Adam’s English Lessons · engVid | Political Vocabulary in English: 21 Common Terms @engvidAdam | Uploaded October 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
To understand the news in English, it is important to have enough vocabulary to follow the speakers. The news often focuses on politics and political scandals, so in this lesson, we go over common vocabulary from these fields. You will learn terms such as impeach, checks & balances, the silent majority, integrity, manipulate, and more. Build your vocabulary base to be able to watch news, read newspapers, and engage native speakers in political debates. Test your knowledge with the quiz: engvid.com/political-vocabulary-in-english-21-common-terms
More of my videos about political vocabulary:
10 English Expressions from Politics youtu.be/zglSHvH5Xm4
Talking about POLITICS in English youtu.be/h2jBsmGKwLs
In this lesson:
0:00 Political Vocabulary in English
1:15 checks & balances
2:45 due process
2:52 allegation
4:26 silent majority
4:43 vocal minority
5:31 polls
6:02 political suicide
6:44 swing vote
7:46 manipulate
8:26 witch hunt
9:25 partisan & bipartisan
10:33 whistleblower
11:33 obstruction
12:14 subpoena
12:50 treason
13:40 perjury
14:04 deflect
14:26 smoking gun
15:08 impeach
Transcript
Hi, everybody. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's video, I want to talk to you about politics. Now, especially in recent years, there's been a lot of political news from all over the world, but especially from, like, North America, in certain situations in particular. So, today, I wanted to give you some vocabulary to help you understand just the tremendous amount of news that is going on; all the stories that are going on, and it's... keeps going on, and on, and on. Because now we live in the age of the internet, and people can find out what's going on in other countries all the time. So, keep in mind that this is just a partial list; meaning: This is just an introduction. There are many more words, many more expressions that are part of politics that you should get to know, but these will at least get you started. And if you're interested, obviously you can do a little bit more research; do some more reading, etcetera. So, more or less, I'm focusing on political justice - I guess you could say - and how... how politicians basically look after each other or look at each other, and suspiciously, depending on the situation. Right?
So, we're gonna start by exactly that: "checks and balances". This is how governments are... have been established, especially democracies have been established with institutions that can watch each other, so that no group, no institution, no piece of the government gets too much power. A "check" basically means, like, a limiting force. If you put a "check" on somebody, you're limiting them; you're put... you're stopping them from reaching too high or too powerful, etcetera. And "balance" is balanced - means equal power distributed to all the different branches of government. So, in the US, for example, they have the "executive branch" of government, which is the President's office; they have the "judiciary", which is the Supreme Court; and they have the "legislative", which is the "Senate" and "Congress". So, three parts of government; they are co-equal parts of government. "Co-equal" means that each of these three parts has the same power as the other three. Right? So, that's the whole idea. So, the... the Supreme Court makes sure that the government President doesn't do anything illegal. The Senate makes sure that the Supreme Court is okay. They put the judges in there. Everybody has some sort of control over the other two. So, that's the "checks", and they maintain the "balance". So, that's what this is about.
But if there is a problem, if somebody is accused or of doing a crime, or there's some sort of allegation of a crime... an "allegation"... I'm going to go all over the place here. An "allegation" is basically an accusation. It's saying that someone did something bad, but this hasn't been proven yet. So, if you ever watch the news, you will always hear the reporter say: "the alleged murderer", "the alleged rapist", "the alleged thief". They never say: "the murderer", "the thief" until the person has been convicted in court. Until the person has been proven guilty, he is only "alleged" to have done something; only accused. So, when someone is "alleged" or when someone is "accused" of something, that person has their right to "due process". This means a legal and... like, a fair and legal process to try to defend himself or to try... or for the other people to try to convict; to prove guilty. So, "due process" means the ability to talk to a lawyer, the ability to gather evidence, the ability to ask... look for witnesses, or ask experts. Basically, you're allowed to do everything you can in order to protect yourself. And in most democracies, at least, a person is "innocent until proven guilty". […]
To understand the news in English, it is important to have enough vocabulary to follow the speakers. The news often focuses on politics and political scandals, so in this lesson, we go over common vocabulary from these fields. You will learn terms such as impeach, checks & balances, the silent majority, integrity, manipulate, and more. Build your vocabulary base to be able to watch news, read newspapers, and engage native speakers in political debates. Test your knowledge with the quiz: engvid.com/political-vocabulary-in-english-21-common-terms
More of my videos about political vocabulary:
10 English Expressions from Politics youtu.be/zglSHvH5Xm4
Talking about POLITICS in English youtu.be/h2jBsmGKwLs
In this lesson:
0:00 Political Vocabulary in English
1:15 checks & balances
2:45 due process
2:52 allegation
4:26 silent majority
4:43 vocal minority
5:31 polls
6:02 political suicide
6:44 swing vote
7:46 manipulate
8:26 witch hunt
9:25 partisan & bipartisan
10:33 whistleblower
11:33 obstruction
12:14 subpoena
12:50 treason
13:40 perjury
14:04 deflect
14:26 smoking gun
15:08 impeach
Transcript
Hi, everybody. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's video, I want to talk to you about politics. Now, especially in recent years, there's been a lot of political news from all over the world, but especially from, like, North America, in certain situations in particular. So, today, I wanted to give you some vocabulary to help you understand just the tremendous amount of news that is going on; all the stories that are going on, and it's... keeps going on, and on, and on. Because now we live in the age of the internet, and people can find out what's going on in other countries all the time. So, keep in mind that this is just a partial list; meaning: This is just an introduction. There are many more words, many more expressions that are part of politics that you should get to know, but these will at least get you started. And if you're interested, obviously you can do a little bit more research; do some more reading, etcetera. So, more or less, I'm focusing on political justice - I guess you could say - and how... how politicians basically look after each other or look at each other, and suspiciously, depending on the situation. Right?
So, we're gonna start by exactly that: "checks and balances". This is how governments are... have been established, especially democracies have been established with institutions that can watch each other, so that no group, no institution, no piece of the government gets too much power. A "check" basically means, like, a limiting force. If you put a "check" on somebody, you're limiting them; you're put... you're stopping them from reaching too high or too powerful, etcetera. And "balance" is balanced - means equal power distributed to all the different branches of government. So, in the US, for example, they have the "executive branch" of government, which is the President's office; they have the "judiciary", which is the Supreme Court; and they have the "legislative", which is the "Senate" and "Congress". So, three parts of government; they are co-equal parts of government. "Co-equal" means that each of these three parts has the same power as the other three. Right? So, that's the whole idea. So, the... the Supreme Court makes sure that the government President doesn't do anything illegal. The Senate makes sure that the Supreme Court is okay. They put the judges in there. Everybody has some sort of control over the other two. So, that's the "checks", and they maintain the "balance". So, that's what this is about.
But if there is a problem, if somebody is accused or of doing a crime, or there's some sort of allegation of a crime... an "allegation"... I'm going to go all over the place here. An "allegation" is basically an accusation. It's saying that someone did something bad, but this hasn't been proven yet. So, if you ever watch the news, you will always hear the reporter say: "the alleged murderer", "the alleged rapist", "the alleged thief". They never say: "the murderer", "the thief" until the person has been convicted in court. Until the person has been proven guilty, he is only "alleged" to have done something; only accused. So, when someone is "alleged" or when someone is "accused" of something, that person has their right to "due process". This means a legal and... like, a fair and legal process to try to defend himself or to try... or for the other people to try to convict; to prove guilty. So, "due process" means the ability to talk to a lawyer, the ability to gather evidence, the ability to ask... look for witnesses, or ask experts. Basically, you're allowed to do everything you can in order to protect yourself. And in most democracies, at least, a person is "innocent until proven guilty". […]
