Compliment/complement and desert/dessert

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Language: en

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- [Instructor] Hello, grammarians.

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Continuing our journey through the world

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of frequently confused words,

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I'd like to begin with
complement with two Es

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and compliment with an I and an E.

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How the heck do we keep these separate?

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Well, first let's get some definitions.

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Complement with two Es, C,
O, M, P, L, E, M, E, N, T,

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is a verb,

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and it means to match, pair,
or work well with something

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as in, that hat complements
your suit, Melvin.

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There's our guy Melvin.

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There's his very fine hat in
the same color as his suit,

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so it matches or pairs or
works well with something

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'cause these are the same colors.

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They look nice together,

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maybe a little matchy matchy.

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Give him some gold epaulets.

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Shake it up a little bit, Melvin.

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There you go.

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Compliment, with an I, C,
O, M, P, L, I, M, E, N, T,

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is a verb that means to praise

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or noun that just means praise.

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So complement with an E is
the verb of actually matching,

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but when we point it out,

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and we say, that hat
complements your suit, Melvin,

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and we say, that looks
pretty good, Melvin,

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that in itself is a compliment.

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So this sentence

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is a compliment.

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So Melvin would say in response,

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"Thank you for the compliment."

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So I can see how this is confusing,

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so when two things go together well,

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visually or sonically or however,

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you say they complement one another.

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When two people work well as a team,

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you can say their skills
complement one another,

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and if you point that out

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in a way that is praiseworthy,

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if you say, "Ah, Melvin,
that is a dope ensemble

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"you are rocking today,"

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that is a compliment with an I.

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So you are praising it.

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This one is a classic.

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So we've got desert over here

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and dessert over here,

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so these words look a little similar,

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but they are pronounced differently,

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which is to our benefit.

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So these are both nouns,

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so desert with a zuh sound, zuh,

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is dry, sandy land.

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So for example, this is a
depiction of the Sonoran Desert

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in Arizona and Mexico.

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Right, so this is a saguaro cactus.

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That there's a barrel cactus.

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That's a palo verde.

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There's a little kit fox.

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So when you see desert with one S

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as opposed to dessert with two Ss,

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what I want you to imagine is water,

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a long, flowing river

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made of Ss and that
when you're in a desert,

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there just isn't as much.

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There isn't as much water.

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So one S means less water,

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means cacti and little kit
foxes and gila monsters.

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Dessert with two Ss is
like an ice cream sundae.

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We got some vanilla ice cream.

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We got some strawberry ice cream,

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and then this black ice
cream is licorice ice cream,

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which is actually delicious,

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and I encourage you to try it,

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and then this, if you
couldn't tell, is a banana.

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So what is a dessert?

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So a dessert is a noun,

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and it is a sweet food eaten after a meal.

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Certainly it doesn't have
to be this banana split,

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this ice cream sundae.

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It could be anything sweet,

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so cookies, cake, chocolate,

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the sorts of things that you
would not find in a desert.

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So keeping these two words straight,

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desert and dessert, is
really one of abundance.

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When there's two Ss,

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it means, oh, times are good.

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We're doing so well.

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We can have ice cream.

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If you're missing that second S,

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it means things are a little lean.

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There's not a lot of water.

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There's a lot of cacti and rattlesnakes.

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Don't get me wrong.

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I have had some excellent
desserts with two Ss

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in desert places.

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There happens to be a
very fine ice cream parlor

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in Scottsdale, Arizona,

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but what I'm trying to say is

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that in the landform that
we call a desert with one S,

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you are unlikely to
find an ice cream sundae

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just sitting out.

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You can learn anything.

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David, out.


Alliteration, Assonance, and Onomatopoeia

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- [David] Hello grammarians, hello Rosie!

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- [Rosie] Hi David!

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- [David] So, You've
caught me mid-scribble

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in the greatest challenge of my career.

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Will I be able to write
the word ono-mato-poeia?

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- [Rosie] You can do it.

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- [David] Did I get it?

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- [Rosie] You did it.

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- [David] Yes!

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This is one of my least
favorite words to spell

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but one of my favorite
things to talk about.

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Because what we're talking about today is

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alliteration, assonance,

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and onomatopoeia.

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And these are all words that are related

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to the way language sounds.

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But let's begin with alliteration.

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Rosie, what is alliteration?

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- [Rosie] Alliteration
is when a series of words

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all start with the same consonant.

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- [David] So what's a
good example of that?

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- [Rosie] Robert Park
swam swiftly, surely,

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and straight ahead.

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- [David] So you can see that
all these pink words here,

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swam, swiftly, surely, straight
ahead, all begin with "S."

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And so this is why we
call this alliteration

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because "S" is a consonant and all

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of these things share a
similar consonant sound.

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Now I want to contrast
that with assonance,

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which is what, Rosie?

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- [Rosie] Assonance is
when a series of words

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all start with the same vowel.

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Althea abolished all anguish.

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- [David] So you can
see, all of these words

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in the sentence in the
same vowel neighborhood.

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- [Rosie] Right.

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- [David] But my favorite
of all is onomatopoeia,

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which comes from Greek, and
it basically means, like,

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onom, onomat, means a
name resulting from doing.

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So really, this is, this word just means

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sounds like what it does.

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So any, really anything
that you would conceive of

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as a sound effect, like a word that comes

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from a sound effect.

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So, the bees buzzed, for example.

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Like, what is buzzed?

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Well, it's the sound that a bee makes.

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It's what it does.

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But that word is derived
from the buzz sound.

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But that's not the only
example of onomatopoeia.

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We've compiled here a list.
What have we got, Rosie?

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- [Rosie] Okay, we've got splat.

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That's kind of the sound of
something hitting pavement.

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- [David] Splat.

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- [Rosie] Yep.

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We've got clang, which
is like the clanging

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of a bell.

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We've got bang, which sounds
like something exploding.

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Whoosh, which sounds like air or wind.

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Beep.

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- [David] Yeah.

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- [Rosie] Beep sounds like a beeping.

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(laughs)

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- [David] Like that is
literally, so if you, if you are

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trying to summon up the
actual sound of a thing

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and transcribe it and use
it as a noun or a verb,

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you're using onomatopoeia.

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I know it's a terrifying
looking word, right?

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Like, no one word should have
this many vowels in front

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of the other.

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I get it, I get it.

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I'm, I'm terrified of spelling this word,

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but I managed to do it,
apparently, and now you know

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what it means, and that should take away

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some of its scariness and
impart to you some of its power.

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Because here at Khan Academy, we want you

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to have the power to harness language,

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and specifically, today,
to harness these three

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different language styles.

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So, alliteration, repeating
the same consonant

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a bunch of times in a row,

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so swimming, swiftly,
surely, and straight ahead.

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- [Rosie] Assonance, where
you repeat the same vowel,

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like abolished all anguish.

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- [David] And onomatopoeia,
where you make a word

00:04:02.327 --> 00:04:04.883
that sounds like what
the word's effect is.

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So the bees buzzed, the
pudding cup went splat,

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the boxing bell fell to
the floor with a clang,

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the firework went off with
a bang, a flight of bats

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whooshed past my head, and the robot,

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the little baby robot
beeped at me, insistently.

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- [Rosie] I like those.

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- [David] How can a robot be a baby?

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- [Rosie] I think it's
just the size, right?

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- [David] Okay, sure.

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- [Rosie] Not the age.

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- [David] Okay, sure,
yeah that's legitimate.

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So okay, I guess the
question is now you know

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what these things are, but Rosie,

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why would a person want
to use these techniques

00:04:40.822 --> 00:04:43.248
in language, whether written or spoken?

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- [Rosie] That's a great question.

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Writers can use some of these techniques

00:04:46.622 --> 00:04:48.872
to basically use the sound.

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To get across a pattern.

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- [David] Um-hum.

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- [Rosie] Like if you're going to use words

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that all sound the same at the beginning,

00:05:00.446 --> 00:05:03.536
with a bunch of "Ss" that kind of,

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could potentially build some
momentum to your sentence.

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Like, it kind of makes the
reader sit up and pay attention,

00:05:09.172 --> 00:05:12.549
too, like oh, this is
an interesting pattern.

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So that could be one reason
why a writer might use,

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for example, alliteration.

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- [David] Yeah, so it's a
way to express a pattern

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and to build on what you were saying,

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you can also, it's just
a good attention grabber,

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and it's also useful for its own sake,

00:05:27.442 --> 00:05:31.442
just as a technique for
writing prose or poetry.

00:05:32.420 --> 00:05:35.096
Like, it's something,
it's a useful property

00:05:35.096 --> 00:05:38.679
of language to be able
to sometimes access.

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- [Rosie] Right, and a good
example with onomatopoeia,

00:05:44.104 --> 00:05:47.687
ono-mato-poeia, is
you're really capturing,

00:05:51.198 --> 00:05:55.727
you're really capturing
the sound, so the reader

00:05:55.727 --> 00:05:58.362
is really able to be
immersed in the experience

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even more fully.

00:05:59.553 --> 00:06:03.952
You can hear the sounds
that are happening.

00:06:03.952 --> 00:06:05.931
The buzzing of the bees, or, yeah.

00:06:05.931 --> 00:06:08.232
It just puts you even more in the story

00:06:08.232 --> 00:06:09.997
that the writer's telling.

00:06:09.997 --> 00:06:12.671
- [David] That's why you
would want to learn how to use

00:06:12.671 --> 00:06:16.749
assonance, alliteration, and onomatopoeia.

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You can learn anything.

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David out.

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- [Rosie] Rosie out.


Under- and overstatement

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Language: en

00:00:00.624 --> 00:00:02.664
- [Rosie] Hello, grammarians, hello David.

00:00:02.664 --> 00:00:03.641
- [David] Hello, Rosie!

00:00:03.641 --> 00:00:04.953
- [Rosie] So today,
we're going to talk about

00:00:04.953 --> 00:00:07.442
understatement and overstatement.

00:00:07.442 --> 00:00:09.686
- [David] And I could not be more excited.

00:00:09.686 --> 00:00:10.754
This is like the coolest thing

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that's happened to me all week!

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- [Rosie] Oh my gosh.

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Really? (laughs)

00:00:14.318 --> 00:00:16.027
- [David] Uh, uh, uh, no.

00:00:16.027 --> 00:00:17.416
I mean, I'm excited.

00:00:17.416 --> 00:00:18.648
This is a really interesting topic,

00:00:18.648 --> 00:00:21.014
but I was deliberately overstating.

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- [Rosie] Yeah, I mean, it's pretty cool,

00:00:22.173 --> 00:00:23.963
but that is, that does,

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that is a perfect example, David,

00:00:25.435 --> 00:00:27.478
of what overstatement is.

00:00:27.478 --> 00:00:29.999
So we're gonna look at a couple examples

00:00:29.999 --> 00:00:33.725
of what writers will do sometimes to,

00:00:33.725 --> 00:00:36.920
I would say, both
understatement and overstatement

00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:39.481
really help to drive a point home.

00:00:39.481 --> 00:00:42.648
We're gonna start with understatement.

00:00:44.215 --> 00:00:45.756
So David, you wanna read this sentence?

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- [David] Sure.

00:00:46.656 --> 00:00:48.453
"So you kidnapped my dog,

00:00:48.453 --> 00:00:50.719
"drove to New Orleans
without telling anyone,

00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:52.616
"and ate the last cookie
that I was saving?

00:00:52.616 --> 00:00:55.413
"Yeah, I'm like, vaguely unhappy."

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(Rosie laughs softly)

00:00:56.591 --> 00:00:59.110
- [Rosie] This is a horrible
thing that just happened.

00:00:59.110 --> 00:01:03.213
So when you said, "Yeah,
I'm like vaguely unhappy,"

00:01:03.213 --> 00:01:06.230
after this huge list of horrible things

00:01:06.230 --> 00:01:08.607
that this supposed friend has done,

00:01:08.607 --> 00:01:11.136
you know, it's clear that,

00:01:11.136 --> 00:01:15.312
that you're more than just
a little, vaguely unhappy.

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- [David] To be clear, grammarians,

00:01:16.470 --> 00:01:18.613
Rosie did not do any of these things.

00:01:18.613 --> 00:01:20.071
(Rosie laughs softly)
- [Rosie] Thank you, David.

00:01:20.071 --> 00:01:22.310
- [David] This sentence
is a work of fiction.

00:01:22.310 --> 00:01:23.884
- [Rosie] Thank you for
letting me off the hook there.

00:01:23.884 --> 00:01:24.791
- [David] You're welcome.

00:01:24.791 --> 00:01:28.885
So what we're trying to
express in this sentence

00:01:28.885 --> 00:01:30.984
is that this is something that should make

00:01:30.984 --> 00:01:34.839
the speaker or the writer quite unhappy.

00:01:34.839 --> 00:01:36.261
But what we're doing here is

00:01:36.261 --> 00:01:39.094
deliberately understating the case

00:01:40.705 --> 00:01:42.615
to further drive home the point

00:01:42.615 --> 00:01:45.346
that this is actually quite serious.

00:01:45.346 --> 00:01:46.617
- [Rosie] Exactly.

00:01:46.617 --> 00:01:49.877
- [David] So, ironically,
while the writer is using

00:01:49.877 --> 00:01:53.615
minimizing language, saying,
"I am vaguely unhappy,"

00:01:53.615 --> 00:01:56.175
or, "like vaguely unhappy,"

00:01:56.175 --> 00:02:00.254
which serves to further
qualify that statement,

00:02:00.254 --> 00:02:02.030
the fact that they're saying that

00:02:02.030 --> 00:02:04.233
after such a litany of sins,

00:02:04.233 --> 00:02:08.137
like, the cookie even, that's just ugh!

00:02:08.137 --> 00:02:12.502
Really serve to drive
home the opposite effect.

00:02:12.502 --> 00:02:16.272
So this is a textbook
example of understatement.

00:02:16.272 --> 00:02:17.105
- [Rosie] All right, so we've seen

00:02:17.105 --> 00:02:19.656
an example of understatement.

00:02:19.656 --> 00:02:23.823
Let's take a look at what an
overstatement might look like.

00:02:24.727 --> 00:02:26.758
- [David] "My life is over.

00:02:26.758 --> 00:02:28.210
"I got a D on the midterm.

00:02:28.210 --> 00:02:31.336
"I am dead; I am literally a skeleton."

00:02:31.336 --> 00:02:34.357
- [Rosie] Hooo, wow. (laughs)

00:02:34.357 --> 00:02:35.940
So this is a great,

00:02:37.006 --> 00:02:39.756
a great example of overstatement.

00:02:40.816 --> 00:02:43.956
- [David] So we know
this isn't true, right?

00:02:43.956 --> 00:02:46.739
Made a D on your midterm, not great.

00:02:46.739 --> 00:02:50.191
But is it truly and actually
the end of someone's life?

00:02:50.191 --> 00:02:53.200
No, and this author,
this writer knows that,

00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:54.663
knows what they are saying,

00:02:54.663 --> 00:02:56.806
because skeletons can't write.

00:02:56.806 --> 00:02:57.995
- [Rosie] Exactly.

00:02:57.995 --> 00:03:00.963
You might have also heard of hyperbole,

00:03:00.963 --> 00:03:01.803
which is what this is.

00:03:01.803 --> 00:03:04.722
It's just like, way exaggeration.

00:03:04.722 --> 00:03:07.496
But it serves to drive
home this person's point

00:03:07.496 --> 00:03:09.541
that they feel really bad

00:03:09.541 --> 00:03:11.532
that they got a D on this midterm,

00:03:11.532 --> 00:03:14.028
and this is a very effective way

00:03:14.028 --> 00:03:16.874
of conveying to us how upset they are,

00:03:16.874 --> 00:03:19.210
even though they're not
literally a skeleton,

00:03:19.210 --> 00:03:22.319
and they don't think they're
literally a skeleton.

00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:24.453
- [David] I think the
emotional impact of this

00:03:24.453 --> 00:03:26.749
is much more effective than it would be

00:03:26.749 --> 00:03:28.537
if I just said, "I am very upset,

00:03:28.537 --> 00:03:30.742
"because I got a D on my midterm."

00:03:30.742 --> 00:03:34.440
Like, I think this is more expressive.

00:03:34.440 --> 00:03:36.960
And certainly it's not true,

00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:39.569
but I think there's an
interesting way to play

00:03:39.569 --> 00:03:41.029
with over and understatement

00:03:41.029 --> 00:03:44.184
in order to get feelings across.

00:03:44.184 --> 00:03:47.536
I think, I think there's
like, a little bit of a taboo

00:03:47.536 --> 00:03:50.536
in American English-speaking culture

00:03:51.607 --> 00:03:55.607
to too literally say the
state of your emotions,

00:03:57.947 --> 00:04:01.259
and so we've discovered
these cultural idioms,

00:04:01.259 --> 00:04:03.768
through which we transmit emotion.

00:04:03.768 --> 00:04:07.955
So like, compare the
following two examples,

00:04:07.955 --> 00:04:09.221
delivered by Rosie.

00:04:09.221 --> 00:04:11.224
- [Rosie] 'Kay.

00:04:11.224 --> 00:04:12.641
"I'm very angry."

00:04:13.541 --> 00:04:17.291
Or, "Yeah, you could
say I'm a little upset."

00:04:19.363 --> 00:04:22.318
- [David] Now Rosie is
using understatement

00:04:22.318 --> 00:04:25.470
that I think, and I feel that the,

00:04:25.470 --> 00:04:27.738
the statement that uses understatement

00:04:27.738 --> 00:04:30.835
actually conveys more anger,

00:04:30.835 --> 00:04:33.192
because it's more socially
acceptable in the United States

00:04:33.192 --> 00:04:37.349
to somewhat publicly
repress your emotions.

00:04:37.349 --> 00:04:38.434
- [Rosie] Yeah, exactly.

00:04:38.434 --> 00:04:39.717
I mean, you could hear somebody say,

00:04:39.717 --> 00:04:42.762
"Yeah, I think I'm
pretty upset about that."

00:04:42.762 --> 00:04:45.812
And they're kinda laughing,
but they're upset.

00:04:45.812 --> 00:04:48.311
- [David] You can see
the glorious subtlety

00:04:48.311 --> 00:04:51.426
of these language techniques.

00:04:51.426 --> 00:04:56.020
And I understand, this can
make English a minefield

00:04:56.020 --> 00:04:57.961
for people trying to learn the language,

00:04:57.961 --> 00:05:00.754
because the subtext of what you're saying,

00:05:00.754 --> 00:05:02.786
with overstatement and understatement,

00:05:02.786 --> 00:05:05.977
is more important than the text itself.

00:05:05.977 --> 00:05:07.684
- [Rosie] Exactly.

00:05:07.684 --> 00:05:09.865
- [David] It's very difficult

00:05:09.865 --> 00:05:12.235
to learn to interpret those cues.

00:05:12.235 --> 00:05:13.466
There are plenty of native speakers

00:05:13.466 --> 00:05:15.138
who have trouble with it.

00:05:15.138 --> 00:05:15.971
- [Rosie] It's true.

00:05:15.971 --> 00:05:18.017
And it's just something that

00:05:18.017 --> 00:05:21.206
you can keep an eye out
for when you're reading

00:05:21.206 --> 00:05:23.441
and also when you're talking to people.

00:05:23.441 --> 00:05:26.740
It may start to, you may
start to spot them more,

00:05:26.740 --> 00:05:27.907
as you listen.

00:05:29.232 --> 00:05:31.772
- [David] And I suspect that,
if you listen and you study,

00:05:31.772 --> 00:05:35.286
I have this sneaking minute suspicion

00:05:35.286 --> 00:05:37.205
that you can learn anything.

00:05:37.205 --> 00:05:38.078
David, out.

00:05:38.078 --> 00:05:39.572
- [Rosie] Rosie, out.

00:05:39.572 --> 00:05:40.922
- [David] That was awesome.

00:05:40.922 --> 00:05:42.606
- [Rosie] That was fun!


Bare/bear, allowed/aloud, advice/advise, break/brake

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.418 --> 00:00:01.951
- [David] Hello grammarians, hello Eman.

00:00:01.951 --> 00:00:03.126
- [Eman] Hello.

00:00:03.126 --> 00:00:04.186
- [David] Today we're going to be talking

00:00:04.186 --> 00:00:07.952
about four sets of
frequently confused words.

00:00:07.952 --> 00:00:12.119
The one that I want to begin
with is advice and advise.

00:00:13.550 --> 00:00:15.077
How do we keep these two words straight?

00:00:15.077 --> 00:00:15.910
Well, first of all,

00:00:15.910 --> 00:00:18.972
advice with a 'c' is a noun

00:00:18.972 --> 00:00:21.722
and advise with an 's' is a verb.

00:00:22.961 --> 00:00:24.497
These are really easy to screw up

00:00:24.497 --> 00:00:25.942
because they look very similar

00:00:25.942 --> 00:00:29.627
and you'd think that they have
approximately the same sound,

00:00:29.627 --> 00:00:33.081
but the 'c' is advice actually ends up

00:00:33.081 --> 00:00:35.704
having a sss sound, an 's',

00:00:35.704 --> 00:00:38.465
and the 's' in advise ends up

00:00:38.465 --> 00:00:41.748
having a zzz sound, a 'z' sound.

00:00:41.748 --> 00:00:43.928
Let's use these both in a sentence.

00:00:43.928 --> 00:00:46.930
Bertram gives terrible advice.

00:00:46.930 --> 00:00:50.907
Mopewa advised us not to
surf on a full stomach.

00:00:50.907 --> 00:00:52.852
So the word advice, the noun,

00:00:52.852 --> 00:00:55.486
contains another noun, the word vice,

00:00:55.486 --> 00:00:57.423
which is kinda like a,
it's a type of clamp

00:00:57.423 --> 00:01:01.006
usually tightened by
means of a metal screw

00:01:05.913 --> 00:01:08.937
and you turn it with a handle.

00:01:08.937 --> 00:01:11.356
In my context, in my experience,

00:01:11.356 --> 00:01:12.764
I've used it in woodworking projects

00:01:12.764 --> 00:01:14.647
to keep pieces of wood still.

00:01:14.647 --> 00:01:19.226
You want to clamp something
while it's being glued together.

00:01:19.226 --> 00:01:20.622
You've got two pieces of wood,

00:01:20.622 --> 00:01:23.125
let's say this little piece of red wood

00:01:23.125 --> 00:01:26.309
and this little piece of blue wood.

00:01:26.309 --> 00:01:28.027
You want to glue them together,

00:01:28.027 --> 00:01:29.562
hold them still with a vice.

00:01:29.562 --> 00:01:32.528
If you remember that a vice is noun,

00:01:32.528 --> 00:01:35.778
you can remember that advice is a noun.

00:01:36.787 --> 00:01:39.029
And when you advise someone, yes,

00:01:39.029 --> 00:01:41.553
you are giving them advice,

00:01:41.553 --> 00:01:43.911
but this is the verb form.

00:01:43.911 --> 00:01:45.836
- [Eman] Now we have two other words

00:01:45.836 --> 00:01:48.140
that sound the same,
but are very different.

00:01:48.140 --> 00:01:51.074
We have aloud and allowed.

00:01:51.074 --> 00:01:52.757
Now, they are both adjectives,

00:01:52.757 --> 00:01:56.022
but they have different
spellings and different meanings.

00:01:56.022 --> 00:01:58.167
Let's start with the first aloud,

00:01:58.167 --> 00:02:00.522
which is spelled A-L-O-U-D.

00:02:00.522 --> 00:02:03.359
Note that it has the word loud in it,

00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:05.025
which can help us remember

00:02:05.025 --> 00:02:09.192
that this word talks about
something being spoken loudly.

00:02:10.669 --> 00:02:12.430
Let's use that in a sentence.

00:02:12.430 --> 00:02:14.180
Ginny muttered aloud.

00:02:15.656 --> 00:02:18.691
- [David] So when we say aloud A-L-O-U-D

00:02:18.691 --> 00:02:22.567
we mean it is audible, it can be heard.

00:02:22.567 --> 00:02:24.319
It contains that word, aloud.

00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:25.152
Cool.

00:02:25.152 --> 00:02:26.388
What's this next one?

00:02:26.388 --> 00:02:28.338
- [Eman] Allowed with two 'l's.

00:02:28.338 --> 00:02:30.883
And a good way to
remember this is to think

00:02:30.883 --> 00:02:34.300
about the word legal, which has two 'l's.

00:02:35.165 --> 00:02:36.765
If something is legal,

00:02:36.765 --> 00:02:40.025
it is also allowed, or permissible.

00:02:40.025 --> 00:02:42.465
Let's think of an example.

00:02:42.465 --> 00:02:45.899
Oliver allowed no peppers in his soup.

00:02:45.899 --> 00:02:47.231
- [David] Very allergic.

00:02:47.231 --> 00:02:49.529
- [Eman] He's very allergic, yes.

00:02:49.529 --> 00:02:53.726
Similarly, you might be
allowed to drive at 60 mph

00:02:53.726 --> 00:02:57.256
because it is legal to
drive at that speed.

00:02:57.256 --> 00:02:58.715
- [David] Sweet.

00:02:58.715 --> 00:03:01.215
Let's move on to our next set.

00:03:02.284 --> 00:03:05.117
Over here we have break and brake.

00:03:07.083 --> 00:03:09.795
These are both nouns and verbs, right?

00:03:09.795 --> 00:03:12.657
To break something is to crack it in half

00:03:12.657 --> 00:03:16.740
or to split or just to
ruin or destroy something,

00:03:17.935 --> 00:03:22.498
but it also refers to the
results of a crack or a split.

00:03:22.498 --> 00:03:25.661
Like you could say the break in a vase.

00:03:25.661 --> 00:03:28.313
Whereas brake, also a noun and a verb,

00:03:28.313 --> 00:03:30.980
refers to slowing stuff down.

00:03:30.980 --> 00:03:34.595
So to slow down or the
mechanism that does the slowing.

00:03:34.595 --> 00:03:37.669
We have here both a verb form

00:03:37.669 --> 00:03:41.049
and we have here the verb
form and the noun form.

00:03:41.049 --> 00:03:43.520
- [Eman] How do you remember
the difference between them?

00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:45.629
- [David] Let's take it
from the decision point.

00:03:45.629 --> 00:03:47.527
I'm writing a sentence and
I'm trying to figure out

00:03:47.527 --> 00:03:50.032
which one I want to use.

00:03:50.032 --> 00:03:54.199
Let's just imagine we've got
this un-word, brak, here.

00:03:56.654 --> 00:04:01.455
Now, if I want to use the
break and destroy sense,

00:04:01.455 --> 00:04:04.634
in order to do that I just
have to break the word in half

00:04:04.634 --> 00:04:08.238
and put that 'e' right in the middle.

00:04:08.238 --> 00:04:11.663
I broke the word in half, I put
the 'e' right in the center,

00:04:11.663 --> 00:04:14.038
and that means that I've cracked the word.

00:04:14.038 --> 00:04:17.790
But let's say I've got brak over here.

00:04:17.790 --> 00:04:20.139
I want to slow down its forward momentum.

00:04:20.139 --> 00:04:21.423
I'm going to put that 'e'

00:04:21.423 --> 00:04:22.666
(mimics braking noise) right at the end.

00:04:22.666 --> 00:04:23.772
It looks sort of like a spring,

00:04:23.772 --> 00:04:27.380
we want to halt its momentum
by putting that 'e' at the end.

00:04:27.380 --> 00:04:29.601
So let's put these into a sentence.

00:04:29.601 --> 00:04:31.957
Jesse breaks a vase.

00:04:31.957 --> 00:04:34.892
And how do we remember to
say breaks with 'e-a-k'?

00:04:34.892 --> 00:04:36.684
Well, we put the 'e' in the middle.

00:04:36.684 --> 00:04:40.351
We break the word in half,
we put the 'e' in the middle.

00:04:40.351 --> 00:04:42.019
Let's do the other one.

00:04:42.019 --> 00:04:44.001
Paolo slammed on the brakes.

00:04:44.001 --> 00:04:45.908
And how do we remember we want
to have the 'e' at the end?

00:04:45.908 --> 00:04:49.775
Well, the 'e' is trying
to slow Paolo down.

00:04:49.775 --> 00:04:51.395
We're trying to halt
that momentum by putting

00:04:51.395 --> 00:04:54.665
that spring-looking 'e'
at the end of the word.

00:04:54.665 --> 00:04:56.826
This one's one of my favorites.

00:04:56.826 --> 00:04:57.659
It's the difference

00:04:57.659 --> 00:05:01.832
between bear, B-E-A-R, and bare, B-A-R-E.

00:05:01.832 --> 00:05:05.999
Now the word bear, E-A-R, can
be either a verb or a noun.

00:05:08.053 --> 00:05:11.629
When it's a noun it's this critter,

00:05:11.629 --> 00:05:14.879
but when it's a verb it means to carry.

00:05:15.819 --> 00:05:19.986
And B-A-R-E is an adjective
meaning naked or empty.

00:05:21.612 --> 00:05:23.086
When I say bear as a verb,

00:05:23.086 --> 00:05:25.831
I mean that in the sense
of bearing a burden,

00:05:25.831 --> 00:05:27.293
if you've heard that expression.

00:05:27.293 --> 00:05:30.914
Or if you've ever heard
somebody say, I can't bear it!

00:05:30.914 --> 00:05:32.784
That literally means I can't carry it,

00:05:32.784 --> 00:05:35.539
but metaphorically means
I can't withstand it.

00:05:35.539 --> 00:05:37.570
Bare is something more like,

00:05:37.570 --> 00:05:41.438
the cupboards were bare, meaning empty.

00:05:41.438 --> 00:05:44.155
Open up the cupboard, a fly
comes out, something like that.

00:05:44.155 --> 00:05:46.293
So how do we keep these
two words separate?

00:05:46.293 --> 00:05:49.876
Well, all you have to remember
is this simple mnemonic:

00:05:49.876 --> 00:05:51.959
E before A, take it away.

00:05:52.871 --> 00:05:55.705
A before E, everyone can see

00:05:55.705 --> 00:05:58.762
that you are naked, or that
your cupboard is empty.

00:05:58.762 --> 00:06:00.888
Those are just a couple
of mnemonic devices,

00:06:00.888 --> 00:06:03.845
just memory aides that will, ideally,

00:06:03.845 --> 00:06:07.063
assist you in keeping these
sets of words straight.

00:06:07.063 --> 00:06:08.208
You can learn anything.

00:06:08.208 --> 00:06:09.115
David out.

00:06:09.115 --> 00:06:10.006
- [Eman] Eman out.


Irony

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.272 --> 00:00:01.784
- [David] Hello, grammarians.

00:00:01.784 --> 00:00:05.714
Today I wanna talk about
the concept of irony,

00:00:05.714 --> 00:00:08.647
which is a very difficult
concept to nail down

00:00:08.647 --> 00:00:10.406
because it means so many things.

00:00:10.406 --> 00:00:14.697
But let's begin with the
best definition I can muster,

00:00:14.697 --> 00:00:16.738
which is that irony is
the difference between

00:00:16.738 --> 00:00:19.291
expectation and result.

00:00:19.291 --> 00:00:21.665
Now, this contains a lot within it.

00:00:21.665 --> 00:00:22.790
So, that means that irony is

00:00:22.790 --> 00:00:27.342
not only the engine of
surprise, but also jokes.

00:00:27.342 --> 00:00:29.759
All jokes in English function

00:00:31.444 --> 00:00:33.445
on this engine of the difference

00:00:33.445 --> 00:00:34.763
between expectation and result.

00:00:34.763 --> 00:00:36.400
You expect to hear one thing

00:00:36.400 --> 00:00:39.059
and then a joke plays
with your expectations.

00:00:39.059 --> 00:00:40.904
There's nothing less funny than

00:00:40.904 --> 00:00:42.625
explaining why things are funny.

00:00:42.625 --> 00:00:45.612
But this is why things are funny.

00:00:45.612 --> 00:00:46.881
So, today we're gonna talk about

00:00:46.881 --> 00:00:49.249
three different kinds of irony.

00:00:49.249 --> 00:00:51.559
And I'm going to give
you an example of each.

00:00:51.559 --> 00:00:55.724
Now, the first kind is
called situational irony.

00:00:55.724 --> 00:00:58.705
In situational irony, everyone is aware

00:00:58.705 --> 00:01:00.507
of the discrepancy of the difference

00:01:00.507 --> 00:01:02.509
between expectation and result.

00:01:02.509 --> 00:01:04.797
And a really classic example of this is

00:01:04.797 --> 00:01:08.630
the O. Henry short story
The Gift of the Magi.

00:01:09.586 --> 00:01:12.147
And it's about a couple who are very poor,

00:01:12.147 --> 00:01:14.846
but who love each other very much.

00:01:14.846 --> 00:01:16.237
And each one wants to get the other

00:01:16.237 --> 00:01:18.159
a really nice Christmas present.

00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:20.529
The man has a very lovely watch

00:01:20.529 --> 00:01:24.029
and the woman has really lovely long hair.

00:01:25.073 --> 00:01:27.240
And, unbeknownst to the other,

00:01:27.240 --> 00:01:30.573
the woman buys her husband a watch chain

00:01:31.987 --> 00:01:34.786
and the man buys his wife a comb.

00:01:34.786 --> 00:01:36.505
But, in order to do that,

00:01:36.505 --> 00:01:39.330
he sells his watch to buy her the comb

00:01:39.330 --> 00:01:41.213
and, in order to buy him the watch chain,

00:01:41.213 --> 00:01:43.296
the woman sells her hair.

00:01:44.306 --> 00:01:47.500
And so, they give each other
gifts that are now useless.

00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:50.083
This watch chain and this comb.

00:01:50.973 --> 00:01:52.488
For the hair that isn't there

00:01:52.488 --> 00:01:54.290
and the watch that isn't there.

00:01:54.290 --> 00:01:56.814
And the irony is that
they are now aware that

00:01:56.814 --> 00:01:59.921
the lengths that they
went to for the other

00:01:59.921 --> 00:02:02.754
kind of ruined each other's gifts.

00:02:03.892 --> 00:02:05.121
That's situational irony.

00:02:05.121 --> 00:02:06.227
It's kind of a happy ending,

00:02:06.227 --> 00:02:08.722
'cause it proves stuff is just stuff

00:02:08.722 --> 00:02:10.932
and they love each other very much.

00:02:10.932 --> 00:02:12.526
That's situational irony.

00:02:12.526 --> 00:02:16.245
Everyone is aware of the discrepancy.

00:02:16.245 --> 00:02:20.644
Irony variant number two
is called dramatic irony.

00:02:20.644 --> 00:02:24.324
This means that there's
an unevenly distributed

00:02:24.324 --> 00:02:25.919
awareness of the difference.

00:02:25.919 --> 00:02:28.742
Specifically, that there's an audience.

00:02:28.742 --> 00:02:29.682
So, this is the sort of thing that

00:02:29.682 --> 00:02:34.007
really only comes into play in
fiction or in dramatic work.

00:02:34.007 --> 00:02:36.747
So, we're talking about a
play or a movie or whatever.

00:02:36.747 --> 00:02:38.383
So, let's say we've got a play.

00:02:38.383 --> 00:02:39.281
Here's our stage.

00:02:39.281 --> 00:02:41.694
Here's our audience down here.

00:02:41.694 --> 00:02:45.052
We have one character here, character A,

00:02:45.052 --> 00:02:47.789
who really doesn't like bears

00:02:47.789 --> 00:02:49.384
and is talking about if
he ever meets a bear,

00:02:49.384 --> 00:02:51.467
he's probably gonna punch
that bear right in the face.

00:02:51.467 --> 00:02:53.758
And here is character B, who is a bear,

00:02:53.758 --> 00:02:57.111
but is a bear in disguise
wearing a hat and a tie.

00:02:57.111 --> 00:03:00.623
Now, character B knows
that character B is a bear.

00:03:00.623 --> 00:03:02.915
The audience knows that
character B is a bear.

00:03:02.915 --> 00:03:04.832
Character A is unaware.

00:03:06.269 --> 00:03:09.587
So, we have this unevenly
distributed awareness

00:03:09.587 --> 00:03:11.958
of the difference between
expectation and result.

00:03:11.958 --> 00:03:14.973
Character A expects that
character B is not a bear.

00:03:14.973 --> 00:03:17.224
But character B and the audience

00:03:17.224 --> 00:03:19.228
knows that the opposite is true.

00:03:19.228 --> 00:03:21.768
That's dramatic irony.

00:03:21.768 --> 00:03:24.101
Now, the third kind of irony
we're going to talk about today

00:03:24.101 --> 00:03:26.500
is called verbal irony.

00:03:26.500 --> 00:03:28.744
So, the irony of words.

00:03:28.744 --> 00:03:30.384
And this one's a little different,

00:03:30.384 --> 00:03:32.101
because verbal irony is the difference

00:03:32.101 --> 00:03:35.318
between a stated meaning
and an actual meaning.

00:03:35.318 --> 00:03:38.064
And this means that it can
come in a couple of flavors.

00:03:38.064 --> 00:03:40.355
The most notable, and
perhaps the most confusing,

00:03:40.355 --> 00:03:41.855
is called sarcasm.

00:03:44.222 --> 00:03:46.599
And sarcasm is when you say a thing,

00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:49.092
but it actually ends up meaning
something quite different,

00:03:49.092 --> 00:03:50.889
usually the opposite.

00:03:50.889 --> 00:03:53.877
So, let's say an anvil,
very heavy metal object,

00:03:53.877 --> 00:03:55.685
falls on my foot, breaks my foot.

00:03:55.685 --> 00:03:58.001
I am in extraordinary pain.

00:03:58.001 --> 00:03:59.393
If you asked me how I was doing

00:03:59.393 --> 00:04:01.726
and I wanted to use sarcasm,

00:04:02.870 --> 00:04:06.226
I would say something
like, "Oh, I'm just great."

00:04:06.226 --> 00:04:09.500
And I'm signaling, with
my tone and also context,

00:04:09.500 --> 00:04:12.667
to indicate that the opposite is true.

00:04:13.861 --> 00:04:15.371
To say, "I'm actually terrible.

00:04:15.371 --> 00:04:17.625
My foot is broken."

00:04:17.625 --> 00:04:18.875
That's sarcasm.

00:04:19.878 --> 00:04:23.460
Now, related to sarcasm is the pun,

00:04:23.460 --> 00:04:27.627
which is usually a joke that
plays on multiple meanings.

00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:29.929
So, again, let's take this case.

00:04:29.929 --> 00:04:31.855
Let's say my foot was crushed by an anvil

00:04:31.855 --> 00:04:33.820
You ask me how I'm doing.

00:04:33.820 --> 00:04:36.702
I would say, "I'm feeling
a little flat today."

00:04:36.702 --> 00:04:38.666
No, not a great joke, sure.

00:04:38.666 --> 00:04:40.302
But what I'm trying to express is that

00:04:40.302 --> 00:04:44.946
I am both playing on the
notion that I don't feel well,

00:04:44.946 --> 00:04:46.174
I feel a little flat,

00:04:46.174 --> 00:04:49.288
and that my foot has been
squished by a heavy object,

00:04:49.288 --> 00:04:52.116
literally rendering it flat.

00:04:52.116 --> 00:04:53.725
That's what a pun is.

00:04:53.725 --> 00:04:56.385
And, again, I recognize
that, by explaining the joke,

00:04:56.385 --> 00:04:58.427
I have made the joke unfunny.

00:04:58.427 --> 00:04:59.427
I apologize.

00:05:00.554 --> 00:05:03.628
So, to review, let's put
all of these together

00:05:03.628 --> 00:05:06.295
into one giant ironic situation.

00:05:09.591 --> 00:05:12.947
So, let's say you're watching
a sitcom on television.

00:05:12.947 --> 00:05:15.522
And this sitcom takes place
in someone's apartment

00:05:15.522 --> 00:05:18.503
and that apartment has a
thing called a Murphy bed.

00:05:18.503 --> 00:05:20.306
Now, what a Murphy bed is is a bed that

00:05:20.306 --> 00:05:23.696
folds up into the wall to save
space in a small apartment.

00:05:23.696 --> 00:05:24.919
It's got this little handle up here.

00:05:24.919 --> 00:05:25.916
You grab it, you pull it down,

00:05:25.916 --> 00:05:28.411
it becomes just a regular bed.

00:05:28.411 --> 00:05:30.991
Otherwise, it's kept
folded up into the wall.

00:05:30.991 --> 00:05:33.244
So, let's say we're watching a sitcom

00:05:33.244 --> 00:05:37.411
that takes place in a small
apartment that has a Murphy bed.

00:05:38.297 --> 00:05:41.077
Let's say that our main
character has just come home

00:05:41.077 --> 00:05:43.777
from the airport with her visiting cousin.

00:05:43.777 --> 00:05:45.044
So, again, this is a sitcom.

00:05:45.044 --> 00:05:48.461
This is all happening on your television.

00:05:49.447 --> 00:05:52.197
So, this is all inside the frame.

00:05:55.996 --> 00:05:58.411
Now, unbeknownst to our
protagonist, let's call her Anna,

00:05:58.411 --> 00:06:00.620
and her cousin, let's call her Bella,

00:06:00.620 --> 00:06:02.953
a lion has crawled into the Murphy bed

00:06:02.953 --> 00:06:06.024
while the two of them were out.

00:06:06.024 --> 00:06:08.274
I promise this has a point.

00:06:11.032 --> 00:06:15.199
So, hidden behind this wall
is a lion on top of this bed.

00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:21.382
Now, ignorant of all of this,

00:06:21.382 --> 00:06:24.901
Bella asks her cousin "Is
the Murphy bed comfortable?"

00:06:24.901 --> 00:06:27.351
To which Anna replies "Yeah.

00:06:27.351 --> 00:06:30.340
It's perfect for lyin' on."

00:06:30.340 --> 00:06:31.526
I think you see where I'm going here.

00:06:31.526 --> 00:06:33.109
So, dramatic irony.

00:06:34.393 --> 00:06:37.738
We, the audience on the
other side of the screen,

00:06:37.738 --> 00:06:39.013
are aware that this entire that

00:06:39.013 --> 00:06:42.114
this entire time there's a
lion hiding in the Murphy bed.

00:06:42.114 --> 00:06:43.300
We know this.

00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:44.856
Anna and Bella do not.

00:06:44.856 --> 00:06:46.982
Bella asks if the bed is comfortable.

00:06:46.982 --> 00:06:48.531
Anna assures her that it is.

00:06:48.531 --> 00:06:50.393
We know, as the audience, it is not.

00:06:50.393 --> 00:06:53.866
There is a dangerous
savanna predator in the bed.

00:06:53.866 --> 00:06:55.380
That's dramatic irony.

00:06:55.380 --> 00:06:59.701
Situational irony, when they
pull that Murphy bed down

00:06:59.701 --> 00:07:01.457
and expose the lion,

00:07:01.457 --> 00:07:03.029
they will see the difference between

00:07:03.029 --> 00:07:06.078
these expectations and this result.

00:07:06.078 --> 00:07:08.290
And that is situational irony.

00:07:08.290 --> 00:07:09.639
You thought one thing was true

00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:12.030
and now something very
different has happened.

00:07:12.030 --> 00:07:14.237
That's the difference between
expectation and result.

00:07:14.237 --> 00:07:15.997
Beds don't usually have lions in them.

00:07:15.997 --> 00:07:17.717
You expect them not to have lions in them.

00:07:17.717 --> 00:07:18.550
You pull down the bed.

00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:19.909
Boom, there's a lion in it.

00:07:19.909 --> 00:07:21.464
Situational irony.

00:07:21.464 --> 00:07:24.381
Finally, it's perfect for lyin' on.

00:07:25.477 --> 00:07:27.416
Now, Anna does not realize this,

00:07:27.416 --> 00:07:29.912
but she is unwittingly punning

00:07:29.912 --> 00:07:33.599
on the fact that there is
a lion on the Murphy bed.

00:07:33.599 --> 00:07:35.682
So, this is verbal irony.

00:07:37.239 --> 00:07:41.406
Because, in fact, there is
a lion lyin' on the bed.

00:07:43.497 --> 00:07:44.398
So, there you have it.

00:07:44.398 --> 00:07:47.198
Encapsulated in one ridiculous case,

00:07:47.198 --> 00:07:50.947
here are all three
basic examples of irony.

00:07:50.947 --> 00:07:55.523
So, situational irony, dramatic
irony, and verbal irony.

00:07:55.523 --> 00:07:57.607
You can learn anything, David out.


There, their, and they're

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.717 --> 00:00:01.728
- Hello Grammarians!

00:00:01.728 --> 00:00:03.190
Today I want to talk about one of the

00:00:03.190 --> 00:00:07.023
absolute thorniest issues
in usage of English.

00:00:08.045 --> 00:00:11.781
And it's the difference between
there, their and they're.

00:00:11.781 --> 00:00:13.013
And if you can't tell the difference

00:00:13.013 --> 00:00:14.461
from the way I'm saying it

00:00:14.461 --> 00:00:18.274
that's because it's
really confusing and evil.

00:00:18.274 --> 00:00:19.283
And that is why I'm here.

00:00:19.283 --> 00:00:21.342
Is to help you make a distinction between

00:00:21.342 --> 00:00:23.778
these three sound alike words.

00:00:23.778 --> 00:00:26.848
Now, first of all we have there T-H-E-R-E

00:00:26.848 --> 00:00:28.506
which we're gonna use orange for

00:00:28.506 --> 00:00:30.924
is an adverb and an adjective.

00:00:30.924 --> 00:00:34.591
And it's used to signify
where something is.

00:00:35.768 --> 00:00:39.799
So the way to remember that
this one is all about location

00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:42.808
is just to take the "T"
and replace it with a "W".

00:00:42.808 --> 00:00:47.571
The question is "Where?"
and the answer is "There".

00:00:47.571 --> 00:00:51.654
So, "Have you been to
Greece? Yes, I went there."

00:00:52.910 --> 00:00:54.030
I have not gone there.

00:00:54.030 --> 00:00:57.360
"Have you seen my dog?
Yes, there's my dog!"

00:00:57.360 --> 00:00:59.827
So you asked the question,
"Where did you go? I went there.

00:00:59.827 --> 00:01:02.202
"Where is my dog? There is my dog."

00:01:02.202 --> 00:01:05.482
And technically this is
an adverbial use, here.

00:01:05.482 --> 00:01:07.457
"There" is modifying "went".

00:01:07.457 --> 00:01:10.283
And here is an adjectival use.

00:01:10.283 --> 00:01:13.200
Because "there" is modifying "dog".

00:01:14.407 --> 00:01:17.153
The second member of this confusing trio

00:01:17.153 --> 00:01:21.320
is their T-H-E-I-R which
is a possessive determiner.

00:01:22.717 --> 00:01:24.711
Let's just call that a possessive.

00:01:24.711 --> 00:01:27.273
So this is when something belongs

00:01:27.273 --> 00:01:29.993
to a "they" and it's an adjective.

00:01:29.993 --> 00:01:32.930
So let's just call this
a possessive adjective

00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:35.448
for some, for a "they".

00:01:35.448 --> 00:01:38.679
"Sue and Frieda ate
their ice cream cones."

00:01:38.679 --> 00:01:43.011
So T-H-E-I-R, the possessive
answers the question

00:01:43.011 --> 00:01:45.973
"Who does that belong to?"

00:01:45.973 --> 00:01:48.278
So rounding out our trio, the last member

00:01:48.278 --> 00:01:51.304
of the there, their, they're
riders of the apocalypse

00:01:51.304 --> 00:01:55.471
is T-H-E-Y-'-R-E which is a
contraction of "they are".

00:01:58.578 --> 00:02:01.004
So anywhere you would
want to say "they are"

00:02:01.004 --> 00:02:04.270
you can smosh that
together and say "they're".

00:02:04.270 --> 00:02:06.929
So, "Hey kid, are your parents home?

00:02:06.929 --> 00:02:11.096
"No, they're not home right
now, can I take a message?"

00:02:12.972 --> 00:02:14.835
So you can see in this sentence

00:02:14.835 --> 00:02:16.729
"They're not home right
now, can I take a message?"

00:02:16.729 --> 00:02:20.896
they're, T-H-E-Y-'-R-E,
is replacing "they are".

00:02:23.507 --> 00:02:24.384
Both of these things would work

00:02:24.384 --> 00:02:25.438
equally well in the sentence.

00:02:25.438 --> 00:02:28.572
They're both grammatical,
one's just shorter.

00:02:28.572 --> 00:02:31.295
And as we know, English
as with most languages

00:02:31.295 --> 00:02:33.712
likes to take the easy route.

00:02:34.766 --> 00:02:36.306
Finding the shortest possible

00:02:36.306 --> 00:02:39.960
or most efficient option if you prefer.

00:02:39.960 --> 00:02:42.620
So as a writer and speaker of English

00:02:42.620 --> 00:02:44.784
you're going to come across
this situation a lot.

00:02:44.784 --> 00:02:47.526
Which one of these things do you use?

00:02:47.526 --> 00:02:51.017
And so when you come across
this thorny little issue

00:02:51.017 --> 00:02:53.781
"Do I use there, their or they're?"

00:02:53.781 --> 00:02:56.201
you have to ask yourself
a series of questions.

00:02:56.201 --> 00:02:59.876
Questions #1, "Does it answer
the question 'where is it'?"

00:02:59.876 --> 00:03:02.228
If so, use T-H-E-R-E.

00:03:02.228 --> 00:03:05.653
If the use answers the question,
"Who does it belong to?"

00:03:05.653 --> 00:03:08.071
then you use T-H-E-I-R.

00:03:08.071 --> 00:03:11.235
If what you're trying to say
is a contraction of "they are"

00:03:11.235 --> 00:03:15.993
then what you're looking
for is T-H-E-Y-'-R-E.

00:03:15.993 --> 00:03:19.727
I know it's confusing but
you can learn anything.

00:03:19.727 --> 00:03:20.560
David out!


To, two, and too

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.581 --> 00:00:01.665
- [Instructor] Hello grammarians.

00:00:01.665 --> 00:00:04.935
Today, we're gonna talk about
the confusion that happens

00:00:04.935 --> 00:00:06.992
between these three homophones,

00:00:06.992 --> 00:00:10.367
these three words that
sound exactly the same.

00:00:10.367 --> 00:00:14.534
The preposition to, the
number two and the adverb too.

00:00:16.170 --> 00:00:18.668
Now these words all sound very similar.

00:00:18.668 --> 00:00:20.535
In fact, they sound exactly the same.

00:00:20.535 --> 00:00:22.511
If I were to write this out phonetically,

00:00:22.511 --> 00:00:24.939
here is what I would do.

00:00:24.939 --> 00:00:25.905
That's how you'd write it

00:00:25.905 --> 00:00:27.561
in the international phonetic alphabet

00:00:27.561 --> 00:00:28.774
for every pronunciation.

00:00:28.774 --> 00:00:30.023
You say that word, tu.

00:00:30.023 --> 00:00:31.287
You say that word, tu.

00:00:31.287 --> 00:00:32.905
You say that word, tu.

00:00:32.905 --> 00:00:35.385
If you were looking
this up in a dictionary,

00:00:35.385 --> 00:00:38.313
that's how you would render
this spelling phonetically.

00:00:38.313 --> 00:00:40.063
That's the sound of those words.

00:00:40.063 --> 00:00:41.588
They all sound exactly the same.

00:00:41.588 --> 00:00:44.229
So what we need to do
is come up with a way

00:00:44.229 --> 00:00:46.436
to keep them all separate.

00:00:46.436 --> 00:00:47.812
And the way I'm going to do that

00:00:47.812 --> 00:00:51.697
is with the prince of foods, the pizza.

00:00:51.697 --> 00:00:53.636
Let's just call that a pizza.

00:00:53.636 --> 00:00:56.136
Now, to, T-O, is a preposition

00:00:57.414 --> 00:00:59.303
and so that means that it's expressing

00:00:59.303 --> 00:01:03.722
some kind of relationship
in time and space.

00:01:03.722 --> 00:01:04.976
In this case we can say,

00:01:04.976 --> 00:01:06.708
one of its many, many meanings

00:01:06.708 --> 00:01:09.853
is that it means it's
moving towards something.

00:01:09.853 --> 00:01:11.103
So for example,

00:01:12.047 --> 00:01:15.739
I am headed to Frank Cerisano's Pizzeria.

00:01:15.739 --> 00:01:18.587
Right, so we can see in
context this is intentional,

00:01:18.587 --> 00:01:22.927
it's in motion and that's why
we'd wanna use a preposition.

00:01:22.927 --> 00:01:23.989
Where am I going?

00:01:23.989 --> 00:01:26.755
To Frank Cerisano's Pizzeria.

00:01:26.755 --> 00:01:30.654
Next, T-W-O, also pronounced
tu, you're welcome,

00:01:30.654 --> 00:01:32.393
is a number.

00:01:32.393 --> 00:01:33.886
It's this thing

00:01:33.886 --> 00:01:35.612
so we'd use this mostly as an adjective

00:01:35.612 --> 00:01:37.517
to describe how many things there are.

00:01:37.517 --> 00:01:40.286
So I would say, at the pizzeria,

00:01:40.286 --> 00:01:44.711
I ordered two pizzas
and ate them by myself.

00:01:44.711 --> 00:01:47.218
Right, so when we're talking
about the number of things,

00:01:47.218 --> 00:01:50.441
you wanna use T-W-O.

00:01:50.441 --> 00:01:54.443
And finally we have T-O-O,
too, which is an adverb

00:01:54.443 --> 00:01:56.204
and they can either mean

00:01:56.204 --> 00:01:59.454
an over abundance of something or also.

00:02:01.770 --> 00:02:05.426
Let me give you examples
for both of those cases.

00:02:05.426 --> 00:02:09.147
So example case number
one, the excessive amount.

00:02:09.147 --> 00:02:12.064
I ate too much pizza, I feel awful.

00:02:13.315 --> 00:02:14.814
Now some of you may take issue with that

00:02:14.814 --> 00:02:16.682
because you don't believe
that there is such a thing

00:02:16.682 --> 00:02:19.289
as too much pizza, I understand.

00:02:19.289 --> 00:02:21.392
So that's our excessive amount,

00:02:21.392 --> 00:02:24.189
that's just mountains
and mountains of pizza

00:02:24.189 --> 00:02:28.120
more than one person can
or should reasonably eat.

00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:30.006
That's that definition.

00:02:30.006 --> 00:02:33.138
And then there is the in
addition or also meaning

00:02:33.138 --> 00:02:36.374
so my sister wanted pizza too,

00:02:36.374 --> 00:02:37.843
but because of my greed,

00:02:37.843 --> 00:02:40.233
she did not get any, sorry Julie.

00:02:40.233 --> 00:02:41.816
Oh, I made her cry.

00:02:42.903 --> 00:02:45.767
So in order to keep these three

00:02:45.767 --> 00:02:47.456
very similar sounding words straight,

00:02:47.456 --> 00:02:48.947
here's what you need to remember.

00:02:48.947 --> 00:02:52.861
To, T-O, is a preposition
that means towards something.

00:02:52.861 --> 00:02:55.739
I am headed to Frank Cerisano's Pizzeria.

00:02:55.739 --> 00:02:58.822
T-W-O, the number two, is a number

00:02:58.822 --> 00:03:01.363
so you'd say I ordered two pizzas.

00:03:01.363 --> 00:03:03.784
Finally, T-O-O the adverb

00:03:03.784 --> 00:03:07.532
means either there's an over
abundance, there's too much,

00:03:07.532 --> 00:03:11.115
or in addition, my
sister wanted pizza too.

00:03:12.053 --> 00:03:15.742
So grammarians, I say unto
you, remember the pizza.

00:03:15.742 --> 00:03:17.007
You can learn anything.

00:03:17.007 --> 00:03:17.840
David out.


The scale of formality

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.621 --> 00:00:02.279
- [David] Hello grammarians, hello Rosie!

00:00:02.279 --> 00:00:03.354
- [Rosie] Hi, David.

00:00:03.354 --> 00:00:05.396
- [David] We're gonna be
talking about what we call

00:00:05.396 --> 00:00:07.793
the spectrum of formality today,

00:00:07.793 --> 00:00:10.678
in the context of language style.

00:00:10.678 --> 00:00:14.681
Balancing your style between
formal and informal language,

00:00:14.681 --> 00:00:17.392
when it's appropriate, is
just a general life skill,

00:00:17.392 --> 00:00:20.083
but it's also something
that's tested on the SAT.

00:00:20.083 --> 00:00:24.041
- [Rosie] And you can check
out KhanAcademy.org/SAT

00:00:24.041 --> 00:00:25.501
to find out more about that.

00:00:25.501 --> 00:00:27.330
- [David] So, when we talk about formal

00:00:27.330 --> 00:00:30.581
versus informal language, what
we're really talking about

00:00:30.581 --> 00:00:33.081
is this thing called register.

00:00:35.323 --> 00:00:37.656
What is appropriate for the,

00:00:38.951 --> 00:00:41.218
whether it's like a social occasion,

00:00:41.218 --> 00:00:44.955
or a style of writing that
you're attempting to do,

00:00:44.955 --> 00:00:49.119
you know, what register
should you speak in?

00:00:49.119 --> 00:00:51.702
So let me give you an example.

00:00:51.702 --> 00:00:56.413
Gary Evans, the esteemed
chairman of the board, is blank.

00:00:56.413 --> 00:00:57.596
Right, we have this sentence we want

00:00:57.596 --> 00:00:59.558
to fill in this blank with something.

00:00:59.558 --> 00:01:01.833
There are a couple of
ways we could do this.

00:01:01.833 --> 00:01:03.061
We could say,

00:01:03.061 --> 00:01:06.028
Gary Evans, the esteemed
chairman of the board,

00:01:06.028 --> 00:01:08.028
is a pretty decent dude.

00:01:10.557 --> 00:01:14.852
Now, there are a couple
of things that tell me

00:01:14.852 --> 00:01:19.019
that a pretty decent dude is
not stylistically appropriate

00:01:21.224 --> 00:01:22.724
for this sentence.

00:01:24.476 --> 00:01:28.335
And it's both that we're
applying the adjective esteemed

00:01:28.335 --> 00:01:30.713
to Gary, and that we're giving him

00:01:30.713 --> 00:01:33.526
this high highfalutin title,
chairman of the board,

00:01:33.526 --> 00:01:35.475
and so probably, in this situation,

00:01:35.475 --> 00:01:36.655
we wouldn't wanna say,

00:01:36.655 --> 00:01:39.206
we wouldn't wanna use this kind of slangy,

00:01:39.206 --> 00:01:42.570
informal language, pretty decent dude.

00:01:42.570 --> 00:01:44.024
- [Rosie] Right, there's
a level of respect

00:01:44.024 --> 00:01:45.751
that we're conveying with

00:01:45.751 --> 00:01:48.767
this esteemed chairman of the board.

00:01:48.767 --> 00:01:51.093
- [David] So instead, well, I don't know,

00:01:51.093 --> 00:01:54.232
Rosie, what's another thing
we could put in there?

00:01:54.232 --> 00:01:55.503
- [Rosie] Let's say, Gary Evans,

00:01:55.503 --> 00:01:57.097
the esteemed chairman of the board,

00:01:57.097 --> 00:01:59.992
is a renowned philanthropist.

00:01:59.992 --> 00:02:01.607
- [David] Oh!

00:02:01.607 --> 00:02:04.015
A renowned philanthropist.

00:02:04.015 --> 00:02:06.402
So, in addition to being like a large,

00:02:06.402 --> 00:02:08.576
four-dollar word, philanthropist is a word

00:02:08.576 --> 00:02:12.631
that just means, like, someone
who literally loves people,

00:02:12.631 --> 00:02:16.398
and this refers to
generosity of this person.

00:02:16.398 --> 00:02:17.972
And so we can tell by the respect

00:02:17.972 --> 00:02:19.882
that we are according
this person by the use

00:02:19.882 --> 00:02:21.304
of the word esteemed,

00:02:21.304 --> 00:02:23.277
that renowned philanthropist

00:02:23.277 --> 00:02:26.760
probably an appropriate
set of words to use

00:02:26.760 --> 00:02:28.182
to describe this man.

00:02:28.182 --> 00:02:29.381
But what we just showed you was an example

00:02:29.381 --> 00:02:31.677
of being insufficiently formal.

00:02:31.677 --> 00:02:35.406
Here's what it looks like
if you're too formal.

00:02:35.406 --> 00:02:37.967
- [Rosie] Please join
us for little Philip's

00:02:37.967 --> 00:02:40.425
first birthday celebration.

00:02:40.425 --> 00:02:43.154
This festive occasion
will include an abundance

00:02:43.154 --> 00:02:47.333
of delightful diversions
in which you can partake.

00:02:47.333 --> 00:02:50.340
- [David] This is a little
boy's birthday party.

00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:52.076
(both chuckling)

00:02:52.076 --> 00:02:53.408
- [Rosie] Let's get a hold of ourselves.

00:02:53.408 --> 00:02:56.821
- [David] Let's, you know,
this is not a state dinner.

00:02:56.821 --> 00:02:58.505
Maybe reel it in.

00:02:58.505 --> 00:03:00.316
You have to tailor the content

00:03:00.316 --> 00:03:01.433
of what you're trying to write

00:03:01.433 --> 00:03:03.230
to it's context, right?

00:03:03.230 --> 00:03:04.063
- [Rosie] Right.

00:03:04.063 --> 00:03:07.854
- [David] Like how fancy
is the first birthday party

00:03:07.854 --> 00:03:09.845
of a little boy going to be?

00:03:09.845 --> 00:03:12.175
Rosie, have you been to a
child's first birthday party

00:03:12.175 --> 00:03:13.008
as an adult?

00:03:13.008 --> 00:03:13.841
- [Rosie] I have, I have.

00:03:13.841 --> 00:03:14.994
It was not this fancy.

00:03:14.994 --> 00:03:15.827
- [David] No.

00:03:15.827 --> 00:03:16.862
- [Rosie] But it wasn't, you know,

00:03:16.862 --> 00:03:19.302
the prince of a country or something.

00:03:19.302 --> 00:03:20.338
- [David] Right, like, okay,

00:03:20.338 --> 00:03:23.670
I'll give you a pass
if, like, little Philip

00:03:23.670 --> 00:03:25.762
is the prince of your nation.

00:03:25.762 --> 00:03:26.595
- [Rosie] Yes.

00:03:26.595 --> 00:03:28.627
- [David] Otherwise, like,

00:03:28.627 --> 00:03:30.372
this first sentence is fine,

00:03:30.372 --> 00:03:32.000
please join us for little Philip's

00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:33.716
first birthday celebration.

00:03:33.716 --> 00:03:35.413
This festive occasion
will include an abundance

00:03:35.413 --> 00:03:37.690
of delightful diversions
in which you can partake,

00:03:37.690 --> 00:03:38.869
maybe a little much.

00:03:38.869 --> 00:03:42.088
So if we were going to rewrite this,

00:03:42.088 --> 00:03:45.138
I would probably tone down
the language a little bit,

00:03:45.138 --> 00:03:47.221
and just ratchet it back.

00:03:48.540 --> 00:03:52.290
I might even go so far
as to say, lil Philip.

00:03:54.177 --> 00:03:55.935
- [Rosie] I like it.

00:03:55.935 --> 00:03:57.468
- [David] Maybe throw
in an exclamation point

00:03:57.468 --> 00:03:59.703
because we're excited.

00:03:59.703 --> 00:04:02.100
This just seems, this language
seems a little stuffy,

00:04:02.100 --> 00:04:04.457
even the word describing a party,

00:04:04.457 --> 00:04:08.540
it seems very emotionally
removed from partiness.

00:04:11.711 --> 00:04:13.022
- [Rosie] Oh, that's much better.

00:04:13.022 --> 00:04:13.875
- [David] Thank you.

00:04:13.875 --> 00:04:16.700
So, please join us for lil
Philip's first birthday party.

00:04:16.700 --> 00:04:19.115
It's going to be fun:
we'll have cake and games.

00:04:19.115 --> 00:04:21.698
Let us know if you can make it.

00:04:22.908 --> 00:04:24.867
We're taking this content,

00:04:24.867 --> 00:04:27.094
there's an abundance of
delightful diversions,

00:04:27.094 --> 00:04:29.176
which, I suppose at a
first birthday party,

00:04:29.176 --> 00:04:32.593
would probably, again, be cake and games.

00:04:33.625 --> 00:04:35.422
There's not really that much

00:04:35.422 --> 00:04:38.490
that a one year old can do at a party.

00:04:38.490 --> 00:04:39.375
- [Rosie] That's true.

00:04:39.375 --> 00:04:42.586
- [David] So we're taking this,

00:04:42.586 --> 00:04:45.227
high register, this
formal register language

00:04:45.227 --> 00:04:49.636
and then just kinda dialing
it back a couple of notches.

00:04:49.636 --> 00:04:52.887
So we've got formal on this side,

00:04:52.887 --> 00:04:54.614
informal over here.

00:04:54.614 --> 00:04:57.947
You're here, you wanna be at about here.

00:04:58.887 --> 00:05:01.571
The main thing, your main indicator

00:05:01.571 --> 00:05:04.285
for whether or not language
is formal or informal

00:05:04.285 --> 00:05:07.951
is the kind of vocabulary
that you choose to deploy.

00:05:07.951 --> 00:05:09.608
So the more informal you are,

00:05:09.608 --> 00:05:13.405
the more likely you are
to use silly vocabulary

00:05:13.405 --> 00:05:15.001
or made up words.

00:05:15.001 --> 00:05:16.209
- [Rosie] And contractions.

00:05:16.209 --> 00:05:17.723
- [David] Contractions.

00:05:17.723 --> 00:05:20.640
So the more informal, contractions,

00:05:23.891 --> 00:05:24.724
slang,

00:05:26.167 --> 00:05:27.000
profanity.

00:05:28.280 --> 00:05:30.645
I mean, look, we here at Khan Academy,

00:05:30.645 --> 00:05:33.774
we're not advising you to
curse all over the place,

00:05:33.774 --> 00:05:37.716
but if you must, do it in
an informal setting, right?

00:05:37.716 --> 00:05:38.711
- Right.
- Like, formal settings

00:05:38.711 --> 00:05:40.795
are not suitable for obscenity,

00:05:40.795 --> 00:05:43.545
that's why it's called obscenity.

00:05:44.827 --> 00:05:47.560
And then the more formal
your language becomes,

00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:52.275
the more likely your vocabulary
is to become more complex

00:05:52.275 --> 00:05:53.525
or specialized,

00:05:54.530 --> 00:05:57.566
like if I were, let's
say if I were a doctor,

00:05:57.566 --> 00:06:01.243
and I were addressing
a doctors' convention,

00:06:01.243 --> 00:06:03.844
I would probably use a
lot of doctor language,

00:06:03.844 --> 00:06:06.344
right, like specialized vocab.

00:06:07.907 --> 00:06:10.099
The more formal you are,
as Rosie was saying,

00:06:10.099 --> 00:06:13.425
the more less likely you
are to use contractions,

00:06:13.425 --> 00:06:15.258
so full constructions?

00:06:17.852 --> 00:06:20.333
An example of that would be,

00:06:20.333 --> 00:06:23.692
on the informal side of the
scale, you might say can't,

00:06:23.692 --> 00:06:27.139
where the formal you would say cannot.

00:06:27.139 --> 00:06:30.275
- [Rosie] Yeah, I think the
other side of the profanity

00:06:30.275 --> 00:06:33.486
is potentially more respectful,

00:06:33.486 --> 00:06:35.916
depending on who you're speaking with.

00:06:35.916 --> 00:06:38.416
So, you might address someone,

00:06:39.805 --> 00:06:42.985
you know, you might
address someone as sir.

00:06:42.985 --> 00:06:44.608
- [David] Formal language generally means

00:06:44.608 --> 00:06:46.611
a more respectful form of address,

00:06:46.611 --> 00:06:48.967
so if I were to say, like,

00:06:48.967 --> 00:06:51.506
on the informal side, yo buddy!

00:06:51.506 --> 00:06:53.214
It's extremely informal,

00:06:53.214 --> 00:06:55.714
as opposed to, excuse me, sir.

00:06:57.126 --> 00:06:59.360
That's quite formal.

00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:02.375
So yeah, I guess the big take away here,

00:07:02.375 --> 00:07:05.912
Rosie, right, is just
consider your context.

00:07:05.912 --> 00:07:07.537
- [Rosie] Exactly.

00:07:07.537 --> 00:07:11.601
You're taking a look at the
situation that you're in,

00:07:11.601 --> 00:07:13.990
and considering what kind of language

00:07:13.990 --> 00:07:16.579
is going to be appropriate
in that situation.

00:07:16.579 --> 00:07:19.199
Is it going to be informal,
talking to your friend,

00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:22.076
or is it a formal dinner party

00:07:22.076 --> 00:07:25.295
where you would use different vocabulary

00:07:25.295 --> 00:07:28.200
and more formal language.

00:07:28.200 --> 00:07:32.113
- [David] The way our colleague
Grant described it to me,

00:07:32.113 --> 00:07:33.677
is this:

00:07:33.677 --> 00:07:36.266
it's useful to have a
tuxedo in your closet,

00:07:36.266 --> 00:07:38.662
but you wouldn't wear it to a beach party.

00:07:38.662 --> 00:07:40.162
- [Rosie] Exactly!

00:07:41.531 --> 00:07:44.781
- [David] So reserve your
formal and informal language

00:07:44.781 --> 00:07:47.078
for contexts when it is necessary.

00:07:47.078 --> 00:07:50.166
Just like you wouldn't wear formal shoes

00:07:50.166 --> 00:07:51.249
to the beach,

00:07:52.572 --> 00:07:54.451
neither would you show up,

00:07:54.451 --> 00:07:58.618
you know, in flip flops before
a joint session of Congress.

00:07:58.618 --> 00:08:00.161
- [Rosie] Exactly.

00:08:00.161 --> 00:08:01.959
- [David] Whether you're
writing or speaking,

00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:05.445
always consider your context,
consider your audience,

00:08:05.445 --> 00:08:09.612
and from that, consider the
way that you deploy language.

00:08:10.452 --> 00:08:11.682
You can learn anything.

00:08:11.682 --> 00:08:12.515
David out!

00:08:12.515 --> 00:08:13.397
- [Rosie] Rosie out!


Chavin, Nazca, Moche, Huari and Tiwanaku civilizations

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.804 --> 00:00:03.082
- [Instructor] The western
or northwestern coast

00:00:03.082 --> 00:00:05.839
of South America has
been an interesting place

00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:07.798
for ancient civilizations.

00:00:07.798 --> 00:00:10.372
We believe it to be one of the places

00:00:10.372 --> 00:00:12.992
that agriculture developed independently,

00:00:12.992 --> 00:00:14.378
and as we'll see in this
video, and we've talked

00:00:14.378 --> 00:00:16.002
about in other videos, it's a place where

00:00:16.002 --> 00:00:18.306
we have many significant cultures

00:00:18.306 --> 00:00:21.408
and civilizations and empires developing.

00:00:21.408 --> 00:00:22.841
Now what's interesting about it,

00:00:22.841 --> 00:00:26.077
it is not your classic
river valley civilization

00:00:26.077 --> 00:00:30.164
like we have in Mesopotamia
or in ancient Egypt

00:00:30.164 --> 00:00:32.887
or along the Yellow River in China

00:00:32.887 --> 00:00:35.835
or the Indus River in India and Pakistan.

00:00:35.835 --> 00:00:38.199
Instead, this area is really defined

00:00:38.199 --> 00:00:40.672
by the Humboldt Current.

00:00:40.672 --> 00:00:43.413
The Humboldt Current is
a current that comes up

00:00:43.413 --> 00:00:45.486
from the south and off the coast

00:00:45.486 --> 00:00:48.466
of what is modern-day
Peru for the most part,

00:00:48.466 --> 00:00:51.378
it brings all these nutrients
from the bottom of the ocean.

00:00:51.378 --> 00:00:54.427
And what it does is it makes
it a very powerful fishery,

00:00:54.427 --> 00:00:56.019
so there's a lot of fish in the ocean

00:00:56.019 --> 00:00:58.279
in this part of the world.

00:00:58.279 --> 00:01:03.081
And it also has interesting
effects on the climate on land.

00:01:03.081 --> 00:01:06.358
So in this region, you
can see even on this map,

00:01:06.358 --> 00:01:09.242
there's this thin strip of
desert, and then you get

00:01:09.242 --> 00:01:11.896
into the Andes Mountains,
and on the other side

00:01:11.896 --> 00:01:13.850
of the Andes Mountains, you start to

00:01:13.850 --> 00:01:16.460
have the tropical rainforest.

00:01:16.460 --> 00:01:19.117
So if you go to Peru,
especially on the western part

00:01:19.117 --> 00:01:21.551
of Peru, the ocean will look like this.

00:01:21.551 --> 00:01:22.677
This is actually a picture I took

00:01:22.677 --> 00:01:25.472
from a recent family trip to Peru.

00:01:25.472 --> 00:01:27.459
Then, as you get right onto the coast,

00:01:27.459 --> 00:01:30.884
it will be pretty arid
desert, and then when

00:01:30.884 --> 00:01:33.814
you get up into the mountains,
they're fairly high altitude,

00:01:33.814 --> 00:01:37.232
you'll have these mountain valleys,

00:01:37.232 --> 00:01:40.105
some of them are at
7,000, 8,000, 9,000 feet.

00:01:40.105 --> 00:01:41.398
This is actually another
picture that I took

00:01:41.398 --> 00:01:45.966
from my recent vacation
in Peru a few months ago.

00:01:45.966 --> 00:01:46.876
And what's interesting

00:01:46.876 --> 00:01:48.521
about the ancient civilizations there is

00:01:48.521 --> 00:01:51.310
some of them might have
settled on the coast

00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:54.894
to take advantage of the
fishing that was available.

00:01:54.894 --> 00:01:57.747
There were some rivers, or there
continue to be some rivers,

00:01:57.747 --> 00:02:00.559
that go from the mountains
through the desert,

00:02:00.559 --> 00:02:03.680
so some early agriculture
developed around that.

00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:05.632
But there's also
civilizations that developed

00:02:05.632 --> 00:02:08.584
around these high altitude valleys.

00:02:08.584 --> 00:02:10.962
And what's really interesting
about these civilizations

00:02:10.962 --> 00:02:14.788
is because of the terrain,
they weren't as unified

00:02:14.788 --> 00:02:17.790
as things we might see in Mesoamerica.

00:02:17.790 --> 00:02:20.673
So one of the first
civilizations in the all Americas

00:02:20.673 --> 00:02:22.068
that we have archeological evidence

00:02:22.068 --> 00:02:25.433
of is the Caral or Norte
Chico civilization.

00:02:25.433 --> 00:02:26.691
And one thing to keep in mind,

00:02:26.691 --> 00:02:28.392
as I give the names of
these civilizations,

00:02:28.392 --> 00:02:30.237
this is not what they called themselves.

00:02:30.237 --> 00:02:32.068
The civilizations tend to be named

00:02:32.068 --> 00:02:34.527
after the most significant archeological

00:02:34.527 --> 00:02:36.345
locations that people have found.

00:02:36.345 --> 00:02:40.345
And now as we get into
the first millennium BCE,

00:02:41.542 --> 00:02:44.674
we have what's called
the Chavin civilization.

00:02:44.674 --> 00:02:46.538
Once again, it wasn't their name.

00:02:46.538 --> 00:02:49.187
This was about 3,000 years ago.

00:02:49.187 --> 00:02:50.708
And to be clear, this
is when we just start

00:02:50.708 --> 00:02:54.368
to see that civilization
getting quite advanced.

00:02:54.368 --> 00:02:56.326
There's evidence that
people had been settled

00:02:56.326 --> 00:03:00.725
in this area around
modern-day Peru and Bolivia

00:03:00.725 --> 00:03:04.416
and northern Chile and
Ecuador for potentially

00:03:04.416 --> 00:03:07.377
thousands of years before that.

00:03:07.377 --> 00:03:11.219
But just to get a sense of
the Chavin civilization,

00:03:11.219 --> 00:03:14.831
here are some archeological
artifacts discovered.

00:03:14.831 --> 00:03:17.736
And they were discovered
at Chavin de Huantar,

00:03:17.736 --> 00:03:20.569
thus the name Chavin civilization,

00:03:21.461 --> 00:03:24.322
sometimes called Chavin culture.

00:03:24.322 --> 00:03:27.188
And what's interesting is
we have these artifacts,

00:03:27.188 --> 00:03:30.409
it looks like it was a
religious cultural center.

00:03:30.409 --> 00:03:32.664
Some people refer to
it as a religious cult

00:03:32.664 --> 00:03:34.553
that really took off in this area,

00:03:34.553 --> 00:03:38.182
but we don't believe that
it was a formal empire.

00:03:38.182 --> 00:03:40.474
We don't know for certain,
because we don't have

00:03:40.474 --> 00:03:42.930
written records, so we're
just trying to figure out

00:03:42.930 --> 00:03:46.945
what we can from the
archeological evidence.

00:03:46.945 --> 00:03:50.134
Now, near the time that the Chavin culture

00:03:50.134 --> 00:03:52.342
started to decline,
and what's interesting,

00:03:52.342 --> 00:03:54.553
we believe that a lot of
these cultures declined

00:03:54.553 --> 00:03:57.747
either from warfare between themselves

00:03:57.747 --> 00:04:01.635
or some type of climate change,
whether it was the El Niño

00:04:01.635 --> 00:04:04.383
or some type of drought or
famine and maybe that could

00:04:04.383 --> 00:04:06.148
actually cause a lot of the conflict

00:04:06.148 --> 00:04:08.445
within a society as well, but
those are some of the leading

00:04:08.445 --> 00:04:12.612
theories as to why the Chavin
culture ended around 200 BCE.

00:04:14.813 --> 00:04:16.258
Now around that time, we start to see

00:04:16.258 --> 00:04:18.648
the emergence of several other cultures.

00:04:18.648 --> 00:04:21.764
You have the famous Nazca culture emerge

00:04:21.764 --> 00:04:24.597
right over here in southwest Peru.

00:04:25.505 --> 00:04:28.819
And they're most famous,
perhaps, for the Nazca Lines,

00:04:28.819 --> 00:04:31.580
these huge, I guess you say drawings,

00:04:31.580 --> 00:04:34.325
or patterns, that are made in the land.

00:04:34.325 --> 00:04:37.534
Some of them are 300 meters,
a third of a kilometer,

00:04:37.534 --> 00:04:40.003
and you really can't even
appreciate what they represent

00:04:40.003 --> 00:04:42.736
unless you're looking at it
from a significant altitude.

00:04:42.736 --> 00:04:45.669
Some people have theorized that
this is some type of message

00:04:45.669 --> 00:04:47.745
they're trying to send to the sky gods.

00:04:47.745 --> 00:04:50.118
Some people have even thought,
hey, maybe this has something

00:04:50.118 --> 00:04:52.408
to do with trying to
communicate with aliens.

00:04:52.408 --> 00:04:54.182
This is famously called the Space Man.

00:04:54.182 --> 00:04:58.306
Who knows, it's interesting
to theorize about that Nazca

00:04:58.306 --> 00:05:01.693
civilization, which started
to emerge around 200 BCE.

00:05:01.693 --> 00:05:03.045
Once again, we don't have written record,

00:05:03.045 --> 00:05:06.151
so we can just look at their architecture,

00:05:06.151 --> 00:05:08.228
these patterns that they created.

00:05:08.228 --> 00:05:11.518
Now a little bit later, we
start to see the emergence

00:05:11.518 --> 00:05:15.732
of the Moche civilization or
the Moche culture in this area

00:05:15.732 --> 00:05:18.978
in light blue over here,
sometimes called Mochica.

00:05:18.978 --> 00:05:21.734
And this is one of the
significant structures they built,

00:05:21.734 --> 00:05:25.085
Hauca del Sol, known as
the Temple of the Sun,

00:05:25.085 --> 00:05:28.541
and it's been damaged a
lot, oftentimes by people

00:05:28.541 --> 00:05:30.547
who are trying to loot it or excavate it

00:05:30.547 --> 00:05:33.381
in irresponsible ways, but
it was the largest structure

00:05:33.381 --> 00:05:35.988
we have found from pre-Colombian America.

00:05:35.988 --> 00:05:37.306
When we say pre-Colombian America,

00:05:37.306 --> 00:05:40.906
we're saying before Christopher
Columbus got to America.

00:05:40.906 --> 00:05:42.365
The Moche are really interesting.

00:05:42.365 --> 00:05:44.256
Even though they didn't have writing,

00:05:44.256 --> 00:05:46.255
we can learn a lot from their art

00:05:46.255 --> 00:05:48.069
and this is some examples of it and

00:05:48.069 --> 00:05:50.868
frankly this is some of the
less graphic examples of it.

00:05:50.868 --> 00:05:54.595
Now, as we get into the first millennium,

00:05:54.595 --> 00:05:57.017
especially the middle part
of the first millennium,

00:05:57.017 --> 00:05:58.733
we start to see some other significant

00:05:58.733 --> 00:06:02.292
cultures and civilizations emerge.

00:06:02.292 --> 00:06:06.459
So, for example, around 500
CE, so roughly 1500 years ago,

00:06:08.166 --> 00:06:10.864
you see the Wari civilization emerge,

00:06:10.864 --> 00:06:12.058
and that's here in red.

00:06:12.058 --> 00:06:13.491
And there's some debates and you'll see

00:06:13.491 --> 00:06:15.993
these debates a lot as
we study ancient history.

00:06:15.993 --> 00:06:17.905
Was it an empire or was it just

00:06:17.905 --> 00:06:20.317
a culture that had a lot of influence?

00:06:20.317 --> 00:06:22.152
Some of the arguments for empire are

00:06:22.152 --> 00:06:26.705
it seemed like there was
wealth, it seemed like

00:06:26.705 --> 00:06:29.912
they were able to build
large infrastructure works,

00:06:29.912 --> 00:06:32.745
there was consistency across
different settlements.

00:06:32.745 --> 00:06:35.018
Now there's also the Tiwanaku,

00:06:35.018 --> 00:06:36.832
and we believe it was truly an empire,

00:06:36.832 --> 00:06:39.102
but we can say the Tiwanaku civilization,

00:06:39.102 --> 00:06:42.252
right over here in yellow, really centered

00:06:42.252 --> 00:06:44.760
at off the coast of Lake Titicaca,

00:06:44.760 --> 00:06:47.392
which is right in that
area right over here.

00:06:47.392 --> 00:06:49.091
But the big take away here is this is

00:06:49.091 --> 00:06:51.661
just a sample of some of the civilizations

00:06:51.661 --> 00:06:53.892
that you had in this part of the world.

00:06:53.892 --> 00:06:56.391
Now what's really interesting
is, as I mentioned,

00:06:56.391 --> 00:06:58.528
a lot of them weren't able
to form formal empires,

00:06:58.528 --> 00:07:01.548
people think because of
the valley, the mountains,

00:07:01.548 --> 00:07:05.341
the terrain, that were keeping
people from maybe trading or

00:07:05.341 --> 00:07:07.812
being able to control each other
a little bit more strongly.

00:07:07.812 --> 00:07:09.749
But eventually we do have the emergence

00:07:09.749 --> 00:07:13.008
of fairly strong empires,
as we see in the Incas,

00:07:13.008 --> 00:07:17.158
which emerges in the 15th
century, around 1438.

00:07:17.158 --> 00:07:18.609
And then the Inca empire ends

00:07:18.609 --> 00:07:22.637
with the European
colonization of the Americas.

00:07:22.637 --> 00:07:24.244
And we also believe that the Tiwanaku

00:07:24.244 --> 00:07:26.143
were a significant empire,

00:07:26.143 --> 00:07:29.560
despite some of the geographical hurdles.


Mayans and Teotihuacan

WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.570 --> 00:00:02.733
- [Instructor] The Mayan civilization is

00:00:02.733 --> 00:00:05.925
one of the most
long-lasting civilizations,

00:00:05.925 --> 00:00:08.203
not just in the ancient Americas,

00:00:08.203 --> 00:00:10.672
but in the world in general.

00:00:10.672 --> 00:00:14.022
You can see the rough
outline here on this map

00:00:14.022 --> 00:00:17.033
of where the Mayan civilization occurred.

00:00:17.033 --> 00:00:20.800
You can see it has the Yucatan
Peninsula in the north,

00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:23.417
the Sierra Madre Mountains in the south,

00:00:23.417 --> 00:00:27.584
and it covers regions of
modern-day southeast Mexico,

00:00:28.610 --> 00:00:30.273
Guatemala, Belize,

00:00:30.273 --> 00:00:33.499
Western Honduras, and El Salvador.

00:00:33.499 --> 00:00:36.272
We believe that there were
settlements in this region

00:00:36.272 --> 00:00:37.939
as early as 2000 ...

00:00:38.838 --> 00:00:43.449
As early as 2000 B.C.E., and
then we have the emergence

00:00:43.449 --> 00:00:46.616
of the first cities around 750 B.C.E..

00:00:49.481 --> 00:00:50.753
And even then there are signs

00:00:50.753 --> 00:00:53.725
of significant cultural advancements.

00:00:53.725 --> 00:00:57.098
There's evidence that there
was a sophisticated base-20

00:00:57.098 --> 00:01:00.236
numeral system that included
the use of place value

00:01:00.236 --> 00:01:02.236
as early as 1000 B.C.E..

00:01:03.970 --> 00:01:07.238
To put that in context, the
Hindu Arabic numeral system

00:01:07.238 --> 00:01:09.754
which we now use, and most
of the world now uses,

00:01:09.754 --> 00:01:12.222
it wasn't devised, we don't believe,

00:01:12.222 --> 00:01:15.389
until about 1000 years later,

00:01:15.389 --> 00:01:17.818
and it wasn't adopted
in Europe until about

00:01:17.818 --> 00:01:21.761
2000 years after the time
where we see the first evidence

00:01:21.761 --> 00:01:24.210
of this Mayan numeral system,

00:01:24.210 --> 00:01:27.627
this base-20 system that had place value.

00:01:28.494 --> 00:01:31.577
Now, around the third century B.C.E.,

00:01:32.439 --> 00:01:35.631
so roughly in this time
period right over here,

00:01:35.631 --> 00:01:38.476
we see the first writing.

00:01:38.476 --> 00:01:42.643
These are examples of what
a Mayan glyph looks like.

00:01:44.641 --> 00:01:46.724
So that is a Mayan glyph,

00:01:47.727 --> 00:01:51.056
and you read it in order like this.

00:01:51.056 --> 00:01:54.429
And once again, this is a
very early form of writing,

00:01:54.429 --> 00:01:57.477
and it's believed to be
the first form of writing,

00:01:57.477 --> 00:02:01.635
well-established writing, in the Americas.

00:02:01.635 --> 00:02:05.190
Now, on top of their
sophisticated numeral system

00:02:05.190 --> 00:02:06.720
and the writing that they developed,

00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:10.028
they also had a very
sophisticated calendar.

00:02:10.028 --> 00:02:13.672
Their calendar was more accurate
than the Julian calendar,

00:02:13.672 --> 00:02:16.397
which was adopted by Julius Caesar,

00:02:16.397 --> 00:02:19.368
and that was the state of
the art in the western world

00:02:19.368 --> 00:02:22.944
until the middle of the second millennium.

00:02:22.944 --> 00:02:26.072
So their calendar was more
accurate than what was used

00:02:26.072 --> 00:02:29.989
in most of the world
until around 1500 or 1600.

00:02:31.127 --> 00:02:34.886
Now, as we get into 250 in the Common Era,

00:02:34.886 --> 00:02:37.533
that's considered the classical period.

00:02:37.533 --> 00:02:39.806
That's when some of
their really great cities

00:02:39.806 --> 00:02:42.736
start to emerge, cities like Tikal

00:02:42.736 --> 00:02:43.819
and Calakmul.

00:02:45.759 --> 00:02:49.047
My apologies ahead of time
for the pronunciation.

00:02:49.047 --> 00:02:50.509
It is believed that at their peak,

00:02:50.509 --> 00:02:54.747
these cities had 50,000 to 100,000 people.

00:02:54.747 --> 00:02:57.036
Now, what we now believe is that

00:02:57.036 --> 00:02:59.505
it was not one unified empire,

00:02:59.505 --> 00:03:03.010
that there wasn't a Mayan empire
with a centralized emperor,

00:03:03.010 --> 00:03:06.272
but rather, it was closer
to the Greek city-states,

00:03:06.272 --> 00:03:09.744
where each of these cities
were their own state.

00:03:09.744 --> 00:03:13.508
Their more powerful cities,
like Tikal or Calakmul,

00:03:13.508 --> 00:03:16.759
might have had influence
or sway over others,

00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:19.644
but it wasn't a unified empire

00:03:19.644 --> 00:03:23.046
in the sense of the Roman
Empire or the Persian Empire

00:03:23.046 --> 00:03:25.854
or some of the early Indian empires.

00:03:25.854 --> 00:03:29.031
Now, it is believed that
each of these city-states,

00:03:29.031 --> 00:03:32.902
they did have a king who was
not only a political ruler

00:03:32.902 --> 00:03:34.223
but also a spiritual ruler,

00:03:34.223 --> 00:03:36.065
considered a divine king,

00:03:36.065 --> 00:03:38.870
a connection between the
natural and the supernatural.

00:03:38.870 --> 00:03:42.003
We have evidence that they
practiced human sacrifice

00:03:42.003 --> 00:03:43.837
as part of their believe system,

00:03:43.837 --> 00:03:46.441
as part of their rituals.

00:03:46.441 --> 00:03:48.725
Now, near the end of the fourth century,

00:03:48.725 --> 00:03:51.904
there's evidence that there
was significant influence

00:03:51.904 --> 00:03:55.142
or even conquering of some of these cities

00:03:55.142 --> 00:03:57.426
by another civilization,

00:03:57.426 --> 00:03:59.670
or maybe we could say another city,

00:03:59.670 --> 00:04:02.206
and that is Teotihuacan.

00:04:02.206 --> 00:04:04.236
We know that it was a very powerful city,

00:04:04.236 --> 00:04:06.205
and that, in the fourth century,

00:04:06.205 --> 00:04:09.781
it started to really exert
significant influence,

00:04:09.781 --> 00:04:12.650
and just to get a sense of
the sophistication of what

00:04:12.650 --> 00:04:15.983
Mayan cities look like, and
I'll show you what we believed

00:04:15.983 --> 00:04:18.295
Teotihuacan looked like in a second,

00:04:18.295 --> 00:04:21.128
but this is a construction of what

00:04:22.204 --> 00:04:25.170
Tikal might have looked
like near its peak.

00:04:25.170 --> 00:04:28.263
And Teotihuacan, we have
significant ruins there.

00:04:28.263 --> 00:04:32.207
Teotihuacan, as you can see,
is based near modern-day

00:04:32.207 --> 00:04:36.374
Mexico City, and these are
the ruins from Teotihuacan.

00:04:38.112 --> 00:04:42.957
Just to get a sense of how
sophisticated a city this was,

00:04:42.957 --> 00:04:46.473
this is a reconstruction
of the map of the city.

00:04:46.473 --> 00:04:48.428
So the vantage point that
you have from this picture

00:04:48.428 --> 00:04:51.394
would have been roughly in that area,

00:04:51.394 --> 00:04:53.692
so what you're seeing right over here

00:04:53.692 --> 00:04:55.460
are these ...

00:04:55.460 --> 00:04:58.719
These buildings, or these
little squares here.

00:04:58.719 --> 00:05:01.559
This pyramid that you
see out in the distance,

00:05:01.559 --> 00:05:03.513
that would have been this pyramid.

00:05:03.513 --> 00:05:05.389
So you can see from this reconstruction

00:05:05.389 --> 00:05:06.749
of what the city might have looked like,

00:05:06.749 --> 00:05:08.886
it was a vast and significant city.

00:05:08.886 --> 00:05:10.380
Pretty much everything that you can see

00:05:10.380 --> 00:05:14.225
in this picture was
part of this great city.

00:05:14.225 --> 00:05:18.392
It was believed that it was
established around 150 B.C.E.,

00:05:20.831 --> 00:05:22.798
based on our best evidence today,

00:05:22.798 --> 00:05:27.340
and lasted until about the
middle of the sixth century.

00:05:27.340 --> 00:05:31.064
Now, they name Teotihuacan, we don't ...

00:05:31.064 --> 00:05:32.751
That's not its original name.

00:05:32.751 --> 00:05:35.908
It's the name given to it by the Aztecs,

00:05:35.908 --> 00:05:40.421
but it's believed that at
its peak around 400, 450,

00:05:40.421 --> 00:05:41.637
and remember, this was around the time

00:05:41.637 --> 00:05:45.628
that it was exerting significant
influence over the Mayans,

00:05:45.628 --> 00:05:49.545
it is believed that it had
upwards of 100,000 people

00:05:49.545 --> 00:05:50.767
living in the city.

00:05:50.767 --> 00:05:52.133
100,000 to 200,000.

00:05:52.133 --> 00:05:55.501
I've even seen some accounts
saying 250,000 people,

00:05:55.501 --> 00:05:56.960
which would have made it, at the time,

00:05:56.960 --> 00:06:00.159
one of the largest cities in the world.

00:06:00.159 --> 00:06:01.934
Some accounts have it ranked as

00:06:01.934 --> 00:06:05.756
the sixth largest city in
the world that we know about.

00:06:05.756 --> 00:06:07.832
Now, one interesting question was,

00:06:07.832 --> 00:06:11.577
was Teotihuacan an independent
city-state by itself,

00:06:11.577 --> 00:06:14.272
or was it the center of an empire?

00:06:14.272 --> 00:06:16.862
This is something that
historians debate today.

00:06:16.862 --> 00:06:21.131
Now, some of the evidence
for why it was maybe a center

00:06:21.131 --> 00:06:24.735
of an empire is it's believed
it was a multiethnic city.

00:06:24.735 --> 00:06:28.341
We see its influence over the
Mayan cities, especially over

00:06:28.341 --> 00:06:32.258
Tikal, as we get into the
end of the fourth century.

00:06:32.258 --> 00:06:36.008
We also see this incredible
confluence of people

00:06:36.008 --> 00:06:39.091
and culture and trade at Teotihuacan,

00:06:40.303 --> 00:06:43.012
which, once again, hints
that it probably wasn't

00:06:43.012 --> 00:06:46.197
a standalone city, but it
was probably the center

00:06:46.197 --> 00:06:48.686
of some type of regional influence,

00:06:48.686 --> 00:06:49.910
or maybe an empire.

00:06:49.910 --> 00:06:52.503
We don't traditionally see
cities of that size form

00:06:52.503 --> 00:06:55.125
unless they are the
center of a larger empire,

00:06:55.125 --> 00:06:57.560
and they're able to
get tribute or taxation

00:06:57.560 --> 00:06:59.060
from other states.

00:07:00.006 --> 00:07:03.589
Now, Teotihuacan ends
up declining or falling

00:07:03.589 --> 00:07:06.324
before the Mayan civilization.

00:07:06.324 --> 00:07:09.052
You see Teotihuacan in
this blue-green line.

00:07:09.052 --> 00:07:11.678
You see the Mayan civilization
in this light blue,

00:07:11.678 --> 00:07:12.821
and then in the classical period,

00:07:12.821 --> 00:07:15.898
this slightly darker light blue.

00:07:15.898 --> 00:07:20.896
And Teotihuacan collapses
around 550 in the Common Era,

00:07:20.896 --> 00:07:23.854
and the best theories
we have today is that

00:07:23.854 --> 00:07:26.246
it might have been some type
of an internal uprising,

00:07:26.246 --> 00:07:29.371
maybe due to some type
of drought and famine,

00:07:29.371 --> 00:07:30.696
and you can imagine, people will revolt

00:07:30.696 --> 00:07:32.974
if they're not able to get enough food.

00:07:32.974 --> 00:07:35.240
Now, the Mayan civilization,
it is believed,

00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:39.090
also started to collapse a
few hundred years after that.

00:07:39.090 --> 00:07:43.595
So as we get into the 800s,
the Mayan civilization,

00:07:43.595 --> 00:07:46.151
we believe, might have
experienced some similar things,

00:07:46.151 --> 00:07:48.201
maybe some drought, some famine,

00:07:48.201 --> 00:07:51.407
that similarly caused uprisings, division,

00:07:51.407 --> 00:07:53.712
and allowed that to collapse.

00:07:53.712 --> 00:07:57.481
Now, there is evidence
of some of these cities

00:07:57.481 --> 00:08:01.032
lasting beyond the classical
period, all the way up

00:08:01.032 --> 00:08:05.182
until you have the European
colonization of the region.

00:08:05.182 --> 00:08:09.890
We'll talk more about that and
some of the successor states,

00:08:09.890 --> 00:08:11.729
like the Aztecs, who considered themselves

00:08:11.729 --> 00:08:15.121
a bit of a successor
state to the civilization

00:08:15.121 --> 00:08:18.023
or to the city of Teotihuacan,

00:08:18.023 --> 00:08:21.356
and we'll look at that in future videos.