English Vocabulary: 35 words that we shorten in conversation

Hey everyone, I'm Alex, thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on 35 words that

are shortened in conversation.

So, this lesson will help to improve your comprehension, specifically in terms of listening,

and your speaking, specifically in terms of informal, casual conversations.

So, you know, you have a lot of words here, I'm going to explain what the long form word

means and then I will give you the short form that is used when people are speaking.

Now, keep in mind, these words are not only shortened in conversation, but they could

be shortened in text messages, and in informal or sometimes formal emails, and other contexts

where you're communicating with people.

So, these are basically, you know, just shortened words that you can use and that you will see

in conversation, in films, in TV shows, on the radio, in podcasts, or wherever you can

think of.

So, let's begin with abdominal muscles, so these muscles here which I can't see because

of my years of eating pizza.

The short form for abdominal muscles, you might know, is abs.

Check out my abs.

Yes.

So, you can have, like, a 6-pack or a 4-pack or a barrel like this.

Right?

So, your abs, your abdominal muscles, the muscles on this part of your body.

It's weird that I keep touching my stomach, sorry.

Okay.

Administration, so you know, the employees, the people at a company who work behind the

scenes, the admin, the administration, so you know, admin is hiring.

I'm an admin or a part of the admin team, the administrative team, the administration

team.

The people who work behind the scenes in a company and make things happen, so an accountant,

for example, is part of the administration of a company, or the admin of a company.

Okay.

And again, these are both nouns.

Application, now this does not refer to the application for a job, but it refers to software

on your phone, you probably know this word already, it's an app.

So, you can, you know, download apps onto your smartphone and there are apps for various

- various things, apps for learning English, apps for listening to podcasts, apps for - there's

a Netflix app if you want to watch Netflix on your phone.

Applications, software, apps.

Fabulous, that movie was fabulous!

Or, that movie was fab!

Fab is not really a word in my vocabulary.

When I think of, actually, the next three words are not really in my vocabulary, I think

of valley girls, you know, using these kind of words.

If you don't know what a valley girl is, I guess I will do the stereotypical pronunciation

of a valley girl in a moment.

So, that was so fab!

Did you see the movie "Mean Girls"?

Like characters in a movie like "Mean Girls" would use a word like "fab".

Favorite, so that's my favorite - that is my fave.

What's your fave ice cream flavor?

#instagram, okay?

So, fave, favorite, delicious, or that was delish.

Again, I don't say "delish", but some people say, "Oh my god, that was delish!", okay?

So, that's my fave, you look fab, and that was delish.

And I'm never going to use that voice again, sorry guys.

Next, identification.

Show me your ID.

You do not need to see his identification.

Call back to an old video if you've been watching me for awhile, or callback to Star Wars.

Identification - ID.

Show me your ID.

Your passport, your driver's license, your health card, whatever form of identification

you have.

Information, short form for information is info.

Thanks for the info.

Here is some new info about the upcoming Marvel film, for example.

Okay.

Radical, so this does not mean radical, the short form "rad", it does not mean - it's

not a short form for radical in the political sense, like a political radical, but it's

a short form for like, "cool".

Woah, that's so cool.

Woah, that's so rad or radical.

A favorite word of The Ninja Turtles, along with "cowabunga" is "radical, radical, radical".

That was so rad, you can say, okay?

Comfortable, another word for comfortable, the shortened form could be comfy.

So, in the wintertime, you might want to wear a nice comfy sweater, something that, you

know, makes you feel warm and soft and is very, very comfy.

Very comfortable.

Next, advertisement, if you're watching this video, maybe at the beginning of it you say

an ad, alright?

So, I think those of us in the age of the internet are familiar with ads and with the

word "ad", it's just a short form for the word advertisement or, you know, a commercial

or some kind of billboard for a product or company.

Okay.

Here we go.

Next, we have laboratory, or laboratory, or the short form "lab", so a science lab, for

example, a research lab.

A room where experiments are conducted.

So, laboratory or lab.

I'm going to go this side of the camera for you guys of the board.

Limousine, so the long car, you know, that you can drive in, I guess, if you're an important

person or if you had money in high school and you went to your graduation, or your parents

did, this is a limo, or limousine, or limo, alright?

Limo.

Maximum, so short form for maximum is max.

So, totally to the max.

Do you have a hair dryer?

It probably says max or max power, like in The Simpsons where Homer names himself Max

Power?

Max Powers?

I can't remember the Max Powers song; do you know the Max Power song from The Simpsons?

No?

You're too young?

Okay.

Well, if you find it, link it before Disney+ takes it down off YouTube and you'll never

get to see The Simpsons on YouTube again.

Thanks, Disney+!

Medication, a short term for medication is meds.

So, I need to pick up my meds, if you have a prescription, you go to the pharmacy and

you pick up meds or medication.

Or, if you play video games, a med pack, you know, if you're playing a first-person shooter,

sometimes.

Overdose, so to overdose is to consume too much of something.

Usually, this refers to drugs, so you can overdose on heroin, for example, or cocaine,

or you know, illegal street drugs.

So, you can OD on drugs.

But you can also overdose or consume too much of something that is not drugs.

You can talk about OD-ing on chocolate, or you can OD on, I don't know, chocolate, alcohol,

anything that is good or bad for you, basically.

Okay.

Next, two words, we have rehabilitation, which is a noun, and rehabilitate, which is a verb.

So, if you know the Amy Winehouse song, try to get me to go to rehab, I said no, no, no.

I wasn't even trying, but rehabilitation - rehab.

Okay?

So, if you watch baseball and you might hear when you're watching sports news, if a player

hurts their elbow, they have to rebab their elbow.

You can say yeah yeah, he's doing rehab, or he is rehab-ing his elbow, because he hurt

his elbow while playing, so you can use rehab like a noun or like a verb.

Okay?

Next, referee, so the referee is like, a judge in a sports match like soccer referee, a hockey

referee, a basketball referee, you know, with the black and white pinstripes?

The short form for referee is ref.

So, he's the ref.

She's the ref.

Where's the ref?

Come on, ref!

You know, whatever.

Ref, referee.

Underwear, underwear, so these are under your pants, what you wear, maybe you do, maybe

you don't, most people do, I think.

I've - am I wearing?

Yep, I'm wearing underwear.

You can say undies, right?

My undies.

It's kind of a cute little word, I don't really use it often, I usually say underwear, but

you can say undies if you like.

Next, representative or represent.

So, you have a noun and a verb, similar to rehab.

A representative, again, is a representative of a company, someone who acts on behalf of

a company or a person.

You can represent someone or something or a company, so you can say yeah, he's a customer

service rep, or he's a company rep, a company representative.

Or, if you have someone who works for, let's say, okay, we'll use EngVid as an example.

So, yeah yeah, he reps EngVid, represents EngVid, if you have one of the administrators

in the back, the deep, dark shadows of EngVid, right, who reps EngVid, okay?

So, a lot of words, we're not even done yet, guys, so if you're still with me and you're

not tired yet and you want more information, let's keep going.

Okay, so next, we have a second.

A short way to say a second is a sec.

So, give me a sec.

Or, give me a minute, give me a sec means wait, wait.

Be patient, give me a sec, give me a second.

So, one second.

Next, we have substitute and submarine.

Both of these can be shortened to sub.

Now, let's look at substitute first.

You can use it like a verb or a noun.

A substitute is a replacement, okay, so think about sports again, if a player is injured

in a soccer game, another player substitutes for that player or that player is the substitute,

noun, for the player who is injured.

So, he is a sub, and he subs for the injured player.

A submarine, this can be the underwater vehicle, is a submarine a vehicle?

I'll say yes.

Or the title of that Beatles song: We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine,

a yellow submarine.

It's also a delicious sandwich.

Subway is not a sponsor, but I do like Subway.

So, they have good subs, so a sub is a sandwich, a sub is a replacement, you can also use it

like a verb, to sub, you know, one thing for another.

Preparation and prepare, you have the noun form and you have the verb form.

Both can be replaced with the word prep.

So, I did a lot of prep for this video.

I prepped for this video.

So, you do prep or you prep, you prepare.

You can talk about food preparation or food prep.

There are tons of food prep videos online, for example.

Okay.

Veterinarian or veteran can both be shortened to vet.

A veterinarian is an animal doctor, so if your dog is sick, you need to take him to

the vet, or her, take her to the vet.

A veteran is someone with a lot of experience in a particular field.

It can be a veteran in a business, the more common, you know, terminology for veteran,

the more common understanding of veteran is a war veteran, so someone who has gone to

a war zone, acted in an official capacity, usually as a soldier, and has returned, you

know, to their country.

They are a veteran of war, a war vet.

So, you can take someone - sorry, take an animal to a vet, or you can pay your respects

to vets, you know, veterans of war.

Okay.

Next, university.

This one is not super common, I've only really used this like, when I'm typing an email or

something, like yeah, I finished uni, you can say uni, or ooh-ni, I pronounce it uni,

I finished uni in, you know, 2007, finished university in 2007.

You can use it, but in conversation, usually most people still use university.

If you're texting though, you can type uni, people will understand what you mean.

That it's university.

Saxophone, so the instrument, you can shorten it to sax.

Again, sorry for The Simpsons references, but "Lisa, stop blowing my sax, I mean, stop

blowing your sax!"

Season 6?

If I'm wrong, please tell me.

Okay?

So, saxophone, the instrument.

And next, vocabulary.

So, you can shorten the word vocabulary to vocab.

So, you know, you are hopefully increasing your vocab with this lesson.

Next, conversation - convo.

We had a good convo, that was an interesting convo, so this lesson is teaching you how

to improve your convo skills, your listening comprehension and your speaking skills.

So, hopefully your convos will be a lot more fluent after this.

Website, not siteweb, website, can be shortened to site.

So, right now, you're probably watching this on YouTube or www.engvid.com or if you're

in China, maybe you're watching this on Billy Billy, you are watching this on a site, on

a website, okay?

Next, picture or pic.

Cute pic, cool pic, nice pic, send me pics, I don't know, whatever, it's a short form

for picture.

And finally, wizard, or wiz.

So usually - blah blah, I can't talk today.

But I'm going to fix that now.

Usually, you can put, like, a noun before the word "wiz", if you want to say that somebody

is really good at something.

So, your kid can be a math wiz.

A video game wiz, okay, or a photography wiz, maybe they know a lot of photography tricks,

so someone who is highly proficient, highly skilled at a particular thing, you can say

is a wiz at that thing, right?

So, he's a computer wiz, a computer wizard, or maybe he's just Harry Potter.

He's a magic wiz.

I don't know.

It's alright.

Well, yeah.

Stick to math wiz, computer wiz, that kind of stuff.

Okay, that's it guys.

So, you have just learned 35 words that are shortened in conversation.

Hopefully this will help you and improve your listening, improve your speaking, improve

your ability to understand films and - what's the thing that's not a film?

TV shows!

And music and everything else, every other form of media that you are consuming and enjoying.

So, that's it.

If you want to test your understanding of this material, as always, you can check out

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