Improve your Vocabulary: 6 English words ending in -RUPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on six words that end with the letters

"r", "u", "p", "t". "Rupt", which might sound a bit strange, but they all come from a Latin

word "rumpere", which means to break, to burst, to split. If this pen, for example, breaks

or splits, then it will be in pieces and the ink will come out all over my hands. So, if

you... If anything breaks, it's damaged. It might burst quite dramatically, like... Like

that. Or just split, if there's a line down the side of it and it splits open. So, when

something opens, it's broken. That's... That's the basic idea. Okay?

So, we also have the word "rupture" that comes from this word. A "rupture", which can be

a medical term if someone has a rupture in their body. It has to be... They have to have

an operation to put it right, that sort of thing. Or it could be in a... For example,

a bridge over a road. If there's a rupture in the bridge, maybe the concrete has split

and the bridge isn't safe for people to walk on. That sort of idea. Okay. So, it's all

to do with something being damaged or broken.

Right, so let's have a look at the six words. And sometimes they're verbs, sometimes they're

adjectives, and also we have some different endings which create other parts of speech.

So, the word "abrupt" is an adjective. You can have "abruptly" to make it an adverb,

and you can have "abruptness" to make it a noun. So, all of these words you can make

into other parts of speech, which helps to extend your vocabulary even further. Okay.

So, we've got "abrupt", "abruptly", "abruptness", and then here is an example of a sentence

using the word. "He spoke in a rather abrupt way." So, when somebody speaks abruptly, if

someone is abrupt, they speak in a rather short, quick way which doesn't seem very friendly.

It's... Oh, let me give an example. Like, if a visitor comes into a building and the

person at the reception is abrupt with them, they might say something like, "Who are you?

What do you want?" Very short, like that, rather than, "Oh, hello. Hi. Welcome. How

are you today?" which is nice and friendly. Instead, they're very short, and quick, and

unfriendly. So, that's being abrupt. It's not a very nice way to talk to people. So,

some people do speak in a rather abrupt way, which makes you not really want to have much

to do with them. Okay. So, it's not good to be abrupt with people. Right?

Next one is "bankrupt", "bankrupt", and the "bank" part gives you the clue to the meaning.

The bank is where you keep your money, and if somebody's bankrupt, it means their bank

is broken. You can talk about breaking the bank. If you spend all your money, metaphorically,

you can say, "Oh, I've broken the bank. You've got no money left." Maybe if you know those

little money boxes or even a little piggy bank they're called, a little pot thing, animal

that you put the coins in to save up some money. Children do this. You might then have

to break it to get the money out, so it's a bit like that. But if you break the bank,

it means you've spent all your money, you've got none left. And this can happen on a big

scale. Even a bank can go bankrupt, so that's really serious because that affects a lot

of people.

So, here's a sentence. "The company has gone bankrupt." So, the verb to use with "bankrupt"

is to go bankrupt. A person can go bankrupt or become bankrupt. So, the company has gone

bankrupt. It means the company has not been making enough money. They may have been wasting

money, maybe not selling enough products. They just haven't - what they call balancing

the books, the accounts. They've spent more money than they have earned, and they have

gone bankrupt. They can't continue, and everybody loses their job, usually. So, that's "bankrupt".

So, "bankrupt", it can be an - well, it's an adjective, really, but you can have "bankruptcy",

which is the noun, the state of being bankrupt. Nobody likes bankruptcy, so that's the noun.

"Bankrupted", you can be bankrupted, so that's a kind of past tense of the verb. And something

can be "bankrupting", that situation is bankrupting the company. So, you can use it as a present

continuous or a present participle. Okay. Right, so that's "bankrupt".

Next one, "corrupt", "corrupt". So, you can also have "corrupted", "corruption", "corrupting".

So, "corruption" is the noun. "Corrupt" itself is an adjective. Okay? So, a politician can

be corrupt, for example. But in this sentence, we have "corruption" as our example, so that's

the noun. So, there is too much corruption in politics.

Okay, so what do you think "corruption" means? When people don't do things correctly, they

maybe politicians are making money from something, from giving a contract to somebody, they get

a payback, they're influenced by bribing. So, a bribe... So, a bribe is when someone

offers you money to do something. So, if a politician has a choice between two contracts

to do a big project, and they have the power to decide who gets the contract, a company

A or company B, and then if someone in company A might be a friend of the politician and

they might arrange to offer the politician some money or a job that pays some money,

consultancy job, that sort of thing, then it influences the politician to choose company

A rather than company B because the politician is being offered money. So, that should not

happen, but unfortunately it does in some countries, some places with particular people.

So, a bribe is an illegal thing to offer money for to create influence like that is corrupt.

So, that's corruption. Okay. Right. So, next one, disrupt. Disrupt, and we've got disrupted,

disrupting, and disruptive. If someone is disruptive, that's the adjective describing

what that person is doing. So, to disrupt, let's have a look at the example, and it might

just give you the idea. So, the fire alarm disrupted our meeting. Okay, so you're having

a meeting and with a client, maybe, it's a very important meeting, a presentation, all

of that, but then the fire alarm rings. Ah, is there a fire? Is it just a practice? You

don't know, but you have to stop. You have to leave the room. You have to leave the building.

Somebody has to check names off on a list to make sure everybody's out of the building

and they're safe. So, you can't continue your meeting when that happens. So, the disruption

is the kind of, well, I was going to say interruption, but that comes later, but it's very similar

when you're stopped. Something is flowing nicely, something is going on nicely, and

if you disrupt it, you break, you break it up, you stop it happening, so that's disrupt.

Okay. Right, so next one is erupt, just with the letter E in front, erupt, and we've got

erupted, erupting, eruption. So, eruption is the noun. Erupt is the verb. Okay, to erupt.

So, the volcano erupts every few years. So, you know what a volcano is, a mountain with

a hole in the top, and fire and smoke come out now and again, sometimes regularly. Some

volcanoes seem to not be very active, but sometimes they take you by surprise and start

smoking and flames and all this stuff pouring out of it, the lava pouring out. So, that's

an eruption because things are breaking up out of the top, they're bursting out of the

top of the volcano, so that's the idea. Okay, so to erupt. This word can also be used not

literally for volcanoes, but it can also be used metaphorically. If a person erupts, they

usually get angry if somebody seems quite calm, but suddenly they lose their temper

and they start shouting and it's sort of unexpected. They're erupting in anger. And also you can

use it metaphorically if there's a demonstration going on in the street, and it's a peaceful

demonstration. It's planned to be peaceful, just a peaceful demonstration, but a couple

of hours later if people start fighting and causing conflict and it becomes violent, you

can say the demonstration began peacefully, but later erupted in violence. So that's the

metaphorical use of "erupt". Okay.

And finally, we have "interrupt", which I mentioned earlier. It's a bit like "disrupt".

Very similar, really. It's a sort of cut into something and stop it. So, interrupted, interrupting,

interruption. So, "interrupt" is the verb, "interruption" is the noun. So, our example

is "The phone rang and interrupted our chat." If you're having a nice chat with a friend,

nice talk, conversation, and then the phone rings, you have to stop your talk and pick

the phone up and answer it. So, "The phone rang and interrupted our chat." It cuts across

your talk. You have to stop talking, answer the phone, listen to who it is. It's often

just an unwanted sales call and you wish you hadn't picked it up. So, but it still interrupted

your chat. Okay, so those are the six words, and now we're going to go on in the second

part of the lesson to have some sentences with the... With gaps for you to decide which

word belongs in the gap. Okay. Okay, so the second part of the lesson, we have our six

words and we have some sentences with some gaps, and for you to decide which word belongs

in each sentence. Okay. So, let's look at the first one. "If our finances", that's our

money, "If our finances don't improve soon", if they don't get better soon, "we will go

n-rut". Okay. I'll just read through all of the sentences first, and then we'll go back

and fill them in, and that will give you time to put your... Write down your own answers.

Okay. So, next one. "It's rude to n-rut when someone is speaking." So, "rude" means not

nice, not polite, to "n-rut" when someone is speaking. Okay, next one. "The mountain

is smoking. Is it going to n-rut?" Okay. Smoking, smoke, coming up. Next one. "The football

match was _______ when spectators", that's people who've been watching the match, when

spectators, "ran onto the pitch". The pitch is the area where the players are playing

the game, so they can't carry on playing the game if spectators are running onto the pitch.

That happens sometimes, as you probably know. So, they have to stop the game and get the

spectators off the pitch so that they can continue. Okay. Next one. "Politicians should

try to avoid any form of _______." So, politicians, people in politics, should try to avoid, meaning

not get involved in any form, any type, any kind of _______. Okay. And finally, "He is

an impatient man." So, "impatient", that means he's not patient. "Im-" is the negative prefix.

Have a look at our other lesson on negative prefixes. "He is an impatient man", so that

means he doesn't have a lot of time for people. He doesn't have the patience to listen and

take time and give a nice answer. He is an impatient man. He's always in a hurry. And

often speaks _______ to people. So, it's about the way he speaks to people which shows what

an impatient person he is. Okay. So, let's go back now and fill in the gaps. I hope you've

already chosen from the list here. Right. So, first of all, "If our finances don't improve

soon we will go", so it's about money. So, which one of these is about money, losing

your money, spending all your money and having none left? Where do you keep your money? Sometimes

in the... In the bank. So... So, "We will go bankrupt", right? "If our finances don't

improve soon we will go bankrupt", right? So, that's that one.

Next, "It's rude", not nice, not polite, to _______ when someone is speaking. Which one

did you choose for that? So, when you break into somebody's speaking, you break up, you

stop them talking. "It's rude to interrupt", yeah? Okay. "Interrupt", when you come between

them and what they're saying, you stop them by talking. If you say something yourself,

it often stops the other person talking. "Interrupt" when someone is speaking. Okay. "Interrupt",

there we go.

Next one, "The mountain is smoking", there's smoke coming up out of the mountaintop. Is

it going to... Which one should it be? This is a volcano, isn't it? So, which one is the

volcano? That one? "Erupt", "erupt". So, "erupt", is it going to erupt? There we go.

Right, next one. "The football match was _______ when spectators ran onto the pitch." So, what

do we have left? Which one did you choose? "The football match was", we can't have "interrupted",

we've already used that, although it would make sense. You can say the match was interrupted,

but this one is more extreme because it's a bit extreme for the... It's a bit unusual

for the spectators to go onto the pitch. So, this is a stronger word, really, than "interrupted".

So, this one, "disrupted", it's slightly stronger than just "interrupted". "Disrupted" is more

serious. Okay. So, "The football match was disrupted." Okay? Good.

Next one. "Politicians should try to avoid any form of _______." That one? "Corruption".

Okay. So, "corruption", double "r", any form of corruption. Right, so it's easy to see

what the last one is, it's the only one we have left. "He is an impatient man and often

speaks abruptly to people." There we are. Abruptly to people. Okay. Right, so I hope

you did well there. We also have a quiz on the website, www.engvid.com, so please go

and try that as well. I hope you found the lesson useful for vocabulary and adding some

more words to your list of the English words that you know, and ways of using them in sentences.

So, thanks for watching, and see you again soon. Bye for now.