English Test: Advanced English Vocabulary

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

Hmm, do you know these tricky words? Can you use  them correctly in English? Let's talk about it. 

Have you ever experienced this before?  You're having an English conversation  

and then all of a sudden bleh, bleh, bleh, you  don't have the word that you're searching for.  

It's somewhere in there, but it's covered with  dust and you just can't search for it and reach  

for it at the right time. Well, never fear,  today, in this lesson, I'm going to help you  

master some tricky words in English and  hopefully make them easier for you to understand. 

To help you with this process, I have created a  free PDF worksheet that you can download with the  

link in the description. In this PDF worksheet,  you can find all of the sample sentences, all  

of the meanings, some little tips and tricks for  how to use these words, and at the end of the PDF,  

you can answer Vanessa's Challenge Question so  that you can use and remember what you've learned.  

For all of these tricky words, I'm going to be  quizzing you. I'll give you a sentence and you  

need to choose which of the two words fits best  in that sentence and, of course, as your teacher,  

I will be giving you some explanations to help  you so that you can feel empowered to use them  

yourself. But be careful, one of these questions  is a trick question. Are you ready? Let's start. 

I can't believe how ... your son is now. Last  time I saw him, he was only four years old.  

I can't believe how high your son is.  I can't believe how tall your son is.  

Which one of these simple words, but it's  a little bit tricky which one is correct,  

which one of these words is right? And only one  of them is correct. I'll give you three seconds to  

think. 3, 2, 1. I can't believe how tall your son  is now. Hmm, if we said, "I can't believe how high  

your son is now," do you know what that means? It  means that he is taking drugs. If someone is high,  

that means they're taking drugs. But if  someone is tall, that means that they are,  

well, tall. Taller than someone who is short. So here's a little tip and trick for how to  

use high versus tall. Usually we use high for  something that's not touching the ground. So  

you could say the airplane is high. Or, sometimes  we say the airplane is high up. It's not touching  

the ground. But you can say the building is tall  because the building is touching the ground.  

Your son is tall because his feet are touching  the ground. So we have this difference between  

high and tall, two seemingly simple words that  can be tricky if you use them in the wrong way. 

All right, are you ready for the second  one? Let's do it. Boy, have I had a ... day!  

Boy, have I had a mad day! Boy, have I had a crazy  day! Hmm, which one of these words is best to use?  

2, 1. Boy, have I had a crazy day! Oh, when  something is crazy, it feels out of control,  

so many things are happening. When something  is mad, well, we usually use this for people.  

I'm mad. I'm angry. But the thing that's  tricky here, and a little tip for you,  

is that in Old English, the word mad was often  substituted for the word crazy. So take a look  

at this movie poster. This is a famous movie  and it's called It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  

They're not talking about being angry; they're  talking about being crazy. This world is crazy.  

But nowadays we never use the word mad in this  type of situation. We only use the word crazy.  

So if you're talking about something that's hectic  and chaotic and it's out of control, it is crazy.  

It's not mad. You are mad, you're angry. But  when something is out of control, it's crazy. 

Tricky word pair number three: His essay  about courage was only one sentence,  

"This is courage," and the  rest of the paper was ...  

Hmm, the rest of the paper was blank.  The rest of the paper was empty. Hmm,  

which one of these two words is best to use. I'll  give you three seconds to think about it. Hmm,  

the rest of the paper was blank. Usually,  something that's flat is blank, so a piece  

of paper with nothing on it is blank. What  about empty? Well, you can't really pour water  

into a piece of paper, we need a container.  Well, if there is nothing in a container,  

it's empty. This is the idea here: something  that's flat is blank and something that can be ...  

have something go inside of it, can be filled  with something else, a container, is empty. 

There is one phrase that I'd like to share with  you that kind of breaks this rule or we should say  

bends this rule a little bit, and that  is when we say my mind is blank. Well,  

your brain is not really flat, but it's  not really a typical container that can  

just have something poured into it, but  we use this phrase, "My mind is blank,"  

to mean I can't think of the answer. I don't  know what you're talking about. I have nothing  

going on here. My mind is blank. Sorry, I  can't remember what to say. My mind is blank. 

Wonderful. All right, let's go to the next  pair. I'm so excited about my ... car.  

I'm so excited about my young car. I'm so excited  about my new car. Which one of these is best?  

I'm so excited about my new car. Well, usually we  use new for things and young for people. The child  

is young. The car is new. But a little  tip, there is an exception to this,  

something that can use both new and young,  and that is a country. So we might say,  

"Well, relative to other countries, the United  States is a young country," or "The United  

States is a new country. It wasn't United under  one leader until the last couple hundred years,  

but a lot of countries have been around for a  long time." So we might say the United States  

is a new country or the United States is  a relatively young country. For a country,  

we can use either of these words. My cat learned a new trick. He's so ... Hmm,  

he's so smart; he's so wise. Which  one of these is the best for my cat?  

3, 2, 1. My cat learned a new trick. He's  so smart. The cat is smart, but the old man  

is wise. Usually, we use smart for some kind of  innate knowledge, something that's inside of you,  

but it can also be learned knowledge. So what's  the difference between smart and wise? Well, wise  

usually has to do with making good decisions. It's  not about knowing the correct answer. It's about a  

deeper type of knowledge about the world  and that comes from a lot of experience.  

You're not born being wise. Only people who have  a lot of life experience can be wise. So in this  

situation, my cat learned a new trick. He's pretty  smart, but he doesn't have life experience that he  

can share with other cats. He's not very wise, but  you know what, sometimes he can be pretty smart. 

The movie star drove a ... car.  The movie star drove a rich car  

or the movie star drove an expensive car. Which  one of these two words about money is correct?  

I'll give you three seconds. 3, 2, 1.  The movie star drove an expensive car.  

Rich is for people. The movie star is rich,  but expensive is for things. The car is  

expensive. This is an excellent distinction.  People are rich; things are expensive. 

The thief broke into the safe and stole  something ... And stole something valuable?  

And stole something invaluable? Which one of these  is correct? 3, 2, 1. The thief broke into the safe  

and stole something valuable. Or, the thief broke  into the safe and stole something invaluable.  

Sorry, this was the trick question. Both  of these words, valuable and invaluable,  

have a similar meaning. Now, the thing that's  weird about this is that usually in-, the prefix  

in-, makes it a negative word. But what about  this valuable, invaluable? They have very  

similar meanings and let me tell you about it. The Royal jewels are valuable. This means that  

they're expensive. They have a big cost. They have  a lot of value. The Royal jewels are valuable. But  

if we said the Royal jewels are invaluable,  this implies that, yes, they're expensive,  

but they also have another layer of value. Maybe  it's some kind of personal value. It's some kind  

of value that we can't even imagine. It's so  important that we can't even put a number on it.  

We can't say that is $1,000 because there's a kind  of deeper value. So if there is something that is  

passed down in your family, maybe it's something  that's invaluable. Your great grandmother made  

a quilt and it's been passed down in your  family. Well, that quilt is invaluable. No  

amount of money can put a price on how  important that is to you. It's invaluable. 

So some things are both valuable and  invaluable, like the Royal jewels,  

but maybe your great-grandmother's quilt  isn't worth a lot of money, maybe it's not  

valuable, but it is invaluable to you. It  is more than important to you. What about  

learning English? Learning English is a valuable  skill. Great, it's something that's important.  

But you can also say learning English is an  invaluable skill. You cannot place a dollar  

value on learning English because the ways that  English can change your life is without a price.  

There's so many wonderful things that can happen  when you can speak confidently, understand other  

people, travel easily, have great work relations.  This is invaluable. It's not just a dollar number,  

it's something in your heart as well. Great. Do you ... the teacher's name? Do you remind  

the teacher's name? Do you remember the  teacher's name? Hmm, remind, remember,  

I'll give you three seconds. 3, 2, 1.  Do you remember the teacher's name?  

This is a common mistake I often hear English  learners make. They say, "Can you remember me  

about the test tomorrow?" The biggest difference  between remind and remember is who is doing it.  

Who is the subject? So let's take a look  at these two sentences. You will remember  

the teacher's name. Who is remembering? It's  you. You will remember the teacher's name. 

But take a look at this one: "I will  remind you of the teacher's name."  

I'm the one who's speaking. I will remind you of  the teacher's name. So it depends on who is the  

subject. Usually, students need to remember about  a test, but if a student forgets about a test,  

the teacher will remind the students about a test.  So make sure as an English learner that you do  

not say, "Can you remember me about the event?"  No. If someone else is helping you, you can say,  

"Can you remind me about the event?" "Hey, would  you mind sending me a text? Can you remind me  

about the event? That would be really helpful  because I often forget about these types of  

things. It's difficult for me to remember, so can  you remind me about the event, please? Excellent." 

My ... sister loves to ride horses. My little  sister loves to ride horses or my small sister  

loves to ride horses. Which one of these is best?  And there's only one answer here. 3, 2, 1. My  

little sister loves to ride horses. Maybe you  learned a long time ago in elementary school,  

I have a younger sister. I have an older  sister and, yes, in daily conversation  

we use young and old, but we also use little and  big as well. So you might say I have a big sister.  

I have a little sister. I have a big brother. I  have a little brother. We also use little and big  

for people when they're related to us, especially  for a sibling, a brother or a sister. For small,  

usually this is for an item. My sister's clothes  are small. The shoes are too small. For the word  

small, when we're talking about an item, well, we  often use both of these words. If I said that the  

butterfly is very small. The butterfly is very  little. Look at the little butterfly. Look at this  

small butterfly. Both of these are fine. They're  for non-human things. The shirt is too small. The  

shirt is too little. I can't wear it anymore.  It's too little. It's too small for items,  

but for people, when we're talking about your  relations, your brother or sister, we can use  

my little sister or my big sister. Excellent. My computer is from 2005. It's so ...  

It's so antique or it's so old, which one of  these words is the best in this sentence? Three,  

two, what? My computer is from 2005. It's so old.  For an electronic, this is pretty old. Usually,  

we don't have electronics for 16 years. It's a  little bit unusual so we could say it's so old.  

Now, technically, I think the real definition of  the word antique is something that's 100 years old  

or older. But in colloquial daily conversation,  sometimes we use this in a more flexible way. So  

you might say, "The record player is an antique"  or "It's antique," and maybe it's from the 1940s.  

That's not technically 100 years, but it's  something that's old. It's really old. At least,  

it seems really old and that's what we're talking  about here is relatively, does it seem old?  

It doesn't have to be exactly 100 years old,  but we could say that record player is an  

antique. It's been passed down from my  grandparents and it's really cool. It still works.  

That is an antique, using it as a noun,  or it's antique, using it as an adjective. 

I do want to let you know, as a little bonus  tip, that sometimes we use the word antique as  

an exaggeration. So back to the original example  of my computer from 2005, this is really old  

for a computer, right? I imagine most of you  don't still have the same computer from 2005.  

So you could say, "Yeah, I still have my computer  from 2005. It's practically an antique." So we  

can add that word practically, "It's pretty  much an antique. I can't believe I still have  

it." So we're kind of softening the language a  little bit because antique is really something  

pretty old, but for an electronic, 2005 is  relatively old so we could say, "My computer is  

practically an antique. I can't believe it's  still working. It's practically an antique." 

You're already finished eating? Did you even ...  the salmon? What can we say here? Did you even  

taste the salmon? Did you even eat the salmon?  Which one of these words is the best here?  

3, 2, 1. You're already finished  eating? Did you even taste the salmon?  

Now, both of these words have to do with your  tongue and food, but the difference here is that  

taste is for a small bite. "Did you even taste  the salmon?" compared to "I ate the salmon."  

That means you pretty much finished the salmon.  We often use this for children and say, "Just  

taste the food and give it a try." This means  just a small bite and you can judge if it's  

something that you would like more of or you  don't want any more of it. Just give it a taste.  

Just have a little taste and  see what you think about it. 

Your new haircut ... like it's  comfortable for the hot summer weather.  

Your new haircut looks like it's comfortable.  Your new haircut appears like it's comfortable.  

Which one of these is the best here. As you  can tell, a lot of these words seem to have  

a similar meaning, but their nuances are important  to know so that you use them correctly. I'll give  

you three seconds. 3, 2, 1. Your new haircut looks  like it's comfortable for the hot summer weather.  

If you have a short haircut especially,  this can be very comfortable for hot  

summer weather. Unlike my hair, my hair is always  very hot so I almost always wear it up because  

it's not comfortable in the hot summer weather. So what's the difference between look and appear?  

Let me take a look at these sentences with  you. Your haircut looks like it's comfortable.  

Your haircut appears to be comfortable. When I  say your haircut looks like it's comfortable,  

okay, that's just a statement. When I see your  haircut, it looks comfortable. But when I say  

your haircut appears to be comfortable,  we have an underlying nuance here.  

That means it appears, on the surface, it  appears to be comfortable, but really it's not. 

Let me give you a common situation where we  use a appear. Everyone on Instagram appears  

to be having a great life. If you've ever  looked at Instagram, you know that that's  

the way it seems. People choose the best pictures,  happiest family, wonderful vacations, great food,  

but life isn't always like that. Life  is real and not always perfect. That's  

not possible. So we can use this word, appear,  to show the difference between the appearance  

and reality. Everyone on Instagram appears to be  having a nice life. But I know that in reality,  

that's not the case. So if you ever follow a  certain people on social media and it seems  

like their life is great and then all of a sudden,  they say, "Actually we're getting a divorce," oh,  

it might be really shocking to you because they  seem to be having a great life, they're appearing  

to have a great life, and then in reality, that's  not the case. So we often use the word appear to  

show this difference between what something  seems like or looks like and the reality. 

Great, all right, let's go to our next pair of  tricky words. I try to ... my house at the end  

of the day. I try to clean my house or I try to  wash my house. 3, 2, 1. I try to clean my house  

at the end of the day. The biggest difference  between these two words is that clean is general  

and wash always involves water. So we could  use both of these words to talk about a carpet.  

I tried to clean the carpet. Okay, maybe there's  a spot and you're trying to get the spot out.  

Or, maybe you're taking some toys off of the  carpet or you're trying to get a couple things  

off of the carpet. But if we say I'm trying to  wash the carpet, that means you are soaking it  

in water. Maybe you're using a washing machine.  Maybe you're using some kind of a carpet  

cleaner device, but it always includes water. I have a weird ... about this. I have a weird  

emotion about this or I have a weird feeling about  this. Which one of these two words is best? 3, 2,  

1. I have a weird feeling about this. Do you ever  say anything in your native language and you don't  

know exactly why you say that, but you know it's  right? This is how I feel about these two words,  

emotion and feeling. Now, psychologists generally  break these two words into saying that emotions  

are physical and feelings are mental, but it was a  little bit confusing to me to try to read articles  

and break it down and explain it to you. So,  instead, we're going to take a look at some fixed  

phrases that use emotion or feel and feeling  so that you can use them correctly yourself. 

I felt a lack of emotion when I was fired from my  job. I just didn't care. I felt a lack of emotion.  

So here, emotion might be sadness, anger.  These are emotions. I felt a lack of emotion  

when I was fired from my job, I just didn't  care. Why did he feel a lack of emotion?  

It seems like something you should feel emotional  about. Take a look at this sentence: But later I  

had some strong feelings about being fired. So  maybe in the moment you had a lack of emotion,  

but later you had some strong feelings  about it. It's something that you can't  

really stop. It just comes from inside of  you. So at our original sentence when I said  

I have a weird feeling about this, there's  something inside of me. It wasn't conscious;  

it's just a weird feeling. As I walked down that  dark street, I had a weird feeling about this,  

kind of my intuition. Or, in our second example,  we'd say, I had some strong feelings about being  

fired later on. So something that came  from within me, some strong feelings. 

I'd like to give you a phrase that you can use  either emotions or feelings with. You could say,  

"I have mixed emotions about moving to a new  city" or "I have mixed feelings about moving  

to a new city." In this phrase, to have  mixed feelings or to have mixed emotions,  

you can use either of these words. This means  sometimes I feel really excited about it, but  

I'm going to miss my family and, oh, I can't wait  for new adventures, but, oh, I'm not sure if I'll  

succeed. You have mixed emotions or mixed feelings  about moving to a new city. So as you can see,  

there are some exceptions to this as well. So how did you do? Some of these words appear  

to be easy, but, remember, the more you practice,  the better it will be. So don't forget to download  

the free PDF worksheet for all of these tricky  pairs of words that appear to be simple, but are  

actually a little bit tricky. When you download  the PDF worksheet, you can review everything  

that you learned in this lesson and you can also  answer Vanessa's Challenge Question at the end of  

the worksheet so that you'll never forget what  you've learned. And now, I have a question for  

you. Let me know, do you have a little sister or  a little brother? Let me know in the comments.  

I can't wait to learn more about you and about  your family, and I'll see you again next Friday  

for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free PDF  

worksheet for this lesson. With this  free PDF, you will master today's lesson  

and never forget what you have learned. You  can be a confident English speaker. Don't  

forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.