Name: Improve Your Vocabulary: 15 names that have other meanings in English
Uploaded: 2022-04-13T12:43:16.000Z
Duration: 15 min 43 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Ladies and gentlemen, reporting live from a secret location.

To-infinitive

It's Ronnie. And I'm here today to report on some men's names.

Past simple

Did you know that common men's names are actually nouns? Or

verbs; sometimes an adjective. So, maybe you want to choose an

English name, or you want to choose a name that's not an

English name, but you want to rename yourself. Be careful.

There are some doozies. Which means there are some dangerous

names you have to be careful about. So, this thing that I'm

holding, it is a microphone. Yes, it is. It is a microphone.

Yeah, it is. Believe me. And in the short-form, we call it a

"mike". Oh, hold on. Hold on. That is also the short-form of a

man's name: "Michael". So, "Michael" is a super-⁠common

name in Canada and North America for English-speaking people, and

Ireland. All over the English-speaking world, there...

you will meet lots of Michaels, but I would say about 42% of

them go by: "Mike". So, this microphone is spelt: "m–⁠i–⁠c",

but the person's name: "Michael" is shortened to "M–⁠i–⁠k–⁠e",

which is "Mike" because we don't say the "e". So, this

microphone, his name is Mike. Nice to meet you, Mike.

Another guy — one of my good friends — he hangs out in my

bathroom. This is... hold on, let me put Mike down. Mike, hold

on. Hold on, Mike; I'll pick you up in a second. This is a

bathmat. It's actually a pelican bathmat, but there's a man's

name called: "Matt". Again, it's the short-form for: "Matthew".

But most people shorten their names and call them: "Matt". So,

"mat" can also be, like, a bathmat. Oh, Matt's funny, isn't

he? "Phil". Yeah. I knew a guy named: "Phil McCracken". He was

an Irish guy. His real name was: "Philip", but we just call him:

"Phil" because it's a short-form. So: "P–⁠h–⁠i–⁠l".

Remember the "P–h"⁠ makes an "F" sound. So, we have a verb:

"fill", so you can "fill" something — it means you put

something else in it to make it whole. Oh, Ronnie. So, for

example, you can fill a hole with dirt. You can fill a coffee

cup with coffee. So, if you "fill" something — as a verb —

it means you're putting something inside of it to make

it whole again. Oh. "Robert", "Bobby", "Rob", "Robbie". In the

short-form, we have: "Rob". Hold on, that's a verb. So, if I

steal something, I can also "rob" something. It's a verb.

Don't steal Mike, though; he's really important to this. Do you

like going to art galleries? Did you know that: "Art" was also a

man's name? It's a short-form for: "Arthur". Is your name:

"Arthur"? Hi, Arthur. How you doing? Hey, Art. So, it could be

funny. Make a joke about that later, maybe. "Russell". Ah,

Russell Crowe. Oh, hold on. That's super funny because a

"crow" is a bird, and the famous actor, Russell Crowe. Oh! The

spelling is different. But "rustle" as a verb means to make

noise. So, I can rustle a mat. It doesn't work. I can rustle

paper. If I rustle paper, it makes a sound like this. So,

that's the rustling of paper. We usually use it for leaves. As

you walk, there's the rustle of leaves in the autumn day. Aw.

"Cliff". "Cliff", "Clifford". "Clifford" is the... the formal

name and most guys go by: "Cliff". "Cliff" is a noun and

it's something... take a short walk off a long "cliff", or

something like that. "Cliff" is basically the edge where the

ocean meets the land and it's a huge hill. So, if you walk off a

"cliff", you're probably going to die. You will see movies

where people throw themselves off a "cliff". But not the man;

the high mountain by the edge of the water. "Jim". Oh, such a

popular name. "James" is the longform of the name. You get:

"Jim", you get: "Jimmy", but did you go to "gym" class? Not Jim's

class. Or did you hang out in the "gymnasium"? Oh, guess what?

We shorten that; instead of saying: "gymnasium" — so long —

we just use the word: "gym". The spelling is different. Watch

out. Okay? This is: "J–⁠i–⁠m", and this is: "g–y–m"⁠.

"J–⁠i–⁠m". So, again, we know how tricky spelling is in

English; just be careful. So, "gym" is a noun. "Doug". Do you

have a problem remembering the past, simple past, the verbs?

Guess what? The simple past of the word: "dig" is: "dug".

"Doug" is also a man's name. Hi, Doug. You know how I always tell

you that English spelling is a little crazy? The past tense is

spelt: "d–⁠u–g⁠". But the name is "D–⁠o–⁠u–⁠g. So, we don't

actually say the "o"; we don't say: "Doug". Hi, my name is

"Doug". "My name is Doug". I'm just the past tense of "dig" —

"d–⁠i–⁠g"; past tense: "d–u–⁠g". "I'm Doug". Dig, Doug. "Stu".

Okay. The formal name or the long name is: "Stuart". It's a

very Scottish name. "Stewie", "Stuart". And: "stew",

"s–⁠t–⁠e–⁠w" is actually a very delicious thick soup. In the

winter time... Oh, in the summertime, too — we would have

"stew". It's basically a meal with vegetables, some kind of

sauce, and meat in a big container. The difference

between "stew" and "soup" — I know you're asking — is "soup"

has a lot more water. So, "stew" is, again, very, very thick

Next up... Uh-oh. Be careful. This is where it gets funny.

There's a really famous singer called: "Harry Styles". "Harry"

I guess is a short-form for "Harold", if you will, or some

people are just named Harry. If we look at the spelling as an

adjective... These are homophones, so this means the

two words have the exact same pronunciation. The man's name

is: "H–⁠a–⁠r–⁠r–⁠y", but the adjective for someone that has a

lot of hair, usually on their back or their armpits — not too

attractive; unless you're into that — is: "h–a–i–⁠r–y"⁠⁠. So,

it's describing something that has a lot of hair. My Mom is

"hairy". She's not, actually. Sorry, Mom. "Dick". What?

Ronnie. "Dick". Yes, "Dick". Yep, it's a man's name. Mm-hmm.

I told you: Short for Richard. But also, it can be the part of

a man. Women don't have this part; men do — it's called a

"dick"; "penis". Yes. But the spelling is: "d–⁠i–⁠c–⁠k" — it's

the same. Ah, so please, if your last name is Dick, I would

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Improve Your Vocabulary: 15 names that have other meanings in English

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