Everyday Grammar TV: What Is a Pessimist?

From the creator

Dr. J: Hi, John! John: Hi, Dr. Jill! Do you like to build things? [holds up toy blocks] Dr. J: Yes - although I have to say it has been a long time since I have played with toy blocks. John: I was thinking that these blocks can show us how to understand relationships of English words. Dr. J: How so? John: Well, let's take a common way to describe how people view the world. We might say a person is an optimist or a pessimist. Let's take the noun, “pessimist” - a person who expects the worst. Dr. J: Neither of us are pessimists! But there are definitely pessimists in the world. John: That's right. Let's see how we can use our blocks to show relationships between words. We can take the noun "pessimist" and add an -ic ending, like this: Then we get the adjective "pessimistic." Dr. J: I see. And then we can add an -ally ending to "pessimistic," This is how we arrive at the adverb "pessimistically." Dr. J: This example shows you one way that English speakers build upon words. But once you learn how words are connected, you can also study which words are more commonly used. John: Google's Ngram Viewer has data from many books. Dr. J: Ngram Viewer tells us that the adjective "pessimistic" is used more frequently than the noun "pessimist." John: We can also learn about which words are most commonly used before or after a word of interest. Dr. J: For example, Google's Ngram Viewer tells us that the article "a" is the most commonly used word before "pessimis

Published 2024-10-15 · Watch on YouTube ↗
Availability and playback restrictions are controlled by the original channel.