Learn POLITE expressions in English – Don't be RUDE!

Does your coworker have "a bun in the oven"? Has your boss "let himself go"? In this lesson, you will learn some expressions that people often use to say things indirectly in order to sound more polite or less rude. What can you do to avoid using words like "toilet", "dead", or "fat"? Watch this video to learn some interesting alternatives to these words and more. After watching, do the quiz to check if you have understood the material: http://www.engvid.com/polite-english-dont-be-rude/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi again. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today's lesson is a little bit interesting. I'll give you a little bit of a background first of all. English speakers, and this is a very cultural part of English... And remember, culture plays a lot... Has a big role when it comes to language. A lot of speakers, in English, don't want to say certain words. For some reason, they think this word is dirty or heavy, or they just don't like this word, so we find soft expressions. We find other ways to say the same thing that everybody understands, everybody from the culture understands. It may be a little bit difficult for non-native English speakers to understand these expressions, so today we're going to look at a few. There are many, many such expressions. We're just going to look at a few for today.

Firstly, these soft expressions are also called euphemisms. You don't need to know this word. If you want to look up more expressions, type: "euphemisms" into your search box on the internet, and you'll see many more.

I'm just going to give you a few to give you an example of what a euphemism is. And when you watch Hollywood movies or TV shows, if you hear these expressions, now hopefully, you will understand what they mean.

So we're going to start with: "passed away" which is very common. I think many of you probably know this expression. Or: "did not make it". So if you go to the hospital, your friend was in a car accident, and you bring him to the hospital or the ambulance brings him to the hospital, and he's in there for a while, and then you see the doctor. And you go to the doctor: "How's my friend?" And the doctor says: "Oh, I'm sorry. He didn't make it." What does that mean? Or: "I'm sorry. He passed away." What does that mean? It means he died. Now, why people don't like to say the word "died", well, it's a very heavy word. Death, people don't like to talk about death, so they find other ways to say the same thing. Okay?

Now, all of these are not bad things, but you know, we just want to soften the language. We want to be a bit more polite sometimes. If you want, if you're in the washroom and you want... Sorry, if you're in the restaurant and you want the washroom, but you don't want to say the word "washroom" or you don't want to say the word "toilet", you say... If you're a boy, you say, or a man, you say: "Where's the little boys' room?" If you're a woman: "Where's the ladies' room?" Now, we understand all this to be toilet. But people think "toilet" is a dirty word. They don't like to say the word "toilet", so they say: "Little boys' room", or: "Ladies' room". Okay?

Now, sometimes you'll see people in a wheelchair. Maybe they had an accident, maybe they were born this way, but they can't walk. They're in a wheelchair. Or you see people who have a... Who were born with a disease, and they're not, you know, they're not fully functional like everyone else. We used to say: "handicapped". But people find this word to be a little bit offensive, and so it's not politically correct; it's not a nice thing to say. So now, we say: "They are mentally challenged." Or: "They are physically challenged." It used to be: "handicapped" or: "disabled". But people don't want to say "disabled" because they think or they know that these people are very able, they can do many things; they're just limited. Okay? They are challenged by their condition. So they are mentally challenged or they are physically challenged is a more polite way to say it.

Okay, so now, we're going to look at the next expressions. If you want to talk about a man or a woman, and the not polite way to talk about them is to say: "He or she is fat", big. So, people don't like the word "fat". So, for a more polite way or a softer way to say "fat" for a woman is: "She is full-figured." Full-figured means she's complete. She's full in all the places, and that's what we say. A man, we're a little bit less nice to men. A man has "let himself go". Means he stopped taking care of himself, and became fat. Okay? Again, not a nice word, but not necessarily a very nice expression either, but it's softer. It's not as direct, but everybody understands what this means.