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In this episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Xochitl and Jack explain what it means when Americans use the terms fine, good, and great.
Transcript:
00:00:01
Jack
Welcome to the A-Z English podcast. My name is Jack and I’m here with my co-host social. And today we are stepping into the vocabulary spotlight and we’re going to focus on three adjectives. Fine, good and great and what they actually mean in.
00:00:21
Jack
The context of a a meal or other situations so social do you want to explain what we’re talking about here today?
00:00:32
Xochitl
Yes. Umm. So I think that fine, good and great are kind of a uh.
00:00:40
Xochitl
Hierarchy almost of of ratings and sign is.
00:00:46
Xochitl
You know that’s the lowest.
00:00:48
Xochitl
Good is the one in the middle.
00:00:50
Xochitl
And great is the highest.
00:00:53
Xochitl
In terms of values, but I feel like in the US cultural context it it switches up a little bit because Jack.
00:01:01
Xochitl
If I ask you how is the meal and you say it was fine, what does that say to you?
00:01:07
Jack
If I say it was fine means it was acceptable but but not.
00:01:13
Jack
Nothing special. You know, it was just like it was. OK, that’s what it means. It was fine. It was. It wasn’t. It wasn’t below. It wasn’t where it wasn’t so bad that I would complain about it. Yeah, it wasn’t bad, but it it wasn’t it. It was average. It just means average.
00:01:15
Xochitl
Yeah.
00:01:25
Xochitl
Wasn’t bad.
00:01:33
Jack
I would say.
00:01:33
발표자
Yeah, it means.
00:01:34
Xochitl
Average, which in the US cultural context means not really good enough anyway.
00:01:41
Jack
Yeah. Like you go to a restaurant, you’re like it was fine. I don’t think you’re gonna go back to that restaurant again, you know.
00:01:48
Xochitl
No.
00:01:50
발표자
Yeah.
00:01:51
Xochitl
Yeah. And so then if I ask you, ohh, how was your meal and you say it was good? What?
00:01:56
Xochitl
Would that mean?
00:01:58
Jack
That would mean it was better than fine. So it was it was above acceptable range. It was above average, but just barely, you know, just just slightly above average.
00:02:12
Jack
You know good.
00:02:12
Xochitl
Yeah, it was nothing, really too special. Even though you would normally think.
00:02:19
Xochitl
Ohh it’s a good meal. It’s good but.
00:02:22
Xochitl
Typically when we use it in that context, it’s shifts to mean you know it was an acceptable above average, but not being spectacular.
00:02:33
Jack
Right it in. I might go back again, but I might forget about that restaurant. You know, it’s it it. It’s not memorable, you know.
00:02:43
Xochitl
Yeah.
00:02:44
Xochitl
And then if I say Jack, how was your?
00:02:45
Xochitl
Meal and you say oh it.
00:02:46
Xochitl
Was great. What does that mean?
00:02:49
Jack
That means that I had a really good dining experience like you with the food was was right on point. Maybe the atmosphere was really nice in the restaurant and it was a great meal. And so it’s a place that I would definitely.
00:03:06
Jack
Recommend to other people.
00:03:09
Jack
And I would probably go back again to that restaurant.
00:03:15
Xochitl
Yeah. So I think it’s a little different for us in the US because I know that even other English speaking countries like the UK sign good and great take on different meanings. And in the US, we’re kind of.
00:03:34
Xochitl
We’re very uh.
00:03:37
Xochitl
Exuberant by nature, which I guess means, you know, easily excitable and very over.
00:03:44
Jack
Exaggerate, you know.
00:03:46
Xochitl
Yes.
00:03:47
Xochitl
Yeah, we do. So if a meal is fine in the US, it’s like.
00:03:52
Xochitl
It’s not great. So I think that’s just an interesting thing about our culture. What would you say?
00:03:58
Xochitl
About that, Jack.
00:03:59
Jack
Yeah, it’s, it’s where Americans really have a hard time being negative. We try to put a positive spin on everything, but what happens when you do that is that basically words take on new meanings, right? You change the meaning of the words. So fine actually becomes just OK.
00:04:19
Jack
Or acceptable whereas.
00:04:22
Jack
Its original meaning was that fine was a very positive thing. You know, that was a fine meal, but now if you’re using the word fine, it just means average, which you know, it just we just have a really hard time being honest in in American culture.
00:04:43
Jack
And so even when something is not good, we’ll assign a positive adjective to it. But what happens overtime is that that adjective comes to mean something completely different than its original meaning.
00:05:00
Jack
And so it right. Exactly. Exactly. So now basically, fine has been demoted, you know, Lord to meaning average, which means then good gets brought down to a lower level, which means just a little bit better than average. And then we need to use.
00:05:00
Xochitl
Yeah, it is.
00:05:21
Jack
Very exaggerated words like great, wonderful, amazing to actually mean something was very good, you know, like what? And.
00:05:32
Jack
So I I think it’s very interesting how it’s just it’s an insight into American culture how we’re kind of always positive about everything even when things are not maybe so positive.
00:05:46
Xochitl
Right. And so it’s kind of, uh, inflation of the value of words in a way.
00:05:51
Jack
You’re right, exactly. We we’ve inflated the meaning of of right of words that.
00:05:59
Jack
That that originally had had kind of different meanings, and so I think in the dictionary, you know, fine still would be.
00:06:08
Jack
A positive thing, you know, but in just casual conversation, as if you really want to understand intimately American culture.
00:06:21
Jack
You’d have. You have to understand that with if, if somebody if you. If you go to a restaurant and somebody says that was that was fine. They’re really saying it was OK you know nothing special. And if they say it.
00:06:32
Jack
Was good. It was. It was.
00:06:34
Jack
You know better than fine, but not great. And then anything above that great.
00:06:40
Jack
Wonderful. Amazing. Then you can trust that that’s a a restaurant you should visit.
00:06:46
Xochitl
Yep, I agree. All right, well, listeners, if you have any questions about that or want to hear about similar subjects or want to tell us how it is in your culture?
00:06:56
Xochitl
Make sure to leave a comment down below at 8 is the English product or A to englishpodcast.com shoot us an e-mail at at ozenglishpodcast@gmail.com and join our WeChat WhatsApp groups to join the conversation and we’ll see you guys next time. Bye bye.
00:07:09
Jack
Bye bye.
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