Formal, Neutral, Informal: Say it the right way in English!

44,709 views ・ 2024-03-20

Learn English with Gill


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Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson
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is on different registers of vocabulary. So,
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what do I mean by registers? Okay. So, you can use different words that all mean the
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same thing, but they have a different effect
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and a different style, and often they divide
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up into rather formal language that sounds
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very formal and sophisticated, maybe academic,
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that kind of language. Then you have a neutral
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word that it's just an ordinary word for something;
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it doesn't have a particular style. And then
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you have informal, which can often be a sort
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of colloquial slang word that you would only
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use in an informal group with friends and
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family and so on. So, it's good to know what
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register you're using in different circumstances.
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So, often the formal words tend to be written
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down in documents, reports, and letters, official
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letters and things like that, or academic, you know, essays and so on. Then neutral,
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in just ordinary, everyday language, but not...
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Not trying to be too informal, just in a neutral
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way. Perhaps with people you may not know very well, so you just want to have a kind
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of neutral kind of vocabulary that doesn't have too much of a style with it. But then
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if you're with friends and you have a particular
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way of speaking, and you use particular words
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to be casual and friendly and relaxed, you would use the more informal words for that
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that are used within your group of friends and so on. Okay?
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So, let's just have a look at some examples,
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then. So, first of all, with food, if you
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want to describe... If you're enjoying the
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food, you like it, it tastes good, how would
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you describe it? So, in a formal way, you might say it's delicious or appetizing. If
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you were with some friends in a restaurant and you were eating, I think if you said,
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"Oh, this food is very appetizing", your friends
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might think, "Oh, that's a strange word to
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use." So, it's not the kind... That's the
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thing with the formal words, they're not the
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kind of words you would use in a conversation
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with friends, so you have to be careful what
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the context is. You might only use it in writing
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rather than in speaking. "Delicious" isn't
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quite so formal. "This food is delicious." You
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can just about say that in a... In a social
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setting, and it's okay. And it's used in advertising,
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too, I think. Advertising slogans. "Delicious
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apples", or whatever. So, it's not that formal, but "appetizing" is more formal.
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So, what about if you want to just use a neutral
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word to describe the food? If it tastes nice,
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you can just say, "It's tasty." Or, "This food
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is very tasty." And that's a fairly neutral
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way of saying it, to say something nice about the food. Okay.
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Then, if... If you're in a much more informal
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setting, or you may be with children, that's
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another thing. The words you use with children
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may be different from the words you would
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use with adults. So, to describe food as yummy, I think it's more the kind of word
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you would use with... With a child. You know,
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especially if you're trying to persuade a
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child to eat something, you know, you might
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have something on a spoon and say, "Oh, come
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on. It's really yummy. It's yummy." So, you would use that more with a child, I think,
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in a very informal way. Okay.
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So, moving on to the next example. So, different
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words for "looking", looking at things. In
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a more sophisticated way, you would "observe"
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or "perceive", and again, you wouldn't use
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this in normal conversation because it sounds
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much too formal and sophisticated. So, you
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might write it in a very official document. You know, we observed that. If you're doing
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a scientific experiment or something, it was
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observed that there was a reaction in the
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test tube, something like that, and it's a
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rather academic, scientific piece of writing.
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And to "perceive" as well, how something is
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perceived, how people see it, but it's quite
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formal. So, then the neutral ones are just
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"to look" or "to see". Very, very simple and
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very short little words as well. Okay. And
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then in the more informal way, you could say
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"to peek" or "to peep". So, "to peek" is... It's a bit like, you know, looking closely
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like this. "Oh, let me have a peep at that."
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Or "I just want to peek at that." So, it's
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quite a sort of colloquial way of saying it there. Okay.
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So, moving on. If something's good... Well, you
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say in a neutral way, "It's good." Fine. Again,
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very short words. But in the more formal way, you
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might say, "Oh, that's excellent" or "splendid".
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So, longer words. "Excellent" and "splendid".
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You might do these also to be a bit jokey. "Oh,
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that's really excellent. I think that's splendid."
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And it sounds as if you're joking a little bit,
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you're putting on an act. Either that or they're
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just very formal ways of saying it again.
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And then in the more informal way, you would use
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the kind of slang or colloquial words like "cool",
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"brilliant", okay, for the same thing. Okay.
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So, then the opposite of "good" is "bad".
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So, we've just got "bad" for the neutral one.
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Again, a very short word. So, a really sophisticated
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word to use would be "detestable" because
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to detest something means to hate something.
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So, if it's detestable, "Oh, that behaviour
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is detestable." So, if you're describing how
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someone is behaving, maybe someone on public
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transport, they're putting their feet up on the
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seats and their muddy boots are making the seats
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dirty where other people will want to sit down,
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that's detestable to do that. So, that would be
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someone who's really annoyed and they want to
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sound very superior about that kind of behaviour.
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"Oh, that's so detestable. Terrible." So,
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that sort of idea. Okay. And so, "bad" is just
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the neutral. And then a little bit more informal,
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you'd say, "Oh, that's horrible to do that."
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Or, "That's gross. Oh, gross. Disgusting." That
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sort of feeling. It's a bit more dramatic sounding, a bit more emotional. Okay.
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And then, finally, talking about money. So, we've
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just got "money" or "cash" as the neutral words.
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A little bit more formal would be "funds" or
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"funding" because it doesn't sound so much like
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money. You know, sometimes people don't like to
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talk about money too much. They might think it's
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a bit undignified or something. They don't want
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to use the word "money". It might sound as if
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they're a bit obsessed with money, so they might
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use "funds" or "funding" as a word that doesn't
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sound so much like what it means to sort of get
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away from having to mention money. So, maybe a
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bank or an investment company might talk about "funds" and "funding" rather than
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saying the word "money" or writing the word "money". Okay. And then in the informal way
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between friends, "dosh" and "readies" are really
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sort of slang terms. You know, "Have you got the
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readies?" or "I'm a bit short of dosh today. I
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need some more dosh." So, these words go back
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in history a little bit, but "readies" I think
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is quite a good one because you have to have your
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cash ready to pay for anything, so it's quite a
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good description of money, really. You need it to
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be ready. Okay. So, I hope that's a good set
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of examples for you of how you can have words
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in different registers from formal to neutral
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to informal. You might like to think of some
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other categories and see if you can find words
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that all mean the same, but they belong in
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different registers. Okay. So, we have a quiz on
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this topic. If you'd like to test your knowledge,
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just go to the website, www.engvid.com, and
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give the quiz a try. And thank you for watching,
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and hope to see you again soon. Bye for now.
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