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  • To be or not to be? That is the question. Hi. James, from EngVid. We're looking at homonyms.

  • What are they? Well, before we even go there, why don't we just go to the board for a second?

  • I want to show you something. I'm sure you've heard this before. All right? English people

  • say, "Those four things are for you." Okay. Four, for. How about this? "When you go to

  • the store to buy the milk, swing by John's house and say bye to him for me." Now, a few

  • of these words sound the same, but we know the meanings are not the same. And this is

  • what we mean by homonyms. Okay? But I'm going to give you a little test before we get started

  • on the lesson because I want to do some grammar. Let's look at the board.

  • So Mr. E who wants to test thee, and he's giving you a little story. Now, bear in mind,

  • when we're finished, at the end of the video or near the end, we're going to come back

  • to this with the proper words and see what you've learned. "I want you to bare with me

  • as I teach you to go on to the hire lessons on EngVid. When you complete the hole video,

  • you will be a much better student because you will no how to read and right like a native

  • speaker." Now, to a native speaker, actually, it's quite funny. What I just said, if they're

  • not looking at the board, it's perfect English. But if you were to actually write this on

  • paper, they would be scratching their heads going, "What is wrong with you?" 'Empty',

  • 'job', 'whole', 'no', and 'correct' don't make any sense. And probably, what I just

  • said to you doesn't make any sense because you're thinking, "Huh? You wrote that, James.

  • You should know." And you're right. And in a second or two, so will you. Ready?

  • Okay. Ready? Let's do the grammar. Now, what are homonyms? Well, "nym" means "name". Right?

  • We're here. I'm going to go off for a second so that you can see. "Nym" means "name". "Homo"

  • means "same". So it means "same name". But this is a general term. And what we have to

  • look at is not the general term but the individual terms for grammar. Because some teachers may

  • say to you, "This is a homophone or homograph." And you're going to say, "What?" Well, I'll

  • break it down for you.

  • Homophone. Think your iPhone. Got the iTalk going here. "Phone "is for sound, right? Because

  • we have "phonics", sounds. So what we have here is a homophone sounds the same, but it's

  • spelled differently and has a different meaning. "Bare" and "bear". Right? In the story earlier,

  • we talked about "bare", and it didn't look quite right? You were right because I was

  • using a homophone. Okay? But it also could be a homograph. What? Too many words. We're

  • going to simplify. You know what a graph is, right? It tells you how things are moving.

  • Usually, graphs are written, right? So "graph". And we come to -- in English, we say "graphic".

  • "He had graphic speech", which means, "He was saying something, or it was written very

  • strongly." So written the same -- a word can be written the same, but it has a different

  • meaning. "Bear" and "bear" -- notice this one's a noun, and this one's a verb. In case

  • you're confused because I used the same thing over and over, why don't we just look over

  • here. That might explain it to you. Okay.

  • So we're looking over here. We've got "bare". The first "bare" is "not covering" or "no

  • covering". If this is my bare arm, you will see there is no shirt. It's bare. I won't

  • take the rest off and go bare because this is for children. This isn't an adult video.

  • It also means "open to view". If I say, "My life is bare, laid bare", it means it's open.

  • Anyone can look at it. If you have bare cupboards at home, there's nothing in them. Okay? They're

  • empty. No covering. There's nothing inside. It's empty.

  • When we look at "bear", it's almost the same, but this one's an adjective. But when we say

  • "bear" as a verb, it means "to support". Well, you have, let's say, a wall. And you have

  • a table. Okay? This is your table. If I put this on it, this is having a hard time supporting

  • it. See? The table is not really stable. Once I put this on it, it cannot bear the weight.

  • It will break. So when we talk about support and we say "bear" -- "Can it bear this?" -- it

  • means, "Can it take the weight? Is it strong enough?" That's "bear" as a verb. Okay?

  • But here, I'm going to give you a phrasal verb for free. I know you love me. When I

  • say "bear with me", it means "Please, be patient with me." Right? "Support me. Give me some

  • time to speak. Bear with me for a second." Right? "Bear" here is that big, scary animal,

  • or it's a teddy bear in your house. It's an animal. So it can also be a noun, so you have

  • to really be careful. Right? As a homograph, it can have two meanings. As a homophone,

  • it can have two meanings. But the word is still the same. Bearing with the lesson? Let's

  • continue.

  • "Hire" -- "hire" is for jobs. And that's what you want, I'm sure. That's why a lot of you

  • are studying English. And it's a verb. "Will you hire me? Is he hiring? Are they hiring?

  • Can I get a job?" Okay. That's the verb. But "higher" is the comparative. There's low,

  • low, low, and I'm going to go high, high, high. Right? Voice. My voice went higher.

  • Okay? And lower. So price. Sometimes, we say, "This price is higher than the other price."

  • It means it's more expensive. But don't use "higher" for people, people. Okay? He is not

  • higher than you unless it's position in a job. He's "taller" than you. But "higher"

  • can be, "Oh, look. That plane is going higher and higher, moving ever upwards or going up."

  • Cool? All right.

  • Now, what about "whole"? I like "whole". "Whole" means "complete". I often eat whole pizzas

  • in one sitting. It means "complete" or "not damaged". You get the whole set. All of the

  • pens. Everything came together. Okay? Complete or not damaged. Here's another "hole". The

  • place I used to live in was a hole. It means "disgusting". I've actually taught in holes

  • as well. It means a disgusting or not nice place. Some bars are holes. You don't want

  • to go to them. But it also means -- you'll like this. Brought to you by the special effects

  • of EngVid. A hole. A hole. This is a hole. Okay? I made a hole. A "hole" means a tear

  • or a rip. When something is broken, when it's got a hole in it -- sometimes the hole is

  • very small like this one here. That's a hole. So if you say there's a hole in it -- I go,

  • "Ah, man. It's got a hole? I've got to get a new one now. It's got a hole in it." And

  • I live in a hole; I've got a hole in my shirt; things are pretty bad for me right now. Okay?

  • Or it could be a missing piece. If you say, "There is a hole in here", it means there's

  • a piece not there. Here's a piece; there's the hole. All right.

  • "Write". Duh! In English, it means "stupid". All of this is writing. When you do this,

  • it's called "writing". I don't think I have to explain. Otherwise, we have to go to the

  • basic level. All right? And the other one is "rights" and freedoms. In America, they

  • have rights. All over the world, you want to get your rights and freedoms -- freedom

  • to speak, freedom to vote. So "right" is something that your government or your -- I don't know

  • -- charter of rights and freedoms gives you that says you're allowed to do certain things

  • and no one is stop you from doing them. What are your rights? So, I mean, your rights -- that's

  • a noun. "I have rights in this country. The right the drive. The right to vote. The right

  • to serve my country." And "writing" is clearly the verb when you write a letter to your mother

  • or write an email.

  • But there's also another one, and this is "right", and I didn't quite put it under there,

  • so I'll do it now. When you have this "right" as an active adjective, it means "correct".

  • You are "correct". "He is right. He is correct." So we have three different meanings for "right".

  • Cool?

  • And finally, we're going too good do "no". Now, I didn't do a lot because "no" is basically

  • -- it could be a noun, an adverb, an adjective, and a verb. But for most of you guys, you

  • know what "no" means in your language, right? It's negative, right? So "no" in this case

  • just means "negative". But the other "know" is to have information. Do you know what I'm

  • talking about? I think you do. Don't say "no". You do know. Okay? So in this case, "Do you

  • know? Do you have the information I need?". All right? So we've done our grammar, and

  • we've done our vocabulary. Let's go back to that original story, okay? And I'm going to

  • fill in the blanks, and you're going to help me. And then, we're going to know if we really

  • know what we're talking about. Ready?

  • So, test time. Remember the story we told before? I didn't write the whole story out.

  • See? I used one of them again, "whole". But we've got the sentences. Why don't you take

  • a look and tell me which should go there.

  • "I want you to bare/bear with me." Now, with your new knowledge, is it "bare" or "bear"?

  • That's right. B-a -- no. "Bear". If you don't remember, you're going to have to watch this

  • video again, and you have to do the quiz when we're finished.

  • How about this. "You go on to higher/hire lessons." "You get job? I get job now?" I

  • don't think so, son.

  • The "higher" lessons. Right?

  • Now, what about this one? "Complete the whole/hole video." This is a "hole" video. It's a good

  • video. I know what "hole" means in a bad way. It's a good video. So I want you to do like

  • I do with the pizza and watch the "whole" video. And you will know -- "You will know!

  • No do! No do!" Mr. E, where was he? Was he in this video? I think he was. I hope he was

  • at the beginning. But you will "know" because I don't know right now if he was. You will

  • know how to "right"? You are not correct. You must use the verb here. "Write like a

  • native speaker." And also read, because if you don't know homonyms, you'll have a problem

  • sometimes, right? When you're reading.

  • So we've gone through these. You notice they're all different from the first ones. So then,

  • you're smart enough to know I taught you ten vocabulary words and homonyms, homophones,

  • and homographs. I hope you liked that. Mr. E's gone, which is a clue for me to go as

  • well. Have a good day. But before I go, you need to go to www.engvid.com -- see this makes

  • a W -- "eng" as in "English", "vid" as in "video", where you can learn more about your

  • homographs, homonyms. There are a couple lessons on EngVid. And other stuff like conversation

  • -- I like that. Anyway. Have a good one, and see you soon.

  • I think that's the right thing to do, don't you?

To be or not to be? That is the question. Hi. James, from EngVid. We're looking at homonyms.

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