Learn English: Words with many meanings

To be or not to be? That is the question. Hi. James, from EngVid. We're looking at homonyms.

What are they? Well, before we even go there, why don't we just go to the board for a second?

I want to show you something. I'm sure you've heard this before. All right? English people

say, "Those four things are for you." Okay. Four, for. How about this? "When you go to

the store to buy the milk, swing by John's house and say bye to him for me." Now, a few

of these words sound the same, but we know the meanings are not the same. And this is

what we mean by homonyms. Okay? But I'm going to give you a little test before we get started

on the lesson because I want to do some grammar. Let's look at the board.

So Mr. E who wants to test thee, and he's giving you a little story. Now, bear in mind,

when we're finished, at the end of the video or near the end, we're going to come back

to this with the proper words and see what you've learned. "I want you to bare with me

as I teach you to go on to the hire lessons on EngVid. When you complete the hole video,

you will be a much better student because you will no how to read and right like a native

speaker." Now, to a native speaker, actually, it's quite funny. What I just said, if they're

not looking at the board, it's perfect English. But if you were to actually write this on

paper, they would be scratching their heads going, "What is wrong with you?" 'Empty',

'job', 'whole', 'no', and 'correct' don't make any sense. And probably, what I just

said to you doesn't make any sense because you're thinking, "Huh? You wrote that, James.

You should know." And you're right. And in a second or two, so will you. Ready?

Okay. Ready? Let's do the grammar. Now, what are homonyms? Well, "nym" means "name". Right?

We're here. I'm going to go off for a second so that you can see. "Nym" means "name". "Homo"

means "same". So it means "same name". But this is a general term. And what we have to

look at is not the general term but the individual terms for grammar. Because some teachers may

say to you, "This is a homophone or homograph." And you're going to say, "What?" Well, I'll

break it down for you.

Homophone. Think your iPhone. Got the iTalk going here. "Phone "is for sound, right? Because

we have "phonics", sounds. So what we have here is a homophone sounds the same, but it's

spelled differently and has a different meaning. "Bare" and "bear". Right? In the story earlier,

we talked about "bare", and it didn't look quite right? You were right because I was

using a homophone. Okay? But it also could be a homograph. What? Too many words. We're

going to simplify. You know what a graph is, right? It tells you how things are moving.

Usually, graphs are written, right? So "graph". And we come to -- in English, we say "graphic".

"He had graphic speech", which means, "He was saying something, or it was written very

strongly." So written the same -- a word can be written the same, but it has a different

meaning. "Bear" and "bear" -- notice this one's a noun, and this one's a verb. In case

you're confused because I used the same thing over and over, why don't we just look over

here. That might explain it to you. Okay.

So we're looking over here. We've got "bare". The first "bare" is "not covering" or "no

covering". If this is my bare arm, you will see there is no shirt. It's bare. I won't

take the rest off and go bare because this is for children. This isn't an adult video.

It also means "open to view". If I say, "My life is bare, laid bare", it means it's open.

Anyone can look at it. If you have bare cupboards at home, there's nothing in them. Okay? They're

empty. No covering. There's nothing inside. It's empty.

When we look at "bear", it's almost the same, but this one's an adjective. But when we say

"bear" as a verb, it means "to support". Well, you have, let's say, a wall. And you have

a table. Okay? This is your table. If I put this on it, this is having a hard time supporting

it. See? The table is not really stable. Once I put this on it, it cannot bear the weight.

It will break. So when we talk about support and we say "bear" -- "Can it bear this?" -- it

means, "Can it take the weight? Is it strong enough?" That's "bear" as a verb. Okay?

But here, I'm going to give you a phrasal verb for free. I know you love me. When I

say "bear with me", it means "Please, be patient with me." Right? "Support me. Give me some

time to speak. Bear with me for a second." Right? "Bear" here is that big, scary animal,

or it's a teddy bear in your house. It's an animal. So it can also be a noun, so you have

to really be careful. Right? As a homograph, it can have two meanings. As a homophone,

it can have two meanings. But the word is still the same. Bearing with the lesson? Let's

continue.

"Hire" -- "hire" is for jobs. And that's what you want, I'm sure. That's why a lot of you

are studying English. And it's a verb. "Will you hire me? Is he hiring? Are they hiring?

Can I get a job?" Okay. That's the verb. But "higher" is the comparative. There's low,

low, low, and I'm going to go high, high, high. Right? Voice. My voice went higher.

Okay? And lower. So price. Sometimes, we say, "This price is higher than the other price."

It means it's more expensive. But don't use "higher" for people, people. Okay? He is not

higher than you unless it's position in a job. He's "taller" than you. But "higher"

can be, "Oh, look. That plane is going higher and higher, moving ever upwards or going up."

Cool? All right.

Now, what about "whole"? I like "whole". "Whole" means "complete". I often eat whole pizzas

in one sitting. It means "complete" or "not damaged". You get the whole set. All of the

pens. Everything came together. Okay? Complete or not damaged. Here's another "hole". The

place I used to live in was a hole. It means "disgusting". I've actually taught in holes

as well. It means a disgusting or not nice place. Some bars are holes. You don't want

to go to them. But it also means -- you'll like this. Brought to you by the special effects

of EngVid. A hole. A hole. This is a hole. Okay? I made a hole. A "hole" means a tear

or a rip. When something is broken, when it's got a hole in it -- sometimes the hole is

very small like this one here. That's a hole. So if you say there's a hole in it -- I go,

"Ah, man. It's got a hole? I've got to get a new one now. It's got a hole in it." And

I live in a hole; I've got a hole in my shirt; things are pretty bad for me right now. Okay?

Or it could be a missing piece. If you say, "There is a hole in here", it means there's

a piece not there. Here's a piece; there's the hole. All right.

"Write". Duh! In English, it means "stupid". All of this is writing. When you do this,

it's called "writing". I don't think I have to explain. Otherwise, we have to go to the

basic level. All right? And the other one is "rights" and freedoms. In America, they

have rights. All over the world, you want to get your rights and freedoms -- freedom

to speak, freedom to vote. So "right" is something that your government or your -- I don't know

-- charter of rights and freedoms gives you that says you're allowed to do certain things

and no one is stop you from doing them. What are your rights? So, I mean, your rights -- that's

a noun. "I have rights in this country. The right the drive. The right to vote. The right

to serve my country." And "writing" is clearly the verb when you write a letter to your mother

or write an email.

But there's also another one, and this is "right", and I didn't quite put it under there,

so I'll do it now. When you have this "right" as an active adjective, it means "correct".

You are "correct". "He is right. He is correct." So we have three different meanings for "right".

Cool?

And finally, we're going too good do "no". Now, I didn't do a lot because "no" is basically

-- it could be a noun, an adverb, an adjective, and a verb. But for most of you guys, you

know what "no" means in your language, right? It's negative, right? So "no" in this case

just means "negative". But the other "know" is to have information. Do you know what I'm

talking about? I think you do. Don't say "no". You do know. Okay? So in this case, "Do you

know? Do you have the information I need?". All right? So we've done our grammar, and

we've done our vocabulary. Let's go back to that original story, okay? And I'm going to

fill in the blanks, and you're going to help me. And then, we're going to know if we really

know what we're talking about. Ready?

So, test time. Remember the story we told before? I didn't write the whole story out.

See? I used one of them again, "whole". But we've got the sentences. Why don't you take

a look and tell me which should go there.

"I want you to bare/bear with me." Now, with your new knowledge, is it "bare" or "bear"?

That's right. B-a -- no. "Bear". If you don't remember, you're going to have to watch this

video again, and you have to do the quiz when we're finished.

How about this. "You go on to higher/hire lessons." "You get job? I get job now?" I

don't think so, son.

The "higher" lessons. Right?

Now, what about this one? "Complete the whole/hole video." This is a "hole" video. It's a good

video. I know what "hole" means in a bad way. It's a good video. So I want you to do like

I do with the pizza and watch the "whole" video. And you will know -- "You will know!

No do! No do!" Mr. E, where was he? Was he in this video? I think he was. I hope he was

at the beginning. But you will "know" because I don't know right now if he was. You will

know how to "right"? You are not correct. You must use the verb here. "Write like a

native speaker." And also read, because if you don't know homonyms, you'll have a problem

sometimes, right? When you're reading.

So we've gone through these. You notice they're all different from the first ones. So then,

you're smart enough to know I taught you ten vocabulary words and homonyms, homophones,

and homographs. I hope you liked that. Mr. E's gone, which is a clue for me to go as

well. Have a good day. But before I go, you need to go to www.engvid.com -- see this makes

a W -- "eng" as in "English", "vid" as in "video", where you can learn more about your

homographs, homonyms. There are a couple lessons on EngVid. And other stuff like conversation

-- I like that. Anyway. Have a good one, and see you soon.

I think that's the right thing to do, don't you?