How to Describe Odd & Unusual Things in English
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So there are things in life that are normal and there are things in life that are not normal, like today's weather. The weather today is not normal. It is November 25th and it is 10 degrees Celsius out here.

In fact, if I was to choose an English word to describe this weather, I would choose the word bizarre. The weather is bizarre for this time of year. Normally it's minus one and maybe snowing a little bit, but definitely this weather is bizarre. When you use the word bizarre to describe something that's not normal, you're really emphasizing that it's really not normal.

So, anyways, welcome to this English lesson. Let's go a few places and let's look at a few more things that are not normal and I'll teach you some words and phrases you can use to describe them. So, sometimes in English we simply use the word odd to describe something that isn't how it normally is. Now, it's pretty normal to have Christmas displays set up in town, but what I find odd about this Christmas display is how early it was set up.

For me, I think that Christmas displays should be set up around December 1st. I don't feel like they should be here at the beginning of November. To me, the timing is a little bit odd. For me, a normal time to set up a Christmas display would be December 1st. That sounds like a good time. Christmas is December 25th. Let's wait until December 1st. So maybe it's just me, maybe everyone else in the world loves it, but for me, setting up

Christmas displays before December 1st seems a little odd. A little bit not normal. Sometimes in English we just use the word unusual. It's unusual to see people eating ice cream cones in November in Ontario, Canada. Normally we eat ice cream in the warmer months, in June, July, August.

and even in September. But I thought I would get an ice cream cone today, even though this is kind of unusual for this time of year. So again, when you're talking about something that's not normal in English, you can use the word "unusual."

So sometimes in English, we put the word odd and the word unusual together, and we say that something is odd and unusual. These houses behind me are a little bit odd and unusual. In Ontario, Canada, we don't often paint our houses with vibrant colors like this. These are really, really cool. And by the way, if you wanted to buy one, I think this one is for sale.

So sometimes we say something is odd and unusual. We put the two words together. I'm gonna show you a few more of these. I think what I like the most about these odd and unusual houses is how the colors are very, very vibrant. I think I mentioned that already. Even the fence in front of this house, the house itself is a cool green. This one behind me,

is yellow and purple mixed together. So just very, very cool. Kind of odd and unusual. And it doesn't have to be a negative thing. Some people really like odd and unusual things. I think sometimes my English lessons are a little bit odd and unusual, but you guys seem to like them. So sometimes we put those two words together to describe something and say it's odd and unusual.

Sometimes you see something and you just think, that's weird. It's not what you expect to see. You're like, oh, that's weird. That's a little bit weird. I'm going to show you something that I think is a little bit weird. If you look over here, there is a spot where you can charge an electric vehicle. But what's kind of weird is it's in an alley. So you can, I'm not even sure how you would get your car into this little spot. And then if you look over here,

I don't even see a place where you can plug in your electric vehicle. Like normally there would be some sort of charging station. So whenever I see this, whenever I'm in this town and I walk by this area and I see this electric car charging area, I think that's weird.

So I came to the town of Grimsby, Ontario today to make this English lesson and there's a lot more traffic than I expected. I think this is a bit out of the ordinary. It's one o'clock in the afternoon on a Monday. I didn't expect to see so many cars driving down the road. I think it's a little bit out of the ordinary. In English when we say something is out of the ordinary it's different than how it normally is.

I would think that normally this town is very quiet on a Monday afternoon, that there is very little traffic. But it seems to me like there's almost a bit of a traffic jam. If you look down the road, there's this huge row of cars. I know the cars aren't flying by really quickly, but I think this is definitely out of the ordinary. I think normally on a Monday afternoon, it would be very quiet and there would be very little traffic.

So behind me you can see our local hospital and I would say this: Doctors and nurses work wacky hours. When you use the word wacky in English, you're describing something that is very abnormal. Did I teach the word abnormal yet?

Abnormal is the opposite of normal. But doctors and nurses work wacky hours. They work during the day. They work at night. They work in the evening. They work early in the morning. Most people have normal hours. Most people work from 8 to 5 or 7 to 4 or if you have a long day maybe 7 to 5. But doctors and nurses definitely work wacky hours.

By the way, we're getting a new hospital. They're slowly building a new hospital. The old one is in front here and the new one is just, I bet you they're about halfway done, the new hospital. It's pretty cool. Then the doctors and nurses could work wacky hours in that hospital.

Sometimes we just say something is strange. If you look at this tree behind me, you can see that it has all of its leaves on it still. And that's a little bit strange for this time of year. Normally at this point in the fall, you don't see leaves on the trees. Usually they're all on the ground. Now, there's a lot of leaves on the ground. That's pretty normal. But it certainly is strange that this tree still has all of its leaves on it.

all its leaves. It's also a bit strange that the lake doesn't have a little bit of ice on it yet. If we walk over here, we're by Lake Ontario.

it's a little bit strange. Normally, the lake isn't frozen over, but normally at this time of year, there's a little bit of ice along the shore, just a tiny bit. There's probably going to be people from this area who say, there's never ice on the lake at this time in November. But for me, on November 25th, I think it's strange that there's not a little bit of ice there. And it's definitely strange that that tree

has all its leaves on it still. Well, hey, thank you for watching this English lesson about things that are not normal or how to describe things that are not normal. If this is your first time here, don't forget to click that red subscribe button. I think it's over there somewhere. Leave a comment below, give me a thumbs up if this English lesson helped you learn a little bit more English and I'll see you next week with another English lesson. Bye.

Hi, Bob the Canadian here. Thank you for listening to this English podcast lesson. If you would like to support me in the work that I do as an online English teacher, please visit patreon.com slash bobthecanadian.