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  • Hi. My name is Rebecca from engvid.com. Nowadays, it's very common to talk about extreme things.

  • We hear about extreme fitness, extreme sports, extreme weather.

  • Well, today's lesson is about extreme English. What do I mean by extreme English?

  • Well, often, in informal conversation, people use a lot of exaggerated expressions to express their feelings,

  • and that's what we're going to learn here.

  • You should try your best not to use this in formal situations because it's really not meant for that.

  • But you will hear a lot of people using it in regular conversation. So, let's have a look at some examples.

  • So, the examples that I have on the board show you verbs which can be exaggerated,

  • adjectives that can be exaggerated, and adverbs. Okay?

  • Let's look at some example. So, for example, let's say you're hungry.

  • Right? So, instead of just saying: "I'm really hungry." People tend to say: "Oh my god. I'm starving."

  • Now, does it mean they're actually starving? No. Of course not. Not the person who's saying that.

  • The person who's probably actually starving doesn't have the strength to say they're starving,

  • but... So, we say: "I'm starving. Let's get something to eat."

  • Or, if it's really cold and you say: "I'm freezing." Okay?

  • Instead of just saying: "I'm really cold", "I'm freezing." Okay? This is the extreme part of it.

  • Or: "My shoes are killing me." Of course you're not going to die.

  • It's just a way of speaking. "My shoes are hurting." Right? Okay. All right.

  • Adjectives, let's see how we can use extreme English when it comes to adjectives.

  • "Oh my god. There's a gigantic spider on my bed." It's probably not a gigantic spider,

  • but it's a large spider as far as you're concerned. So, that's where the exaggeration takes place.

  • Or: "I have a million emails to answer." Probably not a million, but we mean a lot of emails.

  • Adverbs. "I'm totally exhausted today." It would have been enough to say that you're exhausted,

  • because after that, it's kind of repetitive or redundant. But sometimes people add that just to exaggerate it.

  • Or: "She's absolutely gorgeous." Or: "He's absolutely gorgeous."

  • Right? So, that's how we can have the extreme part of it, the exaggeration.

  • We often apply this also to certain areas, such as when we're talking about numbers, or amounts, or time, or space.

  • For example: "There were 100's of people in line outside the store."

  • Now, it's extreme or exaggerated only if there weren't actually hundreds, just meant a lot.

  • But you say hundreds because hundreds represents a lot.

  • Or: "I have thousands of things to do before I leave next week." Okay? Again, you probably don't have thousands of things,

  • but you've got a lot of things to do.

  • Amounts. "Oh, we've got tons of homework." We don't have tons of homework.

  • We've got a lot of homework. Or: "There were piles of paper everywhere." Okay? Exaggeration again.

  • Sometimes when we exaggerate time, we can exaggerate it in two directions.

  • We can make it shorter than it actually is, or we can make it longer than it actually is.

  • For example: "Could I talk to you for a minute? I know you're busy. It'll just take 5 seconds."

  • Now, isn't that an exaggeration? It is, because it's gonna to take you more than five seconds,

  • but you're exaggerating it in another way, you're shrinking it. Right?

  • Or: "Oh my god. I met my friend. I haven't seen her in years." Okay? Maybe it's true, but it could be an exaggeration.

  • Or, you could say: "In ages", that's another expression where you exaggerate the amount of time. Right?

  • Or: "Oh my god. I can't live here. This is such a tiny closet." Okay? "I need a big closet."

  • All right. It's probably not tiny, but in your view, from your perspective, it's tiny.

  • Or: "This is a huge bedroom." Okay? Again, these are relative terms, but we're also exaggerating it to express our emotions,

  • as well as our... the objective reality. Okay?

  • Again, the objective reality was not a gigantic spider, just a large one; and not a tiny closet, but just a small one.

  • Okay? But by using this kind of extreme English, you'll sound a little bit

  • more like a native speaker when you're speaking in informal situations. Okay?

  • If you'd like to do a little quiz on this to master it, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.

  • Thanks very much for watching. Good luck with your English. Bye for now.

Hi. My name is Rebecca from engvid.com. Nowadays, it's very common to talk about extreme things.

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