Learn 20 high-frequency expressions, including words for technology and types of schools
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| In this video, you'll learn 20 of the most common words and phrases in English. |
| Hi everybody, my name is Alisha. |
| Welcome to The 800 Core English Words and Phrases video series! |
| This series will teach you the eight hundred most common words and phrases in English. |
| Ok! Let's get started! First is… |
| 1. "mustache" |
| A mustache is a facial hairstyle. So many men like to wear a mustache that refers to hair on the top lip. |
| "Your mustache looks good." |
| 2. "washing machine" |
| A washing machine is a machine we use to wash something; but specifically, a washing machine is used to wash our clothes. |
| "I use the washing machine to keep my clothes clean." |
| 3. "DVD player" |
| A DVD player is a machine you can use to play DVD movies. |
| A long time ago, we had a DVD player machine in our house near the TV, but now we typically use computers with DVD player options. |
| "The DVD player is a device that can play DVDs." |
| 4. "fan" |
| A fan is some kind of machine that blows air. |
| You might also see “fan” used to talk about an object that we use, we wave in front of our face to blow air, we use the same word for both of these. |
| "It's too hot, can we turn on the fan?" |
| 5. "air conditioner" |
| An air conditioner is a machine that creates cold air. So this is different from a fan. |
| "Air conditioner" is quite long so we usually just say "AC." |
| "On a hot summer day, the air conditioner works all day to keep us cool." |
| 6. "stove" |
| A stove is something you find in the kitchen. |
| There are parts on the stove that you can set a pot or a kettle on and the object will become warm. You might have a gas stove or a fire stove or an electric stove in your home. |
| "The kettle is on the stove." |
| 7. "elementary school" |
| Elementary school is the first step in formal education. Kids in the USA start attending elementary school at around four or five years of age. |
| "When is she going to elementary school?" |
| 8 "middle school" |
| Middle school is the next step in education after elementary school. You might also hear middle school called junior high school. |
| "My twelve-year-old brother goes to middle school." |
| 9. "high school" |
| After elementary school and middle school, comes high school. High school in the USA is four years long. |
| "High school was the best time of my life." |
| 10. "university" |
| University is education students can attend after high school, it's not required. |
| University and college are often used in the same way interchangeably; the difference is that a university offers courses after a four-year course of study, a college offers just four years, an undergraduate degree. |
| "She is a university student." |
| 11. "principal" |
| A principal is like the leader of a school. We use principle for elementary school, middle school, and high school; we do not use this for university. |
| Also, please note the spelling of this word - principal, when used to talk about the top position at a school is spelled in this way. |
| "My grandfather used to be a principal." |
| 12. "bright" |
| Bright has a couple different uses; we can use bright to refer to something that has a lot of light and we can use it to talk about someone who is very smart and learns things easily. |
| Now, let's focus on the meaning of something that has a lot of light. |
| "My room is very bright." |
| 13. "laptop computer" |
| A laptop computer is a computer that we can take with us. So we usually think of this as something that is mobile and portable, and if you want to, you can use it on top of your lap, on top of your legs. |
| We typically just say "laptop" instead of "laptop computer." |
| "I bought a new laptop computer." |
| 14. "mouse" |
| A mouse is computer machinery. Yes, there is an animal called a mouse but we use this word to talk about the device we use to navigate, to move the arrow, or to click around on our computer. |
| "A wireless mouse is very convenient." |
| 15. "speaker" |
| A speaker is something that produces sound, it's a machine. |
| We can have a small speaker on our computer or our mobile phone, or we can have a large speaker like you might find at a concert hall. |
| "This factory manufactures speakers." |
| 16. "webcam" |
| A webcam is a camera that is connected to your computer that allows you to do video calls or video conferences. |
| "My webcam is not working." |
| 17. "microphone" |
| A microphone is a small machine that we use to pick up sound clearly. I'm wearing a microphone for today's video. We typically say "mic" because "microphone" is a long word. |
| "My computer has an internal microphone." |
| 18. "desktop computer" |
| A desktop computer is like the opposite of a laptop computer; we typically don't move our desktop computer according to the location we are working in that day; rather, you can imagine desktop referring to a computer you use on top of your desk. We typically just say "desktop" though, not "desktop computer." |
| "I have two computers: a laptop computer and a desktop computer." |
| 19. "chili pepper" |
| A chili pepper is a type of pepper that is very spicy or it's very hot. So you might hear people just say chili to refer to these. |
| "I don't like chili peppers." |
| 20. "corn" |
| Corn is a very common food; it's usually bright yellow in color and depending on the place where you're in, you might eat it with butter, you might eat it with different seasonings, you might eat it on the cob, which is the original shape the corn comes in, you might also have the corn off the cob, too. |
| "I like steamed corn." |
| Well done! In this lesson, you expanded your vocabulary and learned 20 new useful words. |
| See you next time! Bye! |
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