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  • Hi.

  • Welcome to www.engvid.com.

  • I'm Adam.

  • In today's lesson, we're going to look at some expressions that are used in everyday

  • English, but they come from math.

  • Okay?

  • So, if you know some math terminology, you'll understand these a little bit easier.

  • We also have...

  • I have a video about math words, you can check that out as well, but let's start with some

  • of these.

  • "Plus" and "minus" or "pluses" and "minuses".

  • Now, in math, we use: "One plus one equals", so "plus", there, is more like a verb, but

  • it's more of an equation; it makes the equation move.

  • Here, we're using them as nouns.

  • Okay?

  • So, that's a key feature you have to remember - they are nouns.

  • And, basically, synonyms to "pluses" and "minuses" are "pros" and "cons".

  • So, when you're looking at a situation, or an action, or an idea, you have to look at

  • the good and the bad side; you have to look at the pros and the cons; you have to look

  • at the pluses and the minuses; the advantages and disadvantages; the positives and the negatives.

  • Okay?

  • So, "plus" and "minuses" work the same way, so these give you a little bit of an extra

  • synonym; an extra choice, especially in writing, but also in speaking.

  • So, if we're looking at...

  • We're looking at this person, this candidate's presidency, and we're trying to debate: "What

  • are the good points?

  • What are the bad points?"

  • So, some of the pluses of his potential presidency are that he will help the economy.

  • The one big minus, though, is that he's a racist and he might destroy harmony in society,

  • for example.

  • I'm not mentioning any names; I'll leave that to you, but we'll leave it at that as well.

  • So, he has...

  • There are several pluses to his potential presidency; there's one big minus that might

  • outweigh all those pluses.

  • Now, "exponential".

  • "Exponential" comes from "exponent".

  • Now, you might know this as, like...

  • This is an exponent.

  • But when we talk about "exponential", we're talking about it to a very large degree.

  • Okay?

  • To a large degree or to a large extent; something that is significant.

  • Okay?

  • We're talking about growth, so exponential growth; or the opposite, exponential decline;

  • or an exponential spread.

  • So, it means it's going to...

  • Something is going to increase by many times, or decrease by many times, or spread very

  • quickly.

  • Now, when we say: "exponential", there's no number to it.

  • We don't actually have this number, here; we're just saying that it's going to be very

  • fast, very large, etc.

  • So, after World War II, the economies of most western nations grew exponentially.

  • In this case, I'm using the adverb.

  • "Exponential" is an adjective; "exponentially" is an adverb.

  • And most of the countries witnessed exponential growth.

  • The use of the internet has spread exponentially around the globe - it means it spread very

  • fast and all over the place.

  • So, there's no number; just very quickly, very fast.

  • Okay?

  • "Parallel".

  • Now, parallel lines are lines that run along the same path in the same direction, but never

  • meet.

  • Okay?

  • So, we say: "It's in line with" or "on a similar path"; these are synonyms to "parallel".

  • So, the FBI is conducting an investigation into the event, but the local police department,

  • although they're going to cooperate with the FBI, are going to run a parallel investigation

  • on their own.

  • So they're going to help the FBI, but they're also going to have their own investigation

  • that's going to go along the same path; a parallel investigation, meaning in the same

  • direction.

  • "A fraction of".

  • So, a "fraction" is, for example, number over a number - that's a fraction.

  • When we say: "A fraction of", we're saying a small amount of or a partial amount.

  • So, if you're looking at two companies who create software, let's say...

  • So, this company creates very good software, but my company creates equally good software,

  • but at a fraction of the cost; means much cheaper, much lower.

  • Right?

  • A smaller or a partial.

  • So, they charge 1000 bucks; I charge only 600.

  • It's a partial; it's a fraction of their price; much, much lower.

  • Okay?

  • So, so far we have four.

  • Let's look at four more.

  • Okay, let's look at a few more.

  • Now, "angle".

  • So, if you're talking about lines or triangles especially, this is the angle.

  • For example: This is a 90-degree angle.

  • But when we talk about "angle" in everyday life, we're talking about perspective; the

  • way we view something.

  • So, you can view it from this angle, you can view it from this angle, you can view it from

  • this angle - you're going to have a different perspective; a different way of seeing something

  • from every different angle.

  • And it's also a different approach.

  • The way we want to accomplish something, we approach it from different angles, we're going

  • to have different results.

  • So, if we want to solve this problem, we can't just look at it straight on; we have to look

  • at it from different angles.

  • Now, a more slang use...

  • If you ever hear the expression: "Hmm.

  • What's his angle?"

  • When we use this, it means we...

  • We're suspicious; we don't trust the person.

  • "Suspicious".

  • Right?

  • "What's his angle?

  • What's he trying to accomplish?"

  • So, we're not sure about his approach to something and we don't trust it.

  • We think he's trying to go this way, so really he can go this way.

  • He has a different target in mind than what we can see.

  • So, we don't trust his angle because we know later he'll come in from this angle and do

  • something different.

  • Okay?

  • So, it's a bit of a slang use, but again, it basically means the approach or the perspective

  • that someone is taking.

  • Okay.

  • "Go off on a tangent".

  • Now, if you think about math, again, here's a circle, and you want to maybe measure a

  • point or you might want to measure something, and you think about a line touching the circle...

  • It touches it on one point; not like the way I drew it.

  • It touches on one point, and then continues off in the distance; it doesn't go into the

  • circle.

  • So, this line is called the tangent.

  • So, if somebody goes off on a tangent, it means they're getting away from the central

  • point; they're getting away from the circle and going on to something else.

  • So, if we have an interview with a politician and we ask him a very direct question, a lot

  • of them will, you know...

  • They'll touch on the topic, and then they'll just go off on a tangent and talk about something

  • completely different.

  • So, the politician started to answer the question, but then he went off on a tangent and started

  • talking about his dogs, and basically avoided answering the question.

  • So, go off...

  • Now, we also use this about, like, people who daydream.

  • We ask them a question and they start to answer it; they legitimately want to give you an

  • answer, but then they mention a word and that gets their mind going, and then they start

  • following that tangent and then they just go off with that tangent, and talk about something

  • completely different and unrelated to the original question.

  • Okay?

  • So, they lose focus; they lose track of what they were saying originally.

  • Okay.

  • Now, if something "adds up"...

  • If it adds up, it makes sense.

  • If it doesn't add up, it doesn't make sense.

  • So, we're talking about somebody giving you a story.

  • For example, the police are interviewing a witness or they're interviewing a suspect,

  • and the suspect or the witness are saying: "Oh, this happened, and this happened, and

  • this happened", and the police are going: "Hmm.

  • This doesn't add up."

  • So, this part of the story, plus this part of the story, plus this part of the story

  • does not equal this part of the story; something doesn't add up.

  • Either you're lying, or you missed something, or we missed something in the questions, so

  • it doesn't add up; it doesn't make sense.

  • Okay?

  • Last: "The lowest common denominator".

  • So, again, we're talking about fractions - this is the numerator; this is the denominator.

  • Now, when we want to add fractions...

  • For example, if I want to say...

  • I want to add one...

  • One quarter and two-fifths.

  • So, I can't add one...

  • It's not three over nine; it doesn't work that way.

  • Right?

  • I need to find a common denominator - one that both of these can go into, and I think

  • the lowest is 20, so you get whatever, 5 over 20 and 10 over...

  • Or, sorry.

  • 8 over 20, and then you make the addition.

  • So, "the lowest common denominator" in everyday English means the lowest level or the base.

  • Now, generally when we talk about the lowest level, we mean the lowest level people; we're

  • talking about an audience or consumers.

  • So, there are very good newspapers in this country, let's say.

  • In Canada, we have some very good newspapers, but we also have some not so good newspapers.

  • These not so good newspapers, they cater to or they target the lowest common denominator,

  • so they give them very sensationalist headlines, because why?

  • Because why?

  • Don't say: "Because why?"

  • Because they want to sell newspapers.

  • So, they... they create a newspaper, and they target the lowest common denominator with

  • their sensationalist headlines.

  • They want to sell more papers to the people who don't really read too much or who don't

  • care about very good reporting.

  • Okay?

  • So that's: "the lowest common denominator".

  • So, there you go: Eight expressions from math.

  • So, it's good to learn math, it's good to learn English, it's good to learn them together.

  • You can use these in everyday English.

  • I wouldn't necessarily use these in writing; more for speaking, etc.

  • But if you have any questions about these, please go to www.engvid.com and join the forum,

  • and you can ask the questions; I'll be very happy to help you out with these.

  • If you like this video, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and see lots more videos

  • like these, or like this or others.

  • Don't forget there's a quiz at www.engvid.com that you can test your knowledge of these

  • expressions.

  • And, again, come back, see more videos; see you again soon.

  • Bye-bye.

Hi.

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