The Many Meanings of "LOAD" in English

Hi there. My name is Emma,

and in today's lesson I'm going to teach you 10 different expressions

with the word "load". Some of these expressions are going to be slang expressions,

some of them are going to be verbs, nouns, adjectives;

and they all have very, very different meanings.

So with the word "load", you might see it a lot. It has a lot of different

possible meanings, so you're going to learn 10 today.

I'm also going to teach you two different strategies you should use when you see a word

you don't know. Okay? So, in this case, we have the word "load" in many different ways.

I'm going to teach you two strategies you should use whenever you see a word you don't

know or recognize. Okay? So let's talk about the strategies first, and then I'm going to

teach you about the different ways we use the word "load".

Okay, so when you come across a word you don't know, the first thing you should do is you

should try to figure out how much information you can get from it.

You can try to figure out if it's a noun, which is a person, a place, or a thing.

Is it a verb? Is it an action?

Is it an adjective? Which means: Does it describe something?

Or is it an adverb? Does it describe a verb? Okay?

So it's good to know these words, and to try to figure out if a word is

a noun, a verb, an adverb, or an adjective. Okay?

Another thing you should do when you come across a new word is you should try to guess

what it means based on the words around it. Okay? We call this "context".

So, you should look at the sentence, look at the words in the sentence, and look at some of the words

in the other sentence, and try to guess what the word means before you look in the dictionary

or before you ask your teacher. Remember: The more effort and the more work you do for

a word, the more likely you will remember it. Okay? So you want to work hard to remember

these words. You want to guess what they mean before you actually find out what they mean.

So let's get started with the word "load". Okay, so I have here the first example we're

going to do, and that is the word "loaded" with "ed".

I have an example sentence.

"Bill Gates is loaded. He has so much money."

All right? So I want you to take a moment and

think: Is this a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb?

So here it is in the sentence.

This is... What is this?

Well, it ends in "ed", okay? So that means it's probably going

to either be a verb or an adjective, because both of these often end in "ed".

But because it's followed by "is": "Bill Gates is loaded", it sounds like "loaded" is describing Bill Gates.

So it's an adjective. Okay? So in this case, "loaded" is an adjective. It's describing

Bill Gates. "Bill Gates is loaded." That's a description of Bill Gates. Okay, so we've

done the first one. What about the second one? What do you think "loaded" means? Okay?

So look at all the words in the sentence. What do you know about Bill Gates?

"Bill Gates is loaded. He has so much money."

If you focus on "much money" and "Bill Gates", you know

Bill Gates is rich; he has a lot of money. "Loaded" means rich. So we can guess that

it means rich, based on the words around it. So, I'm going to write that here.

The first meaning of the word "loaded" is rich. I have a friend, she's loaded. She lives in a mansion.

Okay? Prince William is loaded. You know, he's a prince, he's going to have a lot of

money. I wish I was loaded. Unfortunately, I'm not, but it would be so great to be loaded.

So, in this case, "loaded" means rich.

Okay, so we have the word again, "loaded". This is another different meaning of the word.

Okay, so I want you to look at the example.

"She's loaded. She had 10 beers."

Okay. "She's loaded. She had 10 beers."

So first, let's ask ourselves: Is it a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb?

Okay? So we look here: "She is loaded." Well, again, it ends in "ed", so

this is a clue. Usually verbs or adjectives end in "ed". In this case, we can guess that

it's an adjective, because it's after "is" and so it's describing the woman. She is loaded.

She is happy. She is sad. So, "loaded" is an adjective, just like "happy" or "sad".

"She's loaded. She had 10 beers." So let's try to guess. What do you think this means?

Okay? So you know she's loaded. You know it has to do with beer, and it has to do with 10.

10 beers. Is that a lot of beer or a little? If you drink 10 beers, 10 bottles of beer,

what would happen? Well, if you said you'd probably be very drunk, you're right.

In this case, "loaded" means very drunk. Okay? If you have 10 shots of tequila, what are you?

You're probably loaded. If you spend the whole night at the bar, drinking, doing shots with

your friends, you are probably loaded. You are drunk. You are loaded. Okay? So this is

the second meaning of the word "loaded". Both of these-it's very important to know-are slang

expressions. So you would never use this language in an essay; you would use it in a conversation

with your friends. Okay? So now let's look at some other examples of words... Or other

examples of "load" and "loaded" and their meanings.

Okay, so our next expression-I really like this one actually-is: "a load of crap" or

"a load of rubbish". So one of these is more American English, "a load of crap", whereas

the other one, "a load of rubbish" is more British English. Okay? So "a load of crap",

American; "a load of rubbish", more British. Okay, so let's look at our sentence and try

to figure out if this is a noun, an adverb, an adjective, or a verb. Okay?

My sentence is:

"Mark said Michael Jackson lives in his basement. What a load of crap/rubbish!" Okay?

So if we just look at "load of crap",

do you think...? What do you think it is? A noun, adjective, adverb, verb?

Well, if you look at what comes before "load",

it's "a load".

Any time we see an article, we know that the word afterwards

is going to be a noun. So:

"What a load of crap", we could also say: "It is a load of crap". "Load" is a noun in

this case. Okay, so let's try to guess what the meaning is.

"Mark said Michael Jackson lives in his basement."

And I actually knew a guy in high school who said this, and he

was being serious. He said: -"Michael Jackson lives in his basement." -"What a load of crap",

I said. So, do you think I believed Mark, or do you think I don't believe him?

Okay, if I say: "What a load of crap", it means

I think Mark is lying. Mark is not being honest.

Mark is being stupid. He's wrong. Okay? So that means I don't believe or I don't agree.

Okay? You know, if somebody says: "Global warming isn't happening. It's not true."

I think it's true, so I would say: "What a load of crap. It's true." Okay? It means I don't

agree. I don't believe it. I think it's true. So, in terms of this,

"load of crap/load of rubbish", do you think it's formal or informal?

Would we use this expression, you know, on

an essay at university, or would we use it with our friends? This expression we would

not use at university on an essay; it's for using with your friends. Okay? So it's informal,

it's slang. But it's really common. Okay? So if you don't agree with somebody or if

you think they're lying, you can say: "What a load of crap!" Or: "What a load of rubbish!"

if you're in England.

Okay, the next expression: "a shitload". Okay? "A shitload".

"I have a shitload of homework. Too bad!"

I have a shitload of homework. I'm not happy about that. So, "shitload", do you

think "shitload" is a noun, a verb, an adverb, or an adjective?

Okay, well if we look at what we noticed here with "a", we see "a" down here also.

And remember what I said?

After "a" comes a noun. A noun is a person, a place, or a thing. "A shitload" is a thing.

So: "I have a shitload of homework." Okay, so we know it's a noun. What do you think

it means? Just looking: Do you think a shitload of homework is a good thing or a bad thing?

Okay, for you it would probably be a bad thing; a lot of students don't like homework. So

if you have a shitload of something, it means you have a lot of something.

So this means,

in this case, "a shitload of homework" means a lot of homework. Okay? There is a shitload

of things you must learn if you're learning English. This means there's a lot you must

learn. So, "shitload" means a lot. Now, here's one difference: Do you think you could use

"shitload" with your teachers, or you know, on a university essay, or with your boss?

Probably not. "Shitload" is slang, it's something we would use with our friends. Okay? So "shitload"...

A shitload of these expressions you're going to see are slang.

Okay, so the next expression: "loads of".

"I have loads of food at my place. Come over!"

Okay? "I have loads of food at my place. Come over!"

Do you think "loads" is a verb, an adverb, an adjective, or a noun?

Let's take a moment.

"I have loads of".

Well, in this case, we have the word "have" here. Usually you have something, so that usually indicates

a noun. So "loads" is a noun.

"I have loads of food at my place. Come over!"

Okay, so what do you think it means, "loads of"? Do you think I have a lot of food or a little food?

If I invite you to come over, it probably means I have a lot of food at my house, because

I wouldn't invite somebody if there's no food. So "loads of food" means a lot of food. So,

again, "loads of" actually is the same as "shitload". It means a lot of. Now, "shitload"

is a little bit... It's not polite. It's used a lot, but it's not polite. "Loads of" is

something you can use with your Grandma, with kids. Okay? It's informal, but it's polite;

whereas "shitload", you really just want to use it with your friends or in informal situations.

Okay, so now let's look at a couple more expressions that have the word "load" in them.

Okay, so our next word... We have two: "freeload" or "free loader". Okay? So the difference

here is with the "er". Okay. So let's look at our sentence to try to figure out if it's

a noun and whatnot, and also the meaning.

"He freeloads. He never buys the beer, but drinks our beer. He drinks our beer.

He is a freeloader." Okay? So let's look up here first.

"He freeloads." Do you think this is a verb, an adjective, a noun, or an adverb?

"He freeloads." Well, considering we just have a subject here and there's nothing after,

we can guess that it's a verb. Okay? So "freeload" can be a verb.

"He never buys the beer, but drinks ours. He is a freeloader."

Okay? So the word "freeloader", do you think it's an

adjective, noun, adverb, verb?

In this case, again, we have the word "a" before it, and

we also have "er". These are clues that it's a noun. Okay? So nouns have "a" before them

often, as well as... Whenever you see "er", a lot of the times it's going to be a noun.

Not always, but a lot of the times. So, for example: teacher, officer, leader. Okay?

What do those three words have in common? They're all people. Many times when you see "er",

it means it's a person. So, a freeloader is a person. Okay? It's a person who freeloads.

All right? So, let's guess the meaning now.

"He freeloads. He never buys the beer, but he drinks our beer. He is a freeloader."

I want you to take a moment and guess what it means. Okay?

So what do you think it means? Do you think that a freeloader shares with people?

No. A freeloader likes to not spend money. A freeloader likes to keep their money

or they don't have money. They like to use other people's things so they don't have to

buy them. Okay? So, for example, I know somebody who whenever, you know, we go to a restaurant,

they don't usually have their wallet and they say:

"Oh, can you buy my dinner for me? I forgot my wallet."

That person's a freeloader, because they don't put money in; what they

do is they use other people, and they want other people to pay for their things. Or imagine this:

Imagine somebody comes to stay at my apartment, but they never pay me money. They

sleep on my couch for like a year, they never pay me money. That person is a freeloader

because they're not using their money, they're not sharing their money. Instead, they're

using me, and my money, and my resources. Okay? So if you freeload, it means you don't

spend money; other people have to spend money for you. Okay? Okay, so let's write that down.

So it's almost like take advantage of someone,

and not spend your money;

you spend other people's.

Okay. So you spend other people's money or resources; not your own.

Okay, and again, "freeloader" is the person who does this; whereas "freeload" is the verb.

So we could say:

"A freeloader freeloads." That's a possible sentence.

All right, let's look at the next expression.

"A load off my chest" or "a load of my mind".

So this is an expression.

"The project is done. It's a load off my mind."

So in this case, "load", do you think it's a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb?

If you guessed a noun, you're correct. We know that because of the word "a":

"a load off my mind".

So what does this mean? I want you to take a moment and take a guess.

"The project is finished."

If you finished a project, would you feel stressed or no stress?

You'd probably feel very happy.

You probably would feel that there was stress, but now you're finished there's no stress.

So: "The project is done. It's a load off my mind." It means I had a problem, but now

the problem is gone. I feel relief. Okay?

It's a load off my mind, it's a load off my chest. They have the same meaning, and they mean

I'm not worried now, I feel great, I'm relieved. Okay?

So the meaning is: "I'm relieved."

Imagine you have an English test, you're really nervous, really stressed,

and then you finish the test, you're going to say:

"That's a load off my mind." It means: "I'm not stressed now. I finished my test. Whew. I feel relief."

Okay?

Okay, the next sentence, "loaded":

"The gun is loaded. I loaded the gun."

Okay, so I want you to take a moment, are these nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs? What are they?

Well, in this case: "The gun is loaded."

It's probably an adjective; it's describing a verb. Or it

could also be passive tense, but we won't get into that. We also have:

"I loaded the gun." This one

is a verb. Okay? We know that because it comes after the subject, and it's

the action of the sentence. So what do you think it means to load a gun?

What can you do with a gun? There's only a couple of things. You can shoot a gun, but before you shoot

the gun, you need to put the bullet in the gun. So when you load a gun, it means you

put a bullet in a gun. Okay? So, in some countries, people carry around loaded guns. This means

their gun has a bullet in it. Okay? So a loaded gun has a bullet. All right, so let's look

at a couple final expressions-okay?-in a moment.

Okay, so our last expression of the day is, again, "load",

but in this case we're using it with the word "truck".

"I loaded the truck. It's full."

So in this case, do you think this is a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb?

If you said verb, you're correct. Okay?

It's an action. I load the truck. So what does this mean? So take a moment, make a guess.

Okay? Take a guess.

If you load a truck and it becomes full, it means you're putting something

into the truck. Okay? We can load a truck, we can load cars, we can load airplanes. It

means we're taking things like boxes or, you know, any types of things, and we're filling

a truck, a car, a bus with these things. Okay?

So it means to put something into a vehicle.

Okay? And "vehicle" means truck, bus, plane, car. Okay? Those are all vehicles.

So you're putting something, it can be anything, into a vehicle. You're loading it. Okay? You're

filling it up with things, that means "to load".

So, I invite you to come check out our website at www.engvid.com.

There you can take our quiz and practice these words to make sure you understand them,

and you can also see more examples of them used in sentences.

I also invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

There, you will find all sorts of videos on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, listening, and many other topics.

So, thank you for watching, and until next time, take care.