Hello, guys. Welcome
back to www.engvid.com. Today we are going to be looking at
the words that you put stress on, and how they give a different
meaning to the sentence. So we're going to be looking at this one... Well, two
sentences, here, and how with different questions, I might put a different stress, more emphasis,
more volume, perhaps, on these particular words. And then over here, I'm going to be
looking at subtext. Yes, I'm saying words to you, but what am saying underneath? What am
I really saying to you? Okay? So I'm looking at how, by putting emphasis on one word, it can
change the entire meaning of the sentence. Something really quite
useful to hang onto, I hope. So, unfortunately, back home I have some
butter that has gone a little bit mad. Now, today, my aunt came to have tea. In Britain,
we have a cup of tea, and we have some toast, and maybe some scones. My aunt is a little hard
of hearing-okay?-so we need to repeat things, and I need to say things quite
loudly to her. So, my aunt said: "Benjamin, which butter's off?"
"Off" meaning bad, finished. And so, when she said: "Which
butter?" I need to tell her that it's this butter, not that butter.
"This butter's off", dear aunt. Okay? This butter. Okay? So when she's asking
which one it is, I emphasize: "This". Now, she was... My aunt, she was walking around
the kitchen and she'd heard me saying something about being off, so she said: "Benjamin, what's
off?" As in: What is off, what has gone bad? And I said: "It's the butter's gone off. The
butter's off." So when she's asking: What? Well, what is about a thing, she's asking
which thing. It's the butter which is bad, as well as the pen. Hey. Now, she didn't quite hear me, so she said:
"What's the matter with the butter?" And I said: "Well, the butter's off. It's gone bad.
It's off." Okay? So I emphasize "off", this is
what the matter is, it's off. My dear aunt, she stayed a
little bit longer in my flat today, and she heard me talking about my plans
for the evening a bit later. And she said: "Who's having dinner?" So I've got this sentence
here: "We're having dinner late tonight." So I said: "We're having dinner late tonight.",
"We're", me and my wife are having dinner. Okay? We are, we're, so I put the emphasis on
here to make it clear to her so she understands that it's me and...
Me and bond girl. -"What are you doing later?" -"We're
having... We're having dinner." -"What are you doing?" -"We're
having dinner." -"What? -"Dinner." -"What is it you're doing?" -"Dinner. We're
having dinner." Okay? So I make it clear. This is if I'm trying to make something really clear to
someone, I would emphasize these words like this. It's not always this obvious. You can do it just
a little bit. Let's try it with a little bit. So she says, my aunt, she says:
-"When are we having dinner?" -"We're having dinner late tonight, we're
having late." Late. Or I might even say: "Tonight. We're having
dinner late tonight", as in: "Don't forget it's today. Don't go
anywhere, aunty, it's tonight." Okay? So you can just change the meaning,
change the emphasis. Okay? Emphasis by putting stress on
a different word. Now, this is how to be mean, how to be a little
bit nasty. Okay. So, I've got this sentence, and I'm going to show you two different
meanings that I can get from it. So we've got: "She drives very carefully." Okay? I haven't put
any particular emphasis on any of the words. "She drives very carefully." But if I say:
"SHE drives very carefully." Okay? If I say: "SHE drives very carefully." I say that to my
wife and I'm talking about my aunt driving carefully, I'm saying: "She drives
very carefully." I'm kind of saying: "You don't drive very carefully." It's
she, it's her who drives carefully. Okay? So: "You don't
drive carefully." But if I'm talking about my dear aunt, and I
says... And I say: "She drives very CAREFULLY." Yeah? I might be being a
little bit sarcastic. You know? She's driving
so carefully that she won't go faster than 10 miles an hour.
She drives so carefully I feel like killing myself. Okay: "She drives too slowly." Okay?
If I put the emphasis on "carefully". Okay? Now, are we ready for this next bit? Are we
ready, guys? Let's go. I've got a phrase here: "You shouldn't have painted it." Okay?
It's a... It's a small criticism. "You shouldn't have painted it." But if I'm
saying: "YOU shouldn't have painted it." I'm saying that your painting is not good, so it should
have been handsome handyman who painted it. Okay? So you are not the person for this job; should
have been him. Okay? So I'm basically saying: "You're not so good at painting.
You're bad at painting." But if I say: "You shouldn't have PAINTED it." I'm saying: "How
stupid are you? You painted the wall. You should have put wallpaper up. Painting is not a good
decision in this case." Yeah? If I'm emphasizing the action to paint, I'm saying:
"Painting, this is really a bad idea." Guys, thank you so much for watching this
evening, or this morning, or this afternoon, or in the middle of the night. Go to bed!
What I'd like you to do now is quickly click on to www.engvid.com and try out a
little test, testing your knowledge of different connotations. I'm going to probably use
some new sentences to test you out. And if you find you're learning stuff from my videos, then
well, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel. Yeah? Hopefully you'll learn some
more by watching some more videos. Well done. Let's practice putting different
meanings into your words. Don't be late for bed, now. Okay? Bye.
