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  • Hello out there? Hello? It's me. Oh, hello, hello, hello. Ronnie. Ronnie here.

  • This is a really fun lesson, kind of something that I live for every day. One of my...

  • It's not a hobby. One thing that I think is cool, generally and for real, are words in English.

  • Being an English teacher, teaching you English, I come across words that just don't make sense.

  • If you think of them in a different language, maybe your language, and then you translate

  • it into English, it... What? It just does not make sense. So, I've got only 10 of these

  • for you today, and I could go on with a thousand, but we are limited in our video time. So,

  • today, 10 words, 10 things in English that just don't make sense.

  • First one. You have probably learned that in English, if you have: "in" or "un" or "anti"

  • or "un" or "dis" before a word, it means not. So, your brain looks at this and says: "inflammable",

  • "flammable". Okay. So, maybe you know the word, maybe you're French, maybe you know

  • "flammable" or you can decide that "flame" means fire. So, if you look at this word in

  • your logical brain, "inflammable" and "flammable" must mean the opposite. "Inflammable" must

  • mean that something cannot catch fire, wheras "flammable" must mean logically that something

  • can catch fire. Guess what? Not in English. "Inflammable" and "flammable" both mean the

  • same thing. What? So, the reason is "inflammable", sometimes the preposition... Not the prepositions.

  • The things before the words can make it to do with it. So, actually "inflammable" means

  • in flames. Do you know that band, In Flames? So, the prefix of "in"-it's a prefix-you know

  • means not, but in this case, it means with or in, together. Mind.

  • Next one, this is fun: "noses run". Okay. So, you have a nose, it runs. This means that

  • some liquid, which is called "mucus" or "snot", comes out of your nose. So, we say:

  • "My nose is running. Ah, my nose is running." But: "Your feet smell."

  • Is this funny yet? So,

  • noses run and feet smell. This is another way how English is funny for me, because

  • "feet smell" has two meanings. One, "smell" is a verb, and the other one:

  • "Your feet smell bad." So, I can say: "My nose is running, and your feet smell." Because usually we run

  • with our feet and we smell with our nose. Crazy.

  • Good luck with this language.

  • The next one I've already kind of talked about, is: "mucus", "snot", or this word which is

  • "phlegm". So, in your language-Japanese, Korean, Spanish-you probably... Not Spanish. But you

  • probably say something close to "nose water", "hana sui". But guess what? In English, no.

  • "Nose water" would be too easy. "Hana mizu", no way. We call it: "mucus", "snot", or "phlegm".

  • We also have another word that's quite fun, it's called a "booger". A booger is something

  • that you pick from your nose and you can flick. The mucus or the snot is the liquid,

  • like the water. Nose water. It's nose water. So, mucus and snot is liquid, and the booger is

  • more of a solid. Delicious. Okay.

  • Speaking about the nose, we have holes in our nose. Everyone probably has two. Yeah?

  • Most people have two. Does anybody have one nostril out there? Because if you...

  • You'd have to breathe double, I guess. Guess what? They're not called "nose holes", "hana no ana",

  • mm-mm. They're called: "nostrils". Yeah, don't know why. It'd be easier if we just said:

  • "Hey. My nose hole is really not doing too well over here." But we have to say:

  • "My nostril is full of mucus." We can't say: "Hey. My nose hole is full of nose water."

  • People would go: "Ah, cool. Want a Kleenex?" But no, no, we have to use these crazy words.

  • The other word, like in your language-Spanish "dedo", mm-hmm-you guys probably have something

  • to do with your foot and a finger. Lots of languages you guys will probably say:

  • "foot fingers", but not in English. We have to say: "toes". Hmm.

  • "Foot fingers", it's really funny for me, because I've grown up my whole life knowing them as "toes", but "foot fingers"

  • just makes more sense. English doesn't make sense.

  • On to the next five. If you have a car and you want to leave the car somewhere near your

  • house, this place is called a "driveway". So, you park your car in a driveway. However,

  • if you want to take your car someplace, like on a drive, you drive on a parkway. Obviously,

  • it would make more sense if I park in my parkway and drive on the driveway, but again, this

  • is why I have a job to teach you the crazy things, this is why learning English makes

  • you crazy. Welcome to my world.

  • Next one, Canadian people, American people, I'm sorry, you're wrong. Okay? This sport

  • is "football". All right? Let me explain something to you: It's a ball, you use your feet. So,

  • why have Canadians and Americans called it "soccer"? There's no socks, there's no hers.

  • It's football, people. Let's change this. Let's be... Let's start a new revolution in

  • Canada, and call it football, that'll be fun. Toronto, the great city that I live in has

  • a football team. The name of it is Toronto FC. Hmm. What do you think the "F" means?

  • It means Football. I think we would get laughed at if they said: "Toronto SC, Toronto Soccer".

  • What? Soccer Club? Do you have socks and hers? Please, it's football. "American football?"

  • you might be asking yourself, okay, you can't use your feet. Only when you kick it one time,

  • and the ball's kind of like an egg, so, sorry, no, I'm not having it. Bye-bye, soccer, you're

  • gone forever.

  • One of the most confusing things in English and one of the most difficult things for most

  • people to remember is singular and plural-yeah-of words. So, one of them in your mouth is called

  • a "tooth". Okay? And the plural or more than one are called "teeth". So, every day, please,

  • maybe twice, three times a day, we do something that's called: "brush your teeth". So, we

  • say: "I brush my teeth." Because you want to brush all of them. But the thing that we

  • use to brush our teeth is a "toothbrush". Why is it not called a "teethbrush"? You're

  • not sitting in the mirror only doing one at a time. It would take you ages to get ready.

  • -"What are you doing?" -"I'm brushing my teeth. I'll be there in like two hours tops. I'll

  • take the fast way." And the stuff that we use to clean our teeth-"teeth", not "tooth"-is

  • called "toothpaste". Again, I would like to change this to "teethpaste", but apparently

  • whoever made this crazy English language decided: "We're going to call it toothpaste." Yeah,

  • okay, good.

  • Another problem with the plural are things that you wear on your lower body. We always

  • have to call them "pants" and "jeans". The last time I checked, I had one lower body,

  • but we always have to put the plural on "pants" and "jeans". "I went shopping and I bought

  • pant." Nope, we have to say "pants". "I got a new pair of jean." Who's Jean? If you say

  • even a pair, we have to say: "A pair of jeans." So this makes me think now that I have four

  • of these things, because you have a pair of... So, we say: "A pair of pants" and "a pair

  • of jeans". I think I'm going to quit this English thing. Can I learn your language?

  • Will you teach me?

  • The last one is kind of cute, kind of funny. We have these things called "shipments" or

  • "cargo". "Shipments" or "cargo" are ways to deliver things that you want. So, for example,

  • if you order something off the internet, off of internet website-Amazon-or something like

  • that, and you want it delivered to your house, they will tell you: "Your shipment will arrive"

  • -never-"in two weeks". Now, the interesting thing about this is the way that they actually ship the

  • thing is with a car or a truck. Mm-hmm. But if it's actually on a ship, it's called "cargo".

  • So, the "cargo" gets on a ship or an airplane, but a "shipment" is sent by a car or a truck.

  • Logically, Ronnie thinks that "cargo" should be by a car, and "shipment" should be made by a ship.

  • This is why Ronnie was not allowed to invent the English language, because then

  • you would have nothing to study.

  • So, if you want to study more, check out www.engvid.com, subscribe to my YouTube channel.

  • You can learn lots of fun things, and you might just go crazy doing it, or not.

  • Until then, I'll see you soon.

Hello out there? Hello? It's me. Oh, hello, hello, hello. Ronnie. Ronnie here.

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