In this episode: vocabulary related to the coronavirus, a lesson about adjectives that work like nouns, a tip about greeting someone during a difficult time, the Joke of the Week, a listening quiz, and more.
Episode 157 of the Everybody ESL podcast has a list of vocabulary words related to the coronavirus, a lesson about adjectives that work like nouns, a tip about greeting friends during difficult times, the Joke of the Week, a listening quiz, and more. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions (or if you’d like to record an introduction for future episodes), send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com!
Episode 157 rundown: Vocabulary (words related to the coronavirus): 1:20, Grammar (adjectives that work like nouns): 6:55, Small talk (a tip about greeting people in difficult times): 10:50, the Joke of the Week: 12:45, Listening quiz: 14:15.
Vocabulary: words related to the coronavirus
Because the whole world is dealing with coronavirus right now, I thought it would be a good idea for this episode’s vocabulary words to all have something to do with the coronavirus.
And the first word on our list for this week is epidemic. Epidemic. E-p-i-d-e-m-i-c. Epidemic. An epidemic is a disease or other bad thing that spreads quickly.
Epidemic is very similar to the next word: pandemic. Pandemic. P-a-n-d-e-m-i-c. Pandemic. What is the difference between an epidemic and a pandemic? A pandemic is a very serious epidemic. A pandemic is a disease, or maybe some other very bad thing, that spreads quickly over a wide area. It might cover an entire country. It might cover an entire continent. It might cover the entire world. So a pandemic is sort of like a big epidemic or an extra-epidemic, a super-epidemic.
The next word on the list is symptom. Symptom. S-y-m-p-t-o-m. Symptom. A symptom is a sign or a signal. When we talk about a disease or an illness, a symptom is something that tells us that someone is or might be sick. For instance, when we are talking about coronavirus, a symptom might be a fever or difficulty breathing. These are symptoms of the disease that coronavirus can cause.
Here in the United States we've been hearing this term a lot recently: test kit. Test kit. T-e-s-t k-i-t. And it is the kit part that I want to focus on. A kit is a collection of items or objects that you use for a particular purpose, or a collection of items or objects that you use to build something. When we talk about a test kit, we’re talking about a collection of items that are used to test someone for coronavirus. Well, it doesn't have to be coronavirus, but that is usually what we're talking about these days when we talk about a test kit.
What about this phrasal verb: stock up. Stock up. S-t-o-c-k u-p. Stock up. To stock up means “to get a lot of something, to get a lot of something because you are preparing for a time when you think you will not be able to get it.” When there is a very serious epidemic or pandemic happening, often people will stock up on basic supplies. They will buy extra food, or they will make sure they have extra medicine in their homes. They will do this to prepare. They will collect or gather or buy a lot of something to prepare.
One reason people might have to stock up is because there might be a quarantine. Q-u-a-r-a-n-t-i-n-e. Quarantine. A quarantine is a situation where people have to stay removed from other people. They have to stay isolated. They might be sick with a disease that other people can get from them, so they have to stay away from other people. They have to stay inside their homes or maybe inside a hospital.
What about this one: vaccine. Vaccine. V-a-c-c-i-n-e. Do you know vaccine? A vaccine is a special mixture of stuff—of chemicals and other things—that helps to prevent a disease from spreading. If somebody gives you a shot with a vaccine, that can prevent you from getting a certain disease or illness.
And that leads to the last word on our list: immune. Immune. I-m-m-u-n-e. Immune. What does it mean to be immune? If you are immune to something, that means you are safe from it. It cannot harm you. You are protected from it. A vaccine can make you immune to a disease. If you have a vaccine, you will be immune, and you will not be able to get that certain disease, or it will be less likely that you will get that disease.
Well, that is our unhappy list of vocabulary words for this week.
Grammar: adjectives that work like nouns
For today’s grammar lesson, I want to talk about parts of speech. I want to talk about words that can be more than one part of speech. Do you know what a part of speech is? These are the categories of words like noun, verb, adjective, and so on. One thing that makes English difficult is that many words can be more than one part of speech.
There are words that can be nouns and verbs. For instance, the word book. Book. B-o-o-k. The word book is a noun, of course, but it's also a verb that means “to make a reservation.”
Even the word read can be more than one part of speech. It’s a verb, of course, but did you know that read can also be a noun? As a noun, read means “something to read, something you can read.”
And today I want to talk about some adjectives that can also be used as nouns. Some of these adjectives are very common, and you see them every day. For instance, the word American. American is an adjective—as in “an American accent” or “an American person.” But it can also stand by itself as a noun. We can also say “an American,” and here it means “an American person.” The adjective is doing all of the work of a noun. So an American means “an American person.”
It's also common to turn an adjective into a noun that refers to a whole group of people. And in this case, we always use the article the. T-h-e. For example, we can refer to old or elderly people by calling them “the elderly.” This is just another way of saying elderly people. The elderly. We’re using an adjective, and we’re adding the, and now it refers to a whole group of people. We also do this with the adjectives unemployed, rich, and young. So we can talk about the unemployed to mean “the category of unemployed people.” Or we can talk about the rich to mean “the category of rich people.” We can talk about the young to talk about “the category of young people.”
If you take an adjective that can describe people and add the, you can make a noun that refers to a whole category of people. This doesn't work with every adjective that can describe people, but it is a common way of creating nouns from adjectives.
Here are some more examples I just thought of, and even if you have never seen these adjectives used as nouns, now you know what they mean. The lazy. The educated. The blind. The bold.
I plan on talking more about adjectives that can work like nouns in a future episode. Now that you are aware of this pattern, maybe you will see and hear other examples of this pattern all around you.
Small Talk: a good greeting for difficult times
For this episode’s small talk or social situation, I have a good greeting for these difficult times. This is something that you hear when somebody is going through something difficult. Instead of asking your friend, “Hey, how are you?” if times are difficult or if your friend is having a very difficult experience, you can say, “How are you holding up?” How are you holding up? Holding up is h-o-l-d-i-n-g u-p. How are you holding up? Or you can ask, “How have you been holding up?” They really have the same meaning.
What this means is “Have you been able to maintain your strength during this difficult time?” “How have you been doing during a time that tests you or a time that tests your strength?” Or “How have you been doing with your illness?” Or “How have you been doing after your injury?” Or when there is an epidemic or a pandemic happening, you can say, “How are you holding up?” to mean “How are you doing in this very difficult time?” So it's kind of a special greeting. You would not say this in ordinary circumstances. It’s not a reasonable way to greet a friend during a normal situation, but if you know that somebody has been having a difficult time, this is a good thing to say. “How have you been holding up?” Or “How are you holding up?”
The Joke of the Week
And now it's time for the Joke of the Week! That's right—the Joke of the Week, a joke that will probably not be very funny. But I want to keep telling these jokes because I think they can show us fun or interesting things about English.
Here is this week's joke: What comes at the end of every birthday? What comes at the end of every birthday? Do you have any ideas. Do you think you might know what the answer is? Well, I'm just going to tell you the answer right now. What comes at the end of every birthday? The letter Y. The letter Y! The letter Y comes at the end of every birthday.
Do you get it? Do you see why this is supposed to be a joke? It's because when you hear “birthday,” you probably think of a certain day of the year. Maybe there is a party, and you get presents, and things like that. But birthday is also just a word. It's a word that is spelled b-i-r-t-h-d-a-y. What comes at the end of every birthday? The letter Y. The letter Y comes at the end. Well, that is this week's hilarious Joke of the Week!
Listening Quiz
Here are this episode's listening quiz sentences: