 Hi everyone and welcome to today's webinar on expanding your vocabulary with compound words. I hope you guys can see my screen and hear my voice and you can use the question box to ask me any questions during the presentation. I'll answer them at the end. And if you stay to the end of the webinar I also have a special offer for everyone who's here today. Okay let's get started. Compound words are when two or more words are put together to form a new word with the new meaning. Now there are three forms of compound words. The closed form where the words are together like notebook, keyboard, and basketball. The hyphenated form where the words are connected or joined by a hyphen like six-pack, mother-in-law, and check-in. And we have the open form where the words are separated by a space and some examples of that are post office, real estate, and vice president. Some words have more than one form. For some words both the open form and the hyphenated forms are acceptable as in the word light year. That's the distance that light can travel in a year. It's a very long way. And for some words both the hyphenated and the closed form are acceptable as in the word easygoing which means relaxed. So sometimes compound words are easy to understand. A bookstore is a store that sells books. Makes sense. And a dishwasher is a machine that washes dishes. Maybe you have one in your kitchen. But others might not be so obvious. For example brainstorm. To brainstorm is an intense process where you think of many many different ideas in the hopes of getting a good idea. You can see it comes from the word brain and storm. When there is a thunderstorm it rains a lot. So in the same way when you brainstorm you think of a lot of ideas. Another interesting compound word is scapegoat, meaning someone who bears the blame for others. Now this word is from escape and goat. That's the animal called a goat. And its origin is in the Bible which describes a ritual in which a goat symbolically took on the sins, the bad actions of the people, and was then sent out into the wild to die. But if you didn't know that it might be difficult to understand the meaning of scapegoat. So in today's webinar I'm going to go through the alphabet A to Z and teach you one or two interesting compound words starting with each letter. Now there are hundreds if not thousands of compound words in English so this is just an introduction to the world of compound words. Let's start with the word aftermath. Is aftermath what happens after your mathematics class? No this word refers to the effects or consequences after an event, usually a tragic event like a war. For example the aftermath of an earthquake would include many collapsed buildings, injured people, etc. Backfire. What does it mean for something to backfire? Well imagine shooting a gun but the bullet comes out the back instead of the front. Not good right? If something backfires it means it goes wrong and has the opposite effect from the one that was intended. Here's an example. Let's say a company launches a TV commercial to try to increase sales but it turns out that the TV commercial is offensive and the company's sales decrease instead of increasing. Then you could say the commercial backfired because it had the opposite effect than the one they wanted. Cloudburst. You probably already know that this is a cloud and the word burst means to explode. So a cloudburst is a sudden heavy rainfall when rain starts falling very quickly without warning. It's like the cloud exploded with rain. Another compound word for heavy continuous rain is a downpour because rain is just pouring down out of the sky. Daredevil. Someone who is daring is bold or courageous, they have no fear, and this is a devil, well a representation of a devil anyway, and devils are considered bad. So a daredevil is a person who is very bold but in a risky or dangerous way. For example, someone who does rock climbing without any ropes or protective equipment is a daredevil because they're taking a big risk if they make one mistake they could fall and get seriously injured or die. So that's a daredevil, someone who's bold in a risky or dangerous way. Now I'm going to teach you four words related to your eyes. We'll start with eyelid. Your eyelid is the small fold of skin that covers your eyes when you close them, and women like to decorate their eyelids with the type of makeup called eye shadow. In the picture she's wearing green eye shadow. These tiny hairs on your eyelids, you have them on the top and on the bottom, are called your eyelashes. And then finally the line of hairs above your eye is your eyebrow. So four compound words with eye. Eyelid, eye shadow, eyelash, and eyebrow. Frostbite. The word frost refers to tiny ice crystals like you can see in this picture. It's a tree and it's covered with some tiny crystals of ice. And the word bite means to cut something with your teeth. Well ice doesn't have teeth, but if you put the two together you get frostbite. Frostbite is an injury. It's when your skin is exposed to extreme cold for too long and the cold destroys the tissues. So your fingers might turn blue or even black. Sometimes people with frostbite have to have their fingers or toes amputated, cut off because the damage is too great. So frostbite, very serious injury from extreme cold. A greenhouse is a structure especially used for growing plants. You'll see these used in gardens. I think this greenhouse in the picture has some tomatoes inside it. It's used for growing flowers for growing vegetables. And a greenhouse is usually made of glass so that the temperature and humidity inside it can be controlled. How would you like some homemade cherry pie? It's a nice picture, huh? The adjective homemade means something usually a food was made by a person at home and not by a factory or by a big company. So if you buy something in the supermarket that's already prepared then it's not homemade. But if your mother makes it at home or if you make it from directly from the ingredients then it's homemade. Similar to that is handmade which describes something made by hand not by a machine. For example if you make your own clothing then your clothes are handmade. The difference is that we usually use homemade for food and handmade for objects again like clothing or decorative objects made by hand. Ironclad. Ironclad literally means to be covered in the metal called iron. For example a battleship like you can see in the picture. The iron provides protection. But the word ironclad is often used metaphorically. For example an ironclad rule or ironclad protection. It means something that's fixed and it can't be broken. So an ironclad rule is one that you can't break and ironclad protection is protection that can't be penetrated. Jelly beans. This one's pretty self-explanatory. A type of candy that's like a bean made out of sweet jelly is a jelly bean. Not sure if you have these in your country but you can see what they look like in the picture. Killjoy. A killjoy is a person who ruins other people's fun or pleasure. They kill the joy the happiness of other people. For example if you work in an office that normally celebrates people's birthday parties. So everybody in the office gets together and you have a cake and some music. But then there's a new manager who says no more parties. You can't have parties anymore. You would say that guy is a killjoy because he ruins the fun. Lighthearted and lightheaded. To be lighthearted is to be happy and free from worries, trouble or stress. You feel like your heart is very light. It's not weighed down by stress or problems. But feeling lightheaded is not so nice. It means you feel dizzy like you might lose consciousness. Milestone. When you're driving along the highway you sometimes see these small signs like this green one that show how many miles or kilometers if your country uses kilometers. You've traveled. Now we actually call these signs mile markers in the U.S. but the word milestone is used metaphorically to describe an important point in a process. Here's an example. If your goal is to be fluent in English and you pass a B2 that's an upper intermediate level exam. You've reached a milestone. It means you're not finished with the process yet but you've accomplished a significant goal. You've reached an important point. That's a milestone. Four compound words with the word new. A baby that has just recently been born is a newborn like the baby in the picture. He's probably still in the hospital. That's a newborn. And two people who have just recently been married are newlyweds that comes from newly and wedded or wedding which is the word for the marriage ceremony. Someone who has recently arrived at an event or someone who has recently joined a social group is a newcomer, a new person coming into the event or social group. And then we have the slang word newbie. That's an informal word for someone who's just beginning some activity and doesn't have much knowledge or experience yet. So for example, if I want to learn how to do computer programming and I'm just beginning, I'm in my first week of learning, I could say I'm a newbie in computer programming because I really don't know anything yet. Outlaw. The word outlaw actually has two different meanings. It can be a noun or a verb. So the noun, a person who is an outlaw, is a criminal, usually one who is running away from the police and trying to avoid being captured. Now the verb outlaw means to prohibit something by law. For example, if your country outlaws talking on your cell phone while driving, it means that action is now illegal and you will be punished if you do it. So we have outlaw the person who's a criminal and outlaw the action to make something illegal by law. Panhandle. So here's a picture of a pan and this long part is its handle. But the verb panhandle actually means to approach someone and ask for money or food to beg. In many countries, poor people panhandle on the street. Maybe the word panhandle began to be used in this way because the beggars used pans to collect the money. I'm not sure, but panhandle is to ask for money or food usually on the street or in a public place. Quarterback. Now in American football, the quarterback is the name of a player. He's a player who controls the strategy for play. He directs the rest of the team on what to do. But quarterback is also used informally as a verb, meaning the action of leading or directing any operation, not just in sports. For example, in a work environment, you could say the marketing department of a company needs someone to quarterback the new ad campaign. That means a person to lead, to organize, to decide what the strategy will be. That's the word quarterback used in a more general sense as a verb for leading or directing an operation. Runaway. The word runaway refers to a person or animal that has escaped. You can have a runaway elephant that has gotten out of the zoo or a runaway teenager who has left his parents home and is trying to live his own life apart from his parents. Now don't get runaway confused with runway, which is the road that an airplane uses to gain speed before taking off. So the first word has three syllables, runaway. And the second word has just two syllables, runway. Completely different meanings, okay? Shipwreck. When a ship sailing in the ocean crashes into the rocks, this is called a shipwreck. And we also use the word shipwreck for the destroyed remains of the ship, which may be underwater. Some people who do scuba diving like to explore shipwrecks under the water. Now what's interesting is that for ships, we only use the word shipwreck. We don't say ship crash, only shipwreck. Now for cars and trains, we could say either one, car crash, train crash or car wreck or train wreck. And for airplanes, we only use the word crash. We always say plane crash and never plane wreck. Tiebreaker. When two teams are playing each other and the score ends in an equal number like two to two or five to five, this is called a tie. But in many games and contests, we need one winner. So an extra activity called a tiebreaker is done to break the tie and determine the champion. In sports like soccer and basketball, this is often called overtime. Upcoming. This word is used to describe an event that is coming up in the future. For example, if a presidential election will be held next month, you could call it the upcoming election to make it clear that you're talking about the one in the future and not the one in the past. Vineyard. A vine is a type of plant that climbs up a surface as it grows. Grapes grow on vines. And a yard is an area of land. So a vineyard is an area where grapes are grown, especially for the purpose of producing wine. Wholesale. Sometimes companies buy very large quantities of items from a manufacturer in order to get a discount. For example, they'll buy 10,000 pairs of shoes at a reduced price. This is called buying wholesale because they're going to then sell those shoes for a profit. Now if they buy so many items, they need to store them somewhere before selling them. So the items can be stored in a warehouse. That's a building used especially for storage of things that are not being used at the moment. Yearbook. I'm not sure whether or not this is a tradition outside the United States, but in the U.S., a lot of high schools and colleges publish a book at the end of the school year with pictures and information about the things that happened during that year. And this book is called a yearbook. Zigzag. This is a fun word to say, zigzag. Something that is zigzag follows a path with sharp turns in alternating directions. You can see that green line that goes back and forth and the picture shows a zigzag road. So you've just learned some compound words from A to Z. Now if you'd like to continue improving your vocabulary, you'll really enjoy the vocabulary builder courses at Espresso English. There are two levels. Level one, which is easier, and level two, which is harder, and each level has 30 lessons. The first level focuses on essential everyday words for things in daily life, work, study, travel, describing people, describing the world, and so on. And the second level goes deeper into these subjects and also has lessons on more advanced topics like binomials, metaphors, word roots, and prefixes and suffixes. Now each level of the course is $30. It's $30 for level one and $30 for level two because they are two completely different courses with new material in each one. But the special offer I have just for you who have attended today's webinar is that if you buy both levels together, you get a discount. And instead of paying $60, the price is only $45. So it's your choice. You can buy level one for $30, only level two also for $30, or both levels together for the discounted price of $45. In each level, you'll learn more than 600 new words, and there are also exercises to practice that vocabulary so you don't forget it. Okay, let me take some time to answer questions about either the webinar or the course. You can send in your questions using the question box, and I'll answer some of them now. And if I don't answer your question on the webinar, I'll respond later by email. Okay? So someone's asking, can we invent compound words? I would say in general, no, don't try to invent compound words. No, it's true that new words are invented and come into the language all the time, but this usually happens when a lot of people start to use them at the same time, and they're used in the media and so on. I guess someone had to be the first to use the word, but in general, I wouldn't recommend it. Just try to work with the words that already exist, because there are plenty of them. Okay, another question. My English level is intermediate. Which level of the course is best? If you're intermediate, you could really go either way. I think that level one will help you get a solid base in the most important vocabulary and learn some new words as well inside each lesson's topic. In level two, one difference is that I do talk a bit faster in the videos, and the words are more advanced, but I think someone at the intermediate level can do level two as well. It might be a little more of a challenge, but it's certainly possible. So to the person who asked the question, both levels are good for you as an intermediate learner. It just depends on whether you want to reinforce and expand your basic knowledge or take on more of a challenge with the higher level course. Let's see another one. I didn't understand the difference between tiebreaker and overtime. Okay, good question. Overtime is usually a time period, and a tiebreaker is more a single activity. I'll use an example from soccer. If a game ends in a tie, first we have something like 20 minutes of overtime. That's the extra playing time. And if nobody scores a goal in the overtime, then the penalty kicks are the tiebreaker. That's the extra activity that will decide who wins the soccer game. Or for example, on a game show where you have two contestants with the same number of points, the final question will be the tiebreaker because it will determine who wins. So overtime implies extra time. You can tell from the word over time. Whereas a tiebreaker is more like a single event or a single activity. Okay, I hope that made it a little bit clearer. Here's another question about the courses. How long is the time limit to finish the lessons? Ah, the answer is there is no time limit. I know that everyone studies at different speeds, so once you register for the course, you can take as long as you need. Your access to the lessons is permanent. And you can also download everything. So if you want to study later in some place where you don't have an internet connection. Okay, so no time limit. When you buy the vocabulary builder courses and any course on espresso English, you can take as long as you need to complete the course. You'll have access forever. Um, I have a question here about the I words. What do you call the colored part of the eye in the middle? Is that the eyeball? No, not exactly. The word the word eyeball is another compound word. But that refers to the entire eye. That's the colored part and the white part. For just the colored part, we have two words. The ring of color that's blue, green, or brown. That's called the iris, I R I S. And the black part in the center, sorry, the black part in the center is the pupil. All right, we're almost out of time. So I'm just going to take a few more questions. Someone says, I'm confused. The course is one lesson per day or I get access to all lessons immediately. The answer to that question is you get access to all the lessons immediately. This vocabulary course was created in January. And when I'm creating a course, the first group of students do get one lesson per day every day. But now that the course is finished, when you register now, you get instant access to all the lessons. So you don't need to wait to receive them. All right. Someone has asked, I really enjoyed this webinar on compound words. Will you do another one? Maybe? Yeah, sure. If people liked this webinar, I can do another one on the topic of compound words in the future. Okay, here's one. What's the difference between lifetime and lifelong? Okay, so both lifetime and lifelong refer to something that lasts your entire life. I don't think there's really any difference between them in terms of their meaning. People just sometimes tend to use one over the other in specific expressions, like for example, you'll often see the phrase lifetime guarantee on products, meaning that the product will last for your entire life. The word lifelong, that's often used with personal things, like I have a lifelong dream of visiting Europe or a lifelong friend, someone who has been your friend for your entire life. Or you could say you're a lifelong fan of a particular sports team. So the answer is that lifetime and lifelong mean the same thing, but they're commonly used in some different expressions. Okay, last question. How do you know when it's one word, two words, or has a hyphen? I had a feeling someone was going to ask that. Okay, the answer is that you can't know. Unfortunately, there's really no rule about this. For each compound word, you just need to check the dictionary and remember which form it takes. I wish there was a better answer to that, but it's just one of the many quirks of the English language. Okay, I have a bunch more questions here, but I'm going to answer the rest by email. All right, so if you've asked a question and I haven't answered it yet, please be patient and wait for my response by email in the next day or two. So once again, I'd like to say thank you for coming to this webinar. I hope you learned something new, some interesting compound words. And if you'd like to take advantage of the discount on levels one and two of the vocabulary builder course together, click the button now so that you don't miss out. Oh, and also, I'll send out the notes from this webinar next week by email. So watch for that in your email. Okay, thanks everyone, and I hope to see you on the next webinar.