First date taught: 14 Dec 2022
7B – Rudeness
Theme: Discussing behavior, manners, and rudeness.
Have the nerve to means dare to (used ironically here).
For goodness’ sake is an exclamation used to show annoyance or impatience.
The phrase kick the cat means to take out your feelings of anger on the first person (or cat) you see.
The word catty is used to describe someone who says cruel or unpleasant things about others.
Barging means pushing. Often used as “Barging in on…” such as to a room or conversation.
Bawling is screaming and shouting.
Lousy means bad or poor.
etiquette (n) – the formal rules of correct or polite behaviour in society, among members of a particular profession or in a particular area of activity
Examples: advice on etiquette
medical/legal/professional etiquette
Students need to be aware of cell phone etiquette.
We have put together a tweeting etiquette guide.
manners (n) [B2] – polite ways of behaving with other people
bad/good manners
table manners
Example: He needs to be taught some manners.
table manners – polite ways of behaving when sitting at a table to eat
polite (adj) [A2] – behaving in a way that is not rude and shows that you do not only think about yourself
decency (n) – behaviour that is good, moral, and acceptable in society
Examples: a sense of decency
She didn’t even have the decency to tell me she wasn’t coming.
appropriate (adj) [B2] – suitable or right for a particular situation or person:
Example: Is this film appropriate for young children?
offense (Am. Eng.) / offence (Br. Eng.) (n) [B2] – the feeling of being upset or angry by something rude someone says
to cause/give offence
Example: Many people take offence at swearing.
I’m sure she meant no offence by her remarks.
offensive (adj) [B2] – likely to make people angry or upset
Example: an offensive remark
hooligan (n) – a young person who behaves in an extremely noisy and violent way in public, usually in a group
queue (Br. Eng.) (n) [B1] / stand in line (Am. Engl.) – a row of people waiting for something, one behind the other
Example: to join the queue
Are you in the queue?
queue up – to stand in a row in order to wait for something
PDA (Public Displays of Affection) –
orderly (adj) – tidy or organized
Example: an orderly pile
Please form an orderly queue.
his or her best behavior (idiom) – If you are on your best behavior you are behaving very politely and well
rowdy (adj) – loud and uncontrolled
Example: rowdy behaviour
rowdy football fans
loutish (adj) – behaving in a very rude, offensive, and sometimes violent way
Example: loutish behaviour
She complained to me about a couple of loutish students.
get into trouble (idiom) – to become involved in a bad, difficult or dangerous situation
cause / give offense (adj) – the feeling of being angry, upset, or insulted, caused by something that someone says or does; upset and hurt or annoyed feelings, often because someone has been rude or shown no respect
Example: I really didn’t mean (to cause/give) any offence (= did not intend to upset anyone) – I was just stating my opinion.
foul language (n) – swear words
Synonyms: curse words, cursing, using obscenities, bad language
ellipsis (plural: ellipses) – a situation in which words are left out of a sentence but the sentence can still be understood:
An example of ellipsis is “What percentage was left?” “20.” (= 20 percent)
soft skills (n) – people’s abilities to communicate with each other and work well together
Example: We are focusing on soft skills such as team building and communications.
Soft skills and appearance are becoming more important in companies’ recruitment decisions.
bad form (n) – behaviour that people do not like because it breaks a social rule
in poor taste / distasteful (adj) – unpleasant and unacceptable
Example: He found the subject of their conversation very distasteful.
Some of the ads are particularly distasteful.
Attribution: Image by cookie_studio on Freepik
English With Dixie 