Language Concepts
Adjective
An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It's easy to understand simple adjectives. They're words like "big", "green", "young", and "expensive". Other adjectives are harder to spot.
Simple...
Casual speech
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Casual speech is a way of talking that you use with people that you are close to and trust. There are different...
Clause
A clause is basically a sentence that's inside of another sentence. Here's a sentence:
I love mushrooms.
And here is a sentence with a clause:
I told her that I love mushrooms.
Each clause has...
Cliché
A cliché (pronounced "clee-shay") is an expression or idea that has been used over and over again. It was once clever, but now it's been used so many times that now it doesn't seem...
Concession
Concession is a conversational technique that people use when trying to persuade someone. Here's an example from a conversation between a car salesman and a customer:
This might be a little more...
Double negative
A "double negative" is a verb like this:
I don't got no money.
This means "I don't have any money." It's called a "double negative" because it has two negative particles:
...I don't got no money.
Exaggeration
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When you exaggerate a fact, you state it much more extremely than it actually is. You can exaggerate things like...
Formal English
Formal English is a way of speaking that you usually use when you don't know the people listening to you very well. You also tend to use it more with people who are higher status and who you want...
Fossilization
A "fossil" is something which used to be alive, but has now turned into stone. Dinosaur bones are fossils, for example. The process of turning from a living thing into a rock is called...
Non sequitur
A non sequitur is when you say something that's not related to the topic of conversation. For example, if you're having a conversation with a friend about work and then she suddenly says:
I love...
Perfect Aspect
In the mind of an English speaker, there's a difference between talking about something that happened in the past and talking about something that has happened. The difference is whether there's an...
Slang
Slang is language which some people use, but which isn't widely accepted as "proper" or "correct".
What is slang?
Slang has the following qualities:
- It's often used by young people.
- It's often...
Small Talk
Small talk is polite conversation that people have with people that they are not very close to. It's conversation about topics which aren't too important or too personal.
When to make small...
Storytelling
Telling stories is one of the most basic forms of communication. Most stories follow a common format in English:
- Setup: You describe the place, time, and what was happening.
- Event: You talk about...
Stress
When people speak English, they don't say every word and every part of each word with the same speed, pitch, and loudness. English has patterns of stress, which means saying some sounds louder and...
Understatement
Understatement is when you express an idea with a much lower degree of importance, emphasis, or emotion than it really should be given. For example, if a man is extremely good-looking, you can...
Ungradable adjective
Adjectives are words like "small", "green", "old", "nice", "healthy", etc. which describe the characteristics of things.
Most adjectives can be intensified with "very":
- very small
- very old
But...
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