Name: How to call someone STUPID, SMART, or CRAZY in English
Uploaded: 2018-02-22T08:22:23.000Z
Duration: 9 min 18 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...

Today's lesson is a little bit
special and a little bit...

You have to be careful with it, so I want to
give you a little bit of a warning before

we even start because I'm going to show you
some ways to say: "crazy" and "stupid".

I'm going to show you expressions that we
use to talk about a person who's a little

bit crazy or you think is stupid without
actually using the words: "crazy" or "stupid".

Now, on the other hand, I'm also going to
show you some ways to say a person is very

Now, "sharp" generally means smart, but it
could also mean very aware or very in control

Now, all of these expressions, they're very
creative and you can play with them a lot.

I'm going to show you basics and then show
you how to expand on them, and I want you

to understand them because they are very common,
and especially if you're watching TV shows

And I get a lot of students say to me: "I
can understand all the English, but I don't

Well, the thing you have to remember, in the
movies, their audience, their target audience

is native English speakers, which means they
can use slang, and they can use idioms, and

they can use all kinds of cultural expressions
that a non-native speaker, that someone who's

learning English simply won't understand
until it is explained to him or her.

So we're going to start with "crazy" and "stupid"
expressions, and then we're going to look

And the reason I'm starting with this is because
you can be very creative with this one.

You are... "__________
short/shy of __________".

A person is something short of
something, or shy of something.

Everybody knows "shy" means, you know, you
get nervous when you talk to strangers or

Shy, "to be shy of" means
to have less than complete.

So there's a new meaning
of the word "shy" for you.

Those of you taking an English test, this
is a good word to use in your essay.

So, a full deck of cards has-what?-I think 52
cards, so this person only has 45, so he's

It means something a little bit missing, so
either crazy or stupid-okay?-without actually

saying those words, but
everybody will understand.

This structure you can use anything you want
on either end, and people get very creative.

"That person is a few
sandwiches short of a picnic."

You can't have a picnic if you don't have
all the sandwiches there, so a little bit

Oh, that's another expression,
to say: "He is not 100%."

"A few beers short of a 6-pack.", "A few
French fries short of a Happy Meal."

You can hear all kinds,
just remember this part

of it and you'll understand
what's going on.

Now, other expressions: "He's
not playing with a full deck."

So, basically the same meaning as
this, but just a different construct.

"Oh, that guy's not
playing with a full deck.

Means he's a little bit
crazy, he's not 100%.

Another expression, and this is, again, we use
it with these two: "sharpest" and "brightest".

Now, "sharp" generally means
smart, "bright" also means smart.

So if somebody is bright, clever;
somebody is sharp, clever.

But if somebody is "not the sharpest knife in
the drawer", it means he's not very sharp,

he's actually quite blunt so
he's a little bit stupid.

If somebody is "not the brightest star in
the sky", same meaning, not very smart, a

Other ways: "The lights are
on, but nobody's home."

So eyes are open, he's alive and seeing everything,
but nobody's home, nothing's going on inside

"A person is out to lunch", so the body is
here but the brain is outside having lunch

You can also say the person "has a loose screw", or
"has a few loose screws", means not everything's

"This person's cheese
slid off his cracker".

So, again, the list
goes on and on and on.

Make sure you understand
them, make sure you know...

But if you're going to use
them, be very, very careful.

Sometimes I've heard students mix up expressions,
and the other person doesn't understand what

Themselves into a little bit of
trouble, so be careful about that.

Let's look at a few expressions to talk about
somebody being smart, or sharp, or on the

Okay, so now we're going to look
at the other side of the coin.

We're going to look at some ways
to say good things about people.

If we say somebody is the "cream of the crop",
it means he's the best of the best, or she's

If you're looking at a group of
students, all of them are...

All of them are very smart, but this one in
particular, he is the cream of the crop.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

How to call someone STUPID, SMART, or CRAZY in English

situation

expression

native

aware