John: Hi Faith! You won't believe what I found this week!
Faith: Hey, John! What's that?
John: I went to an antique store and found a vintage 1940's style suit!
Faith: Ugh, John! Don't you mean old? Isn't an antique store where there's a bunch of old, decrepit things?
John: No! why would you say it like that? These are vintage or antique things good quality stuff, just older.
Faith: So, wait! What is the difference between antique, vintage, old, and decrepit?
John: Ah! That's a good question for a lesson! All of these words mean "old," but their connotations are different.
Faith: Oh! I know what connotations are! Connotations are associations of words. It's the feeling we get from the word: if the word is positive or negative, or somewhere in the middle, or if the word is stronger or weaker. Sometimes connotations are emotional or cultural. So, when I said that antique stores were old and decrepit, that was negative, right?
John: Right! You offended me just a little bit. Old can be negative sometimes, but most times it's a neutral word, in the middle, not positive, nor negative. But when you called it decrepit. That word was negative!
Faith: I apologize. Can we think of some other examples? Oh! Was the suit inexpensive or not costly?
John: Do you mean, "Was it cheap?"
Faith: Well, yes. I was trying to say it with more of a positive connotation. You know, because cheap sounds negative, right?
John: You're right! Cheap, affordable, and inexpensive all mean the same thing, but cheap sounds more negative. And you're also right about the suit. It was cheap.
And that's Everyday Grammar!
Originally published at https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a...