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  • Hi, Bob the Canadian here.

  • Welcome to this English lesson about confusing word pairs.

  • When you are learning English, sometimes you will learn

  • two words that maybe have slightly different meanings.

  • Maybe they have slightly different pronunciations,

  • but you kind of get confused sometimes.

  • You're not sure when to use one word,

  • and when to use the other.

  • So in this English lesson, I'll go over a number

  • of confusing English word pairs.

  • The first pair I want to start with is the word shade

  • and the word shadow.

  • So I am standing under a tree right now,

  • because it is a sunny day, I am in the shade of the tree.

  • So the sun hits the tree and it creates this beautiful area

  • under the tree where there's lots of shade.

  • If you stand beside a building on a sunny day,

  • you can also stand in the shade of a building.

  • But a shadow is something like this.

  • It's very similar.

  • If you look on the ground behind me, you can see

  • that I have a shadow.

  • You can even see the shadow of the camera a little bit

  • if I point down a little further.

  • So again, the difference between the first two

  • confusing words, shade is something that you find

  • underneath a tree or beside a building on a sunny day.

  • And a shadow is what the sun creates on the ground

  • when you walk outside on a sunny day.

  • (upbeat music)

  • So the next two words I wanted to talk about

  • are the words collar, and color.

  • You'll notice we actually spell the word color

  • with a u here in Canada.

  • But collar and color can be hard for people to pronounce.

  • They have a slightly different pronunciation.

  • You'll notice that Oscar is wearing a collar.

  • I'm not sure he's too happy to show you his collar,

  • but dogs and cats often wear collars.

  • The color of my shirt is blue.

  • Oscar is where a collar, I am wearing a shirt

  • and the color of my shirt is blue.

  • And just to confuse things a little bit, my shirt also

  • has a collar.

  • So the next two words I wanted to talk to you about

  • are the words word and world.

  • Sometimes when you're listening to a native English speaker,

  • they'll speak so quickly that you won't be sure if they said

  • word or world and sometimes when you are speaking English,

  • it's hard to pronounce each word properly,

  • and to pronounce them in a way where they sound different

  • because they do sound different.

  • So I think I'll just say each word a few times.

  • In fact, this bike has a word on the front it says magic.

  • Apparently it's a magic bike.

  • And we all live in the world.

  • So this bike has a word on the front and we all live

  • in the world.

  • So the next two words are the words brake and break.

  • You could see that I was just driving my van

  • and in order to stop my van, I need to push the brake pedal.

  • A brake is something that will stop a vehicle

  • from going forward.

  • But if I had a stick and I wanted to make the stick smaller,

  • I would break the stick.

  • Hopefully I'm strong enough to do this.

  • There we go.

  • So I was able to break the stick.

  • If I wanted to make it smaller again,

  • I could break it again.

  • So when you drive a vehicle and you want to stop,

  • you need something called a brake.

  • And when you have a stick or something else

  • and you want to make it smaller, you can break it.

  • I want almost didn't break.

  • There we go.

  • The next two words I want to talk about

  • are the words give and take.

  • And I thought I would use this basketball

  • in order to demonstrate their meaning.

  • I have the basketball I can give the basketball to someone.

  • And if I don't want them to have it anymore,

  • I can take it from them.

  • So once again, give and take, if I have a basketball,

  • I can give it to someone.

  • And then if I don't want them to have it anymore,

  • I can take it away from them again.

  • The next two words are the words high and tall.

  • When you climb a ladder, you climb a ladder

  • because you want to go somewhere high in the air.

  • So when you use the word high, you're talking about

  • a location that's far above the ground.

  • If you use the word tall, though, you're simply talking

  • about how tall someone is.

  • So I am five foot 11 inches tall.

  • I know it's kind of weird we use metric in Canada,

  • but when we talk about height, we still use feet and inches.

  • So I'm five foot 11 inches tall, but if I climb this ladder,

  • I can go somewhere high in the air.

  • The next two words that you might find confusing,

  • are the words loose and lose.

  • The best way for me to demonstrate that is with my belt.

  • My belt is actually loose, I need to tighten my belt.

  • Because it's a little bit loose.

  • You can see I can do this my belt is loose.

  • My belt is loose because I walk a lot

  • and I'm starting to lose weight.

  • So notice the difference in meaning

  • and pronunciation between the two.

  • My belt is loose, because I exercise a lot

  • and I am getting thinner I am starting to lose weight.

  • The next two words I wanted to talk about

  • are the words different and difference.

  • I've noticed that sometimes when people

  • are learning English, they will confuse these two words

  • and use them improperly.

  • These wrenches are different, these wrenches

  • are not the same.

  • So when I want to describe the fact that they do not

  • look alike, I would say that these wrenches are different.

  • If I wanted to talk about it in detail, though, I could say

  • the difference between these two wrenches

  • is that this wrench is black, and this wrench is silver.

  • Another difference between these two wrenches

  • is that this wrench is small, and this wrench is big.

  • So these wrenches are different.

  • And you'll notice they have a lot of differences.

  • So the next two words I wanted to talk about

  • are the words fewer and less.

  • You can see that I have two stacks of pails here.

  • But this stack of pails has fewer pails than this stack.

  • Because we can count the number of pails because pails

  • are countable, we would use the word fewer.

  • So there are fewer pails in this stack

  • than there are in this deck.

  • But oops.

  • If I show you these two pails, this pail is heavier

  • than this pail because this pail has less water in it.

  • Sorry I can hardly hold this pail up

  • this pail has more water and this pail has less water

  • so it's lighter.

  • So because water is not countable,

  • we would use the word less.

  • So there were fewer pails in one stack,

  • but there is less water in this pail

  • compared to the other pail.

  • The next two words are the words passed and past.

  • You can see that they are spelled differently,

  • but they sound almost exactly the same.

  • In fact, when we speak English quickly,

  • they sound identical.

  • Do you want the ball? Okay?

  • You can see that I just passed the ball to someone.

  • Someone over there wanted the ball,

  • so I passed the ball to them.

  • But if I was talking about something I did yesterday,

  • I would say that I did it in the past.

  • I might start a sentence by saying in the past,

  • I used to be a lot funnier, and now as I get older,

  • I'm a little more serious.

  • That's not true, by the way, but it was a good example

  • sentence between talking about today

  • and talking about the past.

  • The next two words are the words man and men.

  • Man is singular, men is plural.

  • But I have to apologize because native English speakers

  • sometimes speak so quickly.

  • It's hard to tell whether we said man or men.

  • But I am a man, my brothers are men.

  • So notice the singular form, I am a man,

  • and my brothers are men.

  • So I know you understand the difference between

  • man being singular meaning one person, and men being plural,

  • meaning two or more men.

  • But I just know that sometimes even when I speak quickly,

  • people who are listening to me can't understand

  • whether I said man, or men.

  • The next two words are the words come and go.

  • So let's imagine you and I are having

  • an actual conversation.

  • You're standing or sitting right there and I am right here.

  • The simplest explanation that I can give you is this.

  • You are there I am here and now I am going to leave

  • I am going to go that direction.

  • So it's important that you think about the fact

  • that we are in the same place.

  • And now I'm going to go.

  • Now that I'm over here and you are over there,

  • I am now going to come towards you.

  • So I am going to come towards the camera,

  • and I'm going to come towards you and now we are both

  • in the same place again.

  • So hopefully, that helped you understand a little bit

  • the difference between come and go.

  • I do have to apologize again though, because in English

  • we do use these in a variety of ways.

  • But that is the most basic and clearest explanation

  • that I can give you.

  • The next two words are the words fun and funny.

  • When you describe someone, or when you describe an event

  • or something and you use the word fun, it means one thing

  • and if you use the word funny, it means something different.

  • So here's the best way to remember

  • if you say that Bob the Canadian is fun, you would smile.

  • Okay, that would mean that Bob the Canadian

  • is a nice person.

  • When you are hanging out with Bob the Canadian

  • you have a good time, you enjoy yourself, you smile a lot.

  • So when you say that someone is fun, or when you say that

  • something is fun, it means that you enjoy it,

  • it means that you smile a lot.

  • If you say a person is funny, it means you laugh a lot.

  • So if you say Bob, the Canadian is funny,

  • it means you're like, you're just always laughing,

  • whenever you are talking to me.

  • It would mean that I tell a lot of jokes.

  • And it would mean that I make you laugh.

  • If you say that you went and did something and it was funny,

  • it also means that it made you laugh.

  • So think about it this way, a smile is smaller than a laugh

  • and the word fun is smaller than the word funny.

  • So if you say something is fun, or if you say

  • someone is fun, you smile.

  • And if you say something is funny, or you say someone

  • is funny, it makes you laugh.

  • That was a really fake laugh.

  • Sorry about that but it's hard to laugh on cue, isn't it?

  • The next two words are the words interesting and interested.

  • And I need to confess that when I speak French,

  • I usually get these words mixed up.

  • And I usually use the wrong one.

  • But I could say that this tree is interesting.

  • When you say that something is interesting,

  • it means that there's something cool about it.

  • You could say, that person is interesting,

  • that tree is interesting.

  • But when you start to talk about yourself, and the things

  • that you think are interesting,

  • you can then use the word interested.

  • So I could say, I am interested in studying trees.

  • I am interested in taking classes.

  • So a person or a thing can be interesting.

  • But you yourself can be interested if you like those things

  • and want to study about them more, or read about them more.

  • So I would say, this tree is interesting.

  • But if I really like trees, I could say I'm interested

  • in trees and I'm interested in studying trees.

  • The next two words are the words boring and bored.

  • The best way to describe this would be what happens to you

  • if you think I am boring?

  • So you would use the word boring to describe someone

  • or something or an event.

  • You could say, Bob, the Canadian is boring.

  • So you are describing me.

  • Now let's talk about what happens if I'm boring.

  • If I am boring, you might be bored.

  • Okay, so get the difference.

  • If I am boring, you might be bored.

  • If you go and do something fun with someone,

  • and you don't find it that exciting, you might say,

  • this is boring.

  • I really don't like doing this.

  • This is boring.

  • So you are describing the activity as being boring.

  • You yourself though, would say I'm bored.

  • Okay, so the activity is boring.

  • And it makes you bored.

  • Well, hey, thanks for watching this little English lesson

  • about confusing word pairs.

  • I hope I was able to clarify some things for you.

  • I'm Bob the Canadian.

  • If you're new here, don't forget to click

  • that red subscribe button below.

  • Give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn

  • just a little bit more English and if you have the time,

  • why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson.

  • (upbeat music)

Hi, Bob the Canadian here.

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