When I was in high school, rather than have weekly vocabulary lists, my English teacher taught us Latin/Greek roots. I think it's the most important thing I learned in 12 years of English instruction. I almost wish I had had the opportunity to study Latin.
Just finished the video! With my deft mind, I faced the challenge with candor, refusing to dawdle even as some words were blatant puzzles. I had to concede that my fickle memory missed the zenith of my word prowess. Still, it galvanized my spirits, even amid the austere vibe of tricky terms. I won’t flout my mistakes during this hiatus, as banal as they were. Instead, I’ll coalesce my efforts to tackle this anathema of words. Staying sanguine, I demurred at ersatz meanings that were mere chimeras, avoiding obloquy, and learning to fill any lacuna in my vocabulary!
@@rogernichols1124 Studying Latin will help in many ways. I’m about halfway through my study and, as you stated, it keeps you on track. Knowing Latin also helps in understanding the meaning of words that you may not have come across before but also their etymology.
That is the point: those words are similar in many languages. This test is not to be considered about English language but about cultural level. Not being aware of this shows self-referetiality and poor knowledge of other languages.
Latin education on the west coast of the US, was sorely missing from the curriculum. I think I filled in the gap by studying science and Spanish, but I know it would have helped.
19/20. Obloquy got me. I have spent a lifetime looking up the meanings of words. I am particularly fascinated with etymology, the origin of words and word roots. For example, 'obloquy' comes from the Latin 'ob-' against and 'loqui' to speak. Therefore, 'obloquy' has the original meaning of 'to speak out against' something.
I won't take anything much beyond Latin but sometimes to ancient Greek Don't wanna think that hard although sometimes it gets to the "Anima Mundi" 8.5 billion minds, we all have to be on the same page more often than not But ersatz? the Germans couldn't get coffe in WWII and resorted to toasted grain (taste only) I think that "Postum" is still being made. I'll take the real thing, with caffeine thank you very much
My result also, which surprised me as I expected to get them all. About two thirds of them I correctly predicted before the choices were shown. Probably good for me to be humbled every now and then.
@@Jack_Callcott_AU The sense of sanguine as cheerful came originally from the thought that if your face was flushed (bloody) you were cheerful and optomistic
My husband has accused me of speaking in 1% for decades. I was grounded horribly as a teenager, with literally nothing to do but read either a dictionary, encyclopedia or Reader's Digest. I had a $#!+ social life but a great vocabulary, for what that's worth. Oh, and I wasn't a bad kid, my Mom was just horribly overprotective, especially with me being the baby of her 3 kids. I can laugh about it now but it sure did suck growing up.
None of these words are all that difficult, I know this video is obviously bait but it's kinda sad that these are seen as particularly impressive words.
More important than KNOWING the actual meaning of The correct word is the ability to rapidly eliminate those erronius choices with confidence. I missed 2 in the final group only
I didn't feel the last two embodied a jump in difficulty, B. There was nothing here that I'd be surprised to encounter in a long discursive article in a first-rate US or UK newspaper, The Economist, The New Yorker, The Atlantic...etc. That's just me, though. All best.
I didn't have any trouble with the 20 words, but I did have to look up "cathexis." I agree with Peter Gay (see cathexis in Wikipedia) that it's "unnecessarily esoteric." I also learned some pronunciations. Did you know the earliest pronunciation of "banal," as preserved in old dictionaries, rhymed with "flannel?"
@@BarerMender UK here - yep, it's French. Over here, saying 'baynal' would mark the sayer down as trying to use a word that they hadn't got a full grasp of. And I suspect it'd be the same in (say) the offices of the New Yorker or the NYT, or in the best departments of the best US universities. All best!
To be fair, it's far more likely to be used in writing rather than speech. In any case, I despise the assumption that people with a broad vocabulary are being necessarily pretentious; it's another form of anti-intellectualism or at least, inverted snobbery. In this age of narrowing vocabularies, managerial buzzwords, grammatical mistakes and the normalised malapropism, I'm happy to hear a rarely-used word. If I'm bold enough to look or sound puzzled, the person speaking usually clarifies without being a prat.
@@basedstreamingatcozy-dot-t7126 I'm speaking meaningfully I hope, about anti intellectualism and frankly laziness. A sign of intelligence is curiosity. Celebrating being sneery instead is not something to be encouraged, even if it is socially popular. In fact, quite the opposite. Quite happy if you want to misconstrue that as being a snob, prat or elitist. It's your failure to want to spread curiosity and rather lame to call it 'failure to read the room' and cause eyerolls. I think the subject has been fully wrung out here in this limited medium, with all the implications about personal failure called from both sides. If you imagine that narrowed vocabulary doesn't affect concepts then read John Ralston Saul's 'Voltaire's Bastards'. It's an excellent book. I sent it to my father and he said it was the best book he'd ever read.
In my zealous pursuit of English, I find myself flummoxed and utterly nonplussed. This verbiage labyrinth bewilders my cerebrations! Of twenty attempted words, I contrived a paltry two correct-an outcome most ignominious, and yet, I persist in my lexical odyssey.
17/20 58 years old, and a lifetime reader. One of the best things about reading ebooks is that when I encounter an unfamiliar word, I can look it up immediately.
Fellow reader here. 16 out of 20, and it should have been 17. Three of the words I'd never read or heard of. The remaining words in the list were of no help. Shrug.
Exactly this! I have neither the space nor money for all of the books my husband and I read. There’s also the issue with my physical problems that make reading a paper book genuinely unpleasant
I think I actually HAVE heard it before, but I still missed it in this quiz . 19/20 - and I knew “lacuna” only because I’d done some reading on the Dead Sea Scrolls in years past.
16 correct+1 by educated guess... 45yo, Portuguese, Computer geek with barely any language skills... Maybe being a latin laguage speaker helps because many of the answers are similar to words we use.
20/20! I'm an 81-year-old retired medical librarian. I tried to anticipate what the word would be and got many of them correct. For the tricky obloquy, I guessed "opprobrium" which is equally obscure.
That's a really excellent list of words. When should note however that the quiz statement in number 11 is itself incorrect. Disinterest means lack of bias. The question should have used the word uninterest.
I have no degree, only a GED but a lifetime of crosswords and love of the English language. I feel self-satisfied to have answered 18 correct, missing ersatz and obloquy. I have seen ersatz before, but obloquy is a new word for me, I have never seen it before.
I got 17/20, with most of the missed words at the end, unsurprisingly. A couple things: 1. While English does possess many loan-words ("ersatz", "gestalt", etc.), it often possesses intrinsically English words that act as synonyms or near-synonyms ("ersatz" = "artificial"/"imitation"). I don't personally believe knowing/not knowing those particular loan-words actually counts directly towards one's English vocabulary skills, but speaks more to one's greater comprehension of the language, as in its adoption of foreign words into itself. When a sufficient English word can be used in place of its foreign equivalent, it should be, as it is intrinsically English. Loan words which refer to concepts _not_ native to the English language are okay though, as there isn't an appropriate English substitute. "Gestalt" (a German word) for example would roughly mean, "something that is greater than the sum of its constituent parts, such that it cannot be reduced or its components extricated from the greater concept"; something that is intrinsically and fundamentally irreducible. Using "gestalt" to refer to such a concept is much more efficient and accurate than trying to describe what "gestalt" actually means. 2. Tangentially carrying on from point 1: English is a language full of redundancy and unnecessary verbosity, even within itself. Using oblique, obscure or unwieldy words not often used in most situations, especially when a sufficient synonym already exists within the language that is both more efficient and more well-known, without sacrificing accuracy ("lacuna" = "gap") should be avoided without exception. Brevity is to wit what precision is to comprehension. Just because you _can_ use such awkward terms correctly doesn't mean you _should_ - and, in fact, you _shouldn't._ They are unnecessary and often require structuring your dialogue awkwardly to shoehorn them into your speech. Knowing how to trim down one's vocabulary to discard obsolete/archaic terms in place of their identical, more elegant synonyms - and applying them appropriately - is just as important as expanding one's vocabulary to include new words to define ideas one otherwise has trouble articulating. True mastery of a language is not about imbibing a dictionary and then regurgitating its contents to "sound smart"; it's about knowing how to wield it, like a tool to be used for its specific purpose. A hammer can pound many things, but its _intended_ use is to pound nails; you shouldn't be using a screwdriver for nails, nor a hammer for screws - and you shouldn't be looking for a torque wrench in either case! Knowing when and where to use your linguistic tools is among the most advanced aspects of mastering a language. Grab a hammer for the nails and a screwdriver for the screws, but leave the torque wrench at home; you don't need it.
Is English your second language? Because if so these paragraphs here are incredibly impressive. I hope I can one day be as expressive in the languages that I'm learning.
@@gappleofdiscord9752 I'm a native English-speaker. I should have broken up my points a bit more, I know. I was typing quickly though and just wanted to get the points down while keeping them constrained to the numbered headings. I suppose I undercut myself with the atrocious formatting.
@@Armameteus I was complimenting your comment, I thought you expressed yourself really clearly. Regardless of first language that comment is an example of how you properly articulate what you're trying to say.
@@gappleofdiscord9752 Ah. Sorry, I guess I'm used to comments online that only compliment sarcastically. Like, I presumed you were making a joke out of my paragraph structure as a way to ridicule my perspective on English comprehension. Perhaps I'm spending too much time on the internet. It's making me jaded and misanthropic. 😵
Same here, hard test for non- native speaker, but a solid grammar school education with latin, english, french and greek did help a lot. Thanks for your attention.
Same here... but simply because I guessed many correctly, often by eliminating the other choices, sometimes by pure luck. It helps that some of the answers are also French words. 😅
@@franceslarsen4037 No problem! Most people would struggle with this test, but I think this audience is skewed towards people who have studied this stuff a lot. In reality you probably will only ever need at most 5 of these anyway. 15 is a great score.
I am 10 months old and got 1 out of 20. The only reason I said "lacuna" on the last question is that my attention was wandering and I was asking my dear mother to find my favorite stuffed animal, and my speech skills are not deft enough to properly identify the animal as a "vicuña". Still this result was enough to put me in the top 1% of my toilet training cohort.
Aaaaawwwww, I think you’re too modest, baby; give yourself some credit. Maybe you confused “vicuña” with “lacuna” because you had just woken up in “la cuna” where you’re put to nap every afternoon, bless your soul.
I got "lacuna" because it's an element of bone structure (background story there) and to my thinking it sounds similar to "lagoon", a gap in land filled with water. For Scrabble players, geology is a great resource for obscure and peculiar words.
20/20 I am a native Amazonian and only last week made contact with the outside world. An American adventurer introduced me to the internet via the Starlink connection provided by the wonderful Mr. Musk - to whom I will offer great thanks and blessings. I was able to channel the knowledge of all who have come before me and the quiz became a piece of cake - as you Britishers say. Ciao.
20/20. My parents never answered my questions. I had to think out the answers and then look them up. It taught me to want to know everything. And as a result I’m a double PhD psychologist and research methodologist. I’m 75 and still asking questions every day.
21/20. I didn't have parents. I emerged from a cave about 45,000 years ago and had to fashion my own clothes. After my 12th PhD, I got tired of asking questions. Now I just peruse the world wide web to display my plethoric acumen and perspicacity.
@evanshaw17 It's amazing what you've accomplished! I believe that, no matter how studious a person is, there is always something new to learn. I don't consider myself a very well learned individual but I've widened my mind when I travel and meet people from different regions, countries, walks of life, fields of study, ethnicities and social statuses. I feel like I know very little in comparison to others but I'm always curious and willing to learn more.
I got 20 out of 20 and slept through High School. But sure, I’ld rank passing a Parochial School level vocabulary test on the same level as two Humanities PHDs.
@@Pfromm007 Wow, that's really impressive, you're definitely naturally smart and overall superior. Living that long takes discipline, I bet you eat your veggies, tons of fish and wild game regularly, plus you probably exercise and meditate a lot. And overall your life choices were much more advanced and sophisticated, you probably never got married, stayed debt free, learned the specific skills to ensure a superior financial stability, outstanding fitness level and an incredible social and psychological IQ. Wise man! If I could be like that...
Hardly surprising really. Only those of us with an encyclopedic vocabulary are likely to click on a video with that title. Nobody wants to feel inadequate or stupid.
17 of 20 and guessed 2 correct in 1 thru 10 before answers were posed!!! I'm a huge word nerd. Just found this channel today. Great content. It's ironic that the older you get, the more you want to know. Spoken for myself specifically. Wonder if anyone else is the same?? I wish I had the same passion for knowledge I have now, being 40, when I was a teenager. Oh well,. Such is life.
Good quiz. But on #17, there was an error. Just before the blank was the word "a." However, the correct answer began with a vowel sound, which means that the "a" should have been an "an." Then I noticed when you filled the blank in with the correct answer, the "a" suddenly became an "an." That was a tricky move, but technically misleading. Sorry for noticing that. But the quiz was interesting nevertheless.
I agree, but I have noticed that many newsreaders now say 'a' in front of a vowel, which sounds somewhat babyish. I pointed this out to my daughter, who said she had never been taught that 'an' precedes a vowel, although I am sure I corrected her many times as a child. I would quibble with 'zee nith'. I have only heard it pronounced 'zen ith'.
In the US, ZEE-nith is the standard pronunciation. We had a brand of electronics by that name, and like many Americanisms, we sometimes read words without standard British pronunciations. But I’ve heard zen-ith in many commonwealth countries. I agree it’s misleading to change a spelling before a word.
I got 16 correct. The last few got me. I am a native speaker and I went to what is considered a good school. I hate to see how someone not at a "good" school does.
@@jakes3799 Probably one of the only ones actually being truthful tbh lmao. I got 15, maybe should have gotten a few more but some of those words I have never even seen before. I would have gotten 1-2 more probably if I had longer than a few seconds to think about them.
@@CodPatrol When you're in an environment where everyone is bragging about how high their score is, it is intimidating. It's hard to say that you got something that is a little more average. You don't have to totally bomb to be intimidated.
Native English speaker, but I speak 5 languages so I’m a bit of a unicorn (for instance, I love geography and cartography). I got 18 out of 20 and I learned a new word for the first time in years-obloquy 😎🤓👍 Thank you for brightening my day and teaching me something new!! 🙏🙏
We love your nature that makes you a teacher, a comedian, and an actor. You are truly talented, Brian, and you excel in all roles. You truly deserve appreciation. My best wishes, ESRAA
Managed to get 19. The question with chimera as the answer threw me. I'm a retired health care professional, so all I could think was a chimera is a person whose body is composed of cells that are genetically distinct as though they are from two different individuals. Tunnel vision, anyone?
Got 18 but that one also had me stumble. Personally I thought of the mythical beast created by a mix of many different body parts of various animals. I can somehow see how that particular definition could have come into being but it still threw me for a loop and I'm reasonably convinced that most people who read that word don't actually think of that particuar definition.
Native English speaker - 19/20, never heard of obloquy. There were a few that knew, but have never used or heard spoken, only seen in writing. Fun video
20/20 Being Spanish and having studied Latin, French and German helped a lot. IMHO this is also a bit of a test of general knowledge, not just knowledge of English vocabulary. Banal, coalesce, ob loquii, hiatus, Mr Luigi Galvani of the electric pile, Ersatz, chimera, lacuna etc. Difficult words for English native speakers tend to stem from foreign languages, chiefly Latin, French, Spanish, German, even Yiddish so they are easy for those who know such languages. Conversely, "pure" (if such a thing exists at all :) English words are hard for us non-English speakers. I remember being throughly baffled by "newt" when I started learning English. Thanks and keep up the good work!
This is a very well thought out response, thank you for sharing your thoughts. English (like many languages) borrows a variety of words from others, and that can make it trickier, especially when the words are so obscure. Lacuna, for example, seems to stem from a Latin word literally meaning "Lake" - Sanguine, also Latin, means "blood". Having some casual Latin experience, I recognized some of those with their original meanings, but I'd never heard the... *erudite* way that they've been used in English. I got 16/20 correct I think. Some of the words I had just straight up never even heard of (and I fancy myself a vocab nerd). Language experience: Native English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and recently Japanese. One thing that struck me about the way some of these words are used (like lacuna) is in a less-than-literal way, instead borrowing the concept or essence of the word's original meaning to create a new meaning. Japanese Kanji shares a bit of a similarity - sort of, go with me on this - the radicals represent concepts, but when combined they form new concepts or words, even if those separate radicals wouldn't *literally* mean that new thing together. It's part of what makes translating Japanese into English particularly challenging, and also very exciting, and it's why you can end up with some varied translations of the same thing, which I love, because they all serve to give broader context for whatever is being translated.
Thank you so much for your excellent comment! I completely agree with you, especially regarding the fascinating evolution of a word’s meaning after being adopted by different languages. I remember being very intrigued to learn that 'bizarre' likely originates from the Basque word for 'beard,' was adapted in Spanish to mean 'bold' or 'daring,' and then found its way into English with the meaning we know today-'eccentric.' (Why? I have no idea! 😊) Your observations on kanji are also spot-on. My wife is Japanese, so I have some firsthand experience with the language. Your insights into the parallel between non-literal uses of borrowed words in Western languages and the Japanese onyomi/kunyomi readings are particularly original and thought-provoking. Thank you for sharing, and congratulations on such an insightful perspective! By the way, this thread seems to be evolving beyond a typical TH-cam comments section. 😄
20/20. I'm 82 and English is my fourth language, but all the words with a Latin origin (i.e. lacuna) were easy for me, which usually is not the case for English native speakers.
@@caeruleusvm7621 I agree with that. Also, the words that are 'difficult' for many English-speaking people tend to be trivial for Italian, French and Spanish speakers. I wish I had learned Greek also, but life is short ...
A lot came directly from the french, the one I missed "sanguine" it's because its meaning is very different in french, obloquy and other anglosaxon word I succeed by elimination of the french or latin options
I got 18 out to 20. I'm a Spaniard and speak several languages (Spanish, French, Italian, German and a good knowledge of Latin) and this last certainly has helped quite a lot
Nailed it. "Obloquy," however, I got only because the others didn't fit. In thanks, I hereby pass on to you an exercise passed on to me by the late poet & professor John Morris, my own professor when I first started teaching writing. After being asked to read Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" for homework, students come to class next day and are given copies of the first paragraph but with several words replaced by blanks, and asked to supply words words that make sense. Students who read the essay can do this. The fun begins when they've finished, compare their choices to Orwell's, and discuss the differences.
I got a good score but i don't know if i deserve it. Most of my answers were because i eliminated the other options, not because I specifically know the correct word.
If you’re able to eliminate words, that’s also an indication of a strong English vocabulary (since many of the incorrect answers are also high-level words).
@@BrianWilesLanguages Note my comment that I would have used 'anathemic' (which is the word I anticipated), given the sentence structure. (Got 20/20, btw, was a bored kid who read a lot.)
True.That's the general fault of multiple-choice questions which, given any subject, can be scored pretty high by monkeys well-versed in test tactics. A theoretical monkey that only knows how to circle a random answer will, in the long run, score 1/n (n being the number of choices) and given enough attempts, will eventually pass the strictest tests.
21/20, This task was arguably the simplest I’ve ever undertaken, rivaled only by my effortless admission to Oxford-an achievement so seamless, I didn’t even submit an application.
The trick is to walk in wearing a visibility vest and carrying a ladder. Everyone will assume you work there, and you can lurk in all the classes you want
Amusing. I had to sabotage applications my parents insisted on...Harvard, Swarthmore, Yale. Had to go to hometown school, to continue caring for alcoholic dad, research scientist who ran much of Bell Systems. Princeton. Racist sexist partiers, mostly. Ugh. Mom also a polymath. Neither were consistently adult. Moi still working on that. You are phunny.
Using he/him, she/her, and I/me correctly. In your head say the sentence without the conjunction. For example: a) She and me went to the store b) Her and me went to the store c) She and I went to the store d) Her and I went to the store Remove, “and I” or “and me” a) Her went to the store b) She went to the store - correct Now eliminate, “She and” a) me went to the store b) I went to the store - correct So, c) is correct. She and I went to the store. Hope this helps. Said with love, no judgement. ❤️✌️ I’m still learning, too, as I only got 15 of the questions correct.
20/20. English is my native language, and I'm a nerdy Scrabble-a-holic! Very impressive questions. I kept trying to anticipate what the word would be, and not always getting there before it came up, especially at the end! I have HEARD of obloquy, but it's not a word that comes easily to mind. But I insist on candoUr!
Also got 20/20 and kept trying to guess the word and I think it got harder as the list moved to obscure words that don't necessarily help with general communication. Also candour and less 'z' in words :)
20 out of 20. Got harder toward the end, but wasn’t that hard because the two other choices were obviously wrong😂(helps if you also know the meaning of the “wrong” words)
I got 20/20, but I'm a well read and well educated native speaker. Having a Romance language wound certainly help, but I'm in awe of any non-native speakers who got 15 or better. If I got 10/20 in a Polish veision I'd be dancing around for days!
Got 18 correct answers. Wonder how many native speakers get a good score considering that a lot of native speakers can't even spell there/they're/their correctly?
The last few showing the range of source languages for English - chimera (Greek), lacuna (Latin for hole or gap), ersatz (German for replacement), sanguine (Old French, based on Latin, meaning blood red) and obloquy (derived from Latin). But not too many Anglo-Saxon words are in the super-difficult category.
'blatant' (one of the words used here) may not strictly speaking be Anglo-Saxon, but it is English. It was popularized (and may have been invented by) Edmund Spenser for his Dungeons and Dragons poem The Faerie Queene.
easy for me because I could eliminate the french origin words which I knew the meaning so I got obloquy and I would forget it immediatly easy quizz for a french people
20/20. I would say anyone who has had a reasonable education up to the age of 18 and is widely read, would know most of these words. Further education or more years of continuing to read and explore would give them the rest of the words. Certainly if they had been through the UK education system.
My husband, 85 and I, 76, got all 20. Not terribly difficult. I call these SAT words and, although I don't use most of them in everyday speech, I do try to use a higher-level vocabulary which is usually more apt. I've loved reading all my life and, undoubtedly, that helped a lot.
@@malvoliosf No I think "lagoon" comes from the Italian/Venetian meaning "big lake." "Lago" is "lake" in Italian and laguna is augmentative form of "lago" meaning "big lake." We talk about the Venetian lagoon. "Obloquy" is to do with forgetting - in a French castle an oubliette was a dungeon where you were doomed to be imprisoned for a life time and forgotten.
@@malvoliosf But "lacus" for lake -"lago" in Italian came first and the lacuna thing is a secondary meaning. The venetian lagoon - means big lake -same way that pontoon means a big bridge - in Italian the 'one" at end of words is an augmentative meaning "big" Lots of other examples borrowed into English but then spelled oon.
20/20. Lacuna is more of a literary word, which as a professional writer I was already familiar with. The 19th question was purely a guess, because the other three options just didn't seem right.
29 year old law graduate and native speaker here. I got 15. It was lightwork until #15 lol I hadn't heard of basically any of the 4 options from that point forward. Feel like being a non-native speaker (assuming you're fluent) would be a huge help in tests like this. You, as a non-native speaker, would've studied the language far more than a native speaker and would likely see words that the normal native speakers would never see in their lives. You are also probably better with languages than the average native English speaker since many many native English speakers are monolingual. Thus, you have a pretty good chance of understanding language in general, most notably the roots of the words here, that would give you a sizeable leg up.
I have a Masters degree in English and taught college writing for 25 years. I doubt many native English speakers will get 100%. You get very obscure towards the end. To score in the upper teens, you'll need a superior background in morphology, plus extensive experience with Victorian and Edwardian non-fiction texts, especially legal documents, to get a feel of precise usage.
Yes, I believe many liars are here on this thread. I'm a native speaker. I'm college educated, and I consider my vocabulary far above average in USA. I'm often correcting others on vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation. (Sadly I'm not good at writing anymore) In all honesty, I got 14 correct. 1 or 2 by guessing.
I'm 18 and after the first few I started to not know words and gave up around question number 10. Despite finishing my high school education, I've still got lots to learn I guess.
@@SawyerCarlson-h6f Knowing you still have lots to learn is the best thing you could learn. I still feel that way and I graduated HS in 1969. The best way to increase your vocabulary is to read, a lot, anything, everything, whatever, just learn to love reading and your world will never stop expanding.😸
@@crowleythedemoncat Yes, learning to love reading and learning in general is vital to my success. The problem is there are so many distractions so it can feel difficult to be productive. Maybe I just need to slowly increment my productivity time until I spend most of my time in a fun and productive way.
Yay! I got all 20 right, but I had to guess the word, "obloquy". I'm a 67 year old retired accountant from Canada. I was able to anticipated about half the words in advance.
Sadly, the two words which once were quite different have merged their meanings. I guess judges are now required to be 'impartial' rather than disinterested.
I came into this knowing I wouldn't know all the words but that's precisely why I did. To learn them. You always start somewhere, and you've always got to learn sometime. Remember that, don't let what you don't know get you down, just learn it! ♥
@@JamesSimmons-d1t It's almost as if French derives much of its lexicon from Latin. Perhaps, even, one might say that the Latin influences in English came, in large measure, through French itself. At least, that's what my friend Billy from Falaise said.
This video really humbled me and served me a long awaited reality check of how bad my English actually is. I only got a pitiful amount if 4 questions correctly, I didn't even recognize like 75% of the words shown. This awakened my curiosity to learn these obscure words, but do you have any ideas where I could find and learn them?
@@bradhoehne8369 I second this, and I think what is important about reading "classics" is that one learns how their systems of thought "sound." Then the strange words become contextualized. I approach it as learning/reading a fantasy novel, where the words and expressions become a part of the world created. Examples like "Around the world in 80 days," "The Illiad," and "Les Misérables" are incredible examples of diversity of speech. This is an important realization, that English is an amalgamation of many different languages, not only in "words" (loan words) but in thought (translations from those languages that become vernacular). I think its pretty enjoyable to take and bask in.
The higher end words one would almost never pass or use in a natural manner unless in certain situations or (academic) settings as they are low frequency words. Maybe an advanced extension quiz of these words could be 'in which situation' is it best used in? 'In what context' pethaps you can call it? 😊
This version of knowledge is reminiscent of Trampoopinator's use of I.Q. as an adjective, eliding the fact that no one has a 'measurable' number to compare intellects. Each test tests for different knowledge and other abilities...speed, flexibility, memory, etc. Satchmo, Einstein, Mark Twain, not comparable. The best way to learn languages as an adult is to barter, trade knowledge for another kind of knowledge. Every month free. Manyway. Knowledge and understanding are very different. Thorough maturation means studying everything somewhat, and adjusting the scientific method by context, correlating all knowledge so that it can be understood. Fun have. Interdisciplinarians R us. We. Generalistically writing, figuratively, speaking.
18/20. Last 2 got me. Being multiple choice, some of the wrong answers were just so BLATANT, its practically giving away the answer even if you didnt know exactly what the correct answer.
About 1/3rd of English words come from French! And a number of others come from Scandinavian languages, as Vikings raided and colonized the regions of the Danelaw from the early 9th century. My family history is mostly English and Scottish, as most of the ancestors we know about came from those two countries, but by DNA I am descended from Vikings more than from Anglo-Saxons or Scots. The DNA tests don’t take into account that one’s ancestors might have made a stopover in the British Isles for 600 or 700 years. 😄
I would be willing to guess that a random sample of English speakers 50 years ago would have done better with this test than a modern random sample. This is partly due to changes in teaching but also because of the digital revolution. When you can google the answer to a question rather than read half a dozen books on the subject there's inevitably going to be both an outsourcing of our critical faculty and less exposure to the language.
I'm 61 and got 19/20. I already knew that my vocabulary is far above average, but that crossed my mind, too. It would be interesting to see a chart tracking success with age.
50 years changes language a lot. People can have their natural accent change in shorter a time span. Technology (computers, commercial passenger jets, cell phones), major events (think pre-WWII and post-WWII or pre-9/11 and post-9/11), changes in demographics (Mediterranean vs. South American vs. Asian immigration), and people just changing the way they talk are all things within the last 100 years that have nothing to do with how many books people read and everything to do with how languages change over time. Modern English barely resembles Middle English, while Old English is practically another language. And these are all vastly different from whatever Indo-European languages originally found their way to the British Isles. You can't freeze a language in place, even if you tried with considerable effort. We know this because Arabic and Tibetan both tried lol.
I was a math major. Before going to university, I hated my English classes. In university, I had much better teachers in English and enjoyed it so much that I took several extra English classes that involved both reading and writing. Apparently, it paid off. I got all 20 right. I think it was because I have done so much reading since university turned me on to enjoying English literature. You learn new words through reading good authors of both fiction and non-fiction. I always look up words I have never seen before too. I used to do the NY Times crossword puzzles every day too and completed them. (I have fallen out of the habit during the last 5 to 8 years.)
Tbh most of these complex words aren’t necessarily meant to be used in everyday conversation, so even if you know 30% of them then consider yourself to be fluent in English. ( I got 6/20, and I have gcse English)
I will say though my best friend is an English professor and my brother and girlfriend both have English degrees so that probably has a lot to do with it.
@@pepeteriyaki3779perhaps knowledge seeped through you but only so far as they occasionally used such expressions… or are you one of those persons that enjoy reading Latin translations of Aristotle?
Says the guy who only got 30% I have no degrees and spent 6 years in high school because I skipped MANY classes. I got 15/20 because I read........ A LOT!
This is an excellent quiz ( I dont mean to brag, but I aced it.) I spotted one small error in the example for number twelve - it should have said "lack of interest", not "disinterest." "Disinterest" means "impartiality."
Yeah, in the past you were correct, but the two words 'disinterest' and 'uninterest' have merged meaning and now stand for a lack of interest. Judges now have to be impartial rather than disinterested. A shame, but usuage wins every time.
They’ve only merged meaning because people were rather indifferent to the first group of people who started to use it incorrectly (thereby rendering the word ambiguous). So, does a “disinterested third party” now mean someone who really finds the particular subject boring?
I was doing well, building up my confidence... and then the last 5 questions happened sanguine and chimera specifically shocked me cause whenever I read sanguine it almost always referred to blood and if you go and google chimera now it points you in the direction of the Greek myth sharing the same name. anyways this was a fun exercise. Thank you for putting it together! -some guy from Egypt
@@rkozakand Not wrong, but a secondary and arguably obscure meaning. You see the same pattern with the word ‘utopia’ itself, something implausible getting used figuratively for something impossible,
20/20, but I'm a native speaker. I noticed a lot of pronunciation differences from the UK. Ersatz is pronounced with a Z and not an S in the middle in the UK.
@@snailmail4152 No, there is no German "a" pronounced like the "u" in "but". That is s mispronunciation that all learners of English produce. The "u" in "but" is subtly different from /a/.
Prizes for English, French, Latin, Greek, Phi Beta Kappa pin, oldest prep school in N.J. Racist right wing slime, primarily...the day students had the brains...some. School had a damn golf course, chapel required. Lawrenceville, richer side of Princeton. Dissing qualities.
I got 19 correct! Lacuna baffled me completely! Not bad from a Greek who came to this country at 19 speaking very little English! I am now a polyglot having mastered seven languages, a local speak (not dialect!), and understanding pretty well two more romance ones. BTW, I find your quizzes very enjoyable. Kudos!
Well I was admittedly a word snob but missed two -so 18/20!!! I do enjoy these types of word puzzles which I frequently have done & now must get back to!!! Thank-You For This (I am getting older & need to keep my mind sharp!!! Sincerely, ~Kim G.
20/20. Retired psychologist here. A well graded quiz! I feared that the later questions might stray in complete esoterica, but no, that didn't happen. Thanks.
17/20 for me. I have a varied breadth of life experience which is what I think helped me score well. I was in business and technology for 20 years, a procurement professional (contract law) for much of that, and I am now in the medical field. Admittedly, some of the words I got correct because I was successfully able to eliminate the others.
Procrastinate doesn't usually have the connotation of being slow or even idle. Someone who is physically capable of it can run a 4-minute mile and be simultaneously procrastinating. You couldn't be doing that and dwadling at the same time. I am a native English speaker, language teacher and polyglot should credentials be called for.
@@baxtercol I was merely suggesting something, but I get what you mean. I feel like procrastinate has a less general meaning than dawdle - at least it does in my mother tongue. Usually we use it in a school-related context
Born and raised Filipino, 17/20. Most of these words aren't used in daily conversation. Honestly, the second half gave me the words that I've NEVER heard before, and perhaps would never use. I've been taught to make it simple and easily understood.
I really enjoyed this one-1%? Umm... 🤔 It’s one of those ‘on fire’ topics, and not many people can explain such complex ideas in a way that everyone can follow. Your examples, like in the past ‘20 Phrasal Verbs’ video, always make things clear. Thanks for consistently choosing great topics and making learning enjoyable. 😊❤ - Islam from Egypt 🇪🇬
Cavalier, austere, banal, sinecure, trenchant (doubt on that one actually), ersatz, etc, were not even english words but french, latin or even german. Plus, some sentences, can very well have meaning with various words, just give a different image. Example the first one, magician could very well be a clumsy clutz yet still manage to put up a show. From a writer's perspective it could be a good way to present a kid making his debut in the field. There were more sentences like that. Like the artist one where two words could've been used interchangeably. Not sure this is a good english test to be frank
Totally agree. I am English. Did I know the correct pronunciation and meaning of the words? Yes. Was there just one correct answer to each question? No. Would using these words in conversation make you look like a pompous ass. Absolutely.
@@RicktheRecorder i believe they're called loan-words, which comprise a large part of the English dictionary but much fewer of the words English speakers actually use day-to-day. which is why English is still classified as a germanic language
They are called lian-words, but as I suggested it's not a terribly useful definition, sunce really almost the whole language could be said to comprise loan-words. English is an international sponge. Only I think 'ersatz' could usefully be said to be a (recent) loan-word.
All words come from somewhere, but as a non-native speaker 17 is pretty good. Some of these are words I've probably only heard spoken a dozen times in six decades.
I don't know why one wouldn't strive to build a large vocabulary. Then, one can speak in any setting. It also helps when reading challenging books and magazine articles.
@davidadams2395 Would your time not be better served by learning the basics of more languages rather than the obscure and next to useless words of English? Knowing basic Chinese or Arabic would open up orders of magnitude more settings to speak in compared to knowing all the words at levels of obscurity like "obloquy" and "lacuna." And what about slang? Do you keep up with slang vocabulary across the many English speaking subcultures?
@gornjolf8877 Yes, I try to keep up with slang. Sure, knowing other languages is fantastic, and one can have a wide and varied vocabulary in each language one speaks. Nevertheless, those words are not yet archaic, and words I've encountered in the wild.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm German, not an English genius. I got 19 out of 20 correct. Knowing Latin prefixes and suffixes is a great help.
Good job!
Spanish speaker here (17/20), knowing a roman languaje helped a lot
What was the one? Was it obloquy? That one seems to have gotten most people.
When I was in high school, rather than have weekly vocabulary lists, my English teacher taught us Latin/Greek roots. I think it's the most important thing I learned in 12 years of English instruction. I almost wish I had had the opportunity to study Latin.
@@bemusedbandersnatch2069 I almost think that one is so completely obscure that it was unfair.
Just finished the video! With my deft mind, I faced the challenge with candor, refusing to dawdle even as some words were blatant puzzles. I had to concede that my fickle memory missed the zenith of my word prowess. Still, it galvanized my spirits, even amid the austere vibe of tricky terms. I won’t flout my mistakes during this hiatus, as banal as they were. Instead, I’ll coalesce my efforts to tackle this anathema of words. Staying sanguine, I demurred at ersatz meanings that were mere chimeras, avoiding obloquy, and learning to fill any lacuna in my vocabulary!
@@C0RY.M very erudite and loquacious explanation. Loved it. 😍
I think I should copy this and use it in a language test, if it is allright with you!
Neat!😁
Touche
That doesn't make sense at all.
15/20. This was humbling.
Same. I can say I had three of the ones I missed down to a 50/50.
Haha same
Same
Ditto
I managed 17, the last three were a little out there for me…(and I think I got 17 through process of elimination)
20 correct. Am 79, studied French, German and Latin for 7 years and it's the Latin that kept me on track.
@@rogernichols1124 Studying Latin will help in many ways. I’m about halfway through my study and, as you stated, it keeps you on track. Knowing Latin also helps in understanding the meaning of words that you may not have come across before but also their etymology.
Oh.
That is the point: those words are similar in many languages. This test is not to be considered about English language but about cultural level. Not being aware of this shows self-referetiality and poor knowledge of other languages.
Latin education on the west coast of the US, was sorely missing from the curriculum. I think I filled in the gap by studying science and Spanish, but I know it would have helped.
@@XX-fn6ky Excellent point. It also helps that I am able to read and speak French tolerably.
19/20. Obloquy got me. I have spent a lifetime looking up the meanings of words. I am particularly fascinated with etymology, the origin of words and word roots. For example, 'obloquy' comes from the Latin 'ob-' against and 'loqui' to speak. Therefore, 'obloquy' has the original meaning of 'to speak out against' something.
I won't take anything much beyond Latin but sometimes to ancient Greek Don't wanna think that hard although sometimes it gets to the "Anima Mundi" 8.5 billion minds, we all have to be on the same page more often than not But ersatz? the Germans couldn't get coffe in WWII and resorted to toasted grain (taste only) I think that "Postum" is still being made. I'll take the real thing, with caffeine thank you very much
Awesome ❤❤
My result also, which surprised me as I expected to get them all. About two thirds of them I correctly predicted before the choices were shown. Probably good for me to be humbled every now and then.
The word sanguine is related to blood. Is it not?
@@Jack_Callcott_AU The sense of sanguine as cheerful came originally from the thought that if your face was flushed (bloody) you were cheerful and optomistic
Came into this hoping to be in the 1%, left with the realization that If you use the 1% vocabulary, 99% of people can't understand you!
Please don’t ❤oo
My husband has accused me of speaking in 1% for decades. I was grounded horribly as a teenager, with literally nothing to do but read either a dictionary, encyclopedia or Reader's Digest. I had a $#!+ social life but a great vocabulary, for what that's worth.
Oh, and I wasn't a bad kid, my Mom was just horribly overprotective, especially with me being the baby of her 3 kids. I can laugh about it now but it sure did suck growing up.
None of these words are all that difficult, I know this video is obviously bait but it's kinda sad that these are seen as particularly impressive words.
Good. Plebs
More important than KNOWING the actual meaning of The correct word is the ability to rapidly eliminate those erronius choices with confidence. I missed 2 in the final group only
The last two were very much words that one would rarely see used in a lifetime. The others were pretty straightforward.
I didn't feel the last two embodied a jump in difficulty, B. There was nothing here that I'd be surprised to encounter in a long discursive article in a first-rate US or UK newspaper, The Economist, The New Yorker, The Atlantic...etc.
That's just me, though. All best.
I think I came across "lacuna" in a wiki article about some ancient greek text. Is it a term of art in palaeography?
I didn't have any trouble with the 20 words, but I did have to look up "cathexis." I agree with Peter Gay (see cathexis in Wikipedia) that it's "unnecessarily esoteric." I also learned some pronunciations. Did you know the earliest pronunciation of "banal," as preserved in old dictionaries, rhymed with "flannel?"
@@BarerMender UK here - yep, it's French. Over here, saying 'baynal' would mark the sayer down as trying to use a word that they hadn't got a full grasp of. And I suspect it'd be the same in (say) the offices of the New Yorker or the NYT, or in the best departments of the best US universities.
All best!
Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Lacuna is a good read.
Let's be honest, if any of us heard someone use the last 3 words in a real conversation we'd roll our eyes so hard it'd throw us off balance.
To be fair, it's far more likely to be used in writing rather than speech. In any case, I despise the assumption that people with a broad vocabulary are being necessarily pretentious; it's another form of anti-intellectualism or at least, inverted snobbery. In this age of narrowing vocabularies, managerial buzzwords, grammatical mistakes and the normalised malapropism, I'm happy to hear a rarely-used word. If I'm bold enough to look or sound puzzled, the person speaking usually clarifies without being a prat.
i had a roommate that would use words like that. I needed a distionary to talk to him sometimes.
😆😂Bazinga! I've got to remember that!
@@deborahcurtis1385 but it is an example of lacking the social skills to know your audience.
@@basedstreamingatcozy-dot-t7126
I'm speaking meaningfully I hope, about anti intellectualism and frankly laziness. A sign of intelligence is curiosity. Celebrating being sneery instead is not something to be encouraged, even if it is socially popular.
In fact, quite the opposite. Quite happy if you want to misconstrue that as being a snob, prat or elitist. It's your failure to want to spread curiosity and rather lame to call it 'failure to read the room' and cause eyerolls. I think the subject has been fully wrung out here in this limited medium, with all the implications about personal failure called from both sides. If you imagine that narrowed vocabulary doesn't affect concepts then read John Ralston Saul's 'Voltaire's Bastards'. It's an excellent book. I sent it to my father and he said it was the best book he'd ever read.
In my zealous pursuit of English, I find myself flummoxed and utterly nonplussed. This verbiage labyrinth bewilders my cerebrations! Of twenty attempted words, I contrived a paltry two correct-an outcome most ignominious, and yet, I persist in my lexical odyssey.
Did AI write that for you?
OK Shakespeare
Nonplussed? Definitely AI
for me ur English was extraordinary!
Got me 20 init
17/20 58 years old, and a lifetime reader. One of the best things about reading ebooks is that when I encounter an unfamiliar word, I can look it up immediately.
Me too! Although I’m still a paper girl, for me I find better focus, but everyone’s different. I love the way a new word can roll around in your mind.
Fellow reader here. 16 out of 20, and it should have been 17. Three of the words I'd never read or heard of. The remaining words in the list were of no help. Shrug.
Exactly this! I have neither the space nor money for all of the books my husband and I read. There’s also the issue with my physical problems that make reading a paper book genuinely unpleasant
@@canadiangirl1179 Canadian girl putting her body to good use yet?
19/20 - retired sixth grade teacher here. Never heard the word "obloquy" in my entire long life. THX
No obloquy in my vocab.
Me too! On both counts.
Same on both counts!
I think I actually HAVE heard it before, but I still missed it in this quiz .
19/20 - and I knew “lacuna” only because I’d done some reading on the Dead Sea Scrolls in years past.
@@darrellbrindley6029 I only knew lacuna through it's use to describe some mushroom features.
I'm an Italian native speaker. Got 16 / 20. All in all, I'm pretty happy with myself.
Hasta Luego Mexico man
16 correct+1 by educated guess... 45yo, Portuguese, Computer geek with barely any language skills... Maybe being a latin laguage speaker helps because many of the answers are similar to words we use.
20/20! I'm an 81-year-old retired medical librarian. I tried to anticipate what the word would be and got many of them correct. For the tricky obloquy, I guessed "opprobrium" which is equally obscure.
I guessed disapprobation!
I got flout right before seeing the choices. Good job, Kathy.
I chose opprobrium as well. Glad to know I wasn’t alone.
The only one I didn't get was obloquy - the only word in the whole test I'd never come across
That's a really excellent list of words.
When should note however that the quiz statement in number 11 is itself incorrect.
Disinterest means lack of bias. The question should have used the word uninterest.
I am 120 and got 47 correct.
😂😊
Are you a psychologist and astronaut too?
You did well, young padowon!
You must be Donald Trump.
Well, your language skill might be top notch, but it seems like you need to go back to math class. 😂
I have no degree, only a GED but a lifetime of crosswords and love of the English language. I feel self-satisfied to have answered 18 correct, missing ersatz and obloquy. I have seen ersatz before, but obloquy is a new word for me, I have never seen it before.
I got 17/20, with most of the missed words at the end, unsurprisingly.
A couple things:
1. While English does possess many loan-words ("ersatz", "gestalt", etc.), it often possesses intrinsically English words that act as synonyms or near-synonyms ("ersatz" = "artificial"/"imitation"). I don't personally believe knowing/not knowing those particular loan-words actually counts directly towards one's English vocabulary skills, but speaks more to one's greater comprehension of the language, as in its adoption of foreign words into itself. When a sufficient English word can be used in place of its foreign equivalent, it should be, as it is intrinsically English. Loan words which refer to concepts _not_ native to the English language are okay though, as there isn't an appropriate English substitute. "Gestalt" (a German word) for example would roughly mean, "something that is greater than the sum of its constituent parts, such that it cannot be reduced or its components extricated from the greater concept"; something that is intrinsically and fundamentally irreducible. Using "gestalt" to refer to such a concept is much more efficient and accurate than trying to describe what "gestalt" actually means.
2. Tangentially carrying on from point 1: English is a language full of redundancy and unnecessary verbosity, even within itself. Using oblique, obscure or unwieldy words not often used in most situations, especially when a sufficient synonym already exists within the language that is both more efficient and more well-known, without sacrificing accuracy ("lacuna" = "gap") should be avoided without exception. Brevity is to wit what precision is to comprehension. Just because you _can_ use such awkward terms correctly doesn't mean you _should_ - and, in fact, you _shouldn't._ They are unnecessary and often require structuring your dialogue awkwardly to shoehorn them into your speech. Knowing how to trim down one's vocabulary to discard obsolete/archaic terms in place of their identical, more elegant synonyms - and applying them appropriately - is just as important as expanding one's vocabulary to include new words to define ideas one otherwise has trouble articulating.
True mastery of a language is not about imbibing a dictionary and then regurgitating its contents to "sound smart"; it's about knowing how to wield it, like a tool to be used for its specific purpose. A hammer can pound many things, but its _intended_ use is to pound nails; you shouldn't be using a screwdriver for nails, nor a hammer for screws - and you shouldn't be looking for a torque wrench in either case! Knowing when and where to use your linguistic tools is among the most advanced aspects of mastering a language. Grab a hammer for the nails and a screwdriver for the screws, but leave the torque wrench at home; you don't need it.
Is English your second language? Because if so these paragraphs here are incredibly impressive. I hope I can one day be as expressive in the languages that I'm learning.
Wow, terrific insights and thank you for your take on this!
@@gappleofdiscord9752 I'm a native English-speaker. I should have broken up my points a bit more, I know. I was typing quickly though and just wanted to get the points down while keeping them constrained to the numbered headings.
I suppose I undercut myself with the atrocious formatting.
@@Armameteus I was complimenting your comment, I thought you expressed yourself really clearly. Regardless of first language that comment is an example of how you properly articulate what you're trying to say.
@@gappleofdiscord9752 Ah. Sorry, I guess I'm used to comments online that only compliment sarcastically. Like, I presumed you were making a joke out of my paragraph structure as a way to ridicule my perspective on English comprehension.
Perhaps I'm spending too much time on the internet. It's making me jaded and misanthropic. 😵
15 out of 20, not a native speaker but a proficiency test student, the last words were HARD AF
Same here, hard test for non- native speaker, but a solid grammar school education with latin, english, french and greek did help a lot. Thanks for your attention.
"Hard AF" ... very eloquent. LMAO!🤣🤣🤣🤣
Same here... but simply because I guessed many correctly, often by eliminating the other choices, sometimes by pure luck.
It helps that some of the answers are also French words. 😅
You did better than me and I am a native speaker.
No word is hard, it may just be unfamiliar.
I got 10, which honestly was better than I expected! That second half was no joke though!!
I got 15 out of 20, and I'm an English teacher! This goes to show just how difficult English can be.
Thanks for making me feel better, I got 5 wrong also:(((
quit.
@@j.g.c.2494 That's not a wise thing to say. Nor kind.
@@j.g.c.2494 Good start! Next try learning a 5-letter word.
@@franceslarsen4037 No problem! Most people would struggle with this test, but I think this audience is skewed towards people who have studied this stuff a lot. In reality you probably will only ever need at most 5 of these anyway. 15 is a great score.
I am 10 months old and got 1 out of 20. The only reason I said "lacuna" on the last question is that my attention was wandering and I was asking my dear mother to find my favorite stuffed animal, and my speech skills are not deft enough to properly identify the animal as a "vicuña". Still this result was enough to put me in the top 1% of my toilet training cohort.
Aaaaawwwww, I think you’re too modest, baby; give yourself some credit. Maybe you confused “vicuña” with “lacuna” because you had just woken up in “la cuna” where you’re put to nap every afternoon, bless your soul.
I got "lacuna" because it's an element of bone structure (background story there) and to my thinking it sounds similar to "lagoon", a gap in land filled with water.
For Scrabble players, geology is a great resource for obscure and peculiar words.
20/20 I am a native Amazonian and only last week made contact with the outside world. An American adventurer introduced me to the internet via the Starlink connection provided by the wonderful Mr. Musk - to whom I will offer great thanks and blessings. I was able to channel the knowledge of all who have come before me and the quiz became a piece of cake - as you Britishers say. Ciao.
😂😂
😂😂😂
20/20. My parents never answered my questions. I had to think out the answers and then look them up. It taught me to want to know everything. And as a result I’m a double PhD psychologist and research methodologist. I’m 75 and still asking questions every day.
@evanshaw17 🫛
21/20. I didn't have parents. I emerged from a cave about 45,000 years ago and had to fashion my own clothes. After my 12th PhD, I got tired of asking questions. Now I just peruse the world wide web to display my plethoric acumen and perspicacity.
@evanshaw17 It's amazing what you've accomplished! I believe that, no matter how studious a person is, there is always something new to learn. I don't consider myself a very well learned individual but I've widened my mind when I travel and meet people from different regions, countries, walks of life, fields of study, ethnicities and social statuses. I feel like I know very little in comparison to others but I'm always curious and willing to learn more.
I got 20 out of 20 and slept through High School. But sure, I’ld rank passing a Parochial School level vocabulary test on the same level as two Humanities PHDs.
@@Pfromm007 Wow, that's really impressive, you're definitely naturally smart and overall superior. Living that long takes discipline, I bet you eat your veggies, tons of fish and wild game regularly, plus you probably exercise and meditate a lot. And overall your life choices were much more advanced and sophisticated, you probably never got married, stayed debt free, learned the specific skills to ensure a superior financial stability, outstanding fitness level and an incredible social and psychological IQ. Wise man! If I could be like that...
I scrolled through most of the comments and what stands out is how well written everyone's posts are. I wish all of YT was like this!
@@dhalikias That’s a great observation.
What it is mayng? Gnomesayin'? 😎
Hardly surprising really. Only those of us with an encyclopedic vocabulary are likely to click on a video with that title. Nobody wants to feel inadequate or stupid.
Me not tock gud?
Me got 19, guessed 10 exact word thingies before options be written.
17 of 20 and guessed 2 correct in 1 thru 10 before answers were posed!!! I'm a huge word nerd. Just found this channel today. Great content. It's ironic that the older you get, the more you want to know. Spoken for myself specifically. Wonder if anyone else is the same?? I wish I had the same passion for knowledge I have now, being 40, when I was a teenager. Oh well,. Such is life.
16/20, being not a native speaker who doesn’t live in a foreign country or work with the language. I’m happy with my result
As you should be! That's very impressive!
Maybe so, yet your sentence is somewhat shady!
Good quiz. But on #17, there was an error. Just before the blank was the word "a." However, the correct answer began with a vowel sound, which means that the "a" should have been an "an." Then I noticed when you filled the blank in with the correct answer, the "a" suddenly became an "an." That was a tricky move, but technically misleading. Sorry for noticing that. But the quiz was interesting nevertheless.
I agree, but I have noticed that many newsreaders now say 'a' in front of a vowel, which sounds somewhat babyish. I pointed this out to my daughter, who said she had never been taught that 'an' precedes a vowel, although I am sure I corrected her many times as a child.
I would quibble with 'zee nith'. I have only heard it pronounced 'zen ith'.
@@willowtree9291 Only in the idiocracy called America.
In the US, ZEE-nith is the standard pronunciation. We had a brand of electronics by that name, and like many Americanisms, we sometimes read words without standard British pronunciations. But I’ve heard zen-ith in many commonwealth countries. I agree it’s misleading to change a spelling before a word.
good spotting on your part!
If you know the meaning of the words, the preceding "a" vs "an" shouldn't throw you off, especially when it's multiple choice.
I got 16 correct. The last few got me. I am a native speaker and I went to what is considered a good school. I hate to see how someone not at a "good" school does.
So glad I found your channel. I only got 12 correct. Fabulous to refresh and improve my English. Awesome.
Thanks so much, Lisa- and welcome!
I applaud you for being willing to say that in a comments section where everyone is bragging about how they got 20/20 and 19/20, etc.
@@jakes3799 Probably one of the only ones actually being truthful tbh lmao. I got 15, maybe should have gotten a few more but some of those words I have never even seen before. I would have gotten 1-2 more probably if I had longer than a few seconds to think about them.
@@jakes3799 Applaud? She said 12, not four.
@@CodPatrol When you're in an environment where everyone is bragging about how high their score is, it is intimidating. It's hard to say that you got something that is a little more average. You don't have to totally bomb to be intimidated.
17 correct. Am 70 years old, started reading Reader's Digest Pays to Improve Your Word power in 1973. Good test.
Native English speaker, but I speak 5 languages so I’m a bit of a unicorn (for instance, I love geography and cartography). I got 18 out of 20 and I learned a new word for the first time in years-obloquy 😎🤓👍
Thank you for brightening my day and teaching me something new!! 🙏🙏
We love your nature that makes you a teacher, a comedian, and an actor. You are truly talented, Brian, and you excel in all roles. You truly deserve appreciation. My best wishes, ESRAA
Thank you so much, Esraa!
learn gematria
@@BrianWilesLanguageslearn gematria
Managed to get 19. The question with chimera as the answer threw me. I'm a retired health care professional, so all I could think was a chimera is a person whose body is composed of cells that are genetically distinct as though they are from two different individuals. Tunnel vision, anyone?
That is why I missed that one also.
me too
Got 18 but that one also had me stumble. Personally I thought of the mythical beast created by a mix of many different body parts of various animals. I can somehow see how that particular definition could have come into being but it still threw me for a loop and I'm reasonably convinced that most people who read that word don't actually think of that particuar definition.
20/20 Just a high school grad, but I have loved reading all my life. I will read anything! Now 76.
I got 15/20!!! It was difficult, no doubt!!🙏🌹
9:28 the correct answer to 19 is E. Boeing. It’s become a proprietary eponym
Native English speaker - 19/20, never heard of obloquy. There were a few that knew, but have never used or heard spoken, only seen in writing. Fun video
20/20 Being Spanish and having studied Latin, French and German helped a lot. IMHO this is also a bit of a test of general knowledge, not just knowledge of English vocabulary. Banal, coalesce, ob loquii, hiatus, Mr Luigi Galvani of the electric pile, Ersatz, chimera, lacuna etc. Difficult words for English native speakers tend to stem from foreign languages, chiefly Latin, French, Spanish, German, even Yiddish so they are easy for those who know such languages. Conversely, "pure" (if such a thing exists at all :) English words are hard for us non-English speakers. I remember being throughly baffled by "newt" when I started learning English. Thanks and keep up the good work!
This is a very well thought out response, thank you for sharing your thoughts. English (like many languages) borrows a variety of words from others, and that can make it trickier, especially when the words are so obscure. Lacuna, for example, seems to stem from a Latin word literally meaning "Lake" - Sanguine, also Latin, means "blood". Having some casual Latin experience, I recognized some of those with their original meanings, but I'd never heard the... *erudite* way that they've been used in English. I got 16/20 correct I think. Some of the words I had just straight up never even heard of (and I fancy myself a vocab nerd). Language experience: Native English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, and recently Japanese. One thing that struck me about the way some of these words are used (like lacuna) is in a less-than-literal way, instead borrowing the concept or essence of the word's original meaning to create a new meaning. Japanese Kanji shares a bit of a similarity - sort of, go with me on this - the radicals represent concepts, but when combined they form new concepts or words, even if those separate radicals wouldn't *literally* mean that new thing together. It's part of what makes translating Japanese into English particularly challenging, and also very exciting, and it's why you can end up with some varied translations of the same thing, which I love, because they all serve to give broader context for whatever is being translated.
Thank you so much for your excellent comment! I completely agree with you, especially regarding the fascinating evolution of a word’s meaning after being adopted by different languages. I remember being very intrigued to learn that 'bizarre' likely originates from the Basque word for 'beard,' was adapted in Spanish to mean 'bold' or 'daring,' and then found its way into English with the meaning we know today-'eccentric.' (Why? I have no idea! 😊)
Your observations on kanji are also spot-on. My wife is Japanese, so I have some firsthand experience with the language. Your insights into the parallel between non-literal uses of borrowed words in Western languages and the Japanese onyomi/kunyomi readings are particularly original and thought-provoking. Thank you for sharing, and congratulations on such an insightful perspective!
By the way, this thread seems to be evolving beyond a typical TH-cam comments section. 😄
I learned the word ersatz from reading Leon Uris, "Mila 18."
When the man is right... La sagesse vient avec l'expérience/le temps.
20/20. I'm 82 and English is my fourth language, but all the words with a Latin origin (i.e. lacuna) were easy for me, which usually is not the case for English native speakers.
@@caeruleusvm7621
I agree with that. Also, the words that are 'difficult' for many English-speaking people tend to be trivial for Italian, French and Spanish speakers. I wish I had learned Greek also, but life is short ...
A lot came directly from the french, the one I missed "sanguine" it's because its meaning is very different in french, obloquy and other anglosaxon word I succeed by elimination of the french or latin options
@@neznamho Too bad learning Greek doesn’t grow legs and help you get out of that hospital bed 😭 He’s a swift swimmer!
I got 18 out to 20. I'm a Spaniard and speak several languages (Spanish, French, Italian, German and a good knowledge of Latin) and this last certainly has helped quite a lot
Nailed it. "Obloquy," however, I got only because the others didn't fit.
In thanks, I hereby pass on to you an exercise passed on to me by the late poet & professor John Morris, my own professor when I first started teaching writing. After being asked to read Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" for homework, students come to class next day and are given copies of the first paragraph but with several words replaced by blanks, and asked to supply words words that make sense. Students who read the essay can do this. The fun begins when they've finished, compare their choices to Orwell's, and discuss the differences.
I got a good score but i don't know if i deserve it. Most of my answers were because i eliminated the other options, not because I specifically know the correct word.
If you’re able to eliminate words, that’s also an indication of a strong English vocabulary (since many of the incorrect answers are also high-level words).
@@BrianWilesLanguages Note my comment that I would have used 'anathemic' (which is the word I anticipated), given the sentence structure. (Got 20/20, btw, was a bored kid who read a lot.)
There were several correct words possible to use in several of the sentences.
Process of elimination saved me a couple times for sure
True.That's the general fault of multiple-choice questions which, given any subject, can be scored pretty high by monkeys well-versed in test tactics. A theoretical monkey that only knows how to circle a random answer will, in the long run, score 1/n (n being the number of choices) and given enough attempts, will eventually pass the strictest tests.
Even after all these years learning about different words and meanings, I'm still amazed at how many different words have similar meanings! ❤
21/20, This task was arguably the simplest I’ve ever undertaken, rivaled only by my effortless admission to Oxford-an achievement so seamless, I didn’t even submit an application.
It’s not rocket science
The trick is to walk in wearing a visibility vest and carrying a ladder. Everyone will assume you work there, and you can lurk in all the classes you want
Well la dee freakin da.
😮
Amusing. I had to sabotage applications my parents insisted on...Harvard, Swarthmore, Yale. Had to go to hometown school, to continue caring for alcoholic dad, research scientist who ran much of Bell Systems. Princeton. Racist sexist partiers, mostly. Ugh. Mom also a polymath. Neither were consistently adult. Moi still working on that. You are phunny.
I got 16. Non-native speaker here, but my latin-based language helped in a few of the last ones. Thank you for teaching me a couple of new ones!
Idem, french here, the more difficult it was the easiest for me 19/20, sanguine has different meaning in french
Using he/him, she/her, and I/me correctly.
In your head say the sentence without the conjunction.
For example:
a) She and me went to the store
b) Her and me went to the store
c) She and I went to the store
d) Her and I went to the store
Remove, “and I” or “and me”
a) Her went to the store
b) She went to the store - correct
Now eliminate, “She and”
a) me went to the store
b) I went to the store - correct
So, c) is correct.
She and I went to the store.
Hope this helps. Said with love, no judgement. ❤️✌️
I’m still learning, too, as I only got 15 of the questions correct.
20. English is my second language, but I have studied hard all my life. I am now 64 years old, and speak five languages.
20/20. English is my native language, and I'm a nerdy Scrabble-a-holic! Very impressive questions. I kept trying to anticipate what the word would be, and not always getting there before it came up, especially at the end! I have HEARD of obloquy, but it's not a word that comes easily to mind. But I insist on candoUr!
Me too!
Also got 20/20 and kept trying to guess the word and I think it got harder as the list moved to obscure words that don't necessarily help with general communication. Also candour and less 'z' in words :)
20/20 Native speaker, 81 years old. Latin, Greek both helped, though I was pretty certain in all cases.
20 out of 20. Got harder toward the end, but wasn’t that hard because the two other choices were obviously wrong😂(helps if you also know the meaning of the “wrong” words)
it's American spelling... they're lazy spellers !
I got 20/20, but I'm a well read and well educated native speaker.
Having a Romance language wound certainly help, but I'm in awe of any non-native speakers who got 15 or better. If I got 10/20 in a Polish veision I'd be dancing around for days!
Got 18 correct answers. Wonder how many native speakers get a good score considering that a lot of native speakers can't even spell there/they're/their correctly?
@@user-zw6pn3ql7y it’s spelled dere.
Not a native speaker but missed three. Got to thank lemony snicket for "ersatz"!
@@lambdacore12 I love that book series bro
Its not that we cant spell it, its that we really dont care, you still understand what *there* trying to say, right?
Native speaker..15 😂
The last few showing the range of source languages for English - chimera (Greek), lacuna (Latin for hole or gap), ersatz (German for replacement), sanguine (Old French, based on Latin, meaning blood red) and obloquy (derived from Latin). But not too many Anglo-Saxon words are in the super-difficult category.
'blatant' (one of the words used here) may not strictly speaking be Anglo-Saxon, but it is English. It was popularized (and may have been invented by) Edmund Spenser for his Dungeons and Dragons poem The Faerie Queene.
easy for me because I could eliminate the french origin words which I knew the meaning so I got obloquy and I would forget it immediatly
easy quizz for a french people
20/20. I would say anyone who has had a reasonable education up to the age of 18 and is widely read, would know most of these words. Further education or more years of continuing to read and explore would give them the rest of the words. Certainly if they had been through the UK education system.
I was looking for a good teacher to improve my english level…Then I found you.❤️
I’m very glad to hear that, Esther- welcome!
Now who is going to understand what you are saying?
My husband, 85 and I, 76, got all 20. Not terribly difficult. I call these SAT words and, although I don't use most of them in everyday speech, I do try to use a higher-level vocabulary which is usually more apt. I've loved reading all my life and, undoubtedly, that helped a lot.
Retired Physics teacher here. I got 19/20 but guessed the last two. The last two were totally new to me, and I am 70! Thanks for the fun.
Lacuna is a twin to lagoon, it means a gap. Obloquy carries the suggestion of unfair criticism.
@@malvoliosf No I think "lagoon" comes from the Italian/Venetian meaning "big lake." "Lago" is "lake" in Italian and laguna is augmentative form of "lago" meaning "big lake." We talk about the Venetian lagoon. "Obloquy" is to do with forgetting - in a French castle an oubliette was a dungeon where you were doomed to be imprisoned for a life time and forgotten.
@@kaloarepo288 Wiktionary says that lagoon comes from lacuna and obloquy from obloquor, to speak against.
@@malvoliosf But "lacus" for lake -"lago" in Italian came first and the lacuna thing is a secondary meaning. The venetian lagoon - means big lake -same way that pontoon means a big bridge - in Italian the 'one" at end of words is an augmentative meaning "big" Lots of other examples borrowed into English but then spelled oon.
20/20. Lacuna is more of a literary word, which as a professional writer I was already familiar with. The 19th question was purely a guess, because the other three options just didn't seem right.
Got nineteen, and your test was fun. Challenging and satisfying. Thank you!
29 year old law graduate and native speaker here. I got 15. It was lightwork until #15 lol I hadn't heard of basically any of the 4 options from that point forward.
Feel like being a non-native speaker (assuming you're fluent) would be a huge help in tests like this. You, as a non-native speaker, would've studied the language far more than a native speaker and would likely see words that the normal native speakers would never see in their lives. You are also probably better with languages than the average native English speaker since many many native English speakers are monolingual. Thus, you have a pretty good chance of understanding language in general, most notably the roots of the words here, that would give you a sizeable leg up.
I have a Masters degree in English and taught college writing for 25 years.
I doubt many native English speakers will get 100%. You get very obscure towards the end. To score in the upper teens, you'll need a superior background in morphology, plus extensive experience with Victorian and Edwardian non-fiction texts, especially legal documents, to get a feel of precise usage.
Yes, I believe many liars are here on this thread. I'm a native speaker. I'm college educated, and I consider my vocabulary far above average in USA. I'm often correcting others on vocabulary, syntax, and pronunciation. (Sadly I'm not good at writing anymore)
In all honesty, I got 14 correct. 1 or 2 by guessing.
I did.
I dispute that. I got 19/20, without that experience, but I was tested at a college reading level in 7th grade (US schools).
@@MC-ep8cu Then you're probably not "far above average" for someone who was college educated, sorry. Only the last two were genuinely obscure.
15/20
It seemed at first anyone who reads can get all of them, but then it turned to words no one uses
All 20 correct without difficulty. The product of a good education all those years ago. I am now 75.
Same here,
I'm 18 and after the first few I started to not know words and gave up around question number 10. Despite finishing my high school education, I've still got lots to learn I guess.
Same here. I'm 72.
@@SawyerCarlson-h6f Knowing you still have lots to learn is the best thing you could learn. I still feel that way and I graduated HS in 1969. The best way to increase your vocabulary is to read, a lot, anything, everything, whatever, just learn to love reading and your world will never stop expanding.😸
@@crowleythedemoncat Yes, learning to love reading and learning in general is vital to my success. The problem is there are so many distractions so it can feel difficult to be productive. Maybe I just need to slowly increment my productivity time until I spend most of my time in a fun and productive way.
Got me on oblique and lacuna. And I've been speaking English for 78 years! I guess I still have something to learn.
Yay! I got all 20 right, but I had to guess the word, "obloquy". I'm a 67 year old retired accountant from Canada. I was able to anticipated about half the words in advance.
Same here. 20/20 but guessed obloquy.
6:04 ”Indifference” instead of ”disinterest”. ”Disinterest” means impartiality or lack of bias.
Yep.
I've noticed that Americans often use 'disinterested' when the word should be 'uninterested'.
@@arthurmee It's a word that comes to mind, and they think it's the right one.
I came here to say the same.
Sadly, the two words which once were quite different have merged their meanings. I guess judges are now required to be 'impartial' rather than disinterested.
I came into this knowing I wouldn't know all the words but that's precisely why I did. To learn them. You always start somewhere, and you've always got to learn sometime. Remember that, don't let what you don't know get you down, just learn it! ♥
i am glad i found some one who is really the best in his field
That’s very kind of you, Mustafa- thank you 🙏
18/20
The ones that I missed: ersatz and obloquy. I’m not a native speaker. English is my second language.
Wow very impressive!
ersatz is a German word 🤣
@@pelicanus4154 ... and with the emphasis on the second syllable (nót the first) !! 😉
English is your 2nd language and yet you knew what lacuna meant?
@@MrKeefy1967 Maybe he was like De Montaine and his first language was Latin.
20/20 Here. 69 yo Australian retired scientist, all but the last 2 I knew for sure. The last 2 words were educated guesses but I will take that 😊
Obloquy got me as well. 19 correct. Being fluent in French made #20 obvious.
My French extensive, 55 years, but lacuna is Latin, direct.
@@JamesSimmons-d1t Peut-être auriez-vous des lacunes en français ?
It helps! 😊 A good number of those are rare in English but standard in french, like candour, concede, austere, banal, or indeed lacuna
@@JamesSimmons-d1t It's almost as if French derives much of its lexicon from Latin. Perhaps, even, one might say that the Latin influences in English came, in large measure, through French itself. At least, that's what my friend Billy from Falaise said.
This video really humbled me and served me a long awaited reality check of how bad my English actually is. I only got a pitiful amount if 4 questions correctly, I didn't even recognize like 75% of the words shown. This awakened my curiosity to learn these obscure words, but do you have any ideas where I could find and learn them?
Read a lot. That helps.
@@bradhoehne8369 I second this, and I think what is important about reading "classics" is that one learns how their systems of thought "sound." Then the strange words become contextualized. I approach it as learning/reading a fantasy novel, where the words and expressions become a part of the world created.
Examples like "Around the world in 80 days," "The Illiad," and "Les Misérables" are incredible examples of diversity of speech.
This is an important realization, that English is an amalgamation of many different languages, not only in "words" (loan words) but in thought (translations from those languages that become vernacular).
I think its pretty enjoyable to take and bask in.
I am not a native speaker, English being my third language. Got
19 out of 20 correct answers. Wow!
Strangely, with the last few, a knowledge of a romance language was probably more useful than knowing English.
.
20 correct. Wonderful what a lifetime of reading will do for you!
The higher end words one would almost never pass or use in a natural manner unless in certain situations or (academic) settings as they are low frequency words. Maybe an advanced extension quiz of these words could be 'in which situation' is it best used in? 'In what context' pethaps you can call it? 😊
i don't think this test deserves your obloquy. Or lambasting. Or admonishment. Or objurgation. Or excoriation.
@@Fergilicus Enflengument?
[Note to non-native speakers: Don't panic, I did actually make that word up.]
This version of knowledge is reminiscent of Trampoopinator's use of I.Q. as an adjective, eliding the fact that no one has a 'measurable' number to compare intellects. Each test tests for different knowledge and other abilities...speed, flexibility, memory, etc. Satchmo, Einstein, Mark Twain, not comparable. The best way to learn languages as an adult is to barter, trade knowledge for another kind of knowledge. Every month free. Manyway. Knowledge and understanding are very different. Thorough maturation means studying everything somewhat, and adjusting the scientific method by context, correlating all knowledge so that it can be understood. Fun have. Interdisciplinarians R us. We. Generalistically writing, figuratively, speaking.
18/20. Last 2 got me. Being multiple choice, some of the wrong answers were just so BLATANT, its practically giving away the answer even if you didnt know exactly what the correct answer.
Me too, the last two were obscure and I got 18/20.
Same
Speaking French did help (lacune, austère, zenith, galvaniser...)
English never knew a language that it can’t appropriate from😂😂😂
@@patriceferguson7340 All languages do that.
Lacune got me
About 1/3rd of English words come from French!
And a number of others come from Scandinavian languages, as Vikings raided and colonized the regions of the Danelaw from the early 9th century. My family history is mostly English and Scottish, as most of the ancestors we know about came from those two countries, but by DNA I am descended from Vikings more than from Anglo-Saxons or Scots. The DNA tests don’t take into account that one’s ancestors might have made a stopover in the British Isles for 600 or 700 years. 😄
English teacher here and I got 16/20. Pretty tough at the end! I feel good about that.
I would be willing to guess that a random sample of English speakers 50 years ago would have done better with this test than a modern random sample. This is partly due to changes in teaching but also because of the digital revolution. When you can google the answer to a question rather than read half a dozen books on the subject there's inevitably going to be both an outsourcing of our critical faculty and less exposure to the language.
I'm 61 and got 19/20. I already knew that my vocabulary is far above average, but that crossed my mind, too. It would be interesting to see a chart tracking success with age.
50 years changes language a lot. People can have their natural accent change in shorter a time span. Technology (computers, commercial passenger jets, cell phones), major events (think pre-WWII and post-WWII or pre-9/11 and post-9/11), changes in demographics (Mediterranean vs. South American vs. Asian immigration), and people just changing the way they talk are all things within the last 100 years that have nothing to do with how many books people read and everything to do with how languages change over time. Modern English barely resembles Middle English, while Old English is practically another language. And these are all vastly different from whatever Indo-European languages originally found their way to the British Isles.
You can't freeze a language in place, even if you tried with considerable effort. We know this because Arabic and Tibetan both tried lol.
I got like 15-16 but at least 2-3 of those came from out of the context and by eliminating other options
That’s a great score 👍
I was a math major. Before going to university, I hated my English classes. In university, I had much better teachers in English and enjoyed it so much that I took several extra English classes that involved both reading and writing.
Apparently, it paid off. I got all 20 right. I think it was because I have done so much reading since university turned me on to enjoying English literature. You learn new words through reading good authors of both fiction and non-fiction. I always look up words I have never seen before too.
I used to do the NY Times crossword puzzles every day too and completed them. (I have fallen out of the habit during the last 5 to 8 years.)
Tbh most of these complex words aren’t necessarily meant to be used in everyday conversation, so even if you know 30% of them then consider yourself to be fluent in English. ( I got 6/20, and I have gcse English)
I got 20/20 and I dropped out of high school in 11th grade
I will say though my best friend is an English professor and my brother and girlfriend both have English degrees so that probably has a lot to do with it.
Thanks I feel better now!! I got 8/10 in the first part, and 5/10 in the second part.
@@pepeteriyaki3779perhaps knowledge seeped through you but only so far as they occasionally used such expressions… or are you one of those persons that enjoy reading Latin translations of Aristotle?
Says the guy who only got 30% I have no degrees and spent 6 years in high school because I skipped MANY classes. I got 15/20 because I read........ A LOT!
This is an excellent quiz ( I dont mean to brag, but I aced it.) I spotted one small error in the example for number twelve - it should have said "lack of interest", not "disinterest."
"Disinterest" means "impartiality."
Yeah, in the past you were correct, but the two words 'disinterest' and 'uninterest' have merged meaning and now stand for a lack of interest. Judges now have to be impartial rather than disinterested. A shame, but usuage wins every time.
Disinterest can mean both impartiality and lack of interest.
They’ve only merged meaning because people were rather indifferent to the first group of people who started to use it incorrectly (thereby rendering the word ambiguous). So, does a “disinterested third party” now mean someone who really finds the particular subject boring?
I got 19. Obloquy got me. I'm 75 started reading early and often. Educated in Santa Ana CA.
I was doing well, building up my confidence...
and then the last 5 questions happened
sanguine and chimera specifically shocked me cause whenever I read sanguine it almost always referred to blood and if you go and google chimera now it points you in the direction of the Greek myth sharing the same name.
anyways this was a fun exercise. Thank you for putting it together!
-some guy from Egypt
He was wrong about the use of Chimera.
@@rkozakand Not wrong, but a secondary and arguably obscure meaning. You see the same pattern with the word ‘utopia’ itself, something implausible getting used figuratively for something impossible,
same for me on sanguine and Chimera, though Chimera can mean any mix of animals
I see there is another MTG player in the comments lol
@@Jesayou nah just a mythology geek if anything
19/ 20, obloquy got me. Some of my answers were gotten by elimination.
Very nice work!
Aah, obloquy got the better of me too.
Obloquy stumped me too
ditto!
16/20 correct, it was a fun test. There were a few words I recognized but didnt have the correct definition for. Learned something new!
20/20, but I'm a native speaker. I noticed a lot of pronunciation differences from the UK. Ersatz is pronounced with a Z and not an S in the middle in the UK.
Also the pronunciation of banal would never include anal!
It is also pronounced that way in the US. I have never heard this guy's pronunciation before.
In German Ersatz the stress is on the second syllable and the 'e' and 'a' are both pronounced differently, the 'a' like in but....
@@snailmail4152 No, there is no German "a" pronounced like the "u" in "but". That is s mispronunciation that all learners of English produce. The "u" in "but" is subtly different from /a/.
All the people in the comments who studied Latin are disqualified.
Prizes for English, French, Latin, Greek, Phi Beta Kappa pin, oldest prep school in N.J. Racist right wing slime, primarily...the day students had the brains...some. School had a damn golf course, chapel required. Lawrenceville, richer side of Princeton. Dissing qualities.
I got 19 correct! Lacuna baffled me completely! Not bad from a Greek who came to this country at 19 speaking very little English! I am now a polyglot having mastered seven languages, a local speak (not dialect!), and understanding pretty well two more romance ones.
BTW, I find your quizzes very enjoyable. Kudos!
Well I was admittedly a word snob but missed two -so 18/20!!! I do enjoy these types of word puzzles which I frequently have done & now must get back to!!!
Thank-You For This (I am getting older & need to keep my mind sharp!!!
Sincerely,
~Kim G.
You might like the NPR show "A Way With Words".
20/20. Retired psychologist here. A well graded quiz! I feared that the later questions might stray in complete esoterica, but no, that didn't happen. Thanks.
17/20 for me. I have a varied breadth of life experience which is what I think helped me score well. I was in business and technology for 20 years, a procurement professional (contract law) for much of that, and I am now in the medical field.
Admittedly, some of the words I got correct because I was successfully able to eliminate the others.
Exceptional performance! I felicitate you. In addition, it was implicitly a tremendous felicity to initially clock your channel in TH-cam
I would say a good synonym for dawdle is procrastinate. That being said, the video was great :)
Procrastinate doesn't usually have the connotation of being slow or even idle. Someone who is physically capable of it can run a 4-minute mile and be simultaneously procrastinating. You couldn't be doing that and dwadling at the same time. I am a native English speaker, language teacher and polyglot should credentials be called for.
@@baxtercol I was merely suggesting something, but I get what you mean. I feel like procrastinate has a less general meaning than dawdle - at least it does in my mother tongue. Usually we use it in a school-related context
@@YT_YM Hi, just out of curiosity, what is your mother tongue? I'm long out of school but I'm guilty of doing it all the time. LOL
@@baxtercol no worries ^^ My mother tongue is French
@@YT_YM Que notre bon Dieu vous protège et vous bénisse toujours. ☺️
Born and raised Filipino, 17/20. Most of these words aren't used in daily conversation. Honestly, the second half gave me the words that I've NEVER heard before, and perhaps would never use. I've been taught to make it simple and easily understood.
I really enjoyed this one-1%? Umm... 🤔
It’s one of those ‘on fire’ topics, and not many people can explain such complex ideas in a way that everyone can follow. Your examples, like in the past ‘20 Phrasal Verbs’ video, always make things clear. Thanks for consistently choosing great topics and making learning enjoyable. 😊❤
- Islam from Egypt 🇪🇬
Thanks a lot, Islam!
20/20. I am not a native and have never spoken a language, but I deduced the meanings using a priori logic and contrarianism, much to my hubris!
I love the legitimate increase in difficulty throughout the video, very engaging and fun!!
Not sure about top 1%. Most high schoolers should be able to answer most of these questions.
Cavalier, austere, banal, sinecure, trenchant (doubt on that one actually), ersatz, etc, were not even english words but french, latin or even german. Plus, some sentences, can very well have meaning with various words, just give a different image. Example the first one, magician could very well be a clumsy clutz yet still manage to put up a show. From a writer's perspective it could be a good way to present a kid making his debut in the field. There were more sentences like that. Like the artist one where two words could've been used interchangeably. Not sure this is a good english test to be frank
The words you cite are all English words. English is full of words, indeed almost all words, that have come from other languages.
Totally agree. I am English.
Did I know the correct pronunciation and meaning of the words? Yes. Was there just one correct answer to each question? No. Would using these words in conversation make you look like a pompous ass. Absolutely.
@@RicktheRecorder i believe they're called loan-words, which comprise a large part of the English dictionary but much fewer of the words English speakers actually use day-to-day. which is why English is still classified as a germanic language
They are called lian-words, but as I suggested it's not a terribly useful definition, sunce really almost the whole language could be said to comprise loan-words. English is an international sponge. Only I think 'ersatz' could usefully be said to be a (recent) loan-word.
Being French was a great help as I felt more and more comfortable as the test got tougher !! 😅
17 as a non-native. Reason: The difficult words aren't english, they are latin or even german...
Most rare words in English either come from Latin, German, or French.
All words come from somewhere, but as a non-native speaker 17 is pretty good. Some of these are words I've probably only heard spoken a dozen times in six decades.
20 of 20. Despite the words being common to me, I understand when to speak casually and when to speak, or write, formally.
In what context would you ever need to use the last 5 words?
I don't know why one wouldn't strive to build a large vocabulary. Then, one can speak in any setting. It also helps when reading challenging books and magazine articles.
@davidadams2395 Would your time not be better served by learning the basics of more languages rather than the obscure and next to useless words of English? Knowing basic Chinese or Arabic would open up orders of magnitude more settings to speak in compared to knowing all the words at levels of obscurity like "obloquy" and "lacuna." And what about slang? Do you keep up with slang vocabulary across the many English speaking subcultures?
@gornjolf8877
Yes, I try to keep up with slang. Sure, knowing other languages is fantastic, and one can have a wide and varied vocabulary in each language one speaks. Nevertheless, those words are not yet archaic, and words I've encountered in the wild.