ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS: 12 Confusing Words

Let's play a game. Let's play the game of

confusing adjectives, shall we? It'll be fun,

it'll be great. It's like a game show. Okay? So,

my name's Ronnie, I'm the host of the game show.

Let me get my microphone. Ah, ah, ah. Hello. Check, check, one, two.

We're coming to you live over the internet, and we're going to play the game of...

Which adjective do I choose in this sentence?

Because they're really confusing, and I don't

know, so let's do it. First one, the difference...

I don't need the mic. The difference between

"older" and "bigger". So, I hear people say "my

bigger brother" or "my bigger sister", and I'm

like, is your sister, like, physically a lot larger

than you are, or is your brother or sister older?

So, this is confusing in English, because in a

lot of different languages, you have one word

to describe someone who's not as young as you

are, but in English, it can get confusing. So,

when we talk about someone being older, it's

always about age. And when we talk about something

being bigger, it's a size. So, if I say my brother

is taller than me, and I want to tell you that

I'm not as old as he is, I would say "my brother

is older than me". We don't want to say "bigger",

because usually we don't talk about the size.

Maybe we can, but it's kind of unusual. It's the

same with "younger" and "smaller". So, I have

an older brother and a younger brother. It gets

confusing because you hear people say "I have a

big brother". Okay, that's okay, but not "bigger".

So, if you say "my big brother", it's kind of

childish, but that's okay. We don't say "my

small sister". Yeah, my big brother, my small

sister. So, again, when we talk about someone

being younger, it's their age, and again, smaller

is always size. You're not going to go to McDonald's

and get a younger fries. You're going to want

smaller fries. Okay? Or small fries, not smaller.

So, my sister is probably younger than you. She

can be smaller, but that's not what we're talking

about right now. This one hurts my brain sometimes,

and if it hurts my brain, can't imagine what it's

doing to yours out there. So, the difference between

"high" and "tall". So, you can go someplace and go

"Wow, building. Yep. Mm-hmm. Up there. Yeah. Uh-huh.

Uh-huh." Is it a high building or is it a tall building?

Shit. What's the difference? I've researched

this. So, "high" is the distance above the ground.

So, if you measure something, you go, like... How

high is it? Okay? These are things like shelves.

A shelf is a thing on a wall where you put some

books on, or bongs, whatever you're putting on

your shelves. So, if we... Let's say that this is our

house. This is the ceiling, and this is the floor.

Okay? How high something is means how far above

the ground it is. So the shelves are high.

Walls can be very high. "Oh, look it. We've got

very high walls or high ceilings." And ladies...

And men. Sorry to exclude you there for a second.

You can also have high heels, which are shoes.

I'm not really good at drawing shoes, but I'll

try. I'm actually not going to draw anything,

let alone shoes. Oh, I can... I can rock a high heel, here, too. There you go. Yeah.

So, this is the heel of the shoe. So, if you

have high heels, we don't say they're tall,

we say they're high because you're physically above the ground.

"Oh, I'm such a bad person, aren't I?" I'm trying to confuse you. Humans,

most of the time when we're talking about this

thing, how... "Hi, there." We say that they're

tall. But humans can be high, it's slang, and it means that they've taken some drugs.

Okay? So, very bad. You'll hear music. "She's

so high." You're like, "Oh, is she tall?" No.

She's on drugs, people. I'm not on drugs.

So, when we talk about something that's tall,

we talk about the height, above average height.

So, we can say, "Oh, look, he is tall." That means

his height is tall. When we ask people, we say,

"How tall are you?" We don't say, "How high are

you?" But you can. So, average height, we talk

about people. People can be tall. Like, "Wow,

that guy's super tall. He's, like, 6'7", man. Or,

like, 187 centimeters. I don't know centimeters.

Skyscrapers, those are the super tall, not high

buildings. And towers. Don't say those towers

that got ripped down. The CN Tower, yes, is a very

tall building in Canada. Here's a little quiz for

you. She is... Oh, is she high or is she tall?

You choose. What do you want? What do you want

to write down? "Please write down tall, Ronnie." Okay,

she is tall. So, if someone is tall, it means, again,

they're above average height. If they're kind of,

like, stoned, then you would say they're high.

People are exceptions for everything. This is one that gets really, really confused

by a lot of people. "Famous" and "popular".

"Famous" means people know who you are. People

know your name. "Popular" means people actually

like you. So, for example, at my high school,

we had the popular kids. When I leave the high

school, nobody knows who these people are. They're

not famous, but in my small circle of friends,

they were popular. Let's take an example. "Ronnie

is both famous and popular." Yes, thanks, guys.

But let's take another example. "You, too, the band

is..." Yeah, they're famous, aren't they? A lot

of people know who they are. Do you know who

U2 is? So we would say, "U2 is popular." No.

We say, "U2 is famous." Yeah. Are they famous?

Are they popular? This confuses me, too. Okay?

It's not just you. "Last". "Last" is the opposite

of "first", so it's a sequence. "Latest" is talking

about time. The opposite of this is "earliest".

So, even when I was doing this, I was like, "Oh

my god, which one?" "What is the ___ you can work

until today?" So, when we talk about work, we

usually talk about time. Right? So we would say,

"What is the latest time you can work till

today?" We wouldn't say, "What is the last time

you can work till..." That's weird. No, that's

wrong. The last... It would be, like, "The last

time I worked", we're talking about the past tense. And this one I hear a lot, too.

Okay. If you've lost something... Oh, shit, shit,

shit. It means you can't find it. Okay? But if

you missed something, it's because of time. So,

I hear a lot of people say, "Oh, teacher, so I am

late for class. I lost my bus." Well, you can't

find your bus? Dude, everyone's... I see your bus

right there. What you want to say, actually, is...

Yeah. Because if it's a timing thing, I missed

the bus. I missed you. So, if it has to do with

time, I missed the movie because I was late.

I missed the class because I was high. So, this has to do with being late.

Adjectives, they're a little confusing. They

confuse me. I hope this kind of makes it easier

for you, and I hope that your big brother, and

your older brother, and your younger sister

are doing well. Tell them I say hi. Okay. Bye.