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  • Hello, guys. Welcome back to www.engvid.com.

  • Today we are going to be looking at the words that you put stress on,

  • and how they give a different meaning to the sentence. So we're

  • going to be looking at this one... Well, two sentences, here, and how with different questions,

  • I might put a different stress, more emphasis, more volume, perhaps, on these particular words.

  • And then over here, I'm going to be looking at subtext. Yes, I'm saying words

  • to you, but what am I saying underneath? What am I really saying to you? Okay? So I'm looking

  • at how, by putting emphasis on one word, it can change the entire meaning of the sentence.

  • Something really quite useful to hang onto, I hope.

  • So, unfortunately, back home I have some butter that has gone a little bit mad.

  • Now, today, my aunt came to have tea. In Britain, we have a cup of tea, and we have some toast, and

  • maybe some scones. My aunt is a little hard of hearing-okay?-so we need to repeat things,

  • and I need to say things quite loudly to her. So, my aunt said:

  • "Benjamin, which butter's off?" "Off" meaning bad, finished.

  • And so, when she said: "Which butter?" I need to tell

  • her that it's this butter, not that butter. "This butter's off", dear aunt. Okay?

  • This butter. Okay? So when she's asking which one it is, I emphasize: "This".

  • Now, she was... My aunt, she was walking around the kitchen and she'd heard me saying something

  • about being off, so she said: "Benjamin, what's off?" As in: What is off, what has gone bad?

  • And I said: "It's the butter's gone off. The butter's off." So when she's asking: What?

  • Well, what is about a thing, she's asking which thing. It's the butter which is bad,

  • as well as the pen.

  • Hey.

  • Now, she didn't quite hear me, so she said: "What's the matter with the butter?" And I said:

  • "Well, the butter's off. It's gone bad. It's off." Okay?

  • So I emphasize "off", this is what the matter is, it's off.

  • My dear aunt, she stayed a little bit longer in my flat

  • today, and she heard me talking about my plans for the evening a bit later. And she said:

  • "Who's having dinner?" So I've got this sentence here: "We're having dinner late tonight."

  • So I said: "We're having dinner late tonight.", "We're", me and my wife are having dinner.

  • Okay? We are, we're, so I put the emphasis on here to make it clear to her so she understands

  • that it's me and... Me and bond girl.

  • -"What are you doing later?" -"We're having... We're having dinner."

  • -"What are you doing?" -"We're having dinner." -"What? -"Dinner."

  • -"What is it you're doing?" -"Dinner. We're having dinner." Okay? So I make it clear. This is

  • if I'm trying to make something really clear to someone, I would emphasize these words like this.

  • It's not always this obvious. You can do it just a little bit. Let's try it with a little bit.

  • So she says, my aunt, she says: -"When are we having dinner?"

  • -"We're having dinner late tonight, we're having late." Late. Or I might even say:

  • "Tonight. We're having dinner late tonight", as in:

  • "Don't forget it's today. Don't go anywhere, aunty, it's tonight." Okay?

  • So you can just change the meaning, change the emphasis. Okay? Emphasis

  • by putting stress on a different word.

  • Now, this is how to be mean, how to be a little bit nasty. Okay. So, I've got this sentence,

  • and I'm going to show you two different meanings that I can get from it. So we've got:

  • "She drives very carefully." Okay? I haven't put any particular emphasis on any of the words.

  • "She drives very carefully." But if I say: "SHE drives very carefully." Okay? If I say:

  • "SHE drives very carefully." I say that to my wife and I'm talking about my aunt driving

  • carefully, I'm saying: "She drives very carefully." I'm kind of saying:

  • "You don't drive very carefully." It's she, it's her who drives carefully.

  • Okay? So: "You don't drive carefully."

  • But if I'm talking about my dear aunt, and I says... And I say: "She drives very CAREFULLY."

  • Yeah? I might be being a little bit sarcastic.

  • You know? She's driving so carefully that

  • she won't go faster than 10 miles an hour. She drives so carefully I feel like killing

  • myself. Okay: "She drives too slowly." Okay? If I put the emphasis on "carefully". Okay?

  • Now, are we ready for this next bit? Are we ready, guys? Let's go. I've got a phrase here:

  • "You shouldn't have painted it." Okay? It's a... It's a small criticism.

  • "You shouldn't have painted it." But if I'm saying: "YOU shouldn't have painted it."

  • I'm saying that your painting is not good, so it should have been handsome handyman who painted it. Okay?

  • So you are not the person for this job; should have been him. Okay? So I'm basically saying:

  • "You're not so good at painting. You're bad at painting." But if I say:

  • "You shouldn't have PAINTED it." I'm saying: "How stupid are you? You painted the wall. You should

  • have put wallpaper up. Painting is not a good decision in this case." Yeah? If I'm emphasizing

  • the action to paint, I'm saying: "Painting, this is really a bad idea."

  • Guys, thank you so much for watching this evening, or this morning, or this afternoon,

  • or in the middle of the night. Go to bed! What I'd like you to do now is

  • quickly click on to www.engvid.com. and try out a little test, testing your knowledge of different

  • connotations. I'm going to probably use some new sentences to test you out. And if

  • you find you're learning stuff from my videos, then well, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel.

  • Yeah? Hopefully you'll learn some more by watching some more videos.

  • Well done.

  • Let's practice putting different meanings into your words.

  • Don't be late for bed, now.

  • Okay?

  • Bye.

Hello, guys. Welcome back to www.engvid.com.

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