ENGLISH with James · engVid data: Get insights and analysis on the ENGLISH with James

AFFECT or EFFECT? Infer or Imply? Sympathy or Empathy?

4 February 2025

Do you have sympathy for someone or empathy? Did the medicine have an affect on you, or an effect? Did the world leader infer that he was going to attack or imply it? Don’t worry, even many native English speakers get these wrong! In this class, I’ll explain three of the most commonly misused word pairs in English and show you simple tricks to remember the correct meanings and usage. Stop making these mistakes, sound more confident, and have fun with the language. Perfect for intermediate and advanced English learners who want to polish up their vocabulary! Watch now and never misuse these words again. https://www.engvid.com/affect-effect-infer-imply-sympathy-empathy/

More of my vocabulary lessons:
Improve Your Vocabulary: 8 Words for Intermediate English Learners https://youtu.be/Aa7f_NdYNqs
7 Ways to Master Vocabulary https://youtu.be/r9BQLR-08Ic

In this lesson:
0:00 3 Pairs of Confusing Words
1:20 "affect" or "effect"?
3:49 "sympathy" or "empathy"?
10:37 "imply" or "infer"?

TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, that or this?
First of all, it's "this" or "that".
Hi.
James from engVid.
He's doing a common mistake called a "malapropism".
What?
Malapropism?
Don't worry.
I don't know what it means either.
It means...
Really?
It means word confusion.
It's when we use the wrong word in a different situation.
In this case-right?-so you don't need to know the big word "malapropism", just know that
you're using a word that you think means this, but it may not.
And that could be for a variety of reasons.
It can be because it's a homophone, which means it sounds the same, but when you write
it down, they look different.
Or it can actually have a different meaning, even though they kind of look the same.
Right?
So, today I have chosen six words, and we're calling them pairs because usually the person
will make the mistake thinking one word means the other.
But I'm going to try and show you in a way that you won't make that mistake.
Okay?
And to make this lesson fun, because learning English is hard, and you're here to work,
but there's no reason you can't have a little fun, I'm going to throw in a fun fact for
you to help you remember these things.
Are you ready?
Let's go to the board.
You might notice the first one says "action verb", something is changing or making a difference,
versus "Batman v Superman".
We know who won that one, right?
Versus "what you get in the end".
This is a commonly confused pair of words, with even native speakers making this mistake,
because they sound very similar, it's a slight difference in pronunciation, but how you're
supposed to use them is very different.
Okay?
And the first difference we can see is one is a verb and one is a noun.
Okay?
And I'm going to put it here and I'm going to help you with it, because it's going to
start with "a", and this is "effect".
When you use this word, you want to show a difference or a change.
So, if someone's using "medicine", for instance, you would say "How is the medicine affecting
them?
What change is happening because they're taking the medicine?"
And I've done "a" and "a" so you can remember, think of a verb and think of an action, that's
what's happening when you get an effect.
Now, what about the other word that people confuse it?
Ah, they almost look so much the same, that's the problem, and that's "effect".
When we talk about the effect of something, we talk about the end result.
What was the end?
So, we say "How is the medicine affecting Victoria?"
And you can say "The effect was she lost her foot."
That's the end.
Do-do-dum-dum-psh.
Another nice ending, but that's the effect, and we can remember that by looking at the
letter "e" for "effect".
So, if you want to talk about the end result of something, use "effect", which is a noun,
but when you want to talk about the action of something, how it's changing, use "affect"
with the "a".
All right.
I already know some of you guys out there, you keyboard warriors, "James, there's time
so 'effect' can be a verb, too, and you're forgetting 'affect' as a noun, which is a
psychological..."
I don't care.
I talk...
I'm talking about how we normally use it, and I just told you I know.
Okay?
Okay.
But that's not for this lesson.
I'm talking about, basically, how it's used and misused.
And as long as we can remember, I think ending for "effect" and "affect" with "action", you're
going to beat most native speakers.
Cool?
All right.
All right.
The next one I'm going to talk about is this one.
"The subject can see the pain in the other person and feel sorry for them", versus...
I feel like I'm in a Tyson fight.
I wouldn't be in a Tyson fight if he...
He out.
He didn't even fight.
He's leaving.
He doesn't want to die.
Sorry.
Serious.
Okay.
Okay.
The next one is "to experience the emotions of another person". […]

The Expectation Effect: 3 Mental Methods to Learn English Faster

15 January 2025

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Want to learn English more effectively? Today we’re exploring “The Expectation Effect” by David Robson and discovering three powerful mental techniques that can transform your English learning journey. You’ll learn how to create empowering study rituals, use mental rehearsal to accelerate your progress, and build unstoppable willpower for language learning. Perfect for students who feel stuck in their English studies or want to break through to the next level. Learn how top performers like Serena Williams use these same techniques to achieve excellence, and how you can apply them to master English, and master it faster. https://www.engvid.com/the-expectation-effect-3-mental-methods-to-learn-english-faster/

More of my videos about improving your learning skills:
How to stay motivated to learn https://youtu.be/LzhvbQhO6uk
5 ways meditation will help you learn https://youtu.be/5OzqpVBGnLY

In this lesson:
0:00 3 Rules for Learning More Effectively
1:49 Ritual: Rinse & Repeat
6:44 Rehearsal: Mental Practice
10:50 Reinforce: Willpower & Focus

TRANSCRIPT:
The Expection... "Expection"? "Expectation Effect". Oh, hi. James from engVid. Oh, yeah. We're doing a new segment. It's a book review. These are books that I want to give you that are going to help you learn better, so you become effective and efficient at learning.

The first book I would like to show you is this one, "The Expectation Effect" by a guy named David Robertson. Okay? So, this book is going to teach us a... Change our mindset so we can learn well, because after all, we all don't have a lot of time, and if you're going to spend it learning English, you want to make sure you get the most out of your time. Right?

So, I'm going to go over the three main ideas that I thought were important that will help you speed up your learning, but also make it an enjoyable process, because after all, I know you're here to work hard, but you don't want to feel like it's hard work. And once you use these techniques, we'll use them to help us learn English, so by learning English you'll know they work, but you'll also be able to use them for other things that you want to study. Anyway, enough talk. Let's go to the board. I have three words, but before I go there, I want to show you this thing, "The Expectation Effect". That's the book. All right? And I said it's by David Robertson... Robson. And you'll notice that Mr. E seems to be eating his tail. This is an old, old symbol. I like it because I like to think of it as eternal renewal, and what that means is you're forever making yourself better. So, it's a cycle that goes up and up, and that's what we really want when we learn skills, that each skill we learn makes us better and better people; in this case, better and better learners.

In my opinion, from what I took from the book, there are three main ideas that they try and start with, and the first one I want to talk about is Serena Williams. Now, if you watch tennis, you'll know she's been a champion for a long time, and I can't remember exactly, but I believe before she starts a match, she bounces the ball once, two, three, four, and then she hits. Well, she does that for almost every single match, and there's a guy named Rafael Nadal, he takes a cold shower before he does his matches. Every match. Now, when you do something... I want to say the word "precursor", I know it's a long word, but you do something before you do something else. So in doing it, like when you go in the shower, you take off your clothes. When you do that, you know, okay, now I'm going to go in the shower. And you do that every time before you start it, we can say it's a ritual. Some people have a ritual of they get up in the morning, they go to the washroom, and pee-pee. Some people get out of bed and go right downstairs and get a special coffee and make coffee. Delicious. Some people say a prayer. I don't know what your ritual is to start your day, but you know that when you're not able to do it, it makes the day harder. Why am I telling you this? Well, a lot of times when you start studying English, you actually just sit down, open the books, and then you go, "Oh god, I've got to study, it's so hard." If you think about the rituals I talked about, you do them to wake you up and get you ready. Now, in the book, The Expectation Effect, he talks about people who have rituals and they know that these rituals are specifically to help them do something, play sports, study, which is what we're doing, you know, or prepare for our hard speech. The ritual helps to get them energized and ready to go. It actually activates their brain to get your brain, what we call "primed", being ready to do its best work. I would like you to think about what ritual you can do. When I do this, I'm going to say "rinse" and "repeat". […]

Advanced English: 5 Idioms with Unexpected Histories

27 December 2024

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Learn the real meanings and origins of 5 common English idioms, like “blood is thicker than water” and “curiosity killed the cat.” Learn how the idioms and their meanings have changed over time and how you can use these surprising facts to start engaging conversations. Perfect for intermediate and advanced learners who want to sound smarter in English. Watch, learn, and impress your friends with these fascinating idiom facts! Then take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/advanced-english-5-idioms-with-unexpected-histories/

More of my videos that will help you have better conversations:
Conversation skills: 5 questions to make you the most interesting person in the room https://youtu.be/hOXNssFPEnM
3 keys to small talk https://youtu.be/gbfV0b8Tn0A

In this lesson:
0:00 5 Idioms that mean the OPPOSITE of what they used to!
1:42 "Blood is thicker than water."
5:24 "a few bad apples"
7:08 "Jack of all trades, master of none"
9:47 "Great minds think alike."
12:37 "Curiosity killed the cat."
15:07 Review

TRANSCRIPT:

[Humming] E! What's confusing you? Oh, hi. James from engVid. Listen. E. wants to do this lesson with you, and it's kind of interesting. Because a lot of times, you'll do idioms. People will teach you idioms, right. But he has an idea where we can use idioms as conversation starters. Now how would we do this? Because everybody knows the idioms, right? "It's raining like cats and dogs." How do you start a conversation like that? You can't, really. If it's raining, they're going to go, "Duh, yeah, it's raining."

But what happens if we gave you five idioms that people probably don't know the total idiom? Because it's been changed through time. And with that change through time, sometimes it means the exact opposite of what they're using it for. And that is a cool conversation starter. You have a depth of knowledge that you can share with someone else.

So I'm going to give you the first one when we go to the board. Now, I'm going to give you the idiom as it's supposed to be, okay? But then I'm going to write what people say, so you can see the difference between what is said and what it used to be, and then we can quickly discuss why it might be the opposite or it has greater information that's given, and you'll see people go, "Hmm. I never knew that." And that makes you look smart. And that's what we want. Not that you're smart. That people take interest in you because you can bring something new to them. So let's go to the board, shall we?

Okay, so here is some blood. I know, not pretty, but some blood, and there's some water causing ripples. So we got blood and water. Why am I showing that? Well, in Western society, specifically North American and, you know, English society, or, you know, England, the island, the British Isles, they love to say this particular idiom. However, this was the original. "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the room, the room, the womb." A womb is like a room, but not really. Okay, so a lot of complicated language here. So you might be like, "What the heck?" Well, when you have a covenant, it's sort of people coming together and making a vow or a promise to each other to be like brothers. Right? So you say, "You are like my brother, and I'm your brother. We will work together." It's a covenant. It's the agreement we make with each other. We are not related. Right? So we make an agreement with each other to work as family. Okay? But this is something you find and you choose. This is the important part. Right? Now, when you look at "water of the womb", I've gained a bit of weight, so just leave me alone. Okay? I'm not going on Ozempic, whatever. The womb is when a woman is pregnant, she has a big belly. Okay? Well, you're inside of that. And when you're inside the womb, you share your mother's water, because it's water. So what this is saying, "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb", is kind of true, because blood is... got more stuff in it than water. But the idea is the friends that you make... the friends that you make and the people you call that you decide to be your family actually have a stronger connection for you and are better than the water of the womb than family you have. So it's not just your mother. But they're saying if you have family that you were born into, and you have family that you have created, decided to create through people from work or friends that you have met, those bonds are stronger and they should be stronger, because you decided to make them. When you were born into a family, you were just born into it. But when you make a decision, you've consciously thought about it, so they probably share more of your values. Yeah? Cool?

Well, here's the funny thing. [Clears throat] The saying today is this. "Blood is thicker than water". Now, we know blood is thicker than water, but they've changed it to mean that family […]

Listening, Vocabulary, Comprehension: Learn Advanced Words with a Story

10 December 2024

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Listening + Vocabulary = Comprehension. Listen to a short detective story featuring 7 advanced English words like “ambiguous”, “albeit”, and “inevitable.” First, listen to the story and try to follow along. Then, learn the meanings of these challenging words with practical examples. Next, you’ll listen to the story again to see how your comprehension has improved. Finally, do a quiz to really test yourself. Perfect for intermediate and advanced learners who want to level up their English skills! Grab your pen and paper, and let’s start the journey to mastering advanced vocabulary. https://www.engvid.com/learn-7-advanced-english-words-through-storytelling/

More of my "Listening, Vocabulary, Comprehension" videos:
7 Advanced Words - "pragmatic", "eloquent", "ubiquitous" & more https://youtu.be/uuoxvt81rjA
8 English Expressions https://youtu.be/LnAUN66IQgw

In this lesson:
0:00 Listening, Vocabulary, Comprehension: 7 Advanced Words
1:38 Listening Comprehension
2:30 Learn the vocabulary
3:24 ambiguous
4:37 albeit
6:07 unconventional
8:04 conjecture
9:46 profound
12:10 implication
15:57 inevitable
18:18 Listening Comprehension
19:10 Quiz

TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, how's it going?
You like my Batman cuffs?
Sweetheart.
Hey.
Hi.
James from EngVid.
What's...
What's going on here?
Why is the board empty?
Oh.
Guys, you're in for a treat.
This lesson is what we call an LVC lesson.
What's going to happen in this lesson is you notice there's nothing on the board right
now, but soon we'll have the board filled with information to help you.
LVC stands for "listening", "vocabulary", and "comprehension".
What's going to occur here is I'm going to read you a story, I'm going to click my fingers,
and then we're going to take seven words of vocabulary that you probably don't know, teach
you what they mean, listen one more time to make sure you've got comprehension with these
new words to understand the story you're being told, and then we'll have a very quick
quiz to check that comprehension.
It's a complete lesson, you'll enjoy it, so I'm going to ask you right now to please grab
a pen and paper because you're going to want to take notes on this one.
You might have to listen to it a couple times, but I promise you from the ones we've done
before, a lot of people go from "I didn't understand" to "I 100% understand the story"
and have a greater appreciation for vocabulary and the words we're teaching.
So, get your pen, get your paper, get comfortable, and get ready for the story.
Meanwhile, at the police headquarters, the captain was getting more and more angry, trying
to understand the ambiguous text message left by Detective E, who was at the crime scene.
E was a good detective, albeit a little unconventional for being a cop.
This made the other cops make assumptions about the quality of his work.
But Detective E had the profound ability to make the right decisions which would have
great implications on finding and arresting criminals.
It was inevitable that Detective E and the captain were going to get into a big argument
about how Detective E worked on this case.
The captain thought out loud.
Okay, so now you've heard the story, I know you're probably really confused.
And your confusion is understandable because to understand something, whether you're reading it,
or as if you're reading it, or you're listening to it, you need to understand at least 90% of
the words, I'd say 80 to 90, to comprehend or understand what's being said.
Once you get past the 80%, you know, 70, 60, you basically don't understand what's going on.
It's a shame, but I'm going to help correct that by teaching you the seven words I picked
on purpose to make it difficult for you so that you can understand the story when we
read it again and when we do the quiz.
Are you ready?
Let's go to the board.
Now, I have some examples here I'm reading from because it is a hard story for you and for me.
Let's go for the first word.
So, the first word you heard was "ambiguous".
The simple meaning of "ambiguous" is something is not clear.
Right?
So it's not easy to understand, it's not clear.
Other words people will use for "not clear" are "vague" and "unclear", "unclear".
Why is this word important to go from intermediate to advanced?
Well, it helps you recognize that you could have more than one meaning in a word.
When something's ambiguous, it could mean this or it could mean that.
It's not clear so you can't say, "Oh, it's absolutely five."
It could be five or six.
For example, when I say...
Well, let me give you a really good example.
"Marty's ambiguous response made me think there was more going on."
So, instead of saying, "Hey, I'm going to come to the party for sure",
they say, "It sounds like a good idea."
Well, is that yes or no?
That's ambiguous, you haven't said it.
[…]

Expand Your Vocabulary: Say More Than “HAPPY” & “SAD”

16 November 2024

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How do you feel? “Happy?” “Bored?” How about using words that are more precise and expressive? You’ll be sharing more of who you are when you speak, and you’ll sound smarter, too! In this vocabulary class, you’ll learn 11 words you can use to describe how you feel more accurately. We’ll talk about words like “delighted”, “ecstatic”, “grateful”, “content”, “frustrated”, “fed up”, “depressed”, and more. Learn these words and try to make sure to use them yourself when it makes sense. Express yourself with a rainbow of words! https://www.engvid.com/expand-your-vocabulary-say-more-than-happy-sad/

Keep expanding your vocabulary with these videos:
Improve Your Vocabulary: Stop Saying "Bad" https://youtu.be/dM_1lc32SsI
Improve Your Vocabulary: Stop Saying "Sorry" https://youtu.be/Vf0on6KQP2Y

In this lesson:
0:00 11 words to use instead of "happy" & "sad"
0:56 content
2:07 grateful
3:18 delighted
5:17 ecstatic
7:59 discontent
9:11 fed up & sick and tired
9:36 frustrated
11:00 depressed
12:43 confused & mixed up

TRANSCRIPT:
If I was the richest man in Babylon, if I was the richest man in...
Hi.
James from engVid, reading a book about being the richest person.
I have feelings about that; I'm sure you do.
Some of you will say, "I'm happy.
I would be very happy.
I'd be extremely happy."
Hmm.
Well, that's kind of limited.
Some people also say "sad" or "tired" or "bored", and I want to give you a rainbow
of words to use to express how you feel, because learning a language is great, but
being able to express yourself is even better.
So I want to do a lesson today, or Ian and I want to, on how you feel, and I'm going
to try to introduce to you other words that can help you express your emotions so people
can really know you.
Cool?
And besides, you'll sound smarter, too.
Let's go to the board.
The first one we're looking at is "peaceful" and "satisfied".
You probably don't know this word, but it's a word you've seen many times for different
reasons, and it means, you know, you're generally happy.
Everything's kind of going okay for you.
Now, this word is "content".
You've probably seen it before, like "contents of the bottle", "content this and that",
but it just means you're content because if you were a bottle, everything is okay.
Imagine a bottle of Coke, if you shake it, it explodes.
Right?
The contents, what's inside comes out, explodes.
But if you keep it just nice and, oh, calm, the contents stay stable, nice, little bubbles
floating up.
It's very pretty to look at.
That's you when you're content, sitting at home, watching a soccer game with a beer,
or a Coke and a piece of pizza with your favourite friend, content.
But let's move it up a notch.
You're content, which is great, but you know what makes me feel better?
When someone does something nice for me.
Right?
Or you do something nice for someone else.
You get a feeling, a different feeling than content, because it makes you a little bit
happier because you're not just happy because you're happy, you're happy because another
person has come into your life, or you've gone into their life, and you've given them
something to make them happy.
When that happens, you get to be grateful.
It's like saying "thank you", but in your heart you feel the thank you.
So you're grateful if someone makes a meal for you and you're sick.
You're sick, you've got to take care of yourself, your mother makes some soup for you, or your
dad makes some bread for you and brings it to you, you're like, "Oh, thank you, I needed
it so badly.
You did it for me."
And that is a step above being content, because content is just happy with yourself.
Now you're happy because someone has done something for you.
Isn't that cool?
Right?
Grateful.
And if you look at our picture, I almost forgot, this is the good side.
There's always a bad side.
Okay.
So...
Okay.
Now, what could be better than being grateful and, you know, being content?
Do you remember I said when you're content it's about you or I, right?
And I got too excited and I put an extra "I" in there.
Okay?
It's not always about me and I.
Right?
But let's move down to number three.
Something has happened that gives you great pleasure.
Right?
What would that be?
Well, when you feel good, it's kind of funny, you feel light.
Right?
You feel light.
You feel like there's no weight on your shoulders, everything feels good.
You feel like you could just fly away, it feels so good.
Right?
So, I like this word because "delighted".
And you can use it in so many ways.
If your friend comes over to your house or says, you know, "I'm coming to Toronto, I
want to visit you", you say, "I would be delighted, that would make me feel so good, it would
make my heart just sing and raise up" […]