Synonyms with Different Connotations

 Are you good at choosing and putting proper words in English sentences? Without knowing the subtle difference between synonyms, you’d sound a bit awkward or weird with your choice of words. Let’s practice using synonymous words in a sentence by finding one word in each group that has a negative connotation.

In each of the following groups of similar words describing people, choose the words that have somewhat negative connotation (as many as you can find), the words that have positive connotation, and lastly, the one that has a neutral meaning.

 

    1.   childlike, youthful, childish, young

 

    2.   disabled, crippled, handicapped, retarded

 

    3.   relaxed, laid-back, lackadaisical, easygoing

 

    4.   slim, skinny, slender, thin

 

    5.   cheap, frugal, miserly, stingy, economical

 

    6.   adolescent, immature, juvenile, innocent

 

    7.   inquisitive, interested, curious, prying

 

    8.   confident, secure, proud, egotistical

 

    9.   lovely, knockout, beautiful, stunning

 

    10.               talkative, conversational, chatty, jabbering

 

    11.               fictional, fictitious, fictive

 

Answer Keys 

    1.  negative connotation: childish (to describe someone who behaves immaturely)

positive connotation: childlike and youthful

neutral denotation: young

 

 

    2.  negative connotation: crippled, handicapped, retarded (all three of these words have offensive and negative connotation)

positive connotation:

neutral denotation: disabled

 

    3.  negative connotation: lackadaisical (implying laziness)

positive connotation: easygoing and laid-back

neutral denotation: relaxed

 

    4.  negative connotation: skinny (describing somebody is too thin)

positive connotation: slim and slender (used as a compliment)

neutral connotation: thin

 

    5.  negative connotation: cheap, miserly, stingy (meaning not generous at all)

positive connotation: frugal (meaning thrifty)

neutral denotation: economical

 

    6.  negative connotation: immature

slightly negative to neutral: juvenile

positive connotation : innocent

neutral denotation: adolescent

 

    7.  negative connotation: prying

positive connotation: interested

neutral denotation: inquisitive and curious

 

    8.  negative connotation: egotistical (meaning ‘self-centered’)

positive connotation: confident and proud

neutral denotation: secure

 

    9.  negative/ sexist connotation: knockout (this word can be used as a compliment, but it has somewhat negative or sexist connotation

positive connotation: lovely, beautiful, stunning

 

    10.              negative connotation: jabbering (to describe somebody who is annoying)

positive connotation: talkative and chatty (to convey the feeling of “friendly” tone)

neutral denotation: conversational

 

 

    11.              negative connotation: fictitious (used to convey the meaning of something or somebody made up to deceive others or conceal oneself)

neutral denotation: fictional and fictive

 

(*source from www.dictionary.com and https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-connotative-words.html)

Time to Play a Puzzle! (from this last Sunday on NPR)

 Time to play a word puzzle created by Will Shortz from the On-air challenge of NPR.

I'm going to give you some six-letter words. For each one, change one of the consonants to a vowel to make another familiar six-letter word.

 

Example: DEFECT --> DEFEAT

1. AVENGE

2. DIPPER

3. MIGHTY

4. PREPPY

5. GROUSE

6. MADDEN

7. BIKING

8. CARTER

9. GRANGE

10. DECENT

11. STANCH

12. STANCE

 

 

Answer Keys 

    1.  avenue

    2.  diaper

    3.  eighty

    4.  prepay

    5.  arouse

    6.  maiden

    7.  bikini

    8.  career

    9.  orange

   10.   deceit

   11.  stance

   12.  seance

How to Tactfully Agree or Disagree

 

There have been many discussions and debates in my past English classes. Sometimes, students sounded way too blunt or straightforward in expressing their agreement or disagreement while arguing and getting their opinions across. Here are some basic and common tactful ways to express how you feel about others’ comments.

 

Ways to Agree

Ways to Disagree

-       That’s for sure!  -        I couldn’t agree with you more.   -        That is absolutely true.   -        No doubt about it.   -        Fair enough.   -        We’re on the same wavelength.   -        You’re telling me!   -        I second that!   -        You stole my words!   -        Exactly.   -        You have a point there.   -        (In case you agree with someone’s negative statement): Me, neither.

-        I understand where you’re coming from, but…   -        You may be right, but I think….   -        That doesn’t quite make sense to me.   -        I hear you, but that’s not always the case.   -        I beg to differ.   -        I’m sorry, but I don’t think….   -        We don’t see eye to eye on that point.   -        I’m not sure about that.   -        No way!

Dr. Jedidiah's Diary Episode #44. Director Leonhart

Dr. Jedidiah’s Diary

Dr. Jedidiah is a psychiatrist who loves traveling, meeting new people, and exploring different cultures. As a single father who lost his wife to drug overdose 10 years ago, he has not been his old perky self for the last decade. During those hard years, he has met hundreds of, thousands of people from various walks of life around all over the world. Meeting new people and listening to their stories outside his office have given him different feelings from the ones through the formal encounter groups or support groups for therapy. These people he has accidentally come across were the paths through which Dr. Jedidiah could look back on his own life, being truly honest with himself. Here is Dr. Jedidiah’s monologue that has left him with some food for thoughts in life….or a fodder to justify his own mistakes in the past.

 

 

Episode #44. Director Leonhart

He looked perfectly steezy when he stepped into my office a few years ago. As might be expected of people in the field of show biz, he had his own attitude somewhat condescending or free-wheeling like a scofflaw. Throwing his tired body onto the long couch next to my arm chair, He skipped formal greeting when we first met and said “Hey, I don’t like schmaltz kinda big hello. You know me, right? I’m the film director, Leonhart.”  I was like ‘Leonhart who?? Does this guy expect me to recognize him? Movie director? Gotta be a director of some unsung cheesy flicks.’

 

Leonhart had been directing horror films for 8 years, but all his movies had gained was no more than vituperation from critics and magazines. He felt frustrated and mad by the way his movies got panned. When I asked questions about what bothered him the most, Leonhard would say “What more do they expect from a horror flick? A bunch of wanton campers head out to an empty mansion through the path leading into deep woods, which is prohibited by the town or not recommended by the residents in the nearby area. The most reckless and pathetically courageous person in the group get killed first. The rest of the company get murdered one by one. And the most cautious chicken of all tend to survive the ordeal, and by the end of the movie come the stupid police officers to the rescue after the worst part has already taken place. Well… I know the audience and the critics enjoy the thrill on the edge of their seats, but they pretend this prefixed formula or elements of horror movies are not impressive enough to be a bloodcurdling spine-chillers.”  No offense, but each time he gave such a big talk, I’d put him down as just sour grapes inside of my mind. But one thing I knew for sure was that Leonhart had passion as a film director, which needed to be heard and rekindled by at least some horror flick aficionados who would see his movies sitting perfectly well with them.

 

After I had seen all his scary movies, I looked him in the eye and said what I truly felt about his pieces on our last office session. “Mr. Leonhart, you are right. The harsh critics who gave you acrimonious reviews must have been hiding their feelings about your movies under the guise of being an objective, logical movie evaluators. They talk about lack of verisimilitude in your films, but in actual life, things could happen out of the blue with no reason or predictable backgrounds. How would one explain those ineffable phenomena in life?”

 

When Leonhart won the best horror film director of the year, I saw him on TV, sending me a huge smile from the pedestal while giving his acceptance speech. Looked like he seemed finally able to assuage his rage and frustration as an undiscovered artist and get across his idea that “Horror story is life with less horrible nightmares cut out. I would like to thank my friend J for encouraging me to dream more and more nightmares that I’d embody on the screen.”

 

Expressions

    1.  steezy: (slang) easily stylish; exhibiting style with ease

    2.  free-wheeling: in a relaxed or casual way without making much effort

    3.  scofflaw: someone who flouts the law by failing to comply with a law that is difficult to enforce effectively

    4.  schmaltz: (Yiddish) excessive sentimentality

    5.  cheesy: cheap; of low quality

    6.  vituperation: bitter/ abusive language

    7.  to be panned: to be severely criticized

    8.  bloodcurdling: causing terror or horror

    9.  spine-chiller: a work of fiction that induces fear or nervousness

    10.  to put someone down as…: to insult or belittle someone as ….

    11.  sour grapes: someone who pretends to despise something because he/she cannot achieve or obtain or have it

    12.  aficionado: a person who is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about something

    13.  to sit well with someone: to be acceptable to someone   

    14.  verisimilitude: the appearance of being true or real

    15.  ineffable: inexpressible/ inexplicable

    16.  to assuage: to lessen the intensity of something

 

Weekend Word Puzzle (from NPR)

Time to play the word puzzle (created by Will Shortz) aired on NPR this last Sunday. Every answer to this puzzle is a word or name that has the accented syllable "lee" (in any spelling) somewhere inside it.

 

Example: Expungement --> DELETION

 

1. City in Ohio sometimes called "holy"

 

2. Supreme Court justice Samuel

 

3. Pledge of ___

 

4. Opposite of an atheist

 

5. Island off the coast of California

 

6. Resident of California's largest city

 

7. One-named "Queen of Tejano Music"

 

8. Italian film director Federico

 

9. Leonardo da Vinci painting (two words)

 

 

 

Answer Keys 

    1.  Toledo

    2.  Alito

    3.  Allegiance

    4.  Believer

    5.  Catalina

    6.  Angelino

    7.  Selena

    8.  Fellini

    9.  Mona Lisa

Idioms related to Fun, Joy, and Laughter

 

This week, let us learn about some expressions that are related to fun and joy. Find the proper expressions for each of the following blanks.

 

    1.   Are you inviting Eva to your birthday party? Sounds perfect! She is always the life and _____________ of the party.

 

    2.   Now that our Finals are over, why don’t we go and ____________ out today?

 

    3.   I can tell Janet is in her ____________ in the kitchen. She is such a wonderful cook who finds most of her pleasure in creating delectable dish!

 

    4.   I don’t get Melinda’s jokes. Most of the time, I ask her to give me the _____________ lines of her jokes.

 

    5.   Jeff has been staying cooped up in his house for the last couple of months. He wants to get outside and blow off the _______________ now.

 

    6.   Jean was thrilled to __________ when she won her age group at the trail running race 3 years ago.

 

    7.   Drew looked like a ____________ with two tails at the meeting this morning. He finally got promoted after all those years!

 

    8.   I used to see my mom in __________ and falling about laughing whenever she was watching the rehash of classic sitcom “I Love Lucy”.

 

    9.   (at a party) Oh, c’mon, Brian! Don’t be a wallflower. I want you to meet Rachel. She’s a ________________ of laughs.

 

    10.               Jessica was ______________ pink when she was offered the position of the manager in the financial team.

 

Answer Keys

    1.  soul

    2.  chill

    3.  element

    4.  punch

    5.  cobwebs  

    6.  bits

    7.  dog

    8.  stitches

    9.  barrel

    10.              tickled