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Improve your Vocabulary: Foreign Words in English
Are you an Englishguru? Well, then you must speak many languages because English uses words from all over the world. In this lesson, you’ll be hit by a tsunami of new words like kaput, faux pas, and prima donna. Though they may have started out in another language, these words have now become an accepted part of English vocabulary. English is always evolving, lending, and borrowing terms from other languages. Watch to learn more about this, and don’t forget to do the quiz at the end! I’m really gung ho about this one!
Quiz
Test your understanding of this English lesson
Test your understanding of the English lesson by answering these questions. You will get the answers and your score at the end of the quiz.Levels
Lesson Topics
130 COMMENTS
Amazing lesson as usual with amazing grade on the quiz I got 100 out of 100 . And I really enjoyed it (:
Thanx!!! Very Interesting One! Keep it up and Good Luck!
the quis was litlle difficult
Keep trying Anuar ;)
actually loved this lesson,, thanks MR.Adam yo’re a guru <3
Thanks Adam, nice lesson!!!!
But, where are the Spanish words???
https://www.thoughtco.com/spanish-words-become-our-own-3078182
I’ll be sure to include them next time Knopfler ;)
Hi, Adam. Thanks for the great lesson. Does English have any influance of Russian? :)
Sure, Vicbuk. Commonly these Russian words suggest Russian things, but some are more universal, like balaclava, Tsar (czar), vodka, troika, etc. English is a bit of everything actually.
* influence
Thank you. Great lesson, great teacher. :)
Very interesting!
last time, I couldn’t ask the question proper. I am confused in the following sentences:
1. cut the cake without using knife
2. cut the cake without using a knife.
3. cut the cake without using the knife.
4. use knife to cut the cake.
5. use a knife to cut the cake.
6. use the knife to cut the cake .
are all the above sentences correct? If it is so, I would like to know how and when you use them?
2,3, 5, 6 are all correct.
1 and 4 can be ok in written instructions, but then you would need to remove ‘the’ before cake (essentially, removing understood words).
The others are a matter of definite or indefinite. a knife = any knife that is available. the knife = a specific knife (i.e., can point to it).
Does this help?
I focused at Guru, lol. Guru means teacher in my country
Here too, Eliana, but a very special one.
I am twenty five years old .I live in Shang Hai now . I want find a real foreign friend to learn English. If you are a foreigner and you want learn Chinese too,we can teach each other .This is my qq 2503755977.Please add me .Thank you very much.
This is a quid pro quo, Lol
Hello Xingyushenhua!
Do you have an account on Skype? I also want to practise English with a foreigner, but I am not into Whatsapp.
Thank you, Adam!! It is a very interesting topic!!!
Hi Adam.
An other very interesting lesson!
As you mentioned, in latino countries we have a completely different meaning for “Qui pro quo” .
In our case a “Qui pro quo” means a confusion or a mistake (taking one thing for an other).
Best wishes.
Angel.
Interestiong. Thanks Europeangel :)
thanks, I get 7/10 :)
There are a lot of words from foreign languages in Spain or in Spanish or “Castilian”, overall from Latin but also from English because is the language that we are studying at the moment. Some of them are “líder”, “manager”, “coach”, “mister”, “gol”, “smoking”, “tennis”, “hardware”, “software”, “freeware”, “poker”, “as”, “futbol” and more of them, but there is a “quid pro quo” between the two languages like “patio”, “plaza”, “piñata”, “Siesta” and “macho” used in English. But there are some more in Engish like “rucksack”, “kindergarten”, “delicatessen”, “rendezvous”, “genre”, “entrepreneur”, “croissant”, and a lot of them which are used commonly as daily expressions. Thanks a lot, teacher Adam, learning English with enchanting explanations will have us to enjoy it and being fun and entertaining, it will also like us to follow its history and development as a form of universal expression among the people of the world.
Sorry for the spelling mistake:
It’s Je ne sais quoi, not qua.
I think I found another mistake – ascertain
Hi Roshavbg,
Actually, this is a spacing mistake. It should be a certain (i.e., a certain je ne sais quoi)
Now everything make sense. Thank you for your answer.
Hi Adam, great lesson, thanks! Seems all languages are influenced by foreign ones. Regarding your lesson I keep in mind a very interesting Gill’s lesson called “Discover the History of English”.
Great lesson. Thank you.
Hi adam
Can you explain to me the question number6
I did not understand the meaning very well
Thanks
Hi Ahmaiss89,
Maria is very talented, but she is also a prima donna, meaning she complains a lot and thinks she is better than others. So, people don’t want to work with her because it is too troublesome.
Does this help?
Interresting to know that parts of foreign language are dispached between every languages, but some domains are more influenced than others (ex more Latin in medical aera, and for French people, more English in data preocessing and computer domain). So, to learn technical vocabulary is a daily work with a part of trip.
Interesting point. Thanks Marienba :)
It’s a very interesting lesson. Thank you!
Adam is guru of English teaching. I always like his lessons, he’s best of the best.
9 out of 10 ???????
Thanks ! It was intersing
Dear .Adam,
I have an important question , last time I visit engvid it was in every lesson
When the teacher speaks I found every word he says is written in screen ,
Why this option is not available now ??? , could you please answer me it’s
Very important to understand what the teacher is saying ,
Please write the text on the screen as usual ,
Waiting your urgent replay .
You need to turn on subtitles! It is next to the settings icon in the video player.
So sorry ,
could you clarify , i can not find it !!?
oh oh oh so sorry
i found it thank you very very very much ,
relay i appreciate it very much ,
thank you very very very much ,
thank you .
Hello my dear teacher! The lesson was very amaizing and interested. I should thank you for this nice lesson. Adam, please, accept my request about this essay. Can tou make a lesson about the Words: everyone, everybody, no one, no body, nothing, something, I mean actually the verb after them must be singulare or plural. For example; No body knows that or No body know that.Please make a lesson about this. That seems very important I Think.
I’ll get on it, Mehdi ;)
I appreciate your help and I am very happy that there is such a good teacher as you in this program teaching us.
in Italy instead of “quid pro quo” we use “do ut des” meaning I give in order to receive.
and “qui pro quo” has the meaning of “misunderstandig”:I understand qui instead of quo
One day, I will learn Italian. Beautiful sounding language :)
Thanks for the tip Papens.
I like vocabulary lessons. Thank you Adam. Do it more with rare words.
Sorry THEM!
or…….make them more…….yea…….that’s better.
Will do Katrin ;)
Very nice topic, Adam.
Another Latin term I usually read is “bona fide” ☺
It indicates something genuine or made in good faith. Also, it can be referred to the credentials of a person or association, right?
Yes, Antonella, good word (s):) And, yes, both meanings are used commonly.
There are so many words like these in English. I may need to make another lesson or two to get the main ones :)
Good lesson..thanks
I don’t know if you know about this, we Japanese learned Tsunami as Tidal wave in my school days. Now it’s a universal word. In a sense, I’m sorry.
No need to be sorry Feles :) If it weren’t a Japanese word, it would have been another. Doesn’t make the phenomenon go away.
Thank you! Your lessons always challenge me
What about per se? I know is Italian but what does it mean and how we do use it.
Hi Lori,
essentially, it means the thing in itself:
I don’t hate my job per se, I just hate the office politics that goes on there. — the job itself is good, but what goes on around the actual task is not pleasing.
Does this help?
Thank you Adam it helps a lot. I listen to this word a lot in Friends a show that I really like and also helps me with my understanding. Thank you very much for explaning Adam.
Thank you!
Very interesting lesson, Adam. Thank you.
Thank you Adam for this captivating lesson. It was easy for me because my native tongue is French. Speaking of French, I think there is a spelling mistake in one French phrase: you should write “Je ne sais quoi”
Thanks Xavier.
I put up a notice on the mistake, but will do so again at the end of the comments. ;)
Great lesson, congrats for think outside the box, and give us another view of English.
Thanks Mr.Adam , we love you and you are a brilliant Guru
thanks for the lesson?
Adam I’m going to begin translate jokes from old magazines(without help) and write them on this forum.(And of course I’ll be glad to read your improvements)
So, let’s get started. The first one.
(From a police officer’s protocol: Mr Siddoroff being too much drunk mixed up his mother-in-law with devil. So…. he’s mistaken….. a little bit.)
I love this idea!
Thank You Moderator.
hope chatting together to enhance my language ! can we ?
Sorry Senior Awadallah, I really have no time.
I agree, good idea :)
Too much – mean the same, so either too drunk, or very drunk.
Thank you Adam.
It was very interesting lesson with a lot of useful information.
Thank you! Keep it up!
Thanks Adam!
This video really helped. I have issues about remembering vocabs or memorizing them, but it seems to be easier. Thank u Sir
I ot 8 of 10. Excellent lesson Adam. Thanks you.
Cool! Very interesting! Do it more!
Hello Adam,thank you for this nice lesson. I am a very big fan of Engvid and,if you have the time and the willing,I would like a lesson about the Inch and foot height measurement because it is all greek to me. Just a friendly suggestion :D
Good idea, Noctuabundus ;)
Awesome lesson.
Thanks Adam for this very useful lesson. ;)
Hi Adam. I am a big fan of you man. Right now I am going to prepare for the toefl ibt . Can I use these vocabs in the writing section ????
Hi Fahriddin,
You can use some, but just make sure it’s the right context and make sure you use them correctly.
Adam this is my result of vocabulary test and I’m
proud of it a little bit and I think few people on this forum can do the same(though my aim is 20000).
http://testyourvocab.com/result?user=8672030
In 2013 my result on this same page was 7200 words(even though I read a lot it’s not a big progress)./maybe I need some change in my policy/
Thank you for lesson again!
Still a big jump :) I’d say keep at it. it will grow and grow.
Thank you Adam. There’s no way back.
thanks adam , keep moving forward
I got 7 our of 10 ,, it’s bad mark i guess :/
hope any one chatting with me in order to enhancing my language !
it’s a bad mark ,, faux pas language !
Not bad at all ;)
Hello dear Adam.I have question again.What is redundancies and when,where,why are these used??Can you prepare lesson about it?
Hi Nubar,
redundancy means saying thing unnecessarily. This is most commonly an issue in writing.
A basic example is to say that someone is very pregnant– a woman either is or isn’t pregnant, so the word very is redundant. Or to say that you “own the home you bought” is redundant because own = bought.
Does this help?
yes dear Adam.it helped me.Thank you again)
Hello everyone
Thanks, Adam.
There is one sentence I don’t quite understand.
“The nineteenth century saw considerable interest in the nature of genius, and produced not a few studies of famous prodigies.” What does the last sentence mean? ‘produced no’ that means what?
I will appreciate it if you can help. :)
Hi Sophie
Produced not a few = produced many. This style is used as an an emphasis point to suggest that this topic was popular.
Does this help?
Wow, that was a very interesting lesson du jour!. Thanks a lot our guru Adam.
Thank u Adam. For a good lesson on usage of foreign words in English
Hello, Adam!
Could you explain me the rule about “the” before “all”, please?
F.ex.:
1. I closed all windows.
2. I closed all the windows.
Which is wrong and why?
Hi Kiwi-bird,
Technically, both can be used.
1. windows meaning the windows in a PC
#2 is correct is terms of windows in the room. The verb (past tense) suggests that we know which windows you are referring to, so they are definite and need a definite article.
“You should close all windows before beginning the experiment.” In this case, we don’t know how many windows there are, so close all of the ones that exist there..
Does this help?
hi teachat goooooooooooooooood lasson
hi teachat goooooooooooooooood lasson
are you slam ?. whare are you laening egnvid.
Thanks Adam! Your lesson is so useful, interesting and easy to understand!
very interesting lesson I answered it wrong three times but finally I got it :) Thanks for you Adam very much
Too hard
Amazing ??
Although I got 10, it’s very hard for me to learn those words.
Thank you teacher!
Got 08. Thanks Adam ☺
This is a really interesting and creative lesson, Adam! Thanks so much!
Moreover, I know other examples of foreign words or expression used by English speakers, for instance, “fianceé”, “résumé”, “café”, from French, or “de novo”, from Latin”.
I reckon it isn’t necessary to mention that, in Portuguese (like in many other languages nowadays), there are many (in my opinion too much) English words because of the strong American influence in our culture. It happens especially in the technological field.
Bye-bye!
Ty profesor… Learning a lot because of u teachers.
I love this lesson and so helpful for me and I got 100 score for this lesson too. thanks Teacher Adam :)
Hallo can u help me.. what’s the books that investigate or discuss about problem of understanding listening
Thank you very much, sir. It is really interesting.
In this regard, I’d like to ask one question.
“If we use these words in daily conversation, does the native understand?”
Thank you in advance for your answer. :)
Hi. I do not no english language. I will study english. Help me teacher. Thank you
Hello Adam I really love your lessons! The way of your explanation is perfect. thanks for your lessons.
And I have one question for you… .
Do you know or can your offer any kind of web site that I can get free (cheaper)certificate online? Thank you before!
Sincerely your online student Shahzod.
Hi Adam, i want to ask, how about touche and caphice means? and how do i use them properly?
Thank in advance
Hi Adam, thanks for the great lesson.
May I ask you some question?
I would like to know what is the different of Picture , Photo and image ? How to use it ?
Thank you ^__^
Extremely interesting lesson.Thank you very much.
Got 10/10.
thanks guru!
great lesson Adam
Hello Adam, thank for the lesson. I learned something new today. I like a lot your lessons. Have a nice day. God bless you.
Thanks for the lesson
Hello Adam, thank you very much for interesting lesson. Your explanations skills are wonderfull.
Sir ,I feel nowadays people use “would” in place of “will” .Am I correct or wrong because I’m very confused when to use “will” and when to use “would”
Is English a foreign language?
9/10! Nice. But I can’t remember every words today learned.