ENGLISH FLUENCY SECRETS | DON'T use BAD in English

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to  my English lessons where I try to help you to  

speak better English and to use better English.  So hopefully you'll be able to understand what  

I'm going to cover today. And if you've got  any problems or any questions when of course,  

you can contact me and I'll give you my  contact details as always, at the end of  

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Okay, so what are we going to talk about today?  Well, we're going to talk about words for bad  

in English or ways to say bad in English, and  what we're specifically referring to is not just  

bad words, now when we're talking about bad  service, or in particular bad customer service, so  

ways to say bad in English, or when we're  referring to a bad service or bad customer  

service. So you might have a situation when the  service was so bad. And you said to your friend,  

wow, I'm never going to use that company. Again,  the service is so bad. I ordered that package.  

And I was told it would be two days here I'm  waiting normally 20 days, it's really, really  

bad. I don't know how they sent it. Maybe somebody  is walking with it, but I haven't got it yet,  

I would have thought I would have got it. If not  two days, maybe three or four. So that services  

so bad, it's terrible. So let's look at other  ways in which we might describe it. As always,  

I'm going to go through them one by one. And  then I'll give you some examples. And then we'll  

take it from there. Okay, so here they are. Poor,  atrocious, terrible, unprofessional, horrendous,  

appalling, unacceptable, shocking, lousy, sub-par,  disappointing, inadequate, and finally, mediocre.  

Okay, now again, some of them are a little  bit more formal than others, some of them  

very informal. And we'll, we'll cover those  as we go through them. So let me give you  

some examples. So the first one is  poor. Well, a poor service doesn't mean  

it doesn't cost a lot of money. A poor person has  no money. A poor service just means bad. Okay,  

so you could have a poor service on the internet.  Yeah. So you log on and you're trying to get your  

your colleagues on Skype or whatever it is. And  there's a lot of breakdowns, or they can't see  

you or the picture freezes as this internet is  so poor. Yeah, the service today is very poor,  

or the connection today is very poor. So you can  refer to it in that way. If you get a poor service  

from a company, that just means their responses  are bad perhaps, when you try to get onto their  

internet site to send in a request for something  that it breaks down or it hangs or it's you just  

can't get in. Yeah, so that's a good example  of poor service. or indeed, if you do manage  

to get onto the website and you send an email  requesting whatever you're you're looking for,  

and you get no response after one day or two days,  you might regard that as a poor service. Because  

in the modern world, we're usually looking for  something to be very prompt, you know, we want  

service like that, and we don't get it like  that, then we automatically say it's poor.  

So poor is not always so bad. Okay. It's just  you know, there are degrees of how bad things  

can be. But if we use the word atrocious,  but atrocious is a really strong adjective to  

describe something that is bad. So you go into the  restaurant, you order the food, and when it comes,  

it's cold, it's lumpy. It doesn't smell so  well. It certainly doesn't taste as it's  

described on the menu. And it's just absolutely  atrocious. So you complain about the food,  

or the food might be good, but the service you  got was terrible. The waiters come to you after  

15 minutes sitting at the table, they saw the  throw the menu across the table at you, they don't  

greet you or anything like that. And they  come back down another 10 minutes later,  

and they take your order, and then they go away.  And then you know, it seems like a lifetime before  

the food arrives and the plate has half dropped  in front of you. It might taste very well, but the  

service was atrocious. And when you fill in that  form that they often leave on the table in front  

of you, you make sure to tick the box to say I  wouldn't recommend this to anybody. I certainly  

wouldn't come back again because you believed  the service is atrocious. Really, really bad. And  

another word similar to atrocious is terrible. So  it could be terrible service, atrocious service.

The service in the restaurant was terrible  last week because there were so many people  

there that it was crowded. They didn't  have waiters and waitresses, and usually,  

it's pretty good. So yeah, you never have had an  opportunity to complain before because usually  

you go there and everything is good. So, you  know, it's not the worst you've ever had. But  

the service was terrible. I mean, overall,  the service you got was really terrible.  

If you want to use the word  unprofessional now, on professional  

can mean lots of things. Yeah. So professional  usually means really tight and accurate, and very,  

very good. And unprofessional would be the  opposite. So perhaps, if you were going to a  

legal firm or lawyer, or you're going to an  accountant, or somebody who you'd expect to  

keep your information, private, well, then if  they disclose your information to somebody else,  

well, then you would have reason to say that that  service is very unprofessional. Yeah. So if they  

mentioned your name to somebody  else, or indeed, if they mentioned,  

somebody that you knew to you, when that person  isn't there, well, then you would consider  

that service to be very unprofessional. So if you  went into an accountant, and he's asking you about  

your business, how's the business going and what's  happening? And you're telling him that things are  

a little difficult, but you know, things are  looking okay. And you know, you've got some  

new accounts, and you're just talking to him about  getting your accounts finalised for last year. And  

he happens to mention your Yeah, Mike in the high  street to his businesses really in trouble. And  

you happen to know Mike, but you don't expect the  accountant to tell you, you know, maybe might tell  

you, but maybe he wouldn't want people to know. So  you go out to the office thinking Hmm, if he tells  

me about Mike, what is he telling Mike, about  me or other people. So from that point of view,  

you might classify and regard that service as  a very unprofessional and unprofessional way  

to do it. Because if you give information to  people like that, they should keep it quiet.  

The next two words will also describe poor  service, horrendous and appalling. Now,  

these words can always also be used for describing  other things because they're adjectives. So we  

could talk about the weather, and the values to  use all these adjectives. I could describe the  

Irish weather very well, because yesterday,  it rained all day. So it was horrendous. The  

weather was appalling. Okay. But if we're talking  about service, then, of course, we can use, we had  

horrendous service, appalling service. So usually  a service that doesn't meet your expectations,  

or doesn't meet the service that you had expected  to get. So it could be in the local supermarket.  

So perhaps you're standing in the checkout queue  for a long, long time. And you're there are maybe  

three or four other checkout lines, but there's  nobody there. So the line is getting bigger and  

bigger, and people are getting more and more  impatient. And people are just, you know,  

muttering and there's a little bit of annoyance,  and, you know, people are trying to get the  

manager's attention to seek and they put somebody  else on one or the other checkout line. So  

they are talking to each other isn't this service,  it's appalling art. It's always the same here on a  

Friday, they never have enough staff that always  too many people, I think I'm going to have to  

go to another supermarket. It's horrendous. It's  appalling to have to wait so long, we are spending  

good money in this shop, you think the least they  could do is have enough people on the checkouts.  

They don't even have an express checkout. I  mean, every supermarket these days has an express  

checkout line, or I think they're going to put one  in I heard they had a few problems. So you know,  

people are trying to make some allowances  for it. But yet, they're getting a little  

bit annoyed or browned off, as we say, because  the service is appalling, or it's horrendous.  

Okay, we use the word unacceptable when we  talk about service, unacceptable service. So  

unacceptable means something that you are not  prepared to accept or something that somebody  

shouldn't have to accept. It's unacceptable  service. Okay. So if you're applying for  

some say, to renew your passport, and usually when  you renew the passport, it's only once every five  

or 10 years, so you don't have to do it. So often.  You go to the passport office as a big notice that  

tells you that there's a delay expected of six  to eight weeks. Wow. So you, you look at this  

and think this is just totally unacceptable.  What am I supposed to do, I've got a holiday  

booked for the end of the month. And here we are  at the beginning of the month, there's a delay  

of six weeks, I have to cancel the holiday. And  there's no contact number. So you go back home,

you log on to the site and you see the form  you have to have and then at the end you see a  

little pop up that says in the case of emergency,  please contact this number. So at least There's  

someplace to ring and complain. But overall,  the service that you have seen is totally  

unacceptable for a government department,  the passport office delays of six to eight  

weeks posting in your passport, completely  unacceptable for you completely unacceptable.  

As I say, there are many, many ways in  which we can describe bad service. So  

we can say that the service is shocking. Very  British English. It's shocking this shocking  

service. I don't know what I have to do. You know,  they, they get plenty of money. They got a nose,  

they charge enough as an expression, you'll  often hear from people. But this service is just  

shocking. Yeah, I have just gone to go somewhere  else. So the person has walked out of the shop and  

never to be seen again. Shocking. So something  that we can also say words like lousy or crap,  

that's another word you'll often hear. So lousy  very, very informative. What a lousy service.  

What a crap service. Yeah. So we could use that to  describe perhaps the bus service. This is a really  

well used and situation and an area where people  always complain, public services, particularly  

public transport, you know, you're standing at  the bus stop. And the classic situation is you  

look at the timetable on the schedule, and  the bus should have been here 10 minutes ago,  

but it's not. And then you look around the five  or six or eight people are here, this service,  

it's lousy. I mean, they never have enough buses.  And guess what? One bus will come? And they'll be  

two of them together. And as you look around  the corner, yep, two buses are coming together  

the same number some hold up somewhere, perhaps  it was traffic. But yeah, this all adds to a bad  

service allows you so as a crap service. So these  are the situations when we would usually use those  

words are lousy or crap, we wouldn't say shocking.  Yeah. Because it's nothing shocking about In fact,  

you're used to it. So all you're doing is  repeating something that's every time we get  

here. It never changes. Yeah, you come to this  bus stop. You're gonna wait, yeah, the bus that  

you're expected to get. It'll always be late. The  one you get, it will be delayed. So you're never  

quite sure which bus you're getting. So it's a  lousy service as a crap service. And what's the  

point of complaining because they're not going  to do anything about, okay, they'll, they'll  

make excuses that it's the traffic, it's too slow.  The government haven't approved the bus lanes too  

many people in cars, whatever the excuse is, is  never going to change. So every time you go for  

that boss yet, the service is going to be crappy,  it's going to be crap, or it's going to be lousy.  

We can also talk about service being sub-par.  Okay, now par, is that a golfing term? Yeah,  

so if you're, if anybody plays golf, there's  a certain number of shots, you get to get the  

ball into the hole. So it's a par four, you  have four shots, but if it's sub-par, okay,  

it's below that. And when we talk about a service  being sub-par, it's below what is expected. Okay,  

something below what is expected. So if you expect  this type of service, and the service doesn't meet  

your requirements, then you can describe it as a  sub, par service. Okay? So it could be just simply  

getting your clothes from the dry cleaners, you're  busy and you don't have time. So you're running  

on your way to work, you drop in jackets or cold  or trousers, whatever they happen to be. You get  

your ticket, and you're told they'll be ready for  collection tomorrow afternoon. So on their way  

back from the in the afternoon, the next day you  call in. But the clothes are not ready. In fact,  

they can't even find them. And they say, Oh, look,  just leave with me. Can you call back tomorrow? So  

next day, they say, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, they're  here, but we haven't got them finished yet. So  

they'll be ready on Friday. So you come back  and Friday, and yet they're ready, but it's been  

a week, longer than you expected. So you could  describe that service as sub-par something below  

what you had expected. Okay? Now, interestingly,  if you play golf, and you, instead of being a  

four, you get a three as really, really good.  That's a positive, but when we talk about some  

point in terms of service, it's really really bad.  So even though the word pa is connected with golf,  

if you get something two or three in golf, you'll  be celebrating for weeks and weeks and weeks,  

but if you get a sub-par service, you're going  to be complaining for weeks and weeks and weeks.

Okay, and the next three words we can take them  together disappointing, mediocre, and inadequate.  

Okay, so when a service is disappointing,  it just leaves you feeling sad and unhappy  

about it. There's nothing you can do last just a  very disappointing service. I'll give you a good  

example. I I buy my books from an online bookstore  because I think you get better value and you can  

always get books that are slightly out of print,  but I was buying a collection of four books in  

one about one story. So they were connected. So  there's no point reading one if I didn't read the  

other three books, but I got two of them. And then  the second book didn't arrive in the time that I  

thought and I was waiting, I didn't want to start  the other books because they'd be out of sequence.  

So I checked it online. And they said, Oh, yes,  it gives another 10 days, it should be there.  

10 days, no sign of the book. And then there  was another five days. And after about 20 days,  

the book finally arrived. And I found that the  book had been posted from Melbourne and Australia,  

sort of crazy now. So the service there for me was  really disappointing. I wanted to start the books,  

I couldn't stop them. Because if I started, I'd  be out of sequence with the books. And I like  

to have all of them there together. So for me, the  service was not only disappointing, it was totally  

inadequate, it didn't meet my expectations. And  when something is inadequate, it doesn't get  

you what you want here. And adequate service  is you getting the books, when you expect to  

get them or getting the service completed when  you expect to get it and anything below that  

is in adequate. It's the opposite is not what  you need is not what you expected. So it's a  

disappointing or an in adequate service. Okay. And  then when something is mediocre, mediocre is is  

just acceptable, but just about Yeah. So what was  the performance like a mediocre, they didn't play?  

Great. They didn't play so badly. But no, it  wasn't something exciting, it was mediocre. So  

we can say the same. When we talk about service,  it might be acceptable, but nothing great. And as  

we say in English, nothing to write home about  it was just a mediocre middle of the road type  

of service, not something that would make you  feel as if you were something special or that you  

they really wanted your business, it was just a  mediocre service. So it could be the takeaway,  

when you want something you expect to get it  within a reasonable amount of time. So you're  

ordering the pizzas or whatever the food happens  to be for the family meal, and it doesn't arrive  

on time. So the family are getting a little bit  edgy. You're going a little bit edgy people are  

saying where's the food? Would you not ring them  again. And so everybody's just a now you knew. And  

you're tapping your fingers under the table  and looking at your watch and looking at the  

mobile phone. And then eventually ding dong, Ding  dong bell rings, and there they are. So you give  

the guy the money, but you don't give them a tip  because the service was really mediocre. It should  

have been there 30 minutes before that. Okay,  so another way to refer to bad service. Okay,  

so their words and expressions connected with bad  service. Let me give them to you one more time.  

Poor atrocious, terrible, unprofessional,  horrendous. appalling, unacceptable, shocking,  

lousy, crap or crappy service, disappointing,  inadequate, and finally, mediocre. So all of  

them connected with bad service, some of them are  more formal than others, some of them informal,  

but will give you lots of opportunities. If you,  unfortunately, suffer from a bad service at least  

you'll have many ways in which you can describe  it. Okay, great. Well, that's the end of this  

particular lesson and I hope you enjoy it and  I hope you get out of it what you want if you  

have any questions, and you can contact me at  www.englishlessonviaskype.com and I'm always  

very happy to hear from you and as I said before,  don't forget to subscribe to the channel so that  

you can get to watch this whenever you wish. Okay,  well thanks for joining me and join me again soon.