How To Use English Words Twice For Emphasis

So some of you have noticed that there are many,

many times where I'll use an English word twice

in a row for emphasis, and this must be so,

so annoying when you're learning English.

How do you know when you're allowed

to use two words in a row to emphasize something

or we also use two words with an and

between sometimes to talk about

how something's changing.

So I did what I normally do.

I studied what other English speakers around me were saying,

and I put together a little list of common phrases I've used

where people used two words in a row

when they were trying to emphasize something,

or two words with an and between

when they were talking about how something was changing.

(upbeat music)

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson about

how to use two English words in a row

in order to emphasize something.

Remember, if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there

and give me a thumbs up

if this video helps you learn a bit of English.

Well, imagine that yesterday was a very hot day,

and imagine that you had to work outside.

If you wanted to describe

that day using two words in a row,

you could say, I worked in the hot, hot sun all day.

Use the word hot twice in a row means

that the sun wasn't just hot.

It was really, really hot.

So you could say I worked in the hot, hot sun all day.

Let's imagine though a different scene.

Imagine it's winter and it's a little bit slippery outside,

and you trip and fall.

You could say that you fell on the cold,

cold ground, not just the cold ground.

If you want to emphasize,

you would use the word cold twice in a row.

You could also say something like this.

Imagine again, a hot day.

You could say it was very, very hot yesterday.

You could use the word very twice in a row

in order to emphasize the fact that it was hot.

This is one of the ones that I use a lot,

and there are a lot of people who will mention

in the comments that I use

the word very twice in a row quite often.

My birthday was either last week

or it's coming up in the next few weeks.

I never actually reveal when it is,

but let's imagine that my birthday was last week.

I might say something like this.

My sister made me a cake

and the cake was really, really good.

This is another situation

where I use two words in a row a lot.

I use this a lot.

I say really, really a lot when I'm describing things.

I might say something like the cake was really, really good.

The party was really, really good.

The hotdogs were really, really good.

It's just another way to emphasize.

If you remember last week's video,

Walter was chewing on my boot and he was a bad, bad dog.

So we can use the word bad twice in a row

to talk about what Walter was doing.

He was a bad, bad dog.

In fact, that's what I said to him last week.

I said, Walter, stop it.

Bad, bad dog.

So I even used the word bad twice in a row

when I was talking to Walter.

I live out in the country, but imagine the city.

When I go to the city, I always think,

wow, these are big, big buildings.

I use the word big twice in the row

when I talk about the city, because it's amazing to me

when I look up and I see these big, big buildings.

So around here, we have big buildings,

but when I go to the city,

I definitely see big, big buildings.

So those were a number of sentences

that I've heard in the past.

A number of ways that people used words twice in a row

to emphasize something.

And let's move on and look at how people

sometimes use two words in a row

to talk about something

that's happening to indicate how it's changing.

The first one is, imagine

there is a balloon that someone's blowing up.

You would say the balloon got bigger and bigger.

So when you blow up a balloon,

it starts out this big,

and then it gets bigger and bigger,

and you could say, as he blew up the balloon,

it got bigger and bigger.

Let's imagine someone you know who's really, really wealthy.

Maybe as that person was working years ago,

they got richer and richer.

So it's a way to talk about the change in the amount

of wealth that they had.

They got richer and richer.

I think that yesterday was a nice day,

but I worked outside yesterday,

and as the day went on, it got hotter and hotter.

So I used an and in between.

I think I forgot to mention that.

Bigger and bigger,

richer and richer, hotter and hotter,

to talk about how the day changed

or how the thing I'm talking about changed.

The other day I was working outside

and it actually wasn't hot.

It was cold and the wind was cold,

and the wind got colder and colder.

So it started out with the wind being a little bit cold,

but then as the day went on,

the temperature dropped and the wind got colder and colder.

One time Jen and I were camping

and there was someone at the park camping

who was playing music and I was trying to sleep,

and just when I thought they were

going to turn the music off,

the music got louder and louder.

So it actually.

(traffic going by)

The traffic's getting louder

and louder right now as I'm making this video.

So again, I'm talking about how the music

was a certain level, or the traffic noise

was a certain level, and then it got louder and louder.

Yesterday, I had to help my son unload his trailer.

He bought a whole bunch

of what are called patio stones and it took us over an hour,

and we started by taking off little patio stones,

but then they got bigger

and bigger and the work got harder and harder.

So you see how I used two ways,

I used bigger and bigger

and harder and harder to describe that work.

And I don't know if you've noticed this,

but I hope my face looks a little bit thinner

and I hope I look a little more fit,

because I've been exercising more and more lately.

Over the last four weeks,

mostly because school is done,

I've been able to go and walk a lot more

and to just enjoy exercising,

so I've been exercising more and more,

and I hope it's starting to show.

Anyways, thanks so much for watching this short,

short lesson, this little,

little lesson, this tiny,

tiny lesson about how we use words twice

in a row for emphasis, and also

to describe how something is changing.

Remember, if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there

and give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

just a little bit of English.

Thanks for watching.

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