Everyday Grammar TV: What Is a Pessimist?

Dr. J: Hi, John! John: Hi, Dr. Jill! Do you like to build things? [holds up toy blocks] Dr. J: Yes - although I have to say it has been a long time since I have played with toy blocks. John: I was thinking that these blocks can show us how to understand relationships of English words. Dr. J: How so? John: Well, let's take a common way to describe how people view the world. We might say a person is an optimist or a pessimist. Let's take the noun, “pessimist” - a person who expects the worst. Dr. J: Neither of us are pessimists! But there are definitely pessimists in the world. John: That's right. Let's see how we can use our blocks to show relationships between words. We can take the noun "pessimist" and add an -ic ending, like this: Then we get the adjective "pessimistic." Dr. J: I see. And then we can add an -ally ending to "pessimistic," This is how we arrive at the adverb "pessimistically." Dr. J: This example shows you one way that English speakers build upon words. But once you learn how words are connected, you can also study which words are more commonly used. John: Google's Ngram Viewer has data from many books. Dr. J: Ngram Viewer tells us that the adjective "pessimistic" is used more frequently than the noun "pessimist." John: We can also learn about which words are most commonly used before or after a word of interest. Dr. J: For example, Google's Ngram Viewer tells us that the article "a" is the most commonly used word before "pessimist" and "pessimistic." This makes sense because articles often introduce a noun or noun phrase. John: What about our adverb "pessimistically?" We can also learn that the verb most commonly used with "pessimistically" is "said." JR: And that’s Everyday Grammar TV! --------- Learning English is Voice of America’s multimedia source of news and information for millions of English learners worldwide. We help you build vocabulary, strengthen your speaking skills and improve your ability to communicate for work, school and everyday life. EXPLORE OUR PLAYLISTS: » Learning English Podcast:    • Learning English Podcast   » Let's Learn English with Anna! (For children 8-12)    • Let's Learn English with Anna   » Let's Learn English Level 1    • Let's Learn English   » Let's Learn English Level 2    • Let's Learn English Level 2   » VISIT OUR WEBSITE: https://learningenglish.voanews.com » LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE:   / voalearningenglish   » FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM:   / voalearningenglish   » FOLLOW US ON TWITTER:   / voalearnenglish   » SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST ON ITUNES: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/v... Voice of America (VOA) is the largest U.S. international broadcaster, providing news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 326 million people.