How to Describe Odd & Unusual Things in English

So there are things in life that are

normal, and there are things in life that

are not normal, like today's weather.

The weather today is not normal.

It is November 25th, and it

is 10 degrees Celsius out here.

In fact, if I was to choose an English word

to describe this weather, I would choose the word bizarre.

The weather is bizarre for this time of year.

Normally it's minus one and maybe snowing a

little bit, but definitely this weather is bizarre.

When you use the word bizarre to

describe something that's not normal, you're really

emphasizing that it's really not normal.

So anyways, welcome to this English lesson.

Let's go a few places and let's look at a few

more things that are not normal, and I'll teach you some

words and phrases you can use to describe them.

So sometimes in English, we simply use the word odd

to describe something that isn't how it normally is.

Now, it's pretty normal to have Christmas displays set

up in town, but what I find odd about

this Christmas display is how early it was set up.

For me, I think that Christmas displays

should be set up around December 1st.

I don't feel like they should be

here at the beginning of November.

To me, the timing is a little bit odd.

For me, a normal time to set up

a Christmas display would be December 1st.

That sounds like a good time.

Christmas is December 25th.

Let's wait until December 1st.

So maybe it's just me, maybe everyone else

in the world loves it, but for me,

setting up Christmas displays before December 1st seems

a little odd, a little bit not normal.

Sometimes in English, we just use the word unusual.

It's unusual to see people eating

ice cream cones in November

in Ontario, Canada. Normally we eat ice

cream in the warmer months in June,

July, August, and even in September.

But I thought I would get an ice cream cone today, even

though this is kind of unusual for this time of year.

So again, when you're talking about something that's not

normal in English, you can use the word unusual.

So sometimes in English, we put the word

odd and the word unusual together and we

say that something is odd and unusual.

These houses behind me are a

little bit odd and unusual.

In Ontario, Canada, we don't often paint

our houses with vibrant colors like this.

These are really, really cool.

And by the way, if you wanted to buy

one, I think this one is for sale.

So sometimes we say something is odd and unusual.

We put the two words together.

I'm going to show you a few more of these.

I think what I like the most about these odd and

unusual houses is how the colors are very, very vibrant.

I think I mentioned that already.

Even the fence in front of this house,

the house itself is a cool green.

This one behind me is yellow and purple mixed together.

So just very, very cool.

Kind of odd and unusual.

And it doesn't have to be a negative thing.

Some people really like odd and unusual things.

I think sometimes my English lessons are a little bit

odd and unusual, but you guys seem to like them.

So sometimes we put those two words together to

describe something and say it's odd and unusual.

Sometimes you see something and

you just think that's weird.

It's not what you expect to see.

You're like, oh, that's weird.

That's a little bit weird.

I'm going to show you something that

I think is a little bit weird.

If you look over here, there is a

spot where you can charge an electric vehicle.

But what's kind of weird is it's

in an alley, so you can...

I'm not even sure how you would

get your car into this little spot.

And then if you look over here, I don't even see

a place where you can plug in your electric vehicle.

Like normally there would be

some sort of charging station.

So whenever I see this, whenever I'm in this town

and I walk by this area and I see this

electric car charging area, I think that's weird.

So I came to the town of Grimsby,

Ontario today to make this English lesson and

there's a lot more traffic than I expected.

I think this is a bit out of the ordinary.

It's one o'clock in the afternoon on a Monday.

I didn't expect to see so

many cars driving down the road.

I think it's a little bit out of the ordinary.

In English, when we say something is out of

the ordinary, it's different than how it normally is.

I would think that normally this town is very quiet

on a Monday afternoon, that there is very little traffic.

But it seems to me like there's

almost a bit of a traffic jam.

If you look down the road,

there's this huge row of cars.

I know the cars aren't flying by really quickly, but

I think this is definitely out of the ordinary.

I think normally on a Monday afternoon it would be

very quiet and there would be very little traffic.

So behind me you can see our local hospital.

And I would say this doctors

and nurses work wacky hours.

When you use the word wacky in English,

you're describing something that is very abnormal.

Did I teach the word abnormal, yet?

Abnormal is the opposite of normal.

But doctors and nurses work wacky hours.

They work during the day, they work at night, they

work in the evening, they work early in the morning.

Most people have normal hours.

Most people work from eight to five or seven to four,

or if you have a long day, maybe seven to five.

But doctors and nurses definitely work wacky hours.

By the way, we're getting a new hospital.

They're slowly building a new hospital.

The old one is in front here and the new one is just...

I bet you they're about halfway done the new hospital.

It's pretty cool.

Then the doctors and nurses can

work wacky hours in that hospital.

Sometimes we just say something is strange.

If you look at this tree behind me, you can see

that it has all of its leaves on it still.

And that's a little bit strange for this time of year.

Normally at this point in the fall,

you don't see leaves on the trees.

Usually they're all on the ground. Now there's

a lot of leaves on the ground.

That's pretty normal.

But it certainly is strange that this

tree still has all its leaves.

It's also a bit strange that the lake doesn't

have a little bit of ice on it yet.

If we walk over here, we're by Lake Ontario.

It's a little bit strange.

Normally the lake isn't frozen over, but normally

at this time of year there's a little

bit of ice along the shore.

Just a tiny bit.

There's probably going to be people from this

area who say there's never ice on the

lake at this time in November.

But for me, on November 25th, I think it's strange

that there's not a little bit of ice there.

And it's definitely strange that that tree

has all its leaves on it still.

Well, hey, thank you for watching this English

lesson about things that are not normal or

how to describe things that are not normal.

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And I'll see you next week with another English lesson.

Bye.