English Vocabulary - MUSE words - amusing, bemused, etc.

Hey, how are you doing?

Got to teach, got to teach, feel like a teacher.

Whenever he has the cap on, it means we're going to learn something today.

Today, Professor E, it's not even Mr. E, it's Professor E, has got a vocabulary pyramid.

He says it's going to be a regular feature where we will learn a base word and then build upon it

until the word will grow into a word we've never seen before and we will learn many words.

Yeah, that's what I think. Anyway, let's read the story and we'll go into the lesson. Good to see you.

Okay, Mr. E needed a muse for his latest project.

He mused over possible candidates for inspiration.

He found it quite amusing that James ESL had volunteered for the job.

He enjoyed the bemused look on James' face when he accepted.

He needed a muse and he mused.

He found it amusing, I really don't get it. He was bemused. I'm confused.

Let's go to the board, he's going to teach us what these things mean.

So, Mr. E started off with muse. I'm, he is a professor, I am a detective.

I am the world's greatest detective, for I am Batman.

Okay, and being Batman, I will figure out what the professor has left for us.

Are you ready? Let's go to the board.

Okay, Mr. E needed a muse.

Well, I investigated and checked out what muse means.

Did you know that muse has approximately three different meanings?

Three different meanings? I bet you didn't. One, this is interesting.

Muse was one of nine daughters that belonged to a god named Zeus.

He was married to a woman, forgive me.

Any of you guys are grammar snobs, you'll go check this and help me out here.

But Nemo, hee hee hee, that's how I remember Nemo. Get it. I'm looking at ancient Greek, I remember Nemo, for God's sakes.

Okay, one of nine daughters of Zeus and Nemeson.

This woman was, interestingly, she was the protector of art and science.

This is very important because muse has two important meanings.

One is to do with art and one is to do with thinking. Science has to do with thinking.

So she was the protector of art and science.

First meaning, okay, and that's a noun, muse.

Now, for art, you'll like this, art.

Second meaning, when we talk about art, a muse is an inspiration.

If you're an artist, you want inspiration, something to inspire you, inspiritus, to give you an idea to create.

Remember when I said that Nemeson, her job was to protect art?

She protected art by giving inspiration to artists.

Not bad, huh?

My detective, his professor, let's see who wins.

Next, muse. Okay, so those are both noun versions of what muse means.

Muse also means "the," not for victory but for verb.

When you muse something, you consider it, reflect, think.

What are you musing about? What are you thinking about, considering, reflecting upon?

Science requires thinking and reflection and consideration.

Art requires a muse.

Nemeson's been a very busy girl, that's why they had nine daughters.

Let's go back. So, he needed a muse.

I shall be that muse, for I am the detective.

Okay, we got muse.

Let me see the rest of his little poetry.

He mused over, well we know what muse means, he thought.

He needed somebody for inspiration and he thought about it, mused.

We know this, right?

Now, what does it say here?

He found it amusing? Amuse.

Now, I almost have amuse there, but it's not the same.

When someone is amused, amuse.

Well, once again, detective went and found out from Latin.

Do you know that "a"? Do you know what that means?

It means, oops, sorry, hold on, away from.

That's right, away from.

So you can see the "a" here and the "a" here, and it means away from.

Muse means to think.

Do you remember the word I said, consideration?

When you amuse yourself, you usually take yourself away from serious consideration.

So you have fun, entertain yourself, right?

If you're musing or amused about something, you're thinking, you're thinking, thinking hard.

When you amuse yourself, you take yourself away from that and you get entertained.

You can relax, have fun. That's why we have amusement parks.

She had an amusing smile. He was amused by her comment.

Made light, having fun with. You like?

Now, in this case, amuse, oops, sorry, is a verb.

But we can also use amuse as an adjective.

Okay, we can use amuse, but we use it like this, amusing or amused.

Oops. Amused.

Not quite the same, although they're both adjectives.

Amused, it means you are.

Amusing, you do it for others, or others are affected by it.

He was amused by her comments. He actually found them funny.

She was an amusing girl. She made people laugh.

See, amusing versus amused.

Okay, and remember, away from seriousness.

Cool.

Now, he found it amusing that I wanted to be the muse.

I find it amusing that I'm taking him apart.

Worm piece by worm piece. That's right.

I'm taking him to school.

Check that out in our slang, okay? Remember engVid? Slang.

Take to school. I school him.

Alright, what's the other thing he said? I'm reading his little poetry here.

He found it amusing, as James would say, blah, blah, blah.

He enjoys the bemused. What the hell is bemused? Bemused.

Well, we know muse, once again, is to think or consider.

So who does this worm think he is?

I checked.

He thinks he's very smart in his little pyramid.

It turns out when something is bemused, BE has a meaning in Latin.

Do you know what BE means?

Bewildered, bewitched, belittled, befuddled.

BE tends to mean thoroughly.

Thoroughly means completely.

When you are thoroughly happy or you are thoroughly enjoying yourself,

you are actually completely happy or completely enjoying yourself.

So what Mr. E was saying, because you were going to say,

well, how does bemused mean completely? Because you've got thoroughly,

and we have muse meaning thinking.

Well, we've got to think this one through a little bit,

because he thought he was a really smart guy.

Usually when you're confused, you're thinking a lot about something.

You're trying to go through it, but you don't really understand the information or what's going on.

So when I was bemused, my bemused look, I was confused.

I didn't understand.

I'm trying to think, think, think, think, think, but it's not really coming around for me.

So in this case, he's saying you're thoroughly confused because your thoughts are so deep.

He's not a very nice worm.

He shouldn't smile like that.

He's a very mean worm.

He should be in the bottom of a tequila bottle, this worm.

So bemused.

Do you remember how I said bemused?

Well, I said muse was a verb and a noun.

Amuse was a verb.

Bemused is a verb.

It can also be used in an adjective form.

Bemused.

He had a bemused look on his face.

Confused.

He was asking bemusing questions to the audience.

Confusing questions.

Once again, the ed means you are,

and the ing is talking about what you're doing to other people.

So he said that's a bemusing question.

I'll have to check it out at home.

It's a confusing question.

I'll have to check at home.

I was bemused by what you said.

I was confused by what you said.

All right?

So he thinks it's funny that I was confused.

I just schooled him and taught you as well.

I'm not confused.

I'm amused about the situation.

I find it amusing he tried to bemuse me with his antics.

Once again, I come out on top of the worm.

Now, if you want to see me have more fun with Mr. Worm,

or, sorry, Mr. E, and today Professor E,

you need to go to a special place.

It's a happy place.

You know Mr. Rogers?

It's like his neighborhood.

Except I've got four other neighbors.

They're pretty cool cats.

I'm going to teach them English.

You just go to my neighborhood.

www.ing, as in English,

vid, as in video,

and.com.

The cool thing about my neighborhood is

it's open 24 hours a day,

seven days a week,

all around the globe, baby.

Just press that button.

Come check it out.

There's a quiz.

Check out the quiz.

Make sure you can do the answers correctly, right?

Amuse, muse, bemuse.

What do they mean?

How can we change them?

And what are the Latin prefixes?

Have a good day.

I hope you found this amusing.

You're not totally bemused.

And hopefully I'll be your muse to further your British.

British?

That's me.

Education.

Have a good day.

That didn't confuse you too much, right?

No?

Good.

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