Learn English Vocabulary: Thieves, Robbers, Stealing, Breaking Into...

Hello, my name is Emma, and today we are going

to talk about vocabulary, specifically about

thieves and robbers.

So there are many words we use when we're

talking about people stealing, and I noticed

many learners of English make lots of mistakes with these words.

So today I wanted to go through some of these

common words and some of the common mistakes

I hear.

So I have here just some examples of the

person, the verb, and the item or the place.

This is what we're going to be talking about today.

So before I tell you the correct words, I

want you to just look at each of these words.

Some of them are real English words we use, and some of them are mistakes.

I also want you to think about when would you use which word.

So I have the word "burglar", "thief"

spelled "e-i-f", "thief" spelled "t-h-i-e-f".

We have "robber", "stealer", "thieves".

So some of these words are incorrect.

You'll find out which ones are wrong soon, but can you guess which words do you think

are not correct?

Okay, here we have some verbs.

"Burgled", "steal", "stolen", "rob", "break-in", "stoled".

Again, some of these words are correct and some of them are wrong.

So today we will look at the different tenses

for some of the verbs we use when we're talking

about people stealing or taking things that aren't theirs.

So we'll look at the verbs in the present

form, the past tense, and the past participle.

Okay, and then we just have some things that

people might steal or places they might break

into.

So, I'll also talk about which verbs go with

objects, which verbs go with people, and which

verbs go with places.

This is why many learners make mistakes,

because different words have different rules.

So let's look at the words that have to do with stealing.

Alright, so let's talk about the people.

"Who", so what we're talking about is a person

or people who take something that is not theirs.

So I'll give some examples.

So this is true, when I was a kid, I went

house-to-house or trick-or-treating on Halloween

and people gave me candy.

Unfortunately, a thief came and took my candy from me.

It was very sad, I cried, but someone took

my Halloween candy from me when I was a kid.

It was a thief.

Another situation that is happening in my city, Toronto, unfortunately, is right now

many people are having their cars taken.

So a thief or thieves come and steal their cars.

So this is a big problem in my city right now.

So what do we call these people who do this kind of crime?

Well, there's many different words.

Let's look at some of the most common.

If it's one person, we call them a thief.

Now I know this word will be difficult for many people to pronounce because it has a

"th", it has an "e" sound, and it also has the "f" sound.

So when you're practicing this word, it's good to practice in front of a mirror and

really pay attention to what your lips are doing, your tongue is doing, and your teeth

are doing.

So when I pronounce this word, my tongue comes

out of my mouth like this and it touches my

top teeth.

And so I would say "thief", "thief", okay?

So a thief is somebody who steals, who takes

candy from children, or maybe they steal money

from somebody, or they steal cars.

So we can call this person a thief, and it's a very common word.

You see it in the newspapers or in movies all the time.

So when there are more than one, so maybe

there's two, three, four, five, when we have

multiple people, we call them, and again, this is a hard word, I know, so we have our

"th" here, we have a "v" now, the "f" changes

to a "v", and we have an "s" or an "es".

So the pronunciation of this word is "thieves", "thieves".

So thieves are stealing cars in Toronto right now.

Thieves are breaking into people's houses and stealing money.

So I also wanted to show what is not correct English.

I hear many learners say the word "stealer".

So "steal" is a verb, it exists, but we do not use the word "stealer".

So this is incorrect.

Another mistake many students make is they spell the word "thief" incorrectly.

Notice it's "i-e", many learners or even native

speakers of English will make a mistake and

they'll spell it "t-h-e-i-f".

So this is incorrect, it's "i" before "e" in this case.

Now for some of you, it might be hard to pronounce

the word "thief", so another word you could

just use is "criminal".

A "criminal" is a person who breaks the law and does something bad.

They commit a crime.

So "criminal", there are many different criminals.

A "thief" is one type of criminal, a "killer"

or a "murderer" is another type of criminal.

So "criminal" just means somebody who does not follow the law.

So, if you don't want to use the word "thief",

you could also use the word "criminal" here.

It's not as specific, but it's possible, so I could say, "A criminal took my Halloween

candy."

Or, "In Toronto, criminals are stealing cars."

So, let's look at some other words we can

use when we're talking about people stealing.

Alright, so we talked about "thief", "thieves", and "criminals".

Another word that is useful for these situations is "robber".

And just remember, in English, a lot of the time when you see "er", it often is about

a person.

So, a "robber" is a person who robs, and we'll

talk a little bit about the word "rob" when

we talk about verbs, but pretty much, in

general, robbers are people who go into houses

or banks or stores, and they take and steal things that are not theirs.

So, we often use "robber" when we're talking

about crime that happens in a person's house,

or at the bank, or in a place.

So, when somebody steals from a place, we often use the word "robber".

We also have the word "burglar".

This one I actually have trouble pronouncing

sometimes because you have an "r", a "g",

an "l", and an "r", so it actually...

I don't like to use this word personally because

I feel tired in my mouth when I'm trying to

pronounce this word.

"Burglar".

So, a "burglar" is a person like a robber.

It's a thief who enters a house or a store or a bank or a museum, and they take things

that are not theirs, so they steal things.

And then I also have here another word, "a pickpocket".

A "pickpocket" is somebody who steals from a

person's purse or wallet, so if you're ever

walking on the street and somebody comes behind you

and takes from your purse, that's a "pickpocket".

You can also use the word "thief" in all of

these situations, so "thief" is probably the

most useful of the terms because you can use it in many different contexts.

"Pickpocket" is more specific; it's a person

who secretly takes your things while you're

on the bus or on the street.

All right, so we've talked about the "who", the "thief", the "robber", the "burglar".

Let's now talk about the "what".

What did they do?

We're going to look at some common verbs we

use to talk about when people steal, and some

of the common mistakes I see.

So I have here the word "the thief", we have

the present tense, "steal" or "steals", we're

using an "s" because we're talking about a third person, the "thief".

So, if I talked about "I" or "you", we would

just say, "I steal", "you steal", "he steals",

"she steals", "they steal", and "we steal".

So that's in the present tense, and hopefully

none of us steal, but that's how you would

say it.

So, my example for the present is "The thief steals cars."

So that's happening right now.

What about if I want to talk about the past?

Well, the past tense of "steal" is an irregular verb.

Many learners can't remember this, so that's okay.

I want you to try to remember this word, "stole", "stole" is the past of "steal".

So, "The thief stole the car yesterday.",

"The thief stole my purse last year.", "When

I was a child, the thief stole my candy.", "stole".

And then, if we're talking about past participles

or the third form of the verb, it's "stolen".

So, for example, if I'm using the present

perfect or the past perfect, I could say "The

thief has stolen a car before.", "The thief had stolen a car."

So if you're using "have" or "has" or "had" in front of this, you could use "stolen".

Here's some examples of this, for example, "My candy has been stolen."

So, this is a passive sentence, but again, we're using the past participle, "stolen".

"Her car has been stolen before."

So, again, "steal", present; "stole", past;

"stolen" is the third form or the past participle

of the verb "to steal".

Alright, so I'm going to show you two sentences

now, and I want you to tell me if you think

they're correct or not.

The first sentence, "The thief steals the man."

And the second sentence, "The thief steals the house."

So, the answer is a little complicated.

Grammatically, these sentences are correct, but I think in terms of meaning, they don't

have the meaning students are trying to express.

What you really want to say is if you're talking about a thief taking something from

you, you would use the word "from".

So, "The thief steals from the man."

Or you would talk about an item specifically, "The thief steals the purse.

The thief steals the money.

The thief steals the computer."

So, we usually use "steal" with an item or an object in general, but if you do use it

with a person and you're talking about, okay,

remember I told you when I was a child I had

a bunch of candy and somebody stole my candy?

I would say, "The thief stole from me.

The thief stole from me."

So, in general, when we're talking about people, we would add "from" here.

In terms of the next example, "The thief steals the house."

If the thief steals the house, it means they take the whole house.

So, most learners don't mean this.

What they want to say is that the thief broke

into the house, or the thief entered the house

and stole things.

So, we don't usually use "steal" with "house".

We would use instead an object, "The thief stole money from the house."

Or "The thief stole the TV from the house."

So, again, "steal" is used with objects or items that - more often, it's not common to

use it with people or places.

Alright, so let's look at another common verb

that people use when they talk about stealing.

So, people often will use the word "rob".

So, for example, I could say, if I'm talking

about right now, in the present tense, "The

thief robs people."

When someone robs people, it means that they are stealing from people.

You can also rob a place.

So, you can rob a person, means you take something

from a person, or you can rob a place, which

means you take something from a place, like a bank.

So, you can rob a bank, you can rob a

store, you can rob a celebrity, for example.

So, those are all examples of using the word "rob".

So, here it is in the present tense.

So, if we were using "I", "I rob", "You rob",

"He robs" with an "s", "She robs", "We rob",

and "They rob".

If we're talking about the past, so, like,

"yesterday" or "last year", we just add "ed",

and we add another "b", so "bed", "robbed", and we don't say "rob-ed", we say "robbed"

with a "d" sound at the end, "robbed".

"Yesterday, someone robbed the bank.", "The thief robbed the bank yesterday."

And then if we want to do the third form of the verb, we can say "has robbed" or "have

robbed".

"The thief has robbed me.", "The thief has robbed the president", for example.

So, again, when you're using "rob", we use it to talk about a place where things were

stolen from, like a bank or a store or a person's

house, or we use it when we're talking about

a person that had something taken from them.

So, you can have...

After the word "rob", you usually have a person,

like people, him, her, Susie, Kim Kardashian.

Kim Kardashian's actually a good example because

she was robbed, so we could say "The thief

robbed Kim Kardashian", so that's a good

example of how "rob" is followed by a person.

Or, a place, "The thief robbed the hotel room", for example.

Alright, so let's look at another verb that's

very common when we're talking about stealing

or thieves, and that word is "break into" or "break in".

When someone breaks into something, it means

they illegally enter a building or a property

or a house that is not theirs, and usually

it's because they're going to steal something,

although not always; sometimes somebody might break in and steal nothing.

Someone, a couple weeks ago, unfortunately, they broke into my car.

There was nothing in my car to steal except

some CDs, but because it's 2023, nobody wants

CDs, so they left the CDs and they stole

nothing, so we could say they broke into my car.

So, here are some examples of "break into".

The thief breaks into the house, and this is in the present tense.

If we're talking about the past, we can say "broke into", so last year, the thief broke

into the shop.

And then if we want to use the third form of the verb, we can say "has broken into".

So, for example, unfortunately, the thief has broken into my car before.

And so, again, similar to what I said about Rob, when we use "break in", we're using it

specifically for a place, so you're breaking into a place.

So, we covered a lot of different words.

These are the most common you will use.

There are other words, like "mugger" or many

other words we use to talk about thieves,

but today I wanted to just focus on the most

common words you will see or use in English.

So, thank you so much for watching.

I recommend you visit our website at www.engvid.com.

There you can actually take a quiz and practice

what you learned today to make sure that you

understand these definitions and how to use these words.

You can also check out my YouTube channel.

I have many videos on vocabulary, study skills, English grammar, and so much more.

So thanks so much for watching, and until next time, take care.