00 Bonus episode - The word "set" has 430 meanings - Excerpt of My Fluent Podcast
The Vocab Man - Fluent Vocabulary
Do You Have Any Favorite Expression in English?
An excerpt of an interview i conducted with alister. The word set in english has 430 different meanings, depending on what you add before or after it. Alister: I think non native speakers should continue saying very and good,. And they should be very happy to say very good because that is how people speak. He also had two least favourite words which he used far too much.
00:00
Transcript
Play full episode
Transcript
Episode notes
Audiogram version:
https://share.descript.com/view/OW7tejYoHYY
Interesting vocabulary in this episode:
-permutations
-IELTS
0:00 Start
Hello guys, this is the Vocab Man. I am Daniel, and this is meant to be a bonus episode.
I hope you're going to like it. It is actually an excerpt of an interview I conducted with Alastair and I think that there are many gems in it and I thought that it would be a great idea to share it here.
And of course, if you like it, you can also listen to the whole interview on my other podcast called My Fluent Podcast, but now let's get started.
0:40 Start Interview
Do you have any favorite expression in English?
I know you mentioned before that this might be a question that would come up. Instead of saying a favorite expression, I wanted to add a favorite word with numerous, kind of, varieties of it. So perhaps some of your listeners know this already, but
The word "set" has 430 meanings!
the word "set" in English according to the Guinness world records has 430 different meanings, depending on what you add before or after it. And also the context. So things like all set set up set go set it right, kind of set up that kind of stuff I think is I think it, it can seem so confusing. And this sort of a mixture of phrasal verbs and idioms. It's tough but I think it's sort of one of the nice things, one of the sort of weirdly beautiful things about the English language that you have these sort of different building blocks of words.
And when you are going to add a different blocks together in different permutations, then it completely changes of the meaning.
1:54 Alastair's least favorite words
In addition to this kind of favorite word I did have 2 kind of least favorite words that that I wanted to add.
And one is something that native speakers, are often terrible at. They use this word far too much and that's literally and , it's very common to see people use that in a wrong sense really saying like he, he was literally dying of laughter, all those kinds of things, which I think is just, it makes me feel, it makes me cringe if you know that expression.
It's very strange use of language. And then my other thing, my other little personal battle was with, you know, people on YouTube or Instagram or or things like that, telling non-native speakers that they should stop saying words like very or don't say good, say marvelous or fantastic, or don't say very, say it incredibly, or, you know, magnificently or things like that.
I think not a non-native speaker speakers should continue saying very and good and they should be very happy to say very good, because that is how people speak. And I know that some slightly artificial language exams like IELTS or things like that perhaps punish you for using these kinds of words or phrases, but ultimately you will sound a lot more natural if you start saying things like very, very good rather than say like incredibly fantastic.
Just sounds very, very strange. And I don't know how many times every day I say very or I say good, and, and that is not due to not knowing these other words or not kind of not having them in my vocabulary. It's that very and good and words like that are in many cases, the most appropriate words for what you're trying to communicate.
And ultimately the role of language is to communicate an idea from one person to another. And these simple words are often the most effective way of doing that So So, my last passing thoughts it is my favorite expression not very good of course, but is saying to people that that you can mainly ignore anyone who tells you to stop saying very
Yeah,
I love that I loved it very much because we shouldn't over-complicate it. Right. As you said communication is important and thank you very much. It was really great chatting to you
4:43 Outro Daniel Goodson
I hope you liked it, guys guys. I loved it to be honest, and I could learn a lot of things and I promise you that there will be normal episodes again in the future, but I just thought, it would be a great idea to integrate this excerpt. And as I mentioned in the beginning on My Fluent Podcast, I published the whole interview. And if you want to learn how to learn languages with podcasts
This will be A great way for you to watch the. the Youtube video as well because I always do a video your version And a podcast version So my. My Fluent Podcast Thanks and. Bye
full interview: https://youtu.be/Sk55GOe_3TE
My Fluent Podcast
https://share.descript.com/view/OW7tejYoHYY
Interesting vocabulary in this episode:
-permutations
-IELTS
0:00 Start
Hello guys, this is the Vocab Man. I am Daniel, and this is meant to be a bonus episode.
I hope you're going to like it. It is actually an excerpt of an interview I conducted with Alastair and I think that there are many gems in it and I thought that it would be a great idea to share it here.
And of course, if you like it, you can also listen to the whole interview on my other podcast called My Fluent Podcast, but now let's get started.
0:40 Start Interview
Do you have any favorite expression in English?
I know you mentioned before that this might be a question that would come up. Instead of saying a favorite expression, I wanted to add a favorite word with numerous, kind of, varieties of it. So perhaps some of your listeners know this already, but
The word "set" has 430 meanings!
the word "set" in English according to the Guinness world records has 430 different meanings, depending on what you add before or after it. And also the context. So things like all set set up set go set it right, kind of set up that kind of stuff I think is I think it, it can seem so confusing. And this sort of a mixture of phrasal verbs and idioms. It's tough but I think it's sort of one of the nice things, one of the sort of weirdly beautiful things about the English language that you have these sort of different building blocks of words.
And when you are going to add a different blocks together in different permutations, then it completely changes of the meaning.
1:54 Alastair's least favorite words
In addition to this kind of favorite word I did have 2 kind of least favorite words that that I wanted to add.
And one is something that native speakers, are often terrible at. They use this word far too much and that's literally and , it's very common to see people use that in a wrong sense really saying like he, he was literally dying of laughter, all those kinds of things, which I think is just, it makes me feel, it makes me cringe if you know that expression.
It's very strange use of language. And then my other thing, my other little personal battle was with, you know, people on YouTube or Instagram or or things like that, telling non-native speakers that they should stop saying words like very or don't say good, say marvelous or fantastic, or don't say very, say it incredibly, or, you know, magnificently or things like that.
I think not a non-native speaker speakers should continue saying very and good and they should be very happy to say very good, because that is how people speak. And I know that some slightly artificial language exams like IELTS or things like that perhaps punish you for using these kinds of words or phrases, but ultimately you will sound a lot more natural if you start saying things like very, very good rather than say like incredibly fantastic.
Just sounds very, very strange. And I don't know how many times every day I say very or I say good, and, and that is not due to not knowing these other words or not kind of not having them in my vocabulary. It's that very and good and words like that are in many cases, the most appropriate words for what you're trying to communicate.
And ultimately the role of language is to communicate an idea from one person to another. And these simple words are often the most effective way of doing that So So, my last passing thoughts it is my favorite expression not very good of course, but is saying to people that that you can mainly ignore anyone who tells you to stop saying very
Yeah,
I love that I loved it very much because we shouldn't over-complicate it. Right. As you said communication is important and thank you very much. It was really great chatting to you
4:43 Outro Daniel Goodson
I hope you liked it, guys guys. I loved it to be honest, and I could learn a lot of things and I promise you that there will be normal episodes again in the future, but I just thought, it would be a great idea to integrate this excerpt. And as I mentioned in the beginning on My Fluent Podcast, I published the whole interview. And if you want to learn how to learn languages with podcasts
This will be A great way for you to watch the. the Youtube video as well because I always do a video your version And a podcast version So my. My Fluent Podcast Thanks and. Bye
full interview: https://youtu.be/Sk55GOe_3TE
My Fluent Podcast
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.
