An adjective is a word that describes a noun. Adjectives tell something about the noun, like size ("big"), color ("green"), age ("young"), emotion ("angry"), value ("expensive"), and so on. Here are a few examples of adjectives used in phrases:
an old pair of shoes
three small holes
a great movie
frustrating experiences
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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 words, phrases, and ways of speaking that you can use with your friends, your family members, and with people who are a similar age, social status, and personality to you.
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.
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 interesting or intelligent any more.
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 than you wanted to spend, but if you think about the long-term value it's a great deal.
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When you exaggerate a fact, you state it much more extremely than it actually is. You can exaggerate things like numbers, sizes, lengths of time, emotions, degrees of like or dislike, and many other characteristics.
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 to impress. English learners are usually taught formal English in school, and native English speakers are taught to use it in writing and for speeches and interviews.
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 cheese.
That's a non sequitur.
One interesting feature of English is the way that we talk about the past. In English, we have a past, present and future. But our past also has its own past, present and future! You can imagine it like this:
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 effect on the speaker right now:
Slang is language which some people use, but which isn't widely accepted as "proper" or "correct".
Slang has the following qualities:
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.
English speakers make a lot of small talk.
Telling stories is one of the most basic forms of communication. Stories follow a common format in English:
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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 stronger. There are two kinds of stress: stress within words and stress within sentences.
Titles are the words that go in front of someone's name. In American English, the most common salutations are "Mr.", "Ms.", "Mrs.", and "Miss". There are a few others as well like "Dr." Here's an explanation of each of the common titles:
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 describe it like this:
He's so handsome!
What a hottie!
Or you can use understatement:
He's not a bad-looking guy.
I've seen worse-looking men.
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