ENGLISH FOR BEGINNERS: 12 Confusing Words

“Famous” or “popular”? “Latest” or “last”? Learn the difference between 6 pairs of words in English that learners often find confusing. In this English vocabulary class, you’ll learn when exactly to use each word, so you don’t get them mixed up any more. I’ll teach you the difference between: “older” & “bigger”, “younger” & “smaller”, “last” & “latest”, “lost” & “missed”, “high” & “tall”, “famous” & “popular”, and “younger” & “bigger”. After watching, take the quiz to make sure you’ve got it! Get private tutoring and more English resources on my website: More of my videos about confusing English! “.“ WHAT??? “She“ or “her“? “He“ or “his“? Subjective & Objective Pronouns In this lesson: 0:00 12 Confusing Words in English 0:27 “older“ or “bigger“? 1:32 “younger“ or “smaller“? 2:27 “high“ or “tall“ 5:48 “famous“ or “popular“ 6:52 “last“ or “latest“? 7:37 “lost“ or “missed“? TRANSCRIPT: Let’s play a game. Let’s play the game of confusing adjectives, shall we? It’ll be fun, it’ll be great. It’s like a game show. Okay? So, my name’s Ronnie, I’m the host of the game show. Let me get my microphone. Ah, ah, ah. Hello. Check, check, one, two. We’re coming to you live over the internet, and we’re going to play the game of... Which adjective do I choose in this sentence? Because they’re really confusing, and I don’t know, so let’s do it. First one, the difference... I don’t need the mic. The difference between “older“ and “bigger“. So, I hear people say “my bigger brother“ or “my bigger sister“, and I’m like, is your sister, like, physically a lot larger than you are, or is your brother or sister older? So, this is confusing in English, because in a lot of different languages, you have one word to describe someone who’s not as young as you are, but in English, it can get confusing. So, when we talk about someone being older, it’s always about age. And when we talk about something being bigger, it’s a size. So, if I say my brother is taller than me, and I want to tell you that I’m not as old as he is, I would say “my brother is older than me“. We don’t want to say “bigger“, because usually we don’t talk about the size. Maybe we can, but it’s kind of unusual. It’s the same with “younger“ and “smaller“. So, I have an older brother and a younger brother. It gets confusing because you hear people say “I have a big brother“. Okay, that’s okay, but not “bigger“. So, if you say “my big brother“, it’s kind of childish, but that’s okay. We don’t say “my small sister“. Yeah, my big brother, my small sister. So, again, when we talk about someone being younger, it’s their age, and again, smaller is always size. You’re not going to go to McDonald’s and get a younger fries. You’re going to want smaller fries. Okay? Or small fries, not smaller. So, my sister is probably younger than you. She can be smaller, but that’s not what we’re talking about right now. This one hurts my brain sometimes, and if it hurts my brain, can’t imagine what it’s doing to yours out there. So, the difference between “high“ and “tall“. So, you can go someplace and go “Wow, building. Yep. Mm-hmm. Up there. Yeah. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.“ Is it a high building or is it a tall building? Shit. What’s the difference? I’ve researched this. So, “high“ is the distance above the ground. So, if you measure something, you go, like... How high is it? Okay? These are things like shelves. A shelf is a thing on a wall where you put some books on, or bongs, whatever you’re putting on your shelves. So, if we... Let’s say that this is our house. This is the ceiling, and this is the floor. Okay? How high something is means how far above the ground it is. So the shelves are high. Walls can be very high. “Oh, look it. We’ve got very high walls or high ceilings.“ And ladies... And men. Sorry to exclude you there for a second. You can also have high heels, which are shoes. I’m not really good at drawing shoes, but I’ll try. I’m actually not going to draw anything, let alone shoes. Oh, I can... I can rock a high heel, here, too. There you go. Yeah. So, this is the heel of the shoe. So, if you have high heels, we don’t say they’re tall, we say they’re high because you’re physically above the ground. “Oh, I’m such a bad person, aren’t I?“ I’m trying to confuse you. Humans, most of the time when we’re talking about this thing, how... “Hi, there.“ We say that they’re tall. But humans can be high, it’s slang, and it means that they’ve taken some drugs. Okay? So, very bad. You’ll hear music. “She’s so high.“ You’re like, “Oh, is she tall?“ No. She’s on drugs, people. I’m not on drugs. So, when we talk about something that’s tall […]