Free English Class! Topic: Describing Relationships 😠👫🏽💑 (Lesson Only)

Welcome to this English lesson about describing relationships.

Um there are many different types of relationships in the

world. This will not be a lesson about the types of

relationships. Instead this will be a lesson where I'll

teach you how to describe relationships. If you watched

the video earlier this week from Tuesday I did a lesson

about how to describe good and bad relationships. As I was

doing that lesson I realized that besides phrases describe

relationships. There were a whole bunch of words, a whole

bunch of adjectives. So in this English lesson I'll teach you

how to describe a whole lot of different relationships that

you might be aware of. So one of the first ways you can

describe a relationship between people who really like each

other and have been together for a long time is to say that

they are close or that they have a close relationship. You

can use it both ways. When I was young my cousins lived

close to us but I was also close to my cousins in terms of

our relationship. Every Saturday we played together.

They would come over my brothers and sisters and my

cousins would play. So we became very very close. Uh we

had a good fun relationship. So when you say you are close to

someone it means you know them well. People will even say

things like this in English. Are you close to your parents?

Um which means Not do you live close to them. It means do you

talk to them often? And do you share each other's lives. So

when you describe a relationship with the word

close. You're describing a relationship between people who

talk a lot hang around with each other a lot and know each

other well. When we describe a relationship as a serious

relationship. We're usually talking about a romantic

relationship. And usually one that's just started. So you it

might go something like this. Oh I hear your son is dating

someone. And then the person could say yes and it's it's a

serious relationship. That means there's the potential

that they'll keep dating for a long time and they might even

get married someday. So when two people are dating and you

describe the relationship as serious what you mean is that

it might be for real and it might be for a long time. So

sometimes people start dating in their teens early 20s and

their parents or other relatives might describe the

relationship as a serious relationship. Oh yeah she's in

a serious relationship with a guy she met at They might get

married someday. As opposed to a brief relationship a brief

relationship would be maybe when someone goes on a date one

or two times. This would also be used to describe a romantic

relationship. If someone goes on a date once or twice they

might later say oh I had a brief relationship with Dan but

we only went out on two or three dates and we weren't very

compatible. It was just a brief relationship. So brief of

course is an English word to describe something that is

short and we also use it to describe relationships. Uh

uneasy. So we're getting into the bad kind of relationships.

When you're in an uneasy relationship it means that you

and the person you're with don't get along. This would

also be used to describe a romantic relationship but also

a relationship between family members or friends you could

say I've been friends with him for a long time but it's not a

very nice relationship. It's an uneasy relationship right now

because he lost his job and He's just in a bad mood all the

time. So it's an uneasy relationship. So not enjoyable

would be a better way to describe that. We also have

another way to describe romantic relationships where

people date for a while and then they break up. So this is

another way to describe a romantic relationship. They

date for a while and break up and then they date again and

they break up and they date again and break up. We would

then say they're in an on again off again relationship. Uh I

had a friend long time ago who he dated a girl for three

months and then they broke up. And then a month later they

started dating again and they dated for six months and then

they broke up. And then they dated for a month and broke up.

And they and it kept they did eventually get married and

they're still married. But they had an on again off again

relationship. So they dated for a while and then they didn't.

Um it was kind of amusing actually. That's kind of a

funny way to describe it I guess. But we never knew when

they were or weren't dating. We also have the word are the term

long distance relationship. Uh so a long distance relationship

takes place between two people who are romantically involved.

So maybe they're dating but they live in different parts of

the world or different parts of the country. Um far enough

apart that you can't drive there easily in one day. So Jen

and I when we were in university I finished a year

before Jen. And so for months we had a long distance

relationship. Jen and I would talk on the phone every couple

of nights. We were able to email each other. Um but

primarily we talked on the phone. Uh we had a long

distance relationship. It it was not easy. Um when you have

when you're dating someone who lives far away. It's not always

fun. And I would drive to visit her every weekend almost. That

was fun. You might have a stormy relationship. So a

stormy relationship is a relationship where there is a

lot of fighting. A lot of arguing. And again remember

when I use the word fighting to talk about relationships I mean

arguing. In English when you say oh that couple's always

fighting. They have a stormy relationship. They're always

fighting. We mean arguing. We don't mean they're hitting each

other. So when you have you probably all know someone who

has a relationship. They might be married. They might be

dating. Um but it's a stormy relationship there is a lot of

arguing going on. Sometimes a relationship is described as

strained. Sometimes this can be between two people who are

dating. This can be between parents and children. Sometimes

parents and teenage children will have a strained

relationship. That means that the kid the teenager wants to

do things that the parents don't want them to do. They're

disagreeing a lot. There will be some arguing but also there

might just be some behaviour that one person does that

upsets the other person. Here's a good example. If a parent

says to a teenager you must be home every night at 11 PM. And

if the teenager always comes home later than that the

relationship would become strained. There would be some

conflict in that relationship. So that's how we would describe

that. A strained relationship. Problematic. This is a good

English word to practice your pronunciation when a

relationship is problematic. It means that there are problems

that come from it. Now this is just a picture I found on the

internet and I'm sure these are all great people. But I'm going

to use this as an example that maybe the parents of one of

these guys doesn't like the friends that he's made. Uh the

parent might Think it's a problematic relationship.

Whenever one of these guys hangs out with the other three

they get in trouble. There are a lot of problems. Maybe at

school when these four are together the relationship is

problematic. They convince each other to do bad things, to

steal things, or to always be late for class. Sometimes

teenagers will have a problematic relationship with

other teenagers which causes them to get in trouble a lot. I

see this once in a while at work. Very little but it does

happen sometimes. Hey you might be in a long term relationship.

This is another term for a romantic relationship. When

people date for a couple of weeks we call it a a brief

relationship. The opposite would be a long term

relationship. How long have you and Dan been dating? We've been

dating for 12 months. We're in a long term relationship. So a

long term relationship is used to describe two people who have

dated for quite a long time. You would say oh they're in a

long term relationship. I wouldn't use this to describe

like Jen and I are married you could say it's a long term

relationship but we would just say we're married. I usually

use long term to describe two people who've dated for you

know over a year for many many months a year or two or three.

Um they're in a long term relationship. Sometimes we just

use the word broken to describe a relationship. You could use

this to describe a friendship. You could use this to describe

a marriage. You could use this to describe two people who like

each other romantically. You could say oh it's just a it's a

broken relationship. They they they don't even really like

each other. Um or I don't get along with my sister anymore.

It's kind of a broken relationship. Um or my parents

and I don't talk. It's kind of a broken Relationships. So when

a relationship gets to the point where people aren't

communicating anymore. We would describe the relationship as

broken. So not a nice kind of relationship to be in.

Professional. Sometimes you have a relationship with people

and it's just a professional relationship. At work I have

professional relationships with my colleagues. Um you know

people at work. They aren't your friends. They aren't your

family but you still talk to them every day. You do have a

relationship and we would call it a professional relationship.

Um it nice to have a bunch of really good friendly

colleagues. People who you can talk to about your life. I do

talk to my colleagues about my life. We do talk about what we

do on the weekends. Um but again they're not my friends

and they're not my family. So I would say they are people I

know in a professional capacity. Friendly. So the

basic way to describe a relationship that's just really

nice. A relationship between friends is to say you have a

friendly relationship. Um it's nice to have a lot of friendly

relationships in your life. It's nice to be able to chat

with people like these people are. They're just sitting under

a tree having a nice conversation. They're having a

friendly conversation. They're friends. They're in a friendly

relationship. Probably the one of the best kinds of

relationships is a friendly relationship. Romantic would be

a relationship between two people who really like each

other in a romantic way. That means that they would like to

go on a few dates. They might eventually fall in love. Uh

they could eventually develop a long term relationship. They

might even get married someday. So when two people like each

other in a romantic way. When they find each other

attractive. When they like talking. When they like

spending time with each other. We say that they're in a

romantic relationship after they've gone on one or two

dates. Okay? So when Jen and I started dating at first it was

just one date then two dates and you could say we were in a

romantic relationship. Healthy. So we describe relationships as

healthy and unhealthy. These are very broad terms for

relationships. A healthy relationship is a relationship

between 2 people. Um where they are very respectful of each

other. Where they enjoy each other's company. Where they

have good conversations about life. Where they maybe have fun

together. It's good when parents and kids have a healthy

relationship. It's good when spouses have a healthy

relationship. It's good to have healthy relationships in our

lives. A healthy relationship is any relationship where after

spending time with that person you feel better. You're happier

and you're just life is better. So an unhealthy relationship

would be the opposite. In an unhealthy relationship two

people aren't very nice to each other. There might be a lot of

arguing. People might call each other names. They might the

relationship could just be very very bad in a lot of ways. We

would describe that as an unhealthy relationship. A good

example between a parent and a kid would be if a parent works

80 hours a week. And let's say they're a single parent. If a

if a single parent works 80 hours a week and a child comes

home and there's noone home everyday they would start to

have an unhealthy relationship right? It's good to spend time

with each other. Um you could even have the same situation

where two people have a kid but those two people fight all the

time. Then that would be an unhealthy relationship for the

people fighting but also an unhealthy relationship for the

child. So broad terms a healthy relationship. Everything's

happy and fun and good in an unhealthy relationship. A lot

of fighting. A lot of arguing. Um just not a good situation.

And then eventually you might describe a relationship as a

failed relationship. So a failed relationship is usually

used to describe a romantic relationship that has ended.

Okay so he was dating someone and now they're not dating

anymore. It's kind of a failed relationship. They didn't get

along. They didn't connect. The relationship is over. It is a

failed relationship. Um sometimes you'll hear someone

say yeah you know he was married once and then he was in

a long term relationship after his divorce and then now he's

single again but he might date another person. You could say

he's had a series of failed relationships. So not nice to

have a series of failed relationships. Unstable. So an

unstable relationship is a relationship where one or both

people maybe they drink too much alcohol. Maybe they do

drugs. Maybe the person is happy for a week. And then

they're in a bad mood for a couple weeks. Like it's a

relationship where it's not healthy. It's not unhealthy. It

kind of bounces back and forth It's very hard for kids to be

in an unstable home. If there's an unstable relationship maybe

their dad just disappears for a week or two and noone knows

where he is and then he comes back and it acts like

everything's okay. We would describe that as unstable.

Toxic. So we heard the word toxic in one of the questions.

A toxic relationship would be a relationship that is very

unhealthy. A relationship Where people call each other names.

Where people are always saying mean things about the other

person. A relationship where maybe one person makes the

other person feel dumb. Or makes the other person feel

like they can't do anything right. It's a very unhealthy

bad relationship. We would describe it as a toxic

relationship. This is a relatively new word. Okay.

Toxic is usually described used to describe like stuff that's

bad for people. Like if you live near a a factory they

might have toxic waste that comes out and we've started to

use it to describe relationships already. So toxic

relationship. I'm glad we got back to a positive one. You

might be in a very loving relationship. Often times when

a couple dates for a while and eventually they have a long

term relationship eventually they might get married they

might be in a very loving relationship. This means that

do nice things for each other. They spend time with each

other. Um they're kind to each other. They buy each other

gifts every once in a while. They help each other out. Um

they share the job of being parents if they have children.

So a loving relationship is probably the ideal relationship

to have if you are married or get married or have a long term

relationship. Someone who is just very very loving. I And

now we're going to go negative again. A dysfunctional

relationship would be a relationship where People just

I I don't want to I don't know how to say it exactly. I

want to say when people don't behave in a normal way. So if

you have a friend who always works late or goes places says

they'll go somewhere with you and then doesn't show up. If

you are dating someone who asks you out on a date and then

comes an hour late. If you Have a relationship where two people

are dating but one person still flirts with other people. Do

you know what the word flirt means? So when two people are

like each other romantically or are in love. If one of them

still like flirts with other people it means they're they're

not behaving in a nice way. All of those things would be

dysfunctional. If someone uses a lot of alcohol or drugs in a

relationship the relationship would be dysfunctional as well.

So not a happy, healthy relationship.

And meaningful. So people often like to have meaningful

relationships with people. Grandparents like to have a

meaningful relationship with their grandkids. Parents like

to have a meaningful relationship with their kids.

Um I like to have meaningful relationships with my friends.

This means that it's not just all fun. You talk about life.

You give each other advice. You help each other in a meaningful

relationship. It's nice when Yeah I just think like my

brother and I have a very meaningful relationship. Um my

mom and I have a very meaningful relationship. I

don't just call my mom or visit my mom and tell jokes. We talk

about how things are going. I ask my mom for advice. My mom

sometimes asks me for advice which that's new but I'm

getting older so I guess I'm getting wiser maybe. Anyways

meaningful relationships are very very nice to have. They

can make life a lot easier. Because you can share kind of

some of life's burdens with someone and get advice.

Supportive. A supportive relationship can be between an

adult child and their parent. It can be between friends. It

simply means someone who is really nice at giving you

advice. A nice supportive relationship. Someone you can

call or talk to when something goes wrong. Um it's always nice

to be able to let's say You lost your job. You were fired.

It would be great if you had a friend or a parent you could

call who is very supportive. When you have a supportive

relationship. It means they they they help you talk through

what happened to you and feel a little bit better about it.

Tight knit. So tight knit is used to describe any kind of

relationship where people really really like each other

and do a lot of things together. So if you have a

tight knit family. It probably means you see your family a

lot. If you have a tight knit group of friends. It means you

see each other a lot and you do a lot of things together. Um we

always hope that our kids will have a tight knit group of

friends around them. We hope that they will find some nice

friends. Um and I would say that my Brothers and sisters

and I we're a tight knit family. We talk regularly. Um

using the internet. We don't see each other as often as we

used to but we certainly talk almost daily. Um in a little

group chat we have my brothers and sisters and I. Tense. So

this is simply another word for uneasy. Um you might have a

tense relationship with a friend where you just it's not

so much arguing. It's more that you like different things and

want to do different things and so maybe you fight a little

bit. You argue a little bit. Um Maybe a friend wants you to

hang out with them more but you don't have time and they get

annoyed with you because you don't spend time with them. You

could say that you have a tense relationship with them.

Sometimes you just have a solid relationship with a group of

friends. This would be the same as saying that you have a tight

knit group of friends. But when you have a group of friends

these guys these girls they look like they like hanging

around together. They look like they are enjoying each other's

company. They probably have a solid relationship with each

other. They have a solid friendship. They can trust each

other. They can tell each other things about their lives and

know the other person isn't going to tell everyone else. Um

if they have a secret or something. So it's good to have

some solid relationships in life. And then here's a very

basic one. Just a happy relationship. When you have a

happy relationship you laugh a lot. You smile a lot. You enjoy

each other's company. I've used that phrase a lot. It's a very

common phrase. Oh we really enjoy each other's company. So

a happy relationship. Harmonious would mean that

there is not very much fighting. There isn't a lot of

arguing. And again Remember when I say fighting I mean

arguing okay? Um a harmonious relationship is just a nice

peaceful relationship. It's nice to have harmonious

relationships in our lives. They help us feel better about

the day as we go through it. As opposed to tumultuous. Should I

say that word again? Tumultuous. A tumultuous

relationship is one that does have a lot of arguing. It does

have a lot of fighting. If you're in a tumultuous

relationship it's very stressful. It's not relaxing.

It is not enjoyable to be in a relationship where one or both

people get angry very easily. That would be a tumultuous

relationship. Forgiving. So we are humans. We make mistakes.

Sometimes we say things that we don't really mean. Sometimes we

argue when we should instead be finding a solution. So it

always is nice to have or to be in a forgiving relationship. A

forgiving relationship is one where both people understand

that everyone is human. And everyone makes mistakes and

people are able to forgive each other. So that means if you

something to me that hurts my feelings. I'm able to if you

then apologize and I forgive you that would be a nice

forgiving relationship. The ability to say I'm sorry and

the ability for the other person to say I forgive you.

Another simple one is just to be in a fun relationship. It's

it's just fun to be in a fun relationship. Maybe you have a

group of friends that likes to go and do fun things all the

time. You could just say oh we just it's just really fun

relationship with these people. Um we enjoy other's company.

I'm saying it again. We love doing things together and we

really enjoy being together. As opposed to boring. Uh a boring

relationship is not fun. It's not a bad relationship. It just

isn't exciting. It isn't fun. Um it's a relationship where

when you're with that person maybe you almost fall asleep

because they tell really long boring stories where you aren't

that interested. So that would be a boring relationship. A

controlling relationship. So a controlling relationship is a

relationship where one person tries to control what the other

person does all the time. Uh two people who are married can

one of them could be very controlling and you could say

that that person's in a controlling relationship. This

can happen at work. Your boss can be very controlling. And so

you would just say ah it's just I don't get along with my boss.

It's a very controlling relationship. He or she is

always telling me what to do. Even though I know to do my job

well or she's in a very controlling relationship right

now with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend tells her what she

can and can't do. He's very controlling. She's in a

controlling relationship. So not a positive thing at all a

controlling relationship. And then there's always flexible

relationships. I always think that parents have to have a

very flexible relationship with their kids. As kids grow up

parents need to make sure that they drive them where they need

to go. Parents need to be very flexible. They need to be

flexible with their time. They need to be flexible with their

buddy. They need to be flexible in the sense that their kids

might want to do something that they don't enjoy but they

should like if one of my kids want to play basketball. I

don't know how to play basketball but I will be

flexible. We have a flexible relationship. I will drive that

kid to basketball practice. So when I think parents and

grandparents are usually very flexible. My mom I have very

flexible relationship with my mom. She is very flexible. If I

call and say can we stop by tomorrow and or here's a better

one. When my kids were younger they would sometimes go to her

house after school. So she was very flexible. It was very

nice.