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!

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

My Thoughts on Cultures of Different Shapes & Colors

Are you a straight-up person who tends to show what’s on your mind just the way you feel most of the time? Or are you somewhat hiding your true feelings and rather like to beat around the bush in a conversation? There is nothing wrong with either way of attitude in life, and it is not right to say one is superior or inferior to the other. It is just what we are and how we feel.

 

I remember the discussion I had with my professor and friends in the course of Sociolinguistics. When I talked about how irritated I felt with some rude people who did not apologize when they happened to bump against others by mistake while hurrying in a busy street or at a crowded grocery market, one Chinese friend in the class told me that used to happen all the time in a lot of areas in China. She went on to say that it was just common that people did not say sorry probably because they felt too sorry to put the feelings in words. Hmm….that didn’t sound like making sense to me, but I knew it wasn’t the right move to ask why or how with other nations’ culture.  

 

Another interesting aspect that I came to learn about is that Indians do not touch someone else’s kids on the head even if they want to give the children some compliments on their adorability or their great achievements. They might think it is rude to touch someone else’s face or head even in good faith.

 

I also heard a Japanese friend saying that they had two-tier attitudes: One is called “honne” (本音) which refers to how they truly feel or want inside, and the other is “datemae”(建前) are their opinions or colors on the surface in public. She said that is why quite a lot of Japanese people were viewed as two-faced or not wanting to get straightforward in terms of expressing themselves in a conversation. Well, but my close friend who happens to be Japanese is always honest, letting her hair down and showing me her “honne” without anything zhuzed up. 😊   How could we ever generalize and criticize one country’s culture?

 

As we saw in the movie Dances with Wolves, there is no culture “less” or “inferior” or “much to be desired”. There is no such thing as comparison with tribes, races, ethnicities, or cultures. We are all living in harmony, agreeing to permeate into one another without one having to acculturate to the others.

 

(picture source: https://skillroads.com/blog/cross-cultural-interviewing-overcoming-cultural-differences)

Weekend Word Puzzle from NPR (aired on August 30th, 2020)

 Here’s another fun word puzzle by Will Shortz aired this last Sunday on NPR!

Every answer today is a made up two-word phrase in which you switch the first and third letters of the first word to get the second word.

Example: Trick that is certain to work --> Sure Ruse

 

1. Final bit of table seasoning

 

2. Dangerous dog along Rome's river

 

3. Dish of mashed-up food that costs one unit of Indian currency

 

4. Combination of fruits — one that's yellow and sour, the other that's large and has seeds

 

5. Metalworker with a torch who is more lascivious

 

6. One who raises a device for removing impurities

 

7. Highway marker made of a hard sedimentary rock

 

Answer Keys

1.  last salt

2.  tiber biter

3.  rupee puree

4.  lemon melon

5.  lewder welder

6.  filter lifter

7.  limestone milestone