my cousin has agoraphobia
and he refuses to leave the house no
matter what we say or what we do
keep in mind that some of these words
are not commonly used in conversations
uh but rather what they represent is
fairly common like fear of heights and
so on
uh the fears might be very common but
the words themselves are not
oh my ophidiophobia okay ophidiophobia
is a fear of snakes i have a
phydiophobia
to an extent oh i did go hiking once i
was hiking and i was actually near a
buddhist temple at the time
it was in the middle of the forest they
were doing a ritual of some kind you
could hear like
like in the forest and then i was as i
was walking up the hill suddenly there’s
the snake
like i saw it at the same time that it
saw me and the snake was like oh my god
a human and i
i screamed an expletive i was like oh
a snake and like echoed through the
forest and i was like oh my god did the
buddhist monks just hear me
in a sentence uh i was on a hike and i
saw a snake and i screamed because i
have a fideophobia and they terrify me
pretentious pretentious is a word that
means you’re trying to impress
other people or someone who tries to
impress other people
by making themselves seem more exciting
or more important or cooler
than they really are in a sentence you
might say my co-worker is so pretentious
he’s always exaggerating his stories to
make himself
sound important don’t be pretentious the
next word is ubiquitous
ubiquitous just means something that you
see everywhere smartphones
smartphones smartphones
that’s ours i love you about smartphones
it’s a fern that’s really smart
you can tell when you need extra oxygen
in a sentence uh you might say
smartphones are ubiquitous everybody has
one now and i have one too
albeit albeit just means although
in a sentence she was making progress
albeit rather slowly
the next word is ambiguous ambiguous
just means something that’s
the meaning is not really very clear to
you maybe
uh if you’re reading the newspaper for
example and a sentence is written kind
of strangely you might say hmm the
meaning of this is rather ambiguous
all right love really
baby don’t hurt me love is just
that intense feeling where you really
really like somebody else
it could be your family member it could
be a partner a romantic partner whatever
it could be a food you really like as
well just anytime you have that really
deep strong emotion you can use the word
love
for example i love pizza it’s my
favorite food
jump the gun jump the gun means you do
something too quickly or you don’t think
enough about something before you do it
in a business sitting maybe a
subordinate makes a decision before the
boss has had a chance to decide on
something
you might say stevens you’ve jumped the
gun again we can’t forgive you for this
one you’re fired
okay the next one is drop the ball drop
the ball means
you don’t do something that you were
supposed to do somebody was supposed to
do something and they didn’t do it they
dropped the ball like in basketball
right if you have a ball you’re supposed
to pass the ball to your teammate if you
drop the ball you let everybody down
my co-worker really dropped the ball
when he forgot to send that email we
were all disappointed
stevens okay next slam dunk a slam dunk
is something that you are sure is going
to happen maybe you have a good
relationship with a client for example
you can say yeah the deal next week will
be a slam dunk
you know that something good is going to
happen next covering all bases this
phrase means that you
plan for as many things as you possibly
can you have some kind of plan in mind
for any number of things that could go
wrong
or any number of things that could
happen in a sentence
[Music]
a boss might say that they’re
subordinate so what’s your plan for
uh the event next week make sure you
have all bases covered i don’t want
anything to go wrong
next is playing hardball playing
hardball is used when you’re um you’re
just really really aggressively
competing with somebody
so in a sentence maybe after a business
meeting you might say oh
wow our competitors were really playing
hardball in there it was really tough
live tweet live tweet is uh for those of
you who have a twitter account when you
are watching something or listening to
something as it happens a popular tv
show or an awards show and you write
your comments on twitter as it happens
that’s called
live tweeting something in an example
sentence i live tweeted the grammy
awards this year it was a lot of fun
that’s a lie the next phrase is binge
watch binge means to do something to
access or to do something too much
so now that services like hulu or
netflix or other
tv or movie viewing services there might
be different ones in your country
are available people like to binge watch
their favorite tv shows meaning they can
sit and watch all of their favorite tv
show in maybe a weekend or a week or
something like that if they just sit for
hours and hours
i binge watched all of house of cards
this season i loved it
that’s a true story next next
the next word is neckbeard oh my god i
can’t believe we’re teaching them this
it’s not a very nice word it typically
i’m gonna get in trouble a neck beard is
a
rude word that’s used to refer to people
typically men
who do not have very good hygiene do not
have very good
personal care habits and as a result
their beard which
typically on men’s faces is maybe in the
chin
or the jawline goes onto their neck in a
sentence
there are a lot of neck beards on the
internet make sure you don’t
have a neckbeard
i don’t know next is fandom
fandom refers to a a group of fans of
can be a video game it could be an
athlete it could be a singer whatever
when you talk about
any group of fans you can refer to them
as the fandom
for example video game fandom on the
internet is
everywhere it’s so popular video games
are maybe your favorite tv show
change direction the story has suddenly
changed and everybody is really upset
about this change you might say
oh that recent change in the story has
the fandom upset
the next word is hyper connected hyper
connected refers to somebody who
just always has an interconnection
someone who always has an internet
connection whether it’s their smartphone
or their tablet or their
pc whatever it is they might use to
connect to the internet they are always
connected they are
hyper means super you might say i like
to stay hyper connected so i always have
all the news
doodle doodle is a funny word because of
the way it sounds it just sounds funny
when you say it
drawing something with no plan we call
that doodling so
in a sentence when i was a student i
loved doodling in my notebook
that is a funny word hodgepodge mixture
of a bunch of different stuff
you might say the dinner that i cooked
last week was a real hodgepodge of the
stuff that i had in my fridge
next is shenanigans shenanigans i like
this word i like this word a lot i
really like to do shenanigans
kind of small tricks that you might play
on your family or your friends that are
just a little bit mischievous
not necessarily evil but just kind of
tricky
or just to be a little bit funny to play
a joke on someone maybe your parents
will say
enough with your shenanigans go to your
room or something like that
the next word is skedaddle skedaddle is
a good word it means to to leave
quickly to go to go quickly you’ve been
uh maybe at a coffee shop for too long
and you have to do something else
so you say to your friend let’s
skedaddle we need to go to our next
appointment
okay the next word is persnickety
persnickety means that you’re
too focused on the details you really
like the the small the minutia of
whatever it is you’re doing
in a sentence you might say my aunt is a
persnickety person she always has to
have things a certain way
the lights are on but nobody’s home this
phrase means that somebody seems to look
aware of whatever is going on around
them
but in their head they don’t really
understand in a house
where you can see in the windows of the
house that the lights are on in the
house but there’s no one actually inside
it’s the same meaning inside someone’s
head it means that they’re not very
smart
in a sentence my co-worker isn’t very
smart well
he’s the kind of guy who makes you think
the lights are on but nobody’s home
next oh space cadet i love this phrase i
use this from time to time again doesn’t
seem to be
very um aware or very smart or very
conscious of what’s going on around them
their head has a lot of space in it
perhaps
so maybe this phrase comes from the
expression to space out
i’m a bit of a space cadet sometimes i
just stop
thinking about all the things that are
happening around me and go somewhere
else in my mind for a while
that’s true onward even a stopped clock
is right
twice a day so this phrase is used to
explain maybe someone or something who
is not traditionally good at something
or someone who is broken or does not do
things well
is capable of you know doing something
correctly sometimes
a clock that’s broken and doesn’t move
will at two points in the day
show the correct time on a traditional
clock so a person who
for example isn’t good at playing sports
maybe one day they have a really really
lucky day and they play
sports really really well you might say
even a stopped clock is right twice a
day he did a great job this afternoon
this is a fun one not the brightest bulb
in the box there are a lot of variations
on this phrase
not the sharpest tool in the shed we
changed this one up a little bit too
like not the longest fry in the happy
meal
basically it just means that the person
that you’re talking about is not the
smartest person that you know it’s used
to insult their intelligence primarily
if you think about this expression quite
literally to be the brightest
bulb in a box of light bulbs would mean
you know to shine brightly to be very
good at what you’re doing
but to not be the brightest bulb maybe
means you don’t do such a good job at
what you’re supposed to be doing
in a sentence let’s see one of my
friends she’s not the brightest bulb in
the box she makes some really strange
decisions sometimes
next a very similar phrase a few peas
short of a casserole this is very
similar i’ve never heard this one
actually
this phrase is again to insult someone’s
intelligence uh
if you are making food if you’re making
a casserole you need to use peas maybe
depending on your recipe and if there
aren’t enough peas the casserole will
not be very good maybe
so this means maybe somebody is missing
the things that they need
in their mind in order to do something
correctly my
friend my other friend stevens that guy
is a few piece short of a casserole he
should have done some things that he
didn’t do
vinyl as in the material or the record
before cds before tapes
there were vinyl vinyl records were uh
they’re about
this big or they were smaller sizes
maybe about this big people would use to
play music
and hipsters some hipsters prefer to use
vinyl or to listen to vinyl rather on a
record player
in a sentence i prefer vinyl because
vinyl sounds more authentic
skinny jeans i feel like these are
really more mainstream at this point but
skinny jeans just refer
to jeans which taper at the end so the
top is
bigger and then the bottom kind of it
goes like this
in a sentence i shrunk my skinny jeans
in the wash the other day oops my
circulation i can’t feel my feet
onward instagram instagram maybe you use
instagram this is a very popular
application
where people can post photos and they
can filter the photos to make them look
interesting or different
in a sentence follow me on instagram and
check out my picks
oh my cool pics next is thrift store a
thrift store is a
second-hand shop a kind of shop where
you can go to find things that other
people have used or have worn before
and you can usually get them for a cheap
price in a sentence i like to go to the
thrift store every weekend because there
are always interesting new things to
find
all right the next word is polaroid
polaroid refers to an old style
camera box shaped i think you can still
buy updated versions of these now
and you’d take a picture and the picture
would immediately spit out the front of
the camera in a little
square and you could kind of shake it a
little bit to make the i guess but
the picture would gradually kind of fade
in you would see the picture start to
appear
so polaroids i guess are popular among
hipsters maybe
i don’t know in a sentence i like
decorating my room with polaroid
pictures
i couldn’t care less people will often
say i could care less but that doesn’t
really mean
the same thing as i couldn’t care less
short for i could not care less it is
not possible
for me to care any less about this
situation so it’s just emphasizing that
whatever’s going on it doesn’t bother
you in a sentence
my coworker’s project wasn’t successful
and i couldn’t care less
oh jerk all right next is nip it in the
bud many people say nip it in the butt
it should be nip it in the bud
bud in this case might refer to a flower
before it blossoms that small shape
before the flower actually opens up we
call that a bud so to nip something
would mean to
to take something quickly like biting
taking motion
to nip something in the bud would mean
to stop something before it becomes
something else stopping something
negative from happening
knitting a sweater because i was
knitting a sweater earlier there’s a
section of the sweater where
the thread the yarn has started to
unravel and you think to yourself oh my
gosh i need to nip this in a bud
nip this in the bud so you decide to fix
it right away instead of letting the
sweater just slowly unravel as you work
on it
next is one and the same not one
in the same i’m probably guilty of this
one actually one and the same just
refers to
something that is maybe has two names
but both of those names refer to the
same thing or the same person
my teacher and my father are one and the
same person
maybe you know if your dad is your
teacher in school you could use this
expression
on tender hooks on tenterhooks is the
next expression
this isn’t a phrase that i’m familiar
with i don’t use this one but it seems
that some people use the phrase
on tender hooks i’m not really sure what
tender hooks are
this expression is used when people are
looking forward to
learning the outcome of something or
kind of maybe there’s anticipation
they’re anticipating something
maybe you would use this when you’re
watching a movie perhaps like i was on
tenterhooks
to learn about the end of the story
something like that
maybe next moot point not mute point but
moot point something that is irrelevant
something that there’s just no point in
talking about it it is mooch there’s no
meaning
a mood point a moo point that’s funny
i don’t know oh let’s ask the internets
hey siri oh no okay you’re looking for a
guy
to fill a position and you find a guy
and he’s a great programmer and he’s
fantastic but it’s a moot point because
he’s a convict
i’ll be back a lot of people like to try
and do an arnold schwarzenegger
impression this comes from the movie
terminator
where arnold schwarzenegger plays a
robot from the future and it’s really
awesome
you can use this with your friends you
can use this in in common
everyday situations where you have to
leave someplace but you want to tell
people in a kind of a funny way that you
plan on coming back
you can say albibak inconceivable say
this with a lisp
inconceivable if you have seen the movie
the princess bride
inconceivable so to conceive of
something something you can think about
putting that in uh at the beginning of
the word
means can’t con or not able to conceive
of something you can’t even think about
it you can’t believe it in other words
this is one word that means i can’t
believe it or
this is just ridiculous so you can use
this anytime you’re just shocked by
something you just can’t believe that
something is happening you can say
inconceivable this is a very good one a
recent one from the movie anchorman will
ferrell
says this uh he says i immediately
regret this decision
i immediately regret this decision it’s
a very long phrase
but it means you’ve just made a choice
and you
very quickly immediately realized this
was a bad decision
i should not have done this you can say
i immediately regret this decision
but with kind of like a flat tone to it
uh it’s a little bit funny
okay next is a very famous quote from
the movie forest gump tom hanks was in
this movie
his character famously says mama always
said life was like a box of chocolates
the next line is you never know what
you’re gonna get
so this refers to picking a piece of
chocolate out of a box of chocolates
maybe you’ve seen kind of the fancy ones
that have a number of different styles
of chocolate in them when you bite into
it oftentimes you don’t know what’s on
the inside
so the character is saying that life is
like that too you might try to do a few
different things
but you never know what’s going to
happen until you actually try to do it
so this is an interesting phrase to use
maybe if your friend is having trouble
in their life in some way
you can maybe try to console them or
cheer them up by saying mama always said
life was like a box of chocolates
the next quote comes from the movie
apollo 13 a very famous space movie
the quote is houston we have a problem
houston refers to the control center
nasa’s control center
and the astronaut is famously quoted as
saying we have a problem
anytime you run across a problem at work
or with your friends
with your family whatever you can say
houston we have a problem meaning you’re
just trying to
alert the other people around you that
something is wrong you need help with
something perhaps
new york style pizza wow in my image
anyway
um even after reading this is the new
york pizza is just really really big
they’re huge slices and people like to
fold them in new york
there’s lots of marinara sauce they’re
topped with a whole lot of cheese
and the crust is usually not super thick
so in a sentence
you might say to your friends let’s get
some new york style pizza for dinner
tonight
i’m already hungry california style
pizza i wasn’t aware there’s a
california-style pizza
thai inspired really california style
pizza this is new to me actually
apparently california-style pizza is any
pizza that doesn’t use
traditional pizza ingredients
traditional pizza ingredients would be
marinara sauce pepperoni cheese maybe
black olives
the stuff that you find in pizza shops
maybe all over the world i imagine
but california pizza maybe uses i don’t
know chicken
variety of different vegetables maybe
fruits different cuisines like thai
inspired pizzas
and so um have you checked out that new
california style pizza restaurant
it sounds good it does sound good the
next one i know chicago style deep dish
pizza deep dish as the name might
suggest the chicago-style pizza is much
thicker than regular pizza
it could be a lot of sauce it could be a
lot of cheese a lot of whatever
topping it is that you choose but it’s
just a really thick thick pizza
so in a sentence chicago style deep dish
pizza is excellent with beer
hawaiian pizza hawaiian pizza is this
just refers to the type of toppings
hawaiian pizza is canadian bacon or just
ham and pineapple this was my brother’s
favorite style pizza growing up
and i’ve always hated it so in a
sentence my brother’s favorite pizza was
hawaiian pizza
maybe it still is quad city style pizza
what is that
a thin crusted dough this oh that sounds
good quad city style pizza has
a thin crusty dough then in the sauce
there are red chili flakes and ground
cayenne so it’s probably a little
spicier than your average pizza
and then the pizza is cut into strips
not squares not triangles but long
strips
in a sentence i really want to try quad
city style pizza
beat the pants off someone to beat
someone severely or to win against
someone easily in a race
or a game if you do much better than
somebody else in some form of
competition you can use the phrase beat
the pants off in a sentence let’s see
my brother beat the pants off the
competition at the swimming meet last
weekend
my brother beat the pants off the
competition at the basketball game last
week
my brother is a really skilled sportsman
i seem
james what’s up next phrase is burst at
the seams to burst at the seams if you
imagine a shirt or just something when
there’s too much inside it the seams of
it kind of go
ah they’re expanding too much and when
there’s just way too much of something
inside a piece of cloth maybe the seam
rips
so this phrase means something that is
too full or too crowded in a sentence my
subway car
was bursting at the seams i could barely
breathe the next one is by the seat of
one’s pants i don’t understand the
history of this phrase but it means
you’re able to do something because
because you’re just really lucky
like for example i passed the test by
the seat of my pants
like just out of pure luck i was able to
do it next is to have something
up one sleeve imagine a magician or
something when they do tricks they
pull flowers out of their jacket pocket
or something like that or out of their
sleeve
it means you have some kind of plan
ready you’re prepared with something
that might be a little bit mischievous
so let’s see
in a sentence i knew my friend had
something up his sleeve
for my birthday because
he was being really mysterious okay
next wear more than one hat this is a
good phrase this phrase means you have
more than one
responsibility maybe you have more than
one job or you have a few different
roles in your life
the image is that you change hats for
each of your roles i wear more than one
hat
in my current position i’m in charge of
a few different departments at my
company
nasa nasa stands for the national
aeronautics and space
administration they are the organization
that’s in charge of all space
related research and space related
developments in the usa
in a sentence i wanted to work for nasa
when i was growing up
that’s a lie the next acronym is msrp
the manufacturers suggested retail price
you might see this on products at the
store the msrp
is the their important point is what the
maker of that product thinks
it’s worth so a store might have a sale
and they say
come to our sale everything is 20 off
the msrp
next is the aclu the american civil
liberties union you might be able to
guess what this is about
civil liberties civil rights uh they
work to ensure that
you know people have civil rights within
america in a sentence the aclu is doing
important work for people all around
the nation uh the next is the aarp the
american association of retired persons
um there’s sort of a joke i think that
goes around that once you reach a
certain age in america magically
aarp mail will start coming to your
mailbox as you can probably guess an
association for people who are of
retirement age
i myself am not of retirement age so i
don’t know exactly what they do and i
have never looked into it but
perhaps it’s relevant for some people it
seems that the aarp
is the most powerful group in terms of
its members in the united states
i’m guessing because they’re retired and
they have experience and money
i got my first piece of mail from the
aarp last week
that’s a lie okay the next one is nda
nda is a non-disclosure agreement i
don’t have a non-disclosure agreement
for anything
probably anyway an nda is a
non-disclosure agreement you might have
to sign a non-disclosure agreement if
you’re working on a project that
requires confidentiality
maybe it’s government related maybe it’s
a specific project a movie for example
that you can’t talk about
the employer might ask you to sign an
nda meaning you’re not going to talk
about anything
related to your project in a sentence i
was working on a project for a tv
station and i had to sign an
nda before i began back to back is the
first one back to back
means one right after another back to
back in a sentence
i have two meetings back to back today
i’m so busy the next idiom is
can’t stomach nice nice job stomach
can’t stomach means that you don’t like
something it used to refer to food or
just something that’s
gross something that’s really gross i
can’t stomach the thought
of eating that old
pie i can’t stomach the thought of
working with that guy another day
he’s terrible steven’s next phrase is
eyes are bigger than one stomach when
you’re
you know at the supermarket or when
you’re at a restaurant
and you see a picture of food or you see
you see a food item in front of you and
you think to yourself that looks really
good
i’m going to get that i’m going to buy
that and then it comes to you and you
realize you can’t eat it all
this is the phrase that we use my eyes
were bigger than my stomach i saw it and
it looked delicious but i can’t put all
of that food
in my stomach i ordered a bloom and
onion one time and i couldn’t eat it all
my eyes were bigger than my stomach next
is a pain in the neck pain in the neck
there are a few other variations on
other body parts that you might be able
to use with this a pain in the
something else pain in the neck just is
something that’s troublesome or
something that you don’t want to have to
worry about just something that just
bothers you it’s just
it’s trouble in a sentence let’s see i
have so many reports that i need to
catch up on this week it’s a real pain
in the neck
that’s a true story actually i have to
write a bunch of reports today to
pull one’s own weight is the next one to
pull your weight means to do the job
that you’re assigned to do
you have something that you’re you need
to be responsible for so you need to
make sure you do it in a sentence
stevens didn’t pull his weight at the
meeting last week
i’m afraid we’re gonna have to let him
go pull your weight stevens you’re
bringing us down
the next is the end and we’ll see you
again next time for more
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