Meaning of NOTHING SPECIAL and SOMETHING ELSE - A Short English Lesson with Subtitles

So in English when you describe something

as being nothing special, you're saying that it's just

an ordinary thing, that there's nothing amazing about it,

there's nothing extraordinary about it,

there's nothing special about it.

So if I was to say, "My van is nothing special,"

it means that my van is just an ordinary van.

There's nothing amazing about it, it's an old van,

it gets okay gas mileage, but it's nothing special.

You can also say, "There's nothing special about my van."

So a slightly different way to use the phrase.

You could also use this to describe people.

Maybe your cousin is dating a new guy and she says,

"Ah he's nothing special, he's just an ordinary guy,

"he's nothing special."

It's not a great way to describe someone but we do use

this phrase to describe people as well as things.

So when you say that something or someone

is nothing special it means that they are just ordinary.

We have another phrase though if you want

to describe something as being amazing

and that's to say that it is something else.

So if I bought a brand new van

and it had all of the bells and whistles,

that means it has all of the cool things

that you can buy in a van,

I could say that my van is something else.

I could say, "That van is something else,"

and what that would mean is that I think my van

is amazing, that it's extraordinary,

that it's just the coolest van that you can buy.

My van is something else.

My van isn't actually something else.

I usually just buy old, used vehicles

and just enjoy them for what they are.

So anyways, if you say that something is nothing special

it means it's just ordinary.

And if you say that something is something else

it means that it's amazing.

You know you can also use this for people,

you can say, "He's something else."

Anyways, Bob the Canadian here

and you're learning English with me.