Index of Daily Doses: http://DailyDoseOfEnglish.com
Hello and welcome to another Daily Dose of English.
Lukasz, and I'm not even going to try to pronounce the surname, Myslicki, from Poland has asked: "Could you explain what the difference is between the words high and tall?"
Well, that's a good question and that's why I decided to make today's Daily Dose of English about it. It's also a question that I have been asked many times by many students.
Unfortunately, it's not nearly as easy to answer as it might at first seem. In fact, it's quite a tall order.
Let's first have a look at some words and expressions that use the words high and tall.
The following are words that use high in English: high alter, highball, highbrow, high chair, high church, high court, high explosive, high five, high-flyer, high ground, high-handed, high jinks, highland, highmost, high-minded, high-priest, high-ranking, high-reaching, high-roller, high school, high-speed, high street, high water, highway.
We can speak in a high voice. We can be highly strung though we may be living the high life, or we wish to high heaven that we were. If I'm ill, I can have a high fever.
Human beings are one of the higher apes which is why we like to pay high prices for things we don't really need, while the lower apes are content with a banana or two at high noon.
The following are words that use tall in English: tallboy, tall order, tall ship, tall story. We can walk tall through tall grass.
So you can see that high is certainly more commonly used than tall in English.
Tall is used to talk about people's stature. A tall person is high of stature, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Notice the use of the word high to describe the adjective tall.
There is an expression in English - tall, dark, and handsome - which is used to talk of a type of attractive man.
The OED also says that we use tall to refer to things which are "high and lofty" and especially those which are "high in proportion to their width". We have the Tall Ships Race, and the tallest summit in a range of mountains.
So the OED uses high to define tall, but does not use tall to define high. This, and the fact that the entry for high in the OED runs to 29 pages while the entry for tall runs to six, suggests to me that high is the more important of the two words.
Anyone who professes to know the rules of usage for the words high and tall is telling a tall story. I'll walk with my head held high even if I can't adequately formulate such a rule. At least I won't be for the high jump for not being able to find a rule.
However, there is one rule that I would certainly urge you to follow. That is never to use high to refer to a person. You can use high or tall to refer to most things, but not to people. High nowadays has a new meaning - that of being under the influence of drugs.
That man's tall means he is of greater than average height. That man's high means he is off his head from the effects of some illegal substance.
When I was a policeman, I arrested a man for possession of heroin. He was sitting at the top of a hill, and when he saw me coming towards him, he injected the syringe into the ground - the syringe of heroin.
I later asked him in interview, "Why did you inject the heroin into the hill? Wasn't it high enough already?" When this question was read out in the high court, even the old judge was forced to smile.
I hope you enjoyed this Daily Dose of English and I'll see you soon for another one.
Goodbye for now.
Learn English online using Skype: I also give online English classes by Skype. You can find out more by visiting http://linguaspectrum.com If you want to learn English quickly and easily, I invite you to take classes with me online using Skype. Also providing complete accent reduction training.
Loading...
21 videos
good job!
MrZonYT 3 weeks ago
I think it is right to say , " The building is tall." , " There are lots of high-rise buildings in the city" The only expression I can think of using "high" to describe a person is "high and mighty"
yangqinks 6 months ago
Hello,Richard.Your lesson is very interesting.Good job man and Good Day !
Aleksey11091974 8 months ago
thanx
13felicita 11 months ago
I realized that your daily dose of English is the best means of building my English vocabulary. So many words in such a short video. :-)
Thank you so much and good luck for your new daily doses of English :)
greetings from Slovakia
jankablanka 11 months ago
Ha..ha...ha...I love this lesson...so funny and useful~! Thanks a lot, teacher~!
tienmimidehome 11 months ago
@Sk8orNoJESUSorDie It was for real, though it was also a joke I made at the time.
Linguaspectrum 11 months ago
@urbanruler Longmans is a good dictionary and I have it myself. The Holy Grail of British English dictionaries is the complete Oxford English Dictionary in 20 volumes, but it cost me over €300 on CD, but it's too much for a student. Any modern dictionary from Collins, Oxford, Longmans, McMillan, etc. will more than serve your needs. I recommend a mono-lingual dictionary - that is in English only - for students of upper-intermediate or higher level.
Linguaspectrum 11 months ago
Hahahahhahh cool, I'll tell someone this joke (or was that for real ?).
By the way, I used to listen to Cypress Hills and one of his most famous rap is called "I wanna get high", dope track I must say, hehehehehe.
Sk8orNoJESUSorDie 11 months ago
Sir, I am learning english as second language , Can i know which dictionary would be easier for me to follow ,Currently i am using Longmans contemporary english dictionary , But you gave some reference from oxford dictionary .So which one do you recommend me , Shall i buy oxford dictionary ?
urbanruler 11 months ago