The Many Meanings of "LOAD" in English

How many meanings does the word "load" have? What about "loaded"? In this video, you’ll learn some of the common ways we use these words. We’ll cover formal, informal, and slang uses of these words. In English, expressions based on one word can have so many different meanings! For example, did you know that "I’m loaded" can mean "I’m drunk" or "I’m rich"? You’ll also see expressions such as "a load off my chest", "a shitload", "free loader", "a load of rubbish", and many more. I will also show you some great strategies to help your learning and understanding of new vocabulary. After you watch the video, review these expressions by taking the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/the-many-meanings-of-load-in-english/ , and practice using them with your friends!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi there. My name is Emma, and in today’s lesson I’m going to teach you 10 different expressions with the word "load". Some of these expressions are going to be slang expressions, some of them are going to be verbs, nouns, adjectives; and they all have very, very different meanings. So with the word "load", you might see it a lot. It has a lot of different possible meanings, so you’re going to learn 10 today.

I’m also going to teach you two different strategies you should use when you see a word you don’t know. Okay? So, in this case, we have the word "load" in many different ways. I’m going to teach you two strategies you should use whenever you see a word you don’t know or recognize. Okay? So let’s talk about the strategies first, and then I’m going to teach you about the different ways we use the word "load".

Okay, so when you come across a word you don’t know, the first thing you should do is you should try to figure out how much information you can get from it. You can try to figure out if it’s a noun, which is a person, a place, or a thing. Is it a verb? Is it an action? Is it an adjective? Which means: Does it describe something? Or is it an adverb? Does it describe a verb? Okay? So it’s good to know these words, and to try to figure out if a word is a noun, a verb, an adverb, or an adjective. Okay?

Another thing you should do when you come across a new word is you should try to guess what it means based on the words around it. Okay? We call this "context". So, you should look at the sentence, look at the words in the sentence, and look at some of the words in the other sentence, and try to guess what the word means before you look in the dictionary or before you ask your teacher. Remember: The more effort and the more work you do for a word, the more likely you will remember it. Okay? So you want to work hard to remember these words. You want to guess what they mean before you actually find out what they mean.

So let’s get started with the word "load". Okay, so I have here the first example we’re going to do, and that is the word "loaded" with "ed". I have an example sentence. "Bill Gates is loaded. He has so much money." All right? So I want you to take a moment and think: Is this a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb? So here it is in the sentence. This is… What is this? Well, it ends in "ed", okay? So that means it’s probably going to either be a verb or an adjective, because both of these often end in "ed". But because it’s followed by "is": "Bill Gates is loaded", it sounds like "loaded" is describing Bill Gates. So it’s an adjective. Okay? So in this case, "loaded" is an adjective. It’s describing Bill Gates. "Bill Gates is loaded." That’s a description of Bill Gates. Okay, so we’ve done the first one. What about the second one? What do you think "loaded" means? Okay? So look at all the words in the sentence. What do you know about Bill Gates? "Bill Gates is loaded. He has so much money." If you focus on "much money" and "Bill Gates", you know Bill Gates is rich; he has a lot of money. "Loaded" means rich. So we can guess that it means rich, based on the words around it. So, I’m going to write that here. The first meaning of the word "loaded" is rich. I have a friend, she’s loaded. She lives in a mansion. Okay? Prince William is loaded. You know, he’s a prince, he’s going to have a lot of money. I wish I was loaded. Unfortunately, I’m not, but it would be so great to be loaded. So, in this case, "loaded" means rich.

Okay, so we have the word again, "loaded". This is another different meaning of the word. Okay, so I want you to look at the example. "She’s loaded. She had 10 beers." Okay. "She’s loaded. She had 10 beers." So first, let’s ask ourselves: Is it a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb? Okay? So we look here: "She is loaded." Well, again, it ends in "ed", so this is a clue.