English Vocabulary: Using names as nouns, verbs, adjectives: Dick, John, Will...

Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm.

Ooo, look at the board.

It seems E and Mini E are having a problem.

Let's listen in.

By the way, today's lesson is...

It's about names that people have in English that are actually used as verbs, nouns, and

adjectives; or they have a grammar function.

And we're going to look at the board, see their conversation, and try to figure it out,

and I'll explain the names to you.

And by the way, you'll get to meet my family here, because a lot of my family names are

on the board.

Let's go to the board.

So, E says: "Let's be frank.

You can't sue me."

And Mini E says: "Yes I will.

Don't dick me around!"

Oo, that's a strong statement.

And why I say it's in my family, because my family's names: I have an Auntie Susan, I

have an Uncle Donald, my dad's name is Frank, my brother's name is Nicholas.

Yeah, seems...

Oh, and my grandfather's name was John.

They're all here.

Okay, anyway, let's go to the board.

So, let's start off at the beginning.

Let's look at names.

"Sue"... "Susan"...

Short form of "Susan" is "Sue".

Okay?

And what "sue" means is to take someone to court.

So, when you sue someone, you can take them to court for money or to get something back.

But "to sue" means to go to court, to take...

And make a legal argument that something belongs to you or should come back to you, or you

want money; compensation for, and it's a verb.

Let's look at: "Pat"/"Patrick".

"Patrick", the short form of "Patrick" is "Pat".

And "to pat" somebody is like this, like you do with a dog.

You know when you have a cat, and you're like: "Here, what a nice dog, what a nice cat"?

And sometimes people do it to irritate you, they're like: "That was a really good job

you did!"

They pat you on the back, and you're like: "I'm not a dog.

Don't pat me."

Okay?

But "a pat" is like that: "Good job.

Good job.

Good boy."

The next one is "Richard".

Now, I don't know why this is, but the short form for "Richard" is "Dick".

Okay?

And "dick", if you watch...

Well, if you like Batman-some of you do-the first Robin's name was Dick Grayson.

His real name was Richard Grayson, and the short name was Dick Grayson.

And when we say: "to dick", it means to play around; not to be serious, to act like an

amateur or in a childish way.

So, if you're dicking around at work, it means you're not doing your job.

And if you're dicking around, you're playing.

I'd say: "Stop dicking around."

It means: "Stop fooling around.

Stop playing around."

"Nick".

"Nick" means to make a small cut.

You go: "What is 'small cut'?"

Well, you can do a small cut two ways.

I'm going to give you my favourite example, which is the rose.

When you have a rose, it has what's called a 'thorn'.

When you put your finger here, you get cut.

You get a small cut, which is a nick.

But also when you shave, you know, when you've got your little shaver, and you get a little

cut, you nick yourself.

So, "a nick" is a small cut or a scratch.

All right?

"Bill, B-B-B-B-B-Bill".

Well, "Bill" can be either "Bill" or "Will".

Okay?

And I should have said, in this case, it's a verb, so we're looking here.

So, "William", you can make it either "Bill" or "Will".

Once again, "Will" makes sense; I don't know why "Bill".

Maybe because if you take the "B"...

I have no idea.

I'm just making this up; it's not real.

But if you take the "B" here and you make it like that, maybe.

I don't know; I didn't make it up.

But "bill", in one case, is to give a paper asking for money.

So, when somebody says: "Bill me", it means: "Send me the amount...

A paper with the amount that I should give to you."

Maybe I had dinner and I bought some things, so you're going to send the bill with a dinner,

the book, the coffee, and it will say how much money I must give to you.

So, people say: "Bill me for this."

In fact, many of you get bills when you're billed by your cell phone company.

They bill you, right?

At the end of the month, they say: "You've done this, this, this, and this.

Please pay this much money."

That's a bill; you've been billed.

"Will"...

Well, you've studied grammar, I'm sure.

It's a modal verb for intention or future, so: "I will go" or "I will do it"-my intent-"but

I will be going to the movie in five hours".

Future tense.

Okay?

Modal verb.

"Don" is short for "Donald".

"Don", "d-o-n" means to put on or wear.

If he donned an angry face, he put an angry face.

He donned his jacket; he wore - put the jacket on his body.

Right?

She donned makeup in the morning; she put the makeup on her face.

To wear.

Okay?

"Don".

"Frank" in this case is just "Frank"; there's no change.

It means to...

It means to be open and honest in speech and in writing, especially in difficult situations.

Many people can be open and honest in situations which are easy.

"You look nice today.

I really like that television program."

But when somebody has to say: "Okay, your work is horrible and you have bad breath",

it's very difficult to be open and honest in these situations.

So, when someone says: "I need to be frank", they literally mean: "I need to be open and

honest, and sincere in what I'm about to say", and usually it will be written down or said.

Okay?

And usually in a difficult situation.

Now, finally, we have "John".

Now, "John" in this case...

Oh, please forgive me.

I forgot to mention that when we said: "frank", "frank" is not a verb like the other ones;

it's actually an adjective.

"He had a frank manner", "They had a frank conversation."

Okay?

So, unlike a verb, it's an adjective; it describes it.

And finally, let's go to "John".

"John" equals, well, "John".

And "john" is a noun.

And in this case...

We talk about "john".

"John" is a toilet.

You'll often watch movies where guys are at the bar and they've been drinking, usually

the university movies, you know, everyone's got their university jacket and they're like:

"Hey, man, I'm going to hit the john and then we can go to the Pizza Hut."

All right?

So it means to go to the toilet.

Now, if you watch police shows, if there's a prostitute-a lady of the evening-they might

talk about "a john".

"A john" is the client of the prostitute; the man or woman who is paying for sex.

So, if they said: "We found this john hiding in the john", you got some serious problems

there.

But they might say: "The john paid the prostitute $200 for an evening with her."

Cool?

Good.

So, now we've met my family.

Meet the family.

We've looked at some verbs, we've looked at an adjective and a noun from using people's

actual names.

You'll hear people say: "Pat, Sue...

Meet my broth-... my... my friend Sue.

I've got a friend named Pat.

This is Dick.

Here's Nick.

This is Bill from the office.

This is Will from school.

Don I met at...

In the hospital.

Frank's a good buddy of mine.

And John's one of my favourite people."

Okay?

Real names with real grammar uses.

Now, I hope you found that interesting because we're going to have some fun and see if we

can make some sentences make sense with your new-found knowledge.

I'll also give you a bit of a bonus and show you what else you can do with them.

Are you ready?

[Snaps]

Okay, so let's go to the board and see...

We've played: Meet my family.

Now let's see if we can go to the board and fix it up properly.

I'm going to get my trusty red marker.

Dunh-dunh-dunh.

And then you guys will help me.

Okay?

So, what...

The first thing we want...

We want to do is we want to identify what we can fix.

Not that it's wrong, but what we can fix to use these new words to make it better.

So, let's read through the story first.

"Mr. E repeatedly touched James on the back as he put on his baseball hat.

'I have to go to the bathroom before we leave', he said.

'I want to be honest with you, I don't have enough money to pay for the food.'"

This is not a good story because he's going to the washroom and leaving me with the bill.

Let's continue.

Did I say "bill"?

I don't know.

"'I don't have enough money to pay for the food.

Let's say that the waiter gave me a small cut with my stea-...

With my steak knife.

We can threaten to take them to court'", and I guess he's talking about the restaurant,

right? "'...if they don't give us a free meal.'

I told..."

And then: "I told Mr. E: Stop playing around and pay for the food!"

Okay, so, horrible story.

Let's try making it a little bit better.

First let's identify.

I'm going to say: "Mr. E repeatedly touched James on the back as he put on his baseball

hat", so that would be like that.

Okay, yeah, I got a word.

I bet you know the word I'm thinking.

We'll look at all that.

We can replace all of this with one word; that'll be good.

"I have to go to the", I think this is a word we can replace as well.

We've got a slang word that people will say.

I think I said that, you know, when you're out at the university or you're at the bar,

you might use this word.

"'...before we leave', he said.

'I want to be honest with you'".

Hmm.

Well, here's something funny.

I was reading a book the other day, and when someone says: "I need to be honest with you",

you have to ask a question: Aren't you always honest with me?

But sometimes there's a better word because it's not just to be honest; they want to be

open with you as well, so I think we might have to look here.

Okay.

"I don't have enough money to..."

Hmm.

Hmm.

We pay for the food, so you got to pay.

And this is, like, food.

This is a...

It's a good or a service, and you have to give money for it.

Can change that, I think.

Okay, so: "...gave me a small cut with my steak knife".

Could we use one word that would be "a small cut" so we don't have to say so many words?

We have to cut some of that, so we'll look at that.

Okay, good.

And then: "We can threaten to take them to court", yeah, that's good, but yes, you're

right, we can probably change that one, here.

"'...if they don't give us a free meal.'

I told Mr. E to stop playing around.

Stop playing around and pay for the food."

So, we could probably go here.

And then this looks the same as this one up here, so I'm going to take a guess we can

do that.

Did you get the same?

So, what I'd like you to do is take five seconds...

And hopefully you did it before I did because you could see it; and if not, check.

But I'll tell you right now: If you got this, this, this, this, this, this, this, and this

on your own - congratulations; those are the ones we want to fix.

We do have words for them that we've done, and we'll replace them in the next segment.

Are you ready?

Okay, let's go.

Seeing as you're so good, let's talk about...

I don't want...

I don't want to use this one; I want to use this one.

So, if someone repeatedly touches you on the back...

Remember I talked about dogs, and cats, and pets, you're like: "Oh, good boy, good girl"?

We can say this...

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

Get rid of all of these words, but I'm not even going to bother, and we can put the word:

"to pat" or "patted", right?

Because it's the past tense, I can't put "pat", so I'll put "p-a-t-t-e-d": "...patted James

on the back".

Okay?

Cool.

Let's do the next one.

I need a better marker.

I'll get a new one.

So, we changed that to "patted" so we wouldn't have to say: "touched repeatedly".

I can just say: "He just patted him on the back"-okay-"as he put on his baseball hat.

'I have to go to the bathroom.'"

Now, he and I aren't in university; we're kind of older people now, but maybe E had

a little to drink, maybe one drink too many, and we can say: "to the john" because he went

to the washroom.

Right? "...before we leave."

And then he said: "I want to be honest with you.

Want to be honest".

What's another word to be honest and open with somebody?

Mm-hmm: "to be frank with you.

I want to be frank with you, I don't have enough money to", what?

Well, we used it to say when you...

When you have to give money for a good or a service.

"A good" is a thing, like, a phone; or a service is, like, when you go in a restaurant and

the waiter takes care of you.

"...to pay the bill".

The bill.

They gave you a paper saying: "You ate this much food, you must give us this much money".

"Let's say the waiter gave me a small cut."

Hmm.

Okay, yeah, that's right, a scratch or a small cut could be...

And we're going to do this.

What?

All of this I'm going to take away?

I'm going to say: "nicked me".

"Nicked".

Nick nicked me with my steak knife.

We can get rid of a whole bunch of words.

"We can threaten to take them to court."

What was the thing we said would be court, to go to court if you want to get money or

you want to get something given back to you that you think was taken unfairly?

And once again, look, we can get rid of a number of words.

In this case, we can put the word: "We threaten to...

We can threaten to sue them".

And "them" being the restaurant, of course.

"'...if they don't give us a free meal.'"

"I told Mr. E to stop playing around and pay for the food."

Well, we can get rid of six words.

Which six words do you think it'll be?

That's right.

We need an "ing" because we said "playing", so we're going to have to put this, and it's

going to be Batman's best friend, Dick, as in: "dicking around and pay", what?

We've already done it and I know you've got there just before I did: "pay the bill".

So, let's read this story this time and see how it works out.

We've eliminated a bunch of words; as you can see, there are spaces there, which is

good.

We're making our language much more in line with English because we're using, you know,

cultural terms, a little bit of slang which has more...

A greater meaning.

Even though these words are accurate, this has a greater meaning for us because it's

more within lines of our culture.

So: "Mr. E patted James on the back", like this, "as he put on his baseball hat.

'I have to go to the john before we leave,' he said.

'I want to be frank with you, I don't have enough money to pay the bill.

Let's say the waiter nicked me with my steak knife so we can get...'"

Okay, sorry.

"'...my steak knife.

We can threaten to sue them if they don't give us a free meal.'

I told Mr. E: Stop dicking around and pay the bill."

That sounds almost like...

Well, not almost like; it sounds exactly like a conversation in English, as opposed to the

textbook English you get up here.

Anyway, before I go I'm going to give you a bonus.

And the bonus is going to be a bit strange because I'm going to give you the same words

again.

Huh?

I am, but this time I'm going to show you...

I thought it was better to break the lessons into two parts.

I showed you how these words could be used as verbs, and this is the past tense of this

verb; present tense-right?-past tense, the continuous tense.

But these same words, many of them or at least five of them can be used as nouns.

So, now I'm going to show you what the noun means.

So, "dick"...

Parental advis-...

Sorry.

[Laughs] I'm sorry.

Parents beware.

I'm just saying this is parental guidance.

I forgot what it is, so: This is a bad word; do not use it.

Okay?

"Dick" also means penis, which is the male sex organ.

So it's bad slang.

If someone says: "Don't be a dick", they mean: "Don't act like a bad guy or a bad girl."

Usually it's said to men.

Now, "dick" also means to know nothing.

So, if somebody says: "Hey, he knows dick about the subject", it means: He knows nothing

about the subject.

"She knows dick about computers" - she knows nothing about computers.

So, "dick" can be used to mean to know nothing.

And it means nothing.

You know dick; you know nothing, as in a noun.

"Nick" not only can be to cause a cut, but a nick - I have a nick here, it means a small

cut.

"I nicked my finger" - verb.

I nicked it.

"I have a nick on my finger" - small cut on my finger.

"Bill".

I told you "bill" is to give you someone something you must pay.

"A bill" is also the paper you have.

You go: "Here's the bill."

Okay, now that's the bill.

I'm billing you and writing down you must pay.

Now, here's the bill; here's the paper you must pay.

Okay?

So: "Give me the bill at the end of my meal, please."

Or: "We'll be billing you at the end of the month" and that's when you get your cell phone

bill.

It also means a proposed law.

Huh?

Well, laws: You cannot kill people, you may not steal; the police will arrest you.

A proposed law is think of a baby law.

You have an adult and you have a baby.

A baby is like the proposed law; it's what they want to make into a law, but it's not...

It's not a law yet.

So, when somebody says: "Here's a bill" in your government, they're saying: "We think

this would be a good law for the people."

They talk about it, they vote on it.

If they like it, it becomes a law.

So, otherwise it's a bill.

Okay?

So people have to come up with ideas to make into laws, they present them to the government

as a bill; and if the government likes it, they change it into a law.

I'm just a bill up on Capitol Hill.

When I was a kid, there was a commercial that explained all of this.

I'm trying to do my best because I don't have cartoons.

Anyway.

And the last one I want to talk about is "don".

Remember I said "don" was to put something on you?

Well, there are...

There's another type of don.

There's the gangster boss.

So when you're looking at...

You know when they show the Mafia or the Yakuza, or any other gang, and there's...

Well, specifically, it's the Italian boss, because it's the don, the godfather.

He's the don.

That's what this one is supposed to be.

And when we talk about "don" as being the godfather, it's sort of, like, the leader.

In universities, usually the teachers or professors in things like Cambridge and Oxford, they're

also called dons, especially if they have a special position of leadership.

So: "The don of the university", it means the teacher of the university or the leader

in the university.

And what they share is being leadership.

"Don" being head.

Cool?

Thought you'd like that.

That's your daily bonus.

All right.

Now, we've done your daily bonus, so you can see how we've used some of these verbs, and

can transform into nouns, and vice versa.

Here's your homework: I want you to create five sentences using two of these words in

a sentence to make a new sentences.

So, in this case, I used...

"I told E to stop dicking around and pay the bill."

Right?

There, I've done it right there.

You could say: "I...

When I...

When I donned my jacket, I nicked my ear with a button."

So, I cut my ear.

Maybe it was a sharp button.

Crazy, but there you go.

So, try doing that.

And what I'd like you to do is when you've finished your homework, you've done these

sentences, bring one, you know, put it in the... put it below in the comments, and see

if people will help you.

I've seen many times a lot of students help out other students with their sentences and

form friendships, so I hope that's going to happen for you.

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Ring my bell.

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Anyway, I've got to go.

I've got to don a new outfit; this one's getting a little bit warm in here.

I hope you enjoyed the lesson.

And as always, thank you very much, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Have a good day.