Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Learn positive and negative English vocabulary for the same idea! Use the right word at the right time. In this lesson, I will introduce you to word pairs such as thrifty & stingy, ambitious & pushy, assertive & aggressive, curious & nosy, generous & extravagant, and more. Using these words will spice up your spoken conversations, texts, and email. Using this sophisticated vocabulary will also increase your score on the IELTS and other exams. Watch now to upgrade your English vocabulary in just a few minutes. engvid.com/improve-your-vocabulary-one-idea-opposite-words
Check out my course, Correct Your English Errors in 10 Minutes a Day: 10.bexenglish.com
Learn more ways to describe people: youtu.be/8c1Q2zCrAp0
More adjective pairs: youtu.be/1geCfkGdOC0
In this lesson:
0:00 Vocabulary Boost: One Idea, Opposite Words
0:45 "thrifty" & "stingy"
1:50 "ambitious" & "pushy"
2:23 "assertive" & "aggressive"
3:34 "curious" & "nosy"
4:42 "generous" & "extravagant"
6:04 "determined" & "stubborn"
6:50 "direct" & "blunt"
7:50 "innocent" & "naive"
Transcript:
In this lesson, you'll learn some new vocabulary that can be used to describe people. And what's interesting about this particular vocabulary is that we'll be looking at pairs of words that basically have or refer to the same idea, but from different perspectives; a positive perspective and a negative perspective. And that's why when you use these words, or if you already know these words and perhaps you're already using them, you need to be really careful because you may associate it with a certain idea, but you want to be sure that you're using it in the positive sense when you want to, or in the negative sense when you want to do that. All right? So, let's look at these words and see what they mean.
So, the first pair of words refers to the idea of saving money. Someone who likes to save money. Someone who likes to spend a little or as little as possible on something. Someone who's more economical. Now, the positive word for someone like that is to say that he or she is thrifty. Okay? Repeat the word after me. Thrifty. A little bit hard because of the "thr", but you can do it. Thrifty. The negative word for this same idea is that someone is stingy. Say it after me. Stingy. So, for example, here we'd say, "Wow, she's so thrifty. She's managed to save a lot of money." Or here, "Wow, she's so stingy. She never buys us fancy gifts." See the difference? Okay? So, here the person is praised for spending less money, and here the person is kind of criticized for spending less money. Okay?
Let's look at another pair of words. Someone who wants to get ahead. The positive side of it, usually the positive word for this is that he or she is ambitious. They want to get ahead in their job, in their career. The negative word is pushy. Okay? He's so pushy. He'll walk over anyone to get ahead. That's negative. He's so ambitious. I'm sure he's going to be the CEO one day. The positive side. Okay? All right. Another pair of words. To describe someone who is bold or who stands up for his or her rights. Okay? Okay? So, we could say that the positive side is someone is assertive, the negative part is that someone is aggressive. Okay? And these are really flip sides of the same coin. So, when we say that someone is assertive, you know, they had a problem in the restaurant and they weren't afraid to complain or ask for their money back or something like that. Okay? They're not shy, they're not timid. They're assertive. They stand up for their rights, whether it's in a restaurant or any other situation. Okay? But someone who's aggressive, sort of, you know, was really rude and talking very loudly and complaining, but, you know, very loud, maybe verbally loud or got physically violent or something, that person was more aggressive. Okay? So, you can see that both people are standing up for what they think is right, but this one is acceptable and this one is not really acceptable. Okay.
The next one, someone who wants to know more. Okay? So, the positive word for that is curious. She's so curious. My little daughter is so curious. She wants to know about everything. Okay? Children... We often use this word for children to say they're very curious. The negative word for this is that someone is nosy. "Nosy" means it's like they want to put their nose in everybody else's business. Okay? They want to know what's happening all the time. That's not a positive word. So, don't call someone nosy unless you think they're really interfering in other people's lives and want to know about everything, but in a bad way, not in a positive way that the word "curious" suggests. Okay?
So, again, let's repeat the words. Ready? "Nosy", "thrifty", "stingy", "ambitious", "pushy", "assertive", "aggressive", "curious", "nosy". Okay? So, these are eight words. Let's look at eight more now. […]
Learn positive and negative English vocabulary for the same idea! Use the right word at the right time. In this lesson, I will introduce you to word pairs such as thrifty & stingy, ambitious & pushy, assertive & aggressive, curious & nosy, generous & extravagant, and more. Using these words will spice up your spoken conversations, texts, and email. Using this sophisticated vocabulary will also increase your score on the IELTS and other exams. Watch now to upgrade your English vocabulary in just a few minutes. engvid.com/improve-your-vocabulary-one-idea-opposite-words
Check out my course, Correct Your English Errors in 10 Minutes a Day: 10.bexenglish.com
Learn more ways to describe people: youtu.be/8c1Q2zCrAp0
More adjective pairs: youtu.be/1geCfkGdOC0
In this lesson:
0:00 Vocabulary Boost: One Idea, Opposite Words
0:45 "thrifty" & "stingy"
1:50 "ambitious" & "pushy"
2:23 "assertive" & "aggressive"
3:34 "curious" & "nosy"
4:42 "generous" & "extravagant"
6:04 "determined" & "stubborn"
6:50 "direct" & "blunt"
7:50 "innocent" & "naive"
Transcript:
In this lesson, you'll learn some new vocabulary that can be used to describe people. And what's interesting about this particular vocabulary is that we'll be looking at pairs of words that basically have or refer to the same idea, but from different perspectives; a positive perspective and a negative perspective. And that's why when you use these words, or if you already know these words and perhaps you're already using them, you need to be really careful because you may associate it with a certain idea, but you want to be sure that you're using it in the positive sense when you want to, or in the negative sense when you want to do that. All right? So, let's look at these words and see what they mean.
So, the first pair of words refers to the idea of saving money. Someone who likes to save money. Someone who likes to spend a little or as little as possible on something. Someone who's more economical. Now, the positive word for someone like that is to say that he or she is thrifty. Okay? Repeat the word after me. Thrifty. A little bit hard because of the "thr", but you can do it. Thrifty. The negative word for this same idea is that someone is stingy. Say it after me. Stingy. So, for example, here we'd say, "Wow, she's so thrifty. She's managed to save a lot of money." Or here, "Wow, she's so stingy. She never buys us fancy gifts." See the difference? Okay? So, here the person is praised for spending less money, and here the person is kind of criticized for spending less money. Okay?
Let's look at another pair of words. Someone who wants to get ahead. The positive side of it, usually the positive word for this is that he or she is ambitious. They want to get ahead in their job, in their career. The negative word is pushy. Okay? He's so pushy. He'll walk over anyone to get ahead. That's negative. He's so ambitious. I'm sure he's going to be the CEO one day. The positive side. Okay? All right. Another pair of words. To describe someone who is bold or who stands up for his or her rights. Okay? Okay? So, we could say that the positive side is someone is assertive, the negative part is that someone is aggressive. Okay? And these are really flip sides of the same coin. So, when we say that someone is assertive, you know, they had a problem in the restaurant and they weren't afraid to complain or ask for their money back or something like that. Okay? They're not shy, they're not timid. They're assertive. They stand up for their rights, whether it's in a restaurant or any other situation. Okay? But someone who's aggressive, sort of, you know, was really rude and talking very loudly and complaining, but, you know, very loud, maybe verbally loud or got physically violent or something, that person was more aggressive. Okay? So, you can see that both people are standing up for what they think is right, but this one is acceptable and this one is not really acceptable. Okay.
The next one, someone who wants to know more. Okay? So, the positive word for that is curious. She's so curious. My little daughter is so curious. She wants to know about everything. Okay? Children... We often use this word for children to say they're very curious. The negative word for this is that someone is nosy. "Nosy" means it's like they want to put their nose in everybody else's business. Okay? They want to know what's happening all the time. That's not a positive word. So, don't call someone nosy unless you think they're really interfering in other people's lives and want to know about everything, but in a bad way, not in a positive way that the word "curious" suggests. Okay?
So, again, let's repeat the words. Ready? "Nosy", "thrifty", "stingy", "ambitious", "pushy", "assertive", "aggressive", "curious", "nosy". Okay? So, these are eight words. Let's look at eight more now. […]
