The Fearless Fluency Club: Grammar [0:00] Vanessa: Hi, and welcome to this month's grammar lesson in the Fearless Fluency Club Today we're going to be talking about a word that's going to help to make your sentence structure and your grammatical sentences more complex So, I hope that you'll be able to integrate it into your daily conversation and you'll also be able to understand exactly what native speakers mean when they use it The word is even, even So, to start of this lesson, I'm going to give you two test sentences and I want you to guess which one is the most correct We haven't talked about this yet, so just look into your heart and just guess, which one you think is the most correct? The first sentence is, this lesson is even more interesting than I thought This lesson is even more interesting than I thought The second sentence is, this lesson is even less interesting than I thought This lesson is even less interesting than I thought So, the main difference between these two sentences is the word ‘more’ and the word ‘less.’ The word ‘even’ is present in both sentences, so I want you to choose, which one you think is the most correct? Take a moment Look inside your mind Look inside your heart and I'm going to tell you the correct answer in three, two, one It is… Actually, this was a trick question Both of these sentences are grammatically correct, but I hope that the first sentence, this lesson is even more interesting than I thought, I hope that this sentence will be true for you I hope that this lesson will be interesting to you Maybe at the beginning of this lesson right now, maybe you're thinking, "I'm not a big fan of grammar I don't know if this lesson will be interesting to me," so I hope that this lesson surprises you I hope that it is even more interesting than you thought originally All right Let's get started with how to use the word ‘even.’ The first way to use the word ‘even’ is I think one of the most common ways to use it, and that is for an unexpected or surprising situation If you've been following my lessons for a while, you know that I don't drink coffee In fact, I'm not a big fan of coffee at all I don't like coffee even with sugar The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [2:19] So, here in this sentence, I'm letting you know that I don't like coffee in any circumstance, not with milk, not with sugar, but a lot of people who don't like coffee, they like coffee with sugar So, I'm telling you something surprising I don't like coffee with milk I don't like coffee with sugar I don't like coffee at all So, you might be a little bit surprised about this You might think, "Vanessa, you don't like coffee even with sugar?" We're following the word even with something surprising, even with sugar, because most people if you add sugar, they'll like it It tastes sweeter, but I don't, so here you're shocked You're surprised You're encountering some kind of new information "Even with sugar?" I just mentioned that we usually add the word ‘even’ before the part of the sentence that's surprising, "Even sugar." So, let's take a look at a couple other examples because you can add the word ‘even’ at the beginning, the middle, the end, and depending on what it is in front of, the meaning's going to be a little bit different So, let's take a sample sentence about meat You might say, "I thought everyone liked meat, but he doesn't like meat, even steak." We're kind of imagining that steak is the tastiest, the most delicious type of meat, so you're shocked that he doesn't like steak Okay, maybe he doesn't like fish or pork or chicken, but you're shocked, even steak Whoa, this is the shocking event in the sentence, "Even steak." What if we put the word ‘even’ in a different place in the sentence? It's going to mean something a little bit different Let's imagine that Dan, my husband, loves all food He is a big fan of food and in fact it's quite true He likes all different kinds of food, but there might be a shocking or surprising situation that arises You might say, "I thought that everyone liked my chocolate cake." This means that I recently made a chocolate cake and I thought it was great I thought that everyone would like it So, you could say, "I thought that everyone liked my chocolate cake, but even Dan didn't like it." Here, we have our key word ‘even’ in front of ‘Dan.’ So, why is Dan shocking or surprising in this situation? We're not putting it front of ‘meat’ like the previous sentence or ‘sugar’ like the sentence before that We're putting it in front of a person Even Dan didn't like my chocolate cake Well, it's surprising because we expect that everyone will like the chocolate cake, but in reality, the chocolate cake was so bad that someone who loves all food, he said that it was terrible He didn't eat it and we expect that probably Dan will eat it Maybe other people won't eat it, but he likes everything, so I know, I am The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [5:25] certain that he will eat it, but when even Dan doesn't eat it, we know it's pretty bad So, here, we're putting the word ‘even’ in front of that shocking part, "Even Dan didn't eat it." Let's take a look at how you can use even in a negative sentence Let's imagine that you're moving to a new apartment and you're moving all your stuff in It's kind of a big deal You feel a little bit stressed and you expect that your family will call you to check up on you to see how you're doing, but it has been a couple days and no one has called you, not even your mom Here, we're using even, but this is a negative sentence, not even, "Not even your mom." So, like before, mom is that surprising part, but what does this mean when we're using it in a negative way? Well, we can imagine that you have a good relationship with your family, but you don't really expect your dad to call, your sister to call, your uncle to call, but you definitely have an expectation that your mom will call You know, you are certain that your mom will call you to check up on you to see how you're doing So, you're most shocked, you're most surprised that your mom hasn't called you yet, so you are making a beautiful negative sentence and saying, "My family hasn't called me, not even my mom I hope that they're okay Why hasn't she called me? Maybe the rest of my family won't call, but I expect that at least my mom will, so why hasn't she?" Great We're using the word ‘not’ in front of ‘even.’ Someone has not done something, so we're using a negative word, "Not even my mom has called me." Now we're going to go on and take a look at four sentences from the conversation with Lana where she uses the word ‘even.’ I'm going to give a quick explanation and then we're going to watch the clip and then I'll give another quick explanation, and we'll watch the next clip So, I hope that you'll be able to see and you'll be able to hear how it was used because I know that Lana speaks really quickly, so I hope that it will help you to just feel more comfortable understanding her when you can pick out those words that she says So, in her first sentence she says, "I didn't get my ears pierced even, not until I was 13 or 14 or 15 years old." I didn't get my ears pierced even Why did she use the word ‘even’? What's the shocking piece of information here? Well, after the word even, she mentions the age that she got her ears pierced In the US, it's not unusual to get your ears pierced as an elementary school student The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [8:02] For example, my sister was five when she got her ears pierced She really wanted to have it done and my mom made sure that she was responsible before she got her ears pierced I think she had to clean her room for one month and not miss a day and be really responsible, and then she got her ears pierced She loved it This is pretty common, even though she was five years old, but Lana didn't get her ears pierced until she was a teenager This is surprising because she has a lot of piercings now and a lot of tattoos, so we expect that she would get her ears pierced much younger, maybe as an elementary school student because she really wanted that So, she's presenting us with some shocking information "I didn't get my ears pierced even, not until I was 14 years old." Oh, interesting There's something surprising and she's letting us know that she didn't start this journey of tattoos and piercings until she was a teenager, until a little bit later in her life Let's watch this clip so that you can hear accurately how she used the word ‘even.’ Lana: I didn't get my ears pierced even until I was I think 14 or 15 years old Vanessa: Oh yeah? Lana: I didn't get my ears pierced even until I was I think 14 or 15 years old Vanessa: Oh yeah? In Lana's second sentence, she says, "I look at my tattoos and even the ones that I don't really like, I appreciate them." What's the surprising part in this sentence? "Even the ones that I don't really like, I appreciate them." For me, I would expect that if I had a tattoo on my body that I didn't like, I would hate it I would be so upset because it's there forever This is my expectation, but she's showing us some kind of surprising revelation that the ones that she doesn't like, she can still appreciate it She's trying to find some positive outcome for the tattoos that she doesn't really like anymore So, she says, "Even the ones that I don't really like." That's our shocking piece of information All right, let's watch this clip Lana: A lot of my tattoos I got and I love them and I look at them every day and I enjoy them, and even the ones that I don't really like, I still look at them and I'm like, "At least that was this part of what I had," and that's what they are They're like tiny little memories The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [10:13] A lot of my tattoos I got and I love them and I look at them every day and I enjoy them, and even the ones that I don't really like, I still look at them and I'm like, "At least that was this part of what I had," and that's what they are They're like tiny little memories Vanessa: In Lana's third sentence, she says, "And you even have to take out your earrings." And you even have to take out your earrings What's coming after the word even? Take out your earrings She's talking about going to the dentist and she said that at the dentist, she has to take out her facial piercings, but she's also showing us something a little bit surprising She says that even her earrings, she needs to take out They don't seem to be in the way of the x-ray, but she's showing us that actually, they are A lot of people have earrings, so this is something that at least for me, I've never thought about, but she's saying, "Yes, this affects you, too If you wear earrings, you need to take them out before you get an x-ray at the dentist." So, she's showing us some kind of surprising information Even your earrings you need to take out This is a basic piercing, but you have to take it out as well, not just your facial piercings, but also your earrings All right Let's listen to her say this sentence Lana: You're even supposed to take the ones out from your ears because it's in your jaw line You're even supposed to take the ones out from your ears because it's in your jaw line Vanessa: In Lana's fourth sentence where she uses the word ‘even,’ she's talking about her terrible foot tattoo experience She said that it was her most painful tattoo experience and she said that the tattoo artist had to tape down her foot I asked her, "Did he have to tape it down because you just couldn't stop moving your foot? It was so painful, you were moving your foot?" She said he taped it down but it wasn't even because it was painful He taped it down because her foot was involuntarily moving It was moving without her doing it Just the nerve was moving So, of course it was painful, but she's saying that the tape wasn't because she was moving her foot Her foot was moving by itself That sounds like a terrible nightmare experience to me I'm so glad that I have not experienced this, but the reason why she uses the word ‘even’ is because she is saying, "Yes, it was painful, but the tape was not for that reason." The tape was for another reason that is a little bit surprising Actually, her body's biology was The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [12:43] saying, "Your foot is moving so much that we need some tape." Her mind was not doing that consciously It was doing it unconsciously So, this sentence is a little bit more complex, but she's still revealing some kind of surprising information that the pain wasn't moving her foot It wasn't even because it was painful It was because of the nerves in her foot There's a lot going on here, so let's watch the clip to see when she says the word ‘even’ to talk about her terrible foot tattoo Lana: It wasn't even because it was It was super painful, but there's so many nerves in your foot that my foot just kept doing like, "Eh, eh, eh," and he's sitting there and he's like, "I'm just going to," and he just tapes it to the thing It wasn't even because it was It was super painful, but there's so many nerves in your foot that my foot just kept doing like, "Eh, eh, eh," and he's sitting there and he's like, "I'm just going to," and he just tapes it to the thing Vanessa: All right The second way to use the word ‘even’ is similar but slightly different We're still talking about something that's surprising or shocking, some kind of new information but we're going to be using it in a comparison So, let me give you a quick example Let's imagine that I have a really old car Maybe it's 30 years old Well, you could say, "My car is old, but his car is even older." So, in this sentence, his sentence is 40 years old We're saying that it's shocking that my car is 30 years old and it's still running, but his car is even older The word that we're using here is ‘older.’ That's a comparison word The root word is ‘old’ and we're adding ER to make it a comparison Old, older, or we could use tall, taller, blue, bluer, big, bigger, or if you're using a longer word, we could add ‘more,’ more interesting, more exciting, more amazing, or we could make a negative, less interesting, less amazing, less delicious These are comparison words and we're going to be adding the word ‘even’ in front of it So, let's take a look at a couple other examples Let's say that your brother has been talking all day about how hungry he is and he keeps saying, "I can't wait for dinner I can't wait for dinner I'm so hungry," so you expect, you have an expectation that he is extremely hungry When your family goes to a restaurant that night, you expect that he's going to eat more than you because he's been talking about how hungry he is all day, but really, when you get your dinner, he eats one steak, one potato, one salad, and you eat two steaks, two potatoes, two salads The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [15:24] How can we make a sentence using the word ‘even’ here? We might say, "I thought he was hungry, but I was even hungrier than he was." Even hungrier So, here we're using the comparison word hungrier The root word is hungry We're showing something surprising You expect that he's going to eat more, but you're surprised that, "Oh, I was hungrier than I thought I was even hungrier than him." So, in these sentences, we could always just leave out the word ‘even,’ but if you want to emphasize that this is something surprising, great You can add the word even "I was even hungrier than him His car was even older than my car." Beautiful I think in school, we've all been in these situations where you have a test the next day and you need to study, but you are incredibly tired So, in this situation, you might say, "Well, I need to sleep but studying is even more important." You're weighing two options and even though you're extremely tired, you're saying, "Well, studying is even more important." It's a little bit surprising because everyone can see that you are so tired, but in fact, you're deciding studying is even more important That's a great sentence Our comparison is more important, and you're just emphasizing that kind of surprising information "Well, studying is even more important, so I'm not going to sleep tonight I'm going to sleep nonstop after my exam." Now, let's take a look at some examples, specifically one example from the conversation with Lana where she used ‘even’ in a comparison situation You probably realized from the conversation with Lana that her parents were pretty strict about things like getting her ears pierced, coloring her hair, and certainly about getting tattoos So, when Lana decided to pierce her ears by herself, her parents just saw it and had to deal with it They realized that, okay, this is something that she did, and they couldn't really stop her because it had already happened, but with coloring her hair, dying her hair, that was a big deal, especially to her dad So, maybe when her dad saw her pierced ears he thought, "Okay, it's not great, but it's not so terrible," but when he thought about her dying her hair, no, he did not want her to that So, she said, "Dying my hair was an even bigger thing." Here, thing, we could just substitute, "Was an even bigger deal to my dad." Here, we're using a great comparison word, bigger "Dying my hair was an even bigger deal to my dad Piercing my ears, maybe not so much, but dying my hair The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [18:16] was a bigger deal than piercing my ears." Great She's using ‘even’ in a comparison situation, was an even bigger deal She's emphasizing that word All right, let's watch the clip so that you can see how Lana used it Lana: That was an even bigger thing My dad was okay with getting my ears pierced He was like, "Eh." He just never wanted to really take me, but dying hair was a big no no thing That was an even bigger thing My dad was okay with getting my ears pierced He was like, "Eh." He just never wanted to really take me, but dying hair was a big no no thing Vanessa: Now that we've talked about how to use the word ‘even’ for these surprising, shocking situations, it's your turn to use it I'd like to ask you a question When was a time that you went to a cheap restaurant that you didn't expect to be good, but it was actually good? What did you eat that was good? Let me give you a quick example Let's imagine that you went to an Italian restaurant, but it was super cheap You didn't really research it in advance You were just hungry and you went there, but you were shocked because even the lasagna was good Even the pizza, even the spaghetti, even the pasta was good Wow, everything was good I was surprised Even the lasagna was good So, in this situation, you have an expectation, "It's not going to be good It's going to be cheap, but I'm hungry, so whatever I don't care," but if it's actually good, you can use the word ‘even’ to show that it's different from your expectation "I went to an Italian restaurant and even the lasagna was good Even the pizza was good I was surprised." Great So, I want you to pause this lesson Take a moment Write down your sentence You can write it in the lesson guide I've written out all of the stuff from this lesson as well as this question in the lesson guide Take a moment to write it out Read it out loud Use those muscles, because it's really helpful to understand this word and understand the context and the nuances of the sentences when other people say it, but you need to hear your own voice saying it as well, so make sure that you read your sentence out loud If you have any questions about it, feel free to email it to me so that I can help you to correct it and make sure that it's using it in the best way possible So, please review this lesson Go to the grammar worksheet now and answer some of those questions Try to insert the word ‘even’ into the sentences in the The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [20:40] worksheet Try to make your own sentences using the word ‘even.’ Really challenge yourself to use it as much as you can Thanks so much for learning for me and I hope that this lesson was even more interesting than you thought at the beginning Thanks so much and I'll see you the next time Bye The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com Transcript Index This index will help you to quickly match the page and the time in the lesson so that you can easily follow along and understand each word Page 1: 0:00 – 2:19 Page 2: 2:19 – 5:25 Page 3: 5:25 – 8:02 Page 4: 8:02 – 10:13 Page 5: 10:13 – 12:43 Page 6: 12:43 – 15:24 Page 7: 15:24 – 18:16 Page 8: 18:16 – 20:40 Page 9: 20:40 – 20:56 The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com 10 ... – 2: 19 Page 2: 2: 19 – 5 :25 Page 3: 5 :25 – 8: 02 Page 4: 8: 02 – 10:13 Page 5: 10:13 – 12: 43 Page 6: 12: 43 – 15 :24 Page 7: 15 :24 – 18:16 Page 8: 18:16 – 20 :40 Page 9: 20 :40 – 20 :56 The Fearless Fluency. .. unusual to get your ears pierced as an elementary school student The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [8: 02] For example, my sister was five when she got her ears pierced She... that is a little bit surprising Actually, her body's biology was The Fearless Fluency Club www.SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com [ 12: 43] saying, "Your foot is moving so much that we need some tape."