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

4,437 views ・ 2020-01-21

Bob's Short English Lessons


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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So in English when you describe something
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as being nothing special, you're saying that it's just
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an ordinary thing, that there's nothing amazing about it,
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there's nothing extraordinary about it,
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there's nothing special about it.
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So if I was to say, "My van is nothing special,"
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it means that my van is just an ordinary van.
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There's nothing amazing about it, it's an old van,
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it gets okay gas mileage, but it's nothing special.
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You can also say, "There's nothing special about my van."
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So a slightly different way to use the phrase.
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You could also use this to describe people.
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Maybe your cousin is dating a new guy and she says,
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"Ah he's nothing special, he's just an ordinary guy,
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"he's nothing special."
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It's not a great way to describe someone but we do use
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this phrase to describe people as well as things.
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So when you say that something or someone
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is nothing special it means that they are just ordinary.
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01:00
We have another phrase though if you want
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to describe something as being amazing
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and that's to say that it is something else.
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So if I bought a brand new van
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and it had all of the bells and whistles,
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that means it has all of the cool things
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that you can buy in a van,
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I could say that my van is something else.
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I could say, "That van is something else,"
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and what that would mean is that I think my van
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is amazing, that it's extraordinary,
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that it's just the coolest van that you can buy.
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My van is something else.
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My van isn't actually something else.
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I usually just buy old, used vehicles
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and just enjoy them for what they are.
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So anyways, if you say that something is nothing special
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it means it's just ordinary.
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And if you say that something is something else
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it means that it's amazing.
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You know you can also use this for people,
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you can say, "He's something else."
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Anyways, Bob the Canadian here
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and you're learning English with me.
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