Let's Learn English: Topic: Too Many Words! 🧳⌚🚛
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Well hello and welcome to this English lesson which I've titled too many words. Sometimes in English we have a name for something and it's more than one word or it's a really long word and it's not the actual word we use in regular everyday English conversation. I'll give you a few examples in a bit but one would be wrist watch. Uh we don't call it a wrist watch when we're talking to people. We just call it a watch.

So I found about 30 words like this. I've been keeping a nice list of vocabulary terms that are more than one word or really long words and then I'll teach you what the shorter version is. Some will be obvious. Some you will already know and some will be interesting to you I think. So kind of a a fun lesson. A lesson just for fun. Welcome to this English lesson which I've called too many words. Uh

I think a better description would be using the shorter version of the name for something instead of the long cumbersome version. That might be a new word for you. Cumbersome, you might want to look it up. So, once again, welcome to this English lesson about too many words. A ballpoint pen.

So, interestingly enough, a long time ago, I'm sure there were many different styles of pen but the ballpoint pen is the most popular right now. A ballpoint pen at the very end. This is I I chose a bad picture.

has a little round steel ball that turns and it's called uh a ball bearing I guess you could say. But as you write, the ink comes out but we don't call it a ballpoint pen. We just call it a pen because almost every pen in the world now is a ballpoint pen. We usually just call this uh pen uh and shout out to my uh viewers from France. Thank you for making Bic pens. Uh

They're really good. I have a BIC pen at work. It's very reliable. It's a great ballpoint pen but again, I just call it a pen. We also have wristwatch which I talked about in the introduction.

is actually a Fitbit but I could call it my watch as well. Uh we don't say wristwatch anymore. Uh I think a long time ago people might have a pocket watch or a wristwatch and you might have wanted to distinguish between the two. But now pretty much if you say watch,

mean this. The thing you wear on your wrist. So what time is it? I'll check my watch. I don't think I've ever said I'll check my wrist watch. Um and then just to highlight as well if you notice the term is two colors. It's black and gray. The gray is the common or

or informal way of using that thing's vocabulary name at this point in the English language. So wristwatch becomes watch.

light bulb. So, uh we sometimes still say light bulb but it's far more common to just say bulb. I might say to Jen, oh, there's a bulb out in the uh upstairs bathroom or I need to change the bulb in the kitchen because it's not working anymore. You can still say light bulb and as with all of these vocabulary words or terms, you can still use the big version. There's no problem there but uh

course, a light bulb is something that you screw in. When the bulb needs to be replaced, you unscrew it and you screw in a new bulb. Mobile phone. So, interestingly enough, when I was younger, you sometimes had a phone at home that was plugged into the wall and then you also might use

you are lucky have a mobile phone. I know in some places they've gone with the word mobile to talk about their phone. They might just call this a handy or a mobile but here if someone says phone they mean this kind of phone. They don't mean the kind of phone necessarily that plugs into a wall because most people don't have one anymore. In fact when I was a kid if you said phone it meant like the old phone.

phone that hung on the wall or that went into its little holder. Uh and then if someone had a cellular phone or mobile phone, we would use that term. Now, people use the word phone for this and if you still have an old phone, we call it a landline. So, common term, hey, I

phones allowed in class. Leave your phone in your locker. That's our rule at school. No phones allowed in class. So we don't say cell phone or mobile phone. There's no reason to. We in Canada just say phone. And I should specify that. This lesson is very much some of the terms are very Canadian. So you'll have to kind of get a sense of what they are if you are learning a different version of English.

magic marker. I'm not sure if you know what a magic marker is but when I was a kid, I had magic markers. Basically, a magic marker is something where it's it's not like a pen. They come in different colors and ink does come out but it usually has a soft tip. It's not like a ballpoint pen. It has a soft tip and

then as you use it you can color you can write in different colors and when I was a kid especially we called them magic markers because they were magical I guess but now we would just call them markers like one of my kids for school brings markers to school because in one of their classes they make posters and they need markers in order to draw and color the poster. So magic marker we just say marker.

Steering wheel. So, this one, I would say, we still use both terms. Although, wheel is common. Once you know, you're talking about the steering wheel. So, a car has four wheels. So, don't get too confused but it also has a steering wheel. Often, you'll hear things like this. Did you hear that there was an accident? Oh, who was behind the wheel?

or I had to turn the wheel in order to avoid hitting someone. So, this one works in context. You kinda have to know already in the conversation that you're talking about the steering wheel. So, it's not a direct replacement but you will often hear those phrases like, oh, um who's behind the wheel when that car went in the ditch or um you

Yeah, a good one would be an animal was crossing the road. So, I I turn the I turn the wheel to avoid them and we're talking about the steering wheel. Photocopier. So, yes, English speakers are a little bit lazy.

we don't like to say more words or use more letters than we need to. So this is an example of something where we just call it the copier at work at work. We will sometimes say photocopier. It hasn't disappeared. We

but more often we will just say, oh, I have to go and do make some copies. I'm going to use the copier. Um are there is anyone standing at the copier right now? I I need to use it. So, hopefully, no one else is using it right now. So, again, with this one, you can say photocopier or copier and people will understand what you're saying.

then I think you're really familiar with this one. This one we added a letter to the shorter version but a refrigerator we often just call the fridge. So when I get home from the grocery store I have some things that I put in the cupboard and other things I put in the fridge.

rarely say refrigerator. That there's just no reason to say that whole word. It's too many letters. I should have made the lesson title too many letters too many words. So when you have something that needs to stay cold you will put it in the fridge.

Cordless drill. So, many years ago, you would call a cordless drill a cordless drill because you probably also had a drill that plugged into the wall and you might still have a drill like that but because cordless drills or rechargeable drills have become so common, the word drill often just refers to that. If I go help my brother with something, I'll bring my drill. He might say, hey, can you bring your drill? I

Um I might specify like do you want the big old drill that plugs into the wall or you want me to just bring my DeWalt cordless drill but often drill now just simply refers to that type of drill. Similar to mobile phone and now we just use phone. When you talk about a cordless drill you often just say drill. Oh I need to charge my drill. Did you bring your drill?

Often we know the person is talking about this type of drill. By the way, one of the handiest tools in the world in my opinion. If I was to give you a list of the five tools you need to have, hammer, measuring tape, and then cordless drill I think would be number three. What else would I put on there? Handsaw, maybe a level. I'm not sure. This isn't a lesson on tools although I should do one on tools again soon.

So, eyeglasses. I don't know if I've heard anyone say eyeglasses other than the eye doctor but this is the official term for these. I mean, these are called eyeglasses but we just call them glasses. Now, again, you have to be careful because you can have glasses in the kitchen and you can put water in those glasses but you can also have eyeglasses. So, but I think again, this comes from context.

context. Um if someone says, ah, I'm having trouble seeing. I don't have my glasses. You know that they're talking about eyeglasses and not uh water glasses. This is more of a jar by the way. And then I um again, uh eyeglass was is probably from the word spectacles long ago. I did a lesson a while ago. I see in the chat half years talking about spectacles. Uh I did a lesson long ago about um

I did a lesson. Sorry, Jen sneaking in to grab her coat. Um I did a lesson a while ago about words we don't use anymore and spectacles was one of those. So, glasses or the longer version eyeglasses. Phone charger. So, this is an interesting one. Um it used to be that the charger you used for your phone didn't work for your computer and the charger you use for your computer didn't work for your phone but in some cases,

newer phones and newer computers, the word charger means the same thing. Most of my students can use the same charger for their computer as they can for their phone. And again, this isn't always true but we often just use the word charger. If Jen says to me, have you seen my charger? I know she's talking about her phone charger. If I say to her, have you seen my charger? She knows I'm talking about my phone charger. So,

So, you can have a laptop charger, a computer charger, um and chargers for other things but I would say most of the time, if someone uses the word charger, they're probably looking for a phone charger.

Web browser. So this is what we called Internet Explorer or Chrome or Firefox or Safari. The program you use to use the internet. Some of you who are at a computer right now have a browser open. We don't say web browser very often anymore. So you have a browser open. You went to YouTube.com. You found my channel and you're watching a video in your web browser but you're

Yeah, we just say browser. Like if I'm talking to a student in class, I might say, oh, open up a browser and search for lithium ion batteries or iron batteries. So, browser has become the de facto. I don't even know if my students know the term web browser anymore or whether that's just faded from use but yes, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Google

Firefox. I think those are the main ones. Um if you're on an Apple machine you're probably using Safari. Laptop computer. So notice the gray word has moved to the other end. Um we don't often add the word computer anymore. We might say desktop computer but if you're talking to someone about computers and

might say laptop or desktop or I might say to students don't forget to bring your laptop tomorrow. We're going to need it in class. So I don't use the term computer very often. Um we used to use notebook as well or portable computer but I think laptop is now the term that we've decided to use for this device. So again I might say to my students make sure you charge your laptop tonight.

When you come to class tomorrow, bring your laptop because we're going to be using it. Shopping mall. Oh, it's me. This is from last February or March from the video, the English lesson I did at the mall. If you want to watch it, you can search for it. Just search Bob the Canadian mall. We just call this the mall.

you will hear the term shopping mall but probably 90% of the time people will say, oh, I'm going to go to the mall Friday night. I went to the mall yesterday. Uh I need to go to the mall and do some Christmas shopping.

could say those all using shopping mall like I went to the shopping mall last week or I'm going to go to the shopping mall but it's too many words. So I would most often probably say I'm going to the mall. Jen and I need to go to the mall. Jen and I need to start Christmas shopping. It's coming it's coming quickly. If you travel and

you are allowed to take one small suitcase on the plane and we call it a carry-on bag.

But more commonly now, we simply say carry on. So, the gray carry on, that has become the common term. Uh when I fly, I take a carry on. Uh I have a suitcase, I have a carry on and I usually have a small personal bag which fits under the seat. The carry on goes in the compartment above on most airplanes. You put the carry on in the little

I wonder if we even call it the carry-on compartment but yes, you can say carry-on bag but often people will just say carry-on. Do you have a carry-on? Yep, I have it right here. Is it the right size?

No, it's a little too big. Do you know that there are two carry-on sizes? There's a smaller size now in the last five or 10 years and then there are older ones that are too big. So, we had, we have a carry-on that's too big. So, we can't take it if we fly and then we have two smaller ones that we can take if we fly because they are the right size. If you haven't flown a

more than five or ten years. Check the carry on sizes before you decide to fly.

windshield wipers. So when you are driving in the rain sometimes you need to turn on your windshield wipers. Uh sometimes you need to be able to see so you turn them on but we just call them wipers. Um so sometimes your wipers don't work right. So you need a new wiper blade. But on my vehicles all of my vehicles I think my wipers are all relatively new. Um and

Winter is really bad for wipers by the way. When your wipers freeze to the window and then you don't have time to let the car warm up and you have to chip them. Sometimes you break the wipers. So, but technically, they are called windshield wipers. They go like this. I'll do the action and you use them in the rain or in snow or sleet or hail in order to um

clear the window so that you can see when you drive. So again look at the grey word here. This type of vehicle is called a pickup truck but we more commonly just refer to this as a pickup. There are some students who have their license and they drive a pickup to school. What did you drive to school the other day? Did you drive a car or did you drive a pickup? In North America pickups are pretty common.

Um and I do know that there are usually some young people who are hoping to own a pickup someday. Again, you can say pickup truck. There's nothing wrong with that but often if you are talking about you know I went to look at used cars. They had some hatchbacks, some four-door cars um and they had a few pickups and I I might buy one of the pickups.

That's just an example. I'm not, I'm not planning to buy a pickup. Although I did have one many, many years ago. Uh this is probably a Canadian term so you're gonna have to check. I know in Britain they might use Lori. Um in the states they might use 18 Wheeler but um for me if I see a truck like this

We sometimes call this a tractor trailer because there are two parts to the truck but I would call this a transport. There are a lot of transports that go by my house um every day. I don't know why. I think my road is a popular road for trucks to go down. So, you will see sometimes a transport go by um or more than one. Um when I was a kid, there were a lot of transports that went by because they were fixing the

highway to the south of me and I think a lot of transports used my road. Um for about two years there were transports almost almost every 10 minutes. So as a 10 year old boy that was fun cuz you would see all these big transports going by.

padlock. So this is an interesting one because I did hear someone use the word padlock the other day and it sounded strange to me because we just say lock. Okay, this is a lock. You can go and buy a lock from the hardware store. You usually get two keys with the lock and then you can put the lock on a door or fence or gate or somewhere where you don't want people to go through. Okay, so if you have a

of these somewhere in your house we would call that a lock and you would use it to secure an area to stop people from getting in. So again pay attention to the gray. This is what we call a remote. Uh that couch has two remotes on it. Even last night I heard someone say the word remote. A small child wanted to know where is the remote. And

technical term is remote control. You use the remote to turn the TV on. You use the remote control to turn the TV on but we have just decided to call it the remote. So, I have a remote for my TV.

actually have a remote for this light right here. I've done this before where it gets dark and then I can turn then I'm really bright and then my camera will slowly adjust but I used this remote to turn off my light. There we go. It's going back to normal. I use the remote to turn off my light and to turn it back on again. So again, you can say remote control. Nothing wrong with that but it is more common I think just to say remote.

Gotta be careful with these. These are nail clippers. These are hair clippers and once you know what you're talking about, you probably will just say clippers. If I said to Jen, do you know where the clippers are? She doesn't know if I'm talking about these hair clippers or nail clippers but once I've mentioned the word nail, once I've said nail clippers, I'm

I can then just say clippers and I probably would. I'd probably say, have you seen the nail clippers? Um Jen might say, oh, the the clippers were just on the counter in the bathroom yesterday. I'm not sure where they went. Maybe one of the kids is using the clippers in another part of the house. So, once you establish that you're talking about nail clippers, you would probably just say clippers. And then once you establish

Earlier in the conversation say hair clippers you would probably just continue by saying clippers instead of using the whole word.

is a microwave oven. We usually just call it a microwave. I think this is one of the simpler ones. I think many of you already know this. If you have something that you want to heat up, you put it in the microwave. You punch in one minute and you hit start and then it uses magic to heat up your food. I don't exactly know how it works. It shoots very tiny

energy filled waves at your food and I think the anything with moisture starts to warm up inside of it but we usually just say microwave. At school, we have a microwave in the staff room. At school, there are there is a bank that

microwaves in the student cafeteria. So, students who bring a lunch that they want to heat up, they can just put it in the microwave but yes, the official term would be microwave oven. Um so, microwave. It's a lot easier, isn't it? Christmas tree. So, this is another one similar to nail clippers and hair clippers. Once you use the word Christmas tree, you don't have to say Christmas anymore.

it's also related to context. If I was to say at this time of the year do you have your tree up yet? I'm talking about a Christmas tree. If a coworker says oh we put the tree up this past weekend. They're talking about a Christmas tree. Or if I was to say what room do you normally put your tree in? They'll know because it's November or especially if it's December that I am talking about a Christmas tree. So do you have your tree yet?

If I was to ask a colleague, do you have your tree yet? They would know I'm talking about a Christmas tree.

train tracks. So, when you drive on the road, every once in a while, you cross some tracks. They are train tracks because trains go on them. Nothing else goes on them. So, we usually just end up calling them tracks. In Toronto, there's tracks along the street for the street cars. Um maybe in your town when you drive down the road, you have to cross one or two tracks. Um sometimes, there's two tracks.

This isn't four by the way. This is two tracks but the official word would be train tracks. These are train tracks. They are put in place so that trains can travel from one location to another and we simply call them tracks. In fact, there's a phrase from the wrong side of the tracks. I think in some towns, there might be tracks that split the town in two and then there might be a side where all the happy, rich,

cool people live if you're watching a movie and then there's the other side where the there's the people who don't have as much money and are not as happy live. The wrong side of the tracks. That's something you would see more uh in a movie or something like that. Blue jeans. So, people do sometimes say blue jeans but often we just say jeans. I'm actually wearing jeans right now. Um it's a Friday. So, there are certain Fridays where I'm allowed to wear jeans. I

to work. I almost fell over backwards on my chair. Um but normally, we don't say blue jeans. We just say jeans. Now, there are other color jeans now. I think a long time ago, jeans were always blue. They were blue jeans but I actually have a pair of jeans that's black and I have a pair of jeans that's

guess it is still blue. It's it's more like olive color maybe but anyways we usually just call these jeans at our school students are allowed to wear jeans today because it's a special day where you are allowed to wear them. Normally students aren't allowed to wear jeans. This is probably very Canadian.

might call these rubber bands. In Canada we also call them elastic bands or we might just call them elastics. This is a pile of elastics. I need an elastic. So again, I

rubber band or the Canadian term. I think it's Canadian of elastic band means like the stretchy thing that you can use like if you have a bunch of carrots you can put an elastic around them. Jen and I make bouquets of flowers and then we put an elastic on the bottom. So again just a warning this is probably a Canadian term. I think most of the world says rubber bands.

bicycle obviously becomes bike. I think that's been pretty clear for most of you. Um we don't often say bicycle. We say bike all the time. So we have taken the word and kinda created a shorter version of it that's easier to remember and easier to say. Airplane has become plane like

you have a carry on, you take it with you on the plane. If you have a larger suitcase, you have to check it and it goes in the bottom of the plane. So, we don't often say airplane. We don't say automobile. We say car. We don't say airplane. We usually say plane. Again though, you can say airplane. Sorry. Don't say automobile. People will think that's strange. You can say airplane as much as you want or plane. They are they are equal. So,

This is a baseball cap. We sometimes just call it a ball cap though. Um it probably has different names in different parts of the English speaking world but here in North America this style of hat we would call a ball cap. I'm probably going to wear a ball cap later today. Mine's back there on the couch. Uh because I am going to be outside later today and sometimes it's nice to wear a ball cap. You can just say cap or

although that is a more general term. If you say ball cap, it means that kind of hat. Um if you really like basketball, you can buy a ball cap with your team's logo on it. So, it gets kinda confusing because other sports have ball caps as well. Uh this is very Canadian as well. I should have put a little Canadian flag. This is a winter hat. I call it a toque.

So, a toque is a nice knitted hat made out of wool or cotton or other fabric that keeps your head warm in the winter. Um most people in North America would probably call it a winter hat but most people some people in Canada call it a toque. I think we're using the word less and less but I would call it a toque. I would say, have you seen my toque? Oh, it's cold outside. I should wear a toque today.

And then this is the last slide. I wanna clarify, if you go to a school, they might have a gymnasium and you will call it a gym, okay? So a place where you can play basketball, a place where you can play volleyball, a place where you can play team sports. We call it a gymnasium, but more often we call it a gym. But when someone says they're going to the gym to work out, I don't think we ever call that a gymnasium.

Okay? So, I've here's the difference again. A gymnasium which we normally call a gym is a place where you can play basketball, volleyball, badminton, those types of sports. So, gym or gymnasium but if you go to workout like to lift weights and to use different machines, we call that a gym and

I don't think we ever called that place a gymnasium. So hopefully that distinction made some sense to you. 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.