Vocabulary Spotlight | Fine, Good, and Great!

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:00:00:01JackWelcome 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.00:00:21JackThe context of a a meal or other situations so social do you want to explain what we're talking about here today?00:00:32XochitlYes. Umm. So I think that fine, good and great are kind of a uh.00:00:40XochitlHierarchy almost of of ratings and sign is.00:00:46XochitlYou know that's the lowest.00:00:48XochitlGood is the one in the middle.00:00:50XochitlAnd great is the highest.00:00:53XochitlIn terms of values, but I feel like in the US cultural context it it switches up a little bit because Jack.00:01:01XochitlIf I ask you how is the meal and you say it was fine, what does that say to you?00:01:07JackIf I say it was fine means it was acceptable but but not.00:01:13JackNothing 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.00:01:15XochitlYeah.00:01:25XochitlWasn't bad.00:01:33JackI would say.00:01:33발표자Yeah, it means.00:01:34XochitlAverage, which in the US cultural context means not really good enough anyway.00:01:41JackYeah. 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.00:01:48XochitlNo.00:01:50발표자Yeah.00:01:51XochitlYeah. And so then if I ask you, ohh, how was your meal and you say it was good? What?00:01:56XochitlWould that mean?00:01:58JackThat 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.00:02:12JackYou know good.00:02:12XochitlYeah, it was nothing, really too special. Even though you would normally think.00:02:19XochitlOhh it's a good meal. It's good but.00:02:22XochitlTypically when we use it in that context, it's shifts to mean you know it was an acceptable above average, but not being spectacular.00:02:33JackRight 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.00:02:43XochitlYeah.00:02:44XochitlAnd then if I say Jack, how was your?00:02:45XochitlMeal and you say oh it.00:02:46XochitlWas great. What does that mean?00:02:49JackThat 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.00:03:06JackRecommend to other people.00:03:09JackAnd I would probably go back again to that restaurant.00:03:15XochitlYeah. 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.00:03:34XochitlWe're very uh.00:03:37XochitlExuberant by nature, which I guess means, you know, easily excitable and very over.00:03:44JackExaggerate, you know.00:03:46XochitlYes.00:03:47XochitlYeah, we do. So if a meal is fine in the US, it's like.00:03:52XochitlIt's not great. So I think that's just an interesting thing about our culture. What would you say?00:03:58XochitlAbout that, Jack.00:03:59JackYeah, 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.00:04:19JackOr acceptable whereas.00:04:22JackIts 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.00:04:43JackAnd 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.00:05:00JackAnd 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.00:05:00XochitlYeah, it is.00:05:21JackVery exaggerated words like great, wonderful, amazing to actually mean something was very good, you know, like what? And.00:05:32JackSo 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.00:05:46XochitlRight. And so it's kind of, uh, inflation of the value of words in a way.00:05:51JackYou're right, exactly. We we've inflated the meaning of of right of words that.00:05:59JackThat that originally had had kind of different meanings, and so I think in the dictionary, you know, fine still would be.00:06:08JackA positive thing, you know, but in just casual conversation, as if you really want to understand intimately American culture.00:06:21JackYou'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.00:06:32JackWas good. It was. It was.00:06:34JackYou know better than fine, but not great. And then anything above that great.00:06:40JackWonderful. Amazing. Then you can trust that that's a a restaurant you should visit.00:06:46XochitlYep, 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?00:06:56XochitlMake 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 [email protected] and join our WeChat WhatsApp groups to join the conversation and we'll see you guys next time. 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