Let's Learn English! Topic: Describing Things You Buy! ⛽⌚💎 (Lesson Only)

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about describing

things you buy. You can't really go through life without

buying things. So there's probably things that you've

bought that you already own. Or things that you want to buy or

are going to buy. And it's nice to be able to describe those

things. There's a variety of words in English that we use to

describe the things we buy. Um sometimes used to express what

we think about it. Before we buy it the reason we want to

buy it or to describe it after we bought it. Some of these

words will be very positive. Some will be a little bit

negative. But once again welcome to this English lesson

where we're going to learn to describe the things that we've

bought or the things that we're going to buy. Premium. So when

I buy gas I buy regular gas. So if you look here there are

three different types of gas. There's regular and there's and

there's premium. Premium is a word we use to describe

something that we buy that's of very high quality. If you buy

cheese you can buy buy premium cheese. It's the best cheese.

Maybe it's been aged for three years instead of one year. When

you buy gas in Canada you can buy premium. There's other

words too. When you buy gas you can buy plus and super and

super plus. We have a lot of different words. Um Bob

generally buys regular because he just drives normal vans. I

don't drive a sports car. Um and by the way the prices there

are not the Canadian prices. Unless you put a one in front.

Like a dollar fifty-four a litre would be right. I think

this might be American pricing. I'm not sure. But premium. A

way to describe something that is very high quality. Which is

the next word. When you buy something that's high quality

it's made really well. They view Used the best materials

when they've made it. And they've really made sure when

they make it that they take their time and do it properly.

If you've ever bought in a high quality belt it lasts for

years. When you buy a high quality belt the buckle on the

belt is very very well made. When you buy a high quality

belt they use the best materials. The best leather or

any other material that they're using. So high quality means

the best material and they were very careful and worked

cautiously no not cautiously. They worked carefully and with

a lot of care when they put it together. Which is the opposite

of low quality. I'm sure you've bought something before that's

low quality. If you buy low quality jewelry sometimes it

breaks really easily. Sometimes the clasp on the necklace will

stop working. The clasp is where it connects together on

the back. If you buy a low quality belt sometimes the

buckle breaks or maybe some of the thread starts to come out.

So high quality well made good materials. Low quality. Just

not made well at all and very low quality materials as well.

We also use the phrase well made. In Canada it's well known

that Japanese cars are well made. A lot of the cars in

Canada that are imports. The cars that come from other

countries are very well made. American cars are well made as

well. But there was a time when people really like to buy Honda

cars in particular they still do by the way. Or Toyota cars

because they're very well made. At the factory the people who

are building the car have very high standards. They always do

a good job when they're building the car. And so when

the car is finished it's considered to be well made.

When people buy a car like that it lasts a very long time and

doesn't need to be fixed very often. So a well made car is

just put together with care. When the people are building it

at the factory they do a really good job and they always use

parts when they build a car that are well as well. Poorly

made. So I apologize to anyone who is from America. This is an

American car. This is a poorly made car or was known to be

poorly made. It had some design flaws. One of the problems with

this car is that it very easily if it got in an accident bad

things could happen. It wasn't very well made. So we would say

it was poorly made. I believe this is a pinto but I'm not

100% sure. So a poorly made car the design itself is bad.

Perhaps the way it was put together is bad and the

materials that were used were bad as well. Poorly made. And

then sometimes we just in English say something is junk.

So junk is usually used to refer to things you don't want

anymore. Um so you throw so trash garbage junk. We use

those words somewhat interchangeably. But we also

some Sometimes we'll just say oh I bought a new purse and the

strap is already getting frayed. You see how it's

getting frayed. Someone might say ah it's just junk or they

might say it's a piece of junk. So it's another way to describe

something that's poorly made. You might just call it junk. Or

you might call it a piece of junk. I in the past have bought

many things where I'm like ah this bike is just junk. Or I

did have a belt once that was just junk. A piece of junk.

Work of art. So art is something beautiful that people

make. A painting or a sculpture. A work of art can be

a painting or sculpture as well. But sometimes you will

want to buy something like an iMac. Uh which is just so well

designed. And looks so nice that you would say it's a work

of art. Have you seen the new iMac? Oh it's a work of art. It

means that you like the way it's designed. You like the

curves and the edges and how it looks and the metal and plastic

that they use to build it. So if you ever buy something

that's just beautiful as well as functional you would maybe

describe it as a work of art. Flawless. So flawless is often

used to describe something like a pearl or a diamond but it can

be used to describe many things. It means that it has no

flaws. So there's no imperfections. So a flawless

pearl. There's no like it's perfect round. It doesn't have

any marks on it. There's no small holes. It's not

misshapen. It's a perfect sphere. So you would say it's

flawless. I used a lot of words there. You might have to rewind

and listen to that part again. But when something is flawless

it means there's no mistakes. There's no flaws. Um there's no

blemishes. There's another word for you. And often used to

describe something like you know if a diamond is cut

perfectly. It's a flawless diamond. Or if you buy a

perfectly spherical pearl. You might say that it is flawless.

And then we have handcrafted. So handcrafted is used to refer

to anything that is made by hand that is made with

someone's hands instead of a machine. So when something is

handcrafted someone took the time to make it with their

hands. Jen sells bouquets and we call them handcrafted

bouquets. She puts them together one stem at a time.

She doesn't put all the flowers in a machine and a bouquet

comes out the other end. Every bouquet is handcrafted. So it

also communicates to someone that each one is unique. A

machine makes perfect copies when it makes something. But

when something is handcrafted each item the person makes

usually is a little different than the one before. So it's

handcrafted. Perfect. So perfect is used to describe

again something that has no flaws. Or even that looks

beautiful. Often a bride will describe their wedding dress by

saying it's perfect. Or someone will say did see her dress it

was perfect. So it just means something that's really well

made. Something that was made with great care. Um something

that's good for the situation as well. So if I bought a bike

because I was going on a long bike ride someone could say how

was the bike? And I could say oh it was perfect. It was

exactly the right bike for the trip that I went on. So when

something's perfect it's just awesome in every way. So

there's three words I'm going to teach together here,

inferior, superior and extraordinary. And I'm going to

use my the three kinds of ice cream we buy. You'll notice

there's French on some of these. Because in Canada

sometimes both languages or both languages are always on

everything. But when I buy this brand of ice cream hopefully

the company that makes it doesn't doesn't watch this

video. I feel like it's inferior. I'm comparing it to

this kind of ice cream which is better. It's superior. And this

kind of ice cream which is extraordinary. So inferior

means low quality. The ingredients aren't the best

ingredients. It in fact this ice cream has fewer

ingredients. The extraordinary. Um it just has cream and sugar

and a couple other things in it. But this one has a lot of

ingredients. It tastes okay. It's not amazing. Um in English

we might say it hits the spot like if it's a hot day and you

want ice cream. I will eat this kind with some chocolate sauce

on it. But it's not as good as the other two. It's an inferior

product. This is a superior product to this definitely.

This is really good ice cream. In fact yesterday at the market

there's a shop an ice cream shop that sells this ice cream

and I had two scoops of mint chocolate chip. It was tasty.

This ice cream though amazing. It's the best ice cream that I

can buy. Um it's also a little bit expensive. But it is made

with the best ingredients. It's made with high quality cream.

Um it's made with a recipe from 50 years ago where it's just a

simple awesome ice cream. So three different words inferior

not as good superior better and extraordinary like the best.

This is an extraordinary ice cream. You know some in English

we will over pronounce this word we'll say something like

ah it's extraordinary. But the fast way to say it is

extraordinary. It's extraordinary. But sometimes

just to be fun we will say extraordinary. Maybe just Bob

says that. Run of the mill. So when something is run of the

mill it's just normal. Maybe you went to a restaurant and

you had green beans and someone says oh did you have those new

green beans? Those new amazing ones. The new variety. You can

say no it's just a run of the mill green bean. So it just

means you had an ordinary bean. There was nothing special about

it. Um when we buy strawberries we just buy run of the mill

strawberries. When I buy let me see I'm trying to think of

another example. I'll leave it with those. But basically run

of the mill simply means ordinary. Nothing special about

it. And then we just have the word ordinary. So when you buy

a car if you buy you know just a simple four door car with

nothing extra. It doesn't have a bigger engine. It doesn't

have big 17 inch wheels. Like there are a lot of extra things

you can put on a car. But sometimes you just need an

ordinary car. A normal car. An average car. So to me this is

just an ordinary car right now. It's a little newer than what I

would own. But when I go for a walk there's a lot of very

ordinary cars on the road. Just simple four door car used to

get people where they need to go to get them to work or get

them to school. Commonplace. So I just realized this is a

lesson where I'm trying to talk about things you buy and nobody

buys dandelion. So this is a bad picture but it is good for

the word commonplace. If someone said do you have

dandelions? That's what this type of flower or it's actually

a weed. If someone said do you have dandelions in Canada? I

would say oh they're commonplace. This simply means

they're everywhere. When I look out the window I can see

dandelions. When I drive to work I see dandelions. When I

get to work the lawn has dandelions and So they are

commonplace. If you were to ask something I'm trying to think

of something you buy. Oh if someone said are do people eat

breakfast cereal in Canada? You would say oh yeah breakfast

cereals are commonplace. There's a whole aisle of

breakfast cereal in the grocery store in my grocery store. So

when something is commonplace it means it is everywhere.

Grade A. So there's a number of different ways to specify

quality. Sometimes things are rated grade A sometimes they're

graded triple A when you buy things like vegetables you can

buy grade A vegetables. That means when they harvested the

vegetables. They took the best vegetables and said these are

the best and they put them in one spot. And then there's less

good vegetables that in other spots. So grade A simply means

the best. So in any kind of sorting process we often use

this for meat as well. Grade A or triple A grade meat. So

lackluster. So this is now more negative. When something is

lackluster it's it's less than ordinary. Um it there's nothing

really that exciting about it. So you might buy a watch and

this watch has a simple black band a simple white face and it

tells the time but it doesn't tell you the month. It doesn't

tell you anything else. It's a very Trying to think of another

word for it. Like it's a the base model. There's nothing

exceptional about it. So we would say it's lackluster. So

my son bought a watch. I'll show you what watch he bought

in a little bit. And it's kind of fancier. So this would be

just a plain watch. Um a normal watch. And then not nothing

exciting about it. You wouldn't see someone wearing this watch

and then go home and tell someone oh you should have seen

my boss's new watch. If your boss this watch, you probably

wouldn't even notice it. Garden variety. So this is another

phrase we use to describe something that's ordinary or

normal. So if you get the flu or if you get COVID if you have

the flu let me back up. If you were sick and someone said oh

you have the flu. Do you have COVID? You might say no I just

have a garden variety flu. Garden variety means like just

the normal flu. Oh do you have pneumonia I just have a garden

variety cold. So I have the normal cold. So it just refers

to something that is ordinary or normal. Was kind of funny

because I made this lesson and then last night at market I was

talking to the vendor beside me and he said well you know you

get what you pay for and I thought oh I I should go home

and put that phrase in this lesson. In English when someone

says you get what you pay for. They usually mean that you have

something that isn't working right. But you bought something

cheap. So if I was to buy a really cheap car and it a day

later. My brother might say well you get what you pay for.

If I was to buy cookies and those cookies were half the

price of all the other cookies in the store and if I took a

bite and I was like oh this does not taste good. Jen could

say well you get what you pay for. Basically it's kind of a

saying saying well you didn't pay enough for that so why are

you surprised that it broke or doesn't taste good or whatever.

So you get what you pay for. So we have a couple phrases to

talk about things that are kind of ordinary. I've gone over a

few already. But one would be plain vanilla. Or even just

vanilla. Vanilla is a flavour. But we also use it to describe

the ordinary version of something. If I bought a new

minivan there are three different options. The bottom

option the cheapest option. I might just call it plain

vanilla. It doesn't mean the van is white. All it means is

that if I was to buy the $30, 000 van or the $40, 000 van or

the $50, 000 van I would describe the cheapest option as

plain vanilla. It doesn't have any of the extras. It's just

the normal version. I bought a new phone there are three

versions of this phone. A Pixel 7 A, a Pixel 7, and a Pixel 7

Pro. I just bought the plain Vanilla Pixel 7 A. I didn't

spend extra money for the Pixel or the Pixel 7 pro. Okay so

it's just another way to describe usually if there's

more than one option the lowest option available to you. Top

notch. So I think I've taught this word before in another

lesson. When something is top notch it is the best or at

least one of the best. Um my mother-in-law makes really good

pie. It's top notch. That means that when I think about all of

the different pie I've eaten in my life. Hers is really really

well made. I really like it. It is top notch. When I talked

about ice cream the ice cream that I described as

extraordinary. I could also say is top notch. Oh that ice cream

is top notch. I love it. It is some of the best ice cream.

Professional. So sometimes we say professional grade.

Sometimes we say it's the professional series. When they

make certain things they make it they make certain things for

normal people. And then for people who do that as a job. So

something like tools. This is a great example. You can go and

buy ordinary tools. But you can also Buy professional grade

tools. They're more expensive. But they they just last longer.

They do a better job. So if you and you don't have to be a a

professional to buy professional grade tools. It's

just a way to describe them. So when I buy tools I usually

spend a little more money to buy professional grade tools or

professional tools because they last longer on the farm. They

work better. Cream of the crop. So cream of the crop is used to

describe the best of anything. It doesn't have to be fruit. It

can be almost anything. But when you buy apples if you buy

the cream of the crop it means you're buying the best apples.

No bruises. No blemishes. Um perfectly ripe. The cream of

the crop. So if they harvest a hundred apples and ten apples

are perfect. We would call those ten apples the cream of

the crop. Best seller. Sometimes you go and you buy a

book and you buy a bestseller. Sometimes an author is referred

to as a best-selling author. So if you buy a new book and

someone says hey is it a good book? You could say yeah did

you know it's a best seller? Um which basically means they sold

a lot of copies of that book. Award winning. So in Canada I'm

sure in many other places in the world there are cooking

competitions. Two that come to mind are sometimes there's a

chili cook off where people go and make chili. Chili is

something that's made with beans and hamburger and

vegetables. If it's vegetarian chili it obviously doesn't have

hamburger in it. But sometimes you go to a restaurant and they

serve an award winning chili. Or an award winning soup or an

award-winning bread. It means that they won an award

somewhere. It means that you can buy award-winning wine in

my area. Wine that's really good and it won an award from

some sort of award-giving organization but if something

is award winning, it means that at some point in time, they won

an award, a medal or a trophy because it was so good. Top of

the line I don't always buy top of the line computers my

computer over there where do I click here my computer right

here oh it's kind of hard to see it's it was a top of the

line computer four years ago and I probably should replace

it next year but top of the line means the best so if there

were 10 different computers that I could buy if you buy the

one that's the most expensive you would say it's top of the

line I didn't actually buy the most expensive computer though.

But anyways it still was a really good computer. In my

mind it was top of the line. It was the best computer. It's

getting a little old now though. Lit. So this is a newer

word. Uh this is the watch that my son bought. Um which is

definitely not ordinary. It's pretty cool looking. It's

white. It has a really cool face. It has a neat name. G

Shock. And a word that has begun I think I started hearing

it three years ago is lit. Younger people use this word

like oh that watch is lit. It means cool. It means awesome.

It means amazing. Um let's get the official definition of lit.

Meaning of lit. I wonder if it's even in the dictionary

yet. We'll find out in a sec. Meaning of lit. Is my internet

not working? Hm I should check to make sure the live stream

still working.

I think everything's working. We'll see you in a moment.

Meaning of lit. Let's see. I don't even know if this

definition is here. Very good impressive or exciting. Yes the

party was lit. So there you go. Lit. Amazing. Exciting. Cool.

Awesome. Really nice. Durable. In my in my video a couple

weeks ago I was wearing jeans and I said I like wearing jeans

because they're tough. They're durable. They don't rip easily.

It's a good thing to wear on a farm. I don't roll up my pant

legs like that though and I don't have nice shoes like

that. This guy is stylish. Anyways, jeans are very

durable. It's a very tough material. It doesn't get

wrecked easily. It doesn't rip easily. So, jeans, very, very

nice. High end. I cannot afford this but this is high-end sound

equipment. So, high-end refers to very expensive, very well

made. All the best materials and components. Some people

love sound equipment and they buy high end speakers.

Loudspeakers. They buy high end sound equipment. So it means of

the best quality. Like super super high quality. High end. I

would love to own sound equipment like this. When I

listen to music it would sound amazing. So definitely high

end. So I'm going to at four things to end. Brand new like

new used and refurbished. So this is how we describe things

that we buy. I bought a brand new phone. It simply means that

noone owned this phone before me. They made this phone at the

phone factory and they put it in a box and then eventually I

bought it and they sent it to me. It is brand new. No

previous owner. No one owned this before me. Like new means

that someone owned it before you but they took really good

care of it and you're buying it used but there's no scratches

you wouldn't even know it was used it was so well taken care

of so it's like new sometimes when you buy a phone you don't

want to buy a brand new phone so you go to a store and you

buy one that's like new so it is used but it's so it was well

taken care of you think it's new still. And used is just

simply a general term for anything that was owned before.

You can buy used clothing. You can buy a used car. Uh you can

buy a used bike. Um if someone was to buy a motorcycle you can

say oh did you buy it new or used? Oh I bought it used. I

can't afford a new one. So used simply means that someone owned

it before you. Refurbished refers to something that was

previously owned. And it's you Used but someone made sure it's

working well. We usually use this to talk about computers

and phones or printers. Usually electronics. Like oh did you

buy a new printer? Uh no I bought a refurbished printer.

That means it was used but someone who is an expert at

printer maintenance. Hello Fly. Made sure that it's working

well. They cleaned it. They replaced the toner. Um it looks

almost. Um a refurbished computer is a computer where

maybe they clean the screen, replace the battery. They made

sure it's working and in proper order. So it is refurbished. So

it's used but an expert has made sure that it's working

properly again.