Weekly English Words with Alisha - Animals as Descriptors

Hello again. Welcome back to Weekly Words. My name is Alisha, and today we're going

to talk about animals as descriptions. Animal names that can also be a way to describe people.

The first word is "sloth." "Sloth" refers to someone who is lazy. If you don't know

what a "sloth" is, look it up. I'm not going to act it out for you. A "sloth" is a creature

that resides in forests and has kinda claw-like hands, and they're known for moving very,

very, very, very slowly, so we use this word to describe lazy people. In your office maybe

there might be a "sloth." You might say, "Aw, I don't want to work with that guy this week.

He's a sloth!" Hmm. Don't be the sloth in your office.

The next word is "dinosaur." "Dinosaurs are of course extinct, but they once roamed the

earth in hordes. "Dinosaur" just refers to somebody who's very old. So, somebody, maybe

your grandparents, I suppose. Don't say this to their faces, please. But you when you want

to refer to somebody who is very old, you might say, "He's a dinosaur! I'm surprised

that he can still get around." That's not a nice thing to say.

The next word is "shark." A shark is somebody who exploits other people or is looking for

a way to benefit from other people. This can also have another meaning. A shark can be

somebody who is like an expert at something. So you might have heard the phrase "pool shark"

or, ah, "card shark." Oh, "card shark." Or "tennis shark." Somebody who is really good

at something, but you can't use it for everything. You can't use it for all things that you might

be an expert at. They're just a few things that we can kind of pair the word "shark"

with, so be careful not to use it with anything that you might be an expert in. Like we wouldn't

say you're a "pastry shark." Maybe funny. I'm a pastry shark. Oh, "loan shark." That's

another example. You might say, "Avoid that guy. I hear he's a loan shark," meaning he'll

try to take advantage of you.

Oh my god! Really? Let's explain this word. This word is "cougar." This word I think is

a very interesting word. It it refers to "an older woman who

is interested in younger men." The word "cougar," it seems, is used because cougars are apparently

always on the prowl. In this case, their prey is younger men. Maybe you would say, "My neighbor

is a cougar. She has different guys at her house every month! No, this is terrible!

"Crab." A "crab" is… Sorry. A "crab..." There was a phase I went through in middle

school, right, I liked to draw crabs. I just thought they were funny, so I drew them on

everything. We use "crabs" to talk about somebody who is kinda grumpy or in a bad mood.

You might say, "Oh, I don't wanna talk to my boss today. She seems like a real crab."

End! We learned a lot of very rude things in this week's lesson. I hope that you can

take something away from this, um, maybe you can at least understand these words even if

you're not going to use them yourself. Yeah. Be careful with whom and in what situation

you use some of these words. With that, thank you for watching this episode of Weekly Words.

I will see you again next week. Bye-bye!