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ELA 4: Complete Sentences
775 Views

In this lesson we'll subject you to some verbs and predicates. Each one is a necessary part of a complete breakfas—er...sentence.

ELA 4: Word Choice
222 Views

Choosing words carefully is important. You may end up vexing the assemblage of citizens you're conversing with...or you might even just plain bore...

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ELA 4: Word Choices Have Power 42 Views


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Description:

Word choices have power. And you've got to make sure you use that power for good. The last thing you want to do is call your big sister your "fat" sister...unless she insults you first.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

So you probably know by now that synonyms are words or phrases that mean more or less [Coop discussing synonyms]

00:17

the same as another completely different word or phrase.

00:20

Y'know, like…"small" and "tiny," or "in good shape," and "fit as a fiddle." [A puppy walking on the grass and man working out]

00:24

But that “more or less” bit?

00:26

It's actually pretty important.

00:27

And by that, we mean you can't just go substituting any word with any synonym and assume everything

00:32

will work out okay.

00:33

That’s because not all synonyms are perfect fits––some synonyms are closer to the [Person playing tetris on mobile phone]

00:37

original word than others.

00:39

Take the word big.

00:40

Say you were writing about how big your birthday cake was but, naturally, you wanted to spice [A large birthday cake and girl appears]

00:44

up your writing a bit, so you grabbed that thesaurus you carry around with you everywhere

00:48

and looked up synonyms for the word “big.”

00:50

You might find words like gigantic, fat, huge, massive, and tremendous. [list of synonyms for Big in a thesaurus]

00:54

But – hold your horses – you can’t just toss any of those words into your sentence

00:57

and expect it to sound right.

00:59

Because while saying that your birthday cake was “gigantic” might sound good, saying

01:02

it was “full-figured” might be a little… weird…

01:05

The point we're trying to get across here is that word choice has power. [Dino talking about word choice]

01:09

Synonyms don't always mean the exact same thing.

01:12

Actually, depending on how they're used, they can sometimes end up meaning totally different things.

01:17

“Silly” and “stupid” might be listed as synonyms in your thesaurus, but calling [Boy and girl with i'm with silly and i'm with stupid shirts]

01:20

someone “silly” and calling them “stupid” would result in two very different reactions.

01:26

And just as a helpful hint as you go through life: don’t go around calling people stupid.

01:30

Basically, it's important to put some thought into your word choice before you actually [Girl sits at desk and thinks about word choice]

01:33

write it down.

01:34

The accuracy of your writing is important, so your word choices should be treated with

01:39

thoughtfulness and care.

01:40

So you can tell your friend her new dress looks nice, or marvelous, or pleasant, but [Boy tells girl her dress is nice]

01:45

don't tell her it looks amusing.

01:47

…unless it has clowns on it or something. [Girl wearing dress with clowns and boy laughing]

01:49

Then it probably is pretty amusing.

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