Easy English Vocabulary: THING & STUFF

Hello, my name is Emma, and today we are going to learn about two very important words.

The words are "thing" and "stuff".

We use these words a lot in English conversation, so it's important to know how to use these

words.

Let's get started by talking about the word "thing".

So "thing" we use when there is something, but we don't know its name, so we don't know

what it's called.

Or maybe there is something, we can't remember the name.

Maybe we know the name, but we don't want to say the name.

So we can use "thing" to refer to objects, ideas, actions, events.

It is a term that can mean a lot of different things.

So I'll give some examples in a moment, but let's look at the grammar of the word "thing".

We can have one thing, we can have two things with an "s".

Why am I pointing this out?

Well, "thing" is countable.

We can count the number of things.

When we add an "s", it means there's more than one.

So let me show you an example of "thing".

I have here something, it's a thing.

I don't know what it is.

I can say, "What's this thing?" or "What's that thing?"

This thing is a little scary.

I think this thing is from Star Trek.

Oh, this thing is a bank.

I see there's a slot here to put money in.

Does anyone know what this thing is?

So that's how we can use the word "thing".

So let's look at some more examples.

I asked, "What's this thing?" because I don't know what it is.

I can also use the word "thing" to mean an event.

I need to go to a thing tonight.

I'm not saying the name of the event, I'm just saying, you know, there's this thing.

We can use the word "thing" to be vague and to not give detail.

That's another way to use this word.

Here's another example, "Things take time."

What things?

I don't know.

Things take time.

We're not being detailed in what we're saying.

We're not being specific.

We can also use "things" to mean your possessions, the things that are yours, your belongings.

We can say, "Where are my things?"

This means where are the objects that belong to me.

So let's now look at some other ways we can use the word "thing".

Do you think that's a good idea?

Alright.

"Things" can also be used in a lot of different ways in conversation.

We can say, "How are you?" with "things".

What do I mean?

Well, we can say, instead of "How are you?" we can say, "How are things?"

It's very common in conversation.

Let's practice.

"Hello.

How are things?"

Good.

"How are things with you?"

Good.

So this is one way to use this.

We can also use the word "thing" to give advice.

If you hear someone say "the best thing", you can prepare yourself for some advice because

people say "the best thing" when they give advice sometimes.

So for example, "The best thing to do is study hard.

Study English hard."

Okay, so there's an example.

"The best thing to do is to watch engVid videos."

"The best thing to do is to practice every day."

So we can use "the best thing" to give advice.

We can also use "the thing" when we're talking about a problem.

If you hear someone say "the thing is", it's usually a way to introduce a problem.

So for example, "Hello, mister, the thing is I can't come to your birthday party tonight."

So that's the problem.

Or "The thing is I lost your cell phone.

I'm very sorry."

So another example of a problem.

So problems are often introduced with "the thing is".

Finally, we can also use the word "poor thing" or, you know, "lucky thing".

We can use the word "thing" to talk about a person affectionately.

So for example, I might say to this thing, I might say, "You poor thing.

I'm so sorry you had a bad day.

Poor thing."

We can also use this when we're talking about animals, you know.

Maybe there's a cat outside who's hungry, and I'll say, "Oh, you poor thing.

Let me get you some cat food."

So "thing" can also refer to a person or an animal affectionately.

Now let's look at the word for "stuff" and the meaning of the word "stuff".

So we talked about things, let's now talk about "stuff".

"Stuff" is a very common English word.

We use it a lot in conversation.

We don't use it much in writing.

We often use it when we are talking.

It's very informal.

So it has the same meaning as "thing" or "things".

We use, like I said, "stuff" in conversation; it can mean a substance, a material, a group

of objects.

When we use the word "stuff", it means we don't know what it is, we don't remember the

name, or the name is not important.

So let's look at some examples.

My first example is, "What is the red stuff?"

So I don't know what it is.

I see something that's red, so I can say, "What is the red stuff?"

And so you'll notice that we're using "stuff" because we don't know.

We can say, "I have stuff to do"; today, I have some stuff to do.

Well, what do you mean by that?

I'm not being specific when I use the word "stuff", so I'm not saying specific things.

"Stuff" means I'm doing something, but I'm not saying what it is.

We can also use "stuff" when we're talking about our possessions.

It's the same way we use "my things", we can say, "my stuff", so, "Where's my stuff going?"

If I say, "Where's my stuff?"

it means where are my objects, the things that belong to me.

We can also use "the stuff", "Where's the stuff going?" if we're just talking about

a group of objects, or a group of something, we don't want to say the name.

We can also say, "There is good stuff in it."

Here's another example, "What's in the salad?"

That's some good stuff.

I'm not being specific, there's some good things in it, good stuff.

You'll notice that for each of these, there is never an "s" on the word "stuff".

So for "things", we can add an "s", for "stuff", it is uncountable.

This means we cannot say one stuff, two stuff, three stuff.

No, we don't use numbers with "stuff", it's uncountable, and it never has an "s".

So as you can see, "thing" and "stuff" are very important words.

We use them a lot in conversation, and they have very similar meanings.

So, if you want to practice these words, I recommend you check out our website at www.engvid.com.

There you can take a quiz to practice what you learned in this video.

I also recommend if you're looking for other English stuff, you can subscribe to my channel.

We have things on all sorts of different English topics, including conversational stuff, stuff

that has to do with writing, things that have to do with reading.

So I recommend you check out and subscribe to our channel.

Until next time, thank you for watching.

Take care.