Sometimes in English, we have a name for something and it's more than one word or it's a really long word and it's not the actual word we use in regular everyday English conversation.

I'll give you a few examples in a bit but one would be wristwatch.

Uh we don't call it a wristwatch when we're talking to people.

We just call it a watch.

So, I've found about thirty words like this.

I've been keeping a nice list of vocabulary terms that are more than one word or really long words and then I'll teach you what the shorter version is.

Some will be obvious.

Some you will already know and some will be interesting to you I think.

So, kind of a a fun lesson.

A lesson just for fun.

Uh welcome to this English lesson which I've called too many words.

I think a better description would be using the shorter version of the name for something instead of the long cumbersome version.

That might be a new word for you.

Cumbersome.

You might wanna look it up.

So, once again, welcome to this English lesson about too many words.

A ballpoint pen.

So, interestingly enough, a long time ago, I'm sure there were many different styles of pen but the ballpoint pen is the most popular right now.

A ballpoint pen at the very end.

This is I I chose a picture.

Has a little round steel ball that turns and it's called uh a ball bearing I guess you could say.

But as you write, the ink comes out.

But we don't call it a ballpoint pen.

We just call it a pen.

Because almost every pen in the world now is a ballpoint pen.

We usually just call this uh pen.

Uh and shout out to my uh viewers from France.

Thank you for making BIC pens.

They're really good.

I have a BIC pen at work.

It's very reliable.

It's a great ballpoint pen.

But again, I just call it a pen.

We also have wristwatch which I talked about in the introduction.

This is actually a Fitbit but I could call it my watch as well.

Uh we don't say wristwatch anymore.

Uh I think a long time ago, people might have a pocket watch or a wristwatch and you might have wanted to distinguish between the two.

But now, pretty much, if you say, watch, we mean this, the thing you wear on your wrist.

So, what time is it?

I'll check my watch.

I don't think I've ever said, I'll check my wristwatch.

Um and then just to uh highlight as well, if you notice, uh the term is two colors.

It's black and gray.

The gray is the common or informal way of using that thing's vocabulary name at this point in the English language.

So, wristwatch becomes watch.

Light bulb.

So, uh we sometimes still say light bulb but it's far more common to just say bulb.

I might say to Jen, oh, there's a bulb out in the uh upstairs bathroom or I need to change the bulb in the kitchen because it's not working anymore.

You can still say light bulb and as with all of these vocabulary words or terms, you can still use the big version.

There's no problem there but uh of course, a light bulb is something that you screw in when the bulb needs to be replaced, you unscrew it and you screw in a new bulb.

Mobile phone.

So, interestingly enough, when I was younger, you sometimes had a phone at home that was plugged into the wall and then you also might, if you are lucky, have a mobile phone.

I know in some places, they've gone with the word mobile to talk about their phone.

They might just call this a handy or a mobile but here, if someone says phone, they mean this kind of phone.

They don't mean the kind of phone necessarily that plugs into a wall because most people don't have one anymore.

In fact, when I was a kid, if you said phone, it meant like the old phone, the phone that hung on the wall or that went into its little holder uh and then if someone had a cellular phone or mobile phone, we would use that term.

Now, people use the word phone for this and if you still have an old phone, we call it a landline.

So, common term, hey, no phones allowed in class.

Leave your phone in your locker.

That's our rule at school.

No phones allowed in class.

So, we don't say cell phone or mobile phone.

There's no reason to.

We in Canada just say phone and I should specify that.

This lesson is very much some of the terms are very Canadian.

So, you'll have to kind of get a sense of what they are if you are learning a different version of English.

A magic marker.

I'm not sure if you know what a magic marker is but when I was a kid, I had magic markers.

Basically, a magic marker is something where it's it's not like a pen.

They come in different colors and ink does come out but it usually has a soft tip.

It's not like a ballpoint pen.

It has a soft tip and then as you use it, you can color, you can write in different colors and when I was a kid especially, we called the magic markers because they were magical, I guess but now we would just call them markers like one of my kids for school brings markers to school because in of their classes, they make posters and they need markers in order to draw and color the poster.

So, magic marker, we just say marker.

Steering wheel.

So, this one, I would say, we still use both terms.

Although, wheel is common.

Once you know, you're talking about the steering wheel.

So, a car has four wheels.

So, don't get too confused but it also has a steering wheel.

Often, you'll hear things like this.

Did you hear that there was an accident?

Oh, who is behind the wheel?

Or I had to turn the wheel in order to avoid hitting someone.

So, this one works in context.

You kind of have to know already in the conversation that you're talking about the steering wheel.

So, it's not a direct replacement but you will often hear those phrases like oh um behind the wheel when that car went in the ditch or um yeah a good one would be an animal was crossing the road.

So, I I turned the I turned the wheel to avoid them and we're talking about the steering wheel.

Photocopier.

So, yes, English speakers are a little bit lazy and we don't like to say more words or use more letters than we need to.

So, this is an of something where we just call it the copier at at work.

We will sometimes say photocopier.

It hasn't disappeared but more often we will just say, oh, I have to go and do make some copies.

I'm going to use the copier.

Um are there, is anyone standing at the copier right now?

I I need to use it.

So, hopefully, no one else is using it right now.

So, again, with this one, you can say photocopier or copier and people will understand what you're saying.

And then, I think you're really familiar with this one.

This one, we added a letter to the shorter version but a refrigerator, we often just call the fridge.

So, when I get home from the grocery store, I have some things that I put in the cupboard and other things I put in the fridge.

I rarely say refrigerator that there's just no reason to say that whole word.

It's too many letters.

I should have made the lesson title, too many letters, too many words.

So, when you have something that needs to stay cold, you will put it in the fridge.

Cordless drill.

So, many years ago, you would call a cordless drill, a cordless drill because you probably also had a drill that plugged into the wall and you might still have a drill like that but because cordless drills or rechargeable drills have become so common, the word drill often just refers to that.

If I go help my brother with something, I'll bring my drill.

He might say, hey, can you bring your drill?

Um I might specify like do you want the big old drill that plugs into the wall or you want me to just bring my DeWalt cordless drill but often drill now just simply refers to that type of drill.

Similar to mobile phone and now we just use phone.

When you talk about a cordless drill, you often just say drill.

Oh, I need to charge my drill.

Did you bring your drill?

Often, we know the person is talking about this type of drill.

By the way, one of the handiest tools in the world in my opinion.

If I was to give you a list of the five tools you need to have, hammer, measuring tape, and then cordless drill, I think would be number three.

What else would I put on there?

Hand saw, maybe a level.

I'm not sure.

This isn't a lesson on tools.

Although, I should do one on tools again soon.

So, eyeglasses.

I don't know if I've heard anyone say eyeglasses other than the eye doctor but this is the official term for these.

I mean, these are called eyeglasses but we just call them glasses.

Now, again, you have to be careful because you can have glasses in the kitchen and you can put water in those glasses but you can also have eyeglasses.

So, but I think again, this comes from context.

Context.

If someone says, oh, I'm having trouble seeing.

I don't have my glasses.

You know that they're talking about eyeglasses and not water glasses.

This is more of a jar by the way.

And then I again eyeglass was is probably from the word spectacles long ago.

I did a lesson a while ago.

I see in the chat, Hapia is talking about spectacles.

Uh I did a lesson long ago about um I did a lesson, sorry, Jen's sneaking in to grab her coat.

Um I did a lesson a while ago about words we don't use anymore and spectacles was one of those.

So, glasses or the longer version eyeglasses.

Phone charger.

So, this is an interesting one.

Um it used to be that the charger you use for your phone didn't work for your computer and the charger you use for your computer didn't work for your phone.

But in some cases, with newer phones and newer computers, the word charger means the same thing.

Most of my students can use the same charger for their computer as they can for their phone.

And again, this isn't always true.

But we often just use the word charger.

If Jen says to me, have you seen my charger?

I know she's talking about her phone charger.

If I say to her, have you seen my charger?

She knows I'm talking about my phone charger.

So, you can have a laptop charger, a computer charger, um and chargers for other things but I would say most of the time, if someone uses the word charger, they're probably looking for a phone charger.

Web browser.

So, this is what we called uh Internet Explorer or Chrome uh or Firefox or Safari.

Uh the program you use to use the internet.

Some of you who are at a computer right now have a browser open.

We don't say web browser very often anymore.

Um so, you have a browser open.

You went to YouTube.com.

You found my channel and you're watching a video in your web browser but yeah, we just say browser.

Like, if I'm talking to a student in class, I might say, oh, open up a browser and search for uh lithium ion batteries or iron batteries.

Um so, browser has become the de facto.

I don't even know if my students know the term web browser anymore or whether that's just faded from use but uh yes, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Firefox.

I think those are the main ones.

Um if you're on an Apple machine, you're probably using Safari.

Laptop computer.

So, notice the gray word has moved to the other end.

Um we don't often add the word computer anymore.

We might say but if you're talking to someone about computers, you might say laptop or desktop or I might say to students, don't forget to bring your laptop tomorrow.

We're going to need it in class.

So, I don't use the term computer very often.

Um we used to use notebook as well or portable computer but I think laptop is now the term that we've decided to use for this device.

So, again, I might say to my students, make sure you charge your laptop tonight.

When you come to class tomorrow, bring your laptop because we're going to be using it.

Shopping mall.

Oh, it's me.

This is from last February or March from the video.

Uh the English lesson I did at the mall.

Uh if you wanna watch it, you can search for it.

Just search Bob the Canadian Mall.

Uh we just call this the mall.

You will hear the term shopping mall but probably 90% of the time, people will say, oh, I'm going to go to the mall Friday night.

I went to the mall yesterday.

Uh I need to go to the mall and do some Christmas shopping.

I could say those all using shopping mall like I went to the shopping mall last week or I'm going to go to the shopping mall.

But it's too many words.

So, I would most often probably say, I'm going to the mall.

Jen and I need to go to the mall.

Jen and I need to start Christmas shopping.

It's coming.

Uh it's coming quickly.