Learn POLITE expressions in English – Don't be RUDE!

1,131,845 views ・ 2015-04-29

Adam’s English Lessons


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Hi again. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today's lesson is a little bit interesting.
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I'll give you a little bit of a background first of all. English speakers, and this is
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a very cultural part of English... And remember, culture plays a lot... Has a big role when
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it comes to language. A lot of speakers, in English, don't want to say certain words.
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For some reason, they think this word is dirty or heavy, or they just don't like this word,
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so we find soft expressions. We find other ways to say the same thing that everybody
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understands, everybody from the culture understands. It may be a little bit difficult for non-native
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English speakers to understand these expressions, so today we're going to look at a few. There
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are many, many such expressions. We're just going to look at a few for today.
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Firstly, these soft expressions are also called euphemisms. You don't need to know this word.
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If you want to look up more expressions, type: "euphemisms" into your search box on the internet,
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and you'll see many more.
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I'm just going to give you a few to give you an example of what a euphemism is. And when
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you watch Hollywood movies or TV shows, if you hear these expressions, now hopefully,
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you will understand what they mean.
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So we're going to start with: "passed away" which is very common. I think many of you
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probably know this expression. Or: "did not make it". So if you go to the hospital, your
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friend was in a car accident, and you bring him to the hospital or the ambulance brings
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him to the hospital, and he's in there for a while, and then you see the doctor. And
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you go to the doctor: "How's my friend?" And the doctor says: "Oh, I'm sorry. He didn't
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make it." What does that mean? Or: "I'm sorry. He passed away." What does that mean? It means
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he died. Now, why people don't like to say the word "died", well, it's a very heavy word.
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Death, people don't like to talk about death, so they find other ways to say the same thing.
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Okay?
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Now, all of these are not bad things, but you know, we just want to soften the language.
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We want to be a bit more polite sometimes. If you want, if you're in the washroom and
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you want... Sorry, if you're in the restaurant and you want the washroom, but you don't want
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to say the word "washroom" or you don't want to say the word "toilet", you say... If you're
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a boy, you say, or a man, you say: "Where's the little boys' room?" If you're a woman:
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"Where's the ladies' room?" Now, we understand all this to be toilet. But people think "toilet"
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is a dirty word. They don't like to say the word "toilet", so they say: "Little boys'
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room", or: "Ladies' room". Okay?
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Now, sometimes you'll see people in a wheelchair. Maybe they had an accident, maybe they were
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born this way, but they can't walk. They're in a wheelchair. Or you see people who have
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a... Who were born with a disease, and they're not, you know, they're not fully functional
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like everyone else. We used to say: "handicapped".
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But people find this word to be a little bit
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offensive, and so it's not politically correct; it's not a nice thing to say. So now, we say:
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"They are mentally challenged." Or: "They are physically challenged." It used to be:
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"handicapped" or: "disabled". But people don't want to say "disabled" because they think
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or they know that these people are very able, they can do many things; they're just limited.
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Okay? They are challenged by their condition. So they are mentally challenged or they are
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physically challenged is a more polite way to say it.
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Okay, so now, we're going to look at the next expressions. If you want to talk about a man
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or a woman, and the not polite way to talk about them is to say: "He or she is fat",
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big. So, people don't like the word "fat". So, for a more polite way or a softer way
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to say "fat" for a woman is: "She is full-figured." Full-figured means she's complete. She's full
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in all the places, and that's what we say. A man, we're a little bit less nice to men.
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A man has "let himself go". Means he stopped taking care of himself, and became fat. Okay?
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Again, not a nice word, but not necessarily a very nice expression either, but it's softer.
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It's not as direct, but everybody understands what this means.
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Now, if you have a friend or you have a family member and he says that... Or you introduce
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him as being "laid off" or "between jobs", this is a more polite, a softer way to say
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he is unemployed. It means he doesn't have a job. He's looking for a job. He's being
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laid off. "Laid off" is a nicer way to say "fired". He lost his job. So, if somebody's
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between jobs, they are unemployed. People don't like to say they are unemployed; everybody
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has a certain judgment about that, so they say they're between jobs or they're looking
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for something. Same idea.
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Now we get into a little bit more fun expressions. So, for example: oh, I have a new iPad. Only
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$100. Brand new. And somebody says: -"Oh. How did you get it so cheap?" -"Oh", I said:
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"I got it off the back of a truck." or: "It fell off the back of a truck." In British
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English, they would say: "lorry". "Lorry" means truck. If somebody tells you they got
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something off the back of the truck... Sorry, it's also the back of the truck. It means
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it is stolen. So you didn't buy it from the store; you bought it on the street. Somebody
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had a truck, you paid them cash, they give you the product. It was stolen somewhere.
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You don't care. You have a brand new product for less than half the price.
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So, "off the back of the truck", "fell off", it was stolen.
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If something... Oh, sorry. Let me make sure we understand that these are here. Now, when...
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It used to be a long time ago that when you bought a car, you could buy a brand new car
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or you could buy a used car. But then, eventually, people started not to like the word "used".
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"Used" means somebody else used it, had it for its good time, and then got rid of it.
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So marketing departments got smart, and they started using a different expression to mean
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used. "Previously enjoyed". Somebody else enjoyed this thing, now you can enjoy it too.
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It's still used. It still has 100,000 kilometers on it, it still has a cigarette hole in the
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seat, but it was previously enjoyed. Now it's your turn to enjoy it.
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Okay, the next expression we have is, for example, if you see someone in your office,
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a co-worker, she comes to work and her stomach is a little bit bigger. Then the next week,
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it's a little bit bigger, a little bit bigger, but the rest of her is staying slim. So you
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say: "Oh, you know, I think she might have a bun in the oven." A "bun in the oven" means
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pregnant. Now, if you're in high school, for example, and one of your classmates, she's
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like 16 or 17, and same thing, her stomach's getting bigger, then we say: "You know what?
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I think she's knocked up." "Knocked up" also means pregnant, but this is more slang, and
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it's a little bit more of a negative idea. Okay? So it's not necessarily softer. It's
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saying the same thing, pregnant, but it's a bit of a negative connotation to it. So
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be careful about using that one. But just so you know what it means.
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Now, again, like I said before, there are many, many, many such expressions in the English
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language. Look them up online. And if you want, you can always come and ask me a question
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in the comments section at www.engvid.com. You can also come test your knowledge of these
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ones with the quiz. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel,
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and come see us again very soon. Bye.
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