41 SUPER-DUPER Words for FLUENT English Conversation (Reduplication)

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Okey-dokey everybody I've got something super duper for you today because we are

going to get to the Nitty Gritty of reduplication. Now some of you

are no doubt saying to yourself this guy is speaking a lot of mumbo-jumbo no this is

not just tittle-tattle you know these are useful English words used every day

by English speakers they just sound a bit funny that's all. So chop-chop and

don't dilly-dally I promise you you will like it and it'll boost your English

vocabulary significantly today we've got 41 reduplicated words why 41? Because

that's the number and the good news is it's easy-peasy so stay tuned.

Hello and welcome to letThemTalk and today we are going to look at

reduplication that's a long and complicated linguistic term for

something quite simple and straightforward reduplicative words are

ones that either contain two repeating words or a first word followed by a

second part that is modified in some way so that it sounds slightly different to

the first. Native speakers use reduplication in english a lot to enrich

vocabulary and also to be playful with the language because they sound quite

funny and interesting. So let's look at some different forms and some

examples. So firstly you have words that repeat BYE-BYE that's an example of

reduplication. NO-NO which means it's forbidden or prohibited so for example

"even though using mobile phones in class is a no-no students do it anyway."

HUSH-HUSH which means be quiet "hush-hush everybody

don't you know that this is a library." instead of saying goodnight you could

say night-night "I'm tired night-night everybody". HAHA to say that something is

funny or usually not funny if you're using it sarcastically say for

example "I fell over in the street okay yeah yeah ha-ha why is that funny?"

GOODY-GOODY which is a pejorative term for someone who always follows the rules

"You do your homework on time, you don't stay up late, you never drink, you're such

a goody-goody Michelle." next you have rhyming reduplication for

example ARTY-FARTY which means involved in a lot of cultural things "look at you

with your books about Dostoevsky writing poetry of with your floppy hair you're so

arty-farty." WILLY-NILLY which means without planning

or haphazardly "Don't write things down willy-nilly you need a plan you need to

be methodical." HIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY which means in a confused order "the books

on the shelf in the library were not in any order they had

just been placed there higgledy-piggledy and that's why the

librarian was fired" CHICK FLICK a chick is a colloquial word for a girl

sometimes it's a disrespectful term so do be careful I don't think it's

disrespectful in this context so a flick is a colloquial term for a movie and the

chick flick is a movie particularly appreciated by girls, romantic comedies

that type of thing so for example. "I wanted to see Fast and Furious 12 she

wanted to see Love Actually and in the end yeah we went to see the chick flick."

Next we have Ablaut reduplication this occurs when a vowel in the second word is

changed for example KNICK-KNACKS which means unimportant objects usually in a

house or a room "Her bedroom was filled with knick-knacks she had acquired on her

travels" RIFF-FAFF this is a word to talk about people who are socially

inferior it's a very disrespectful word not nice at all so be careful about

using it however I will give you an example "Mrs. Brown stayed in

her rich neighborhood and never ventured downtown because she didn't like to mix

with what she called the riff-raff." WISHY- WASHY and this means weak, unclear not

having a strong opinion. "They said the book was inspirational but honestly it

just had a few wishy-washy cliches about 'follow your dreams' and 'just do it.'"

so we are about halfway through our list so let's look at a few more

reduplicative words so that we reach the 41 words I promised you.

HOB NOB "I was invited to the mayor's garden party and I spent the

afternoon hobnobbing with local celebrities"

TEENY-WEENY I'm sorry I insulted your mother got into a fight with your brother and vomited in

the Christmas tree you see I was a teeny weeny bit drunk."

- "You had two bottles of wine and four beers that's not a teeny bit." - "yeah, sorry"

ARGY-BARGY if I don't get what I want there's gonna be some argy-bargy you know I mean?"

EVEN-STEVENS "My girlfriend ran away with my best friend but I did get a

fantastic new job so at the end of the week I would say that I'm even Stephens."

DOUBLE-TROUBLE "You were rude to me today but if you're

rude to my wife there will be double- trouble yeah."

BIGWIG "Nothing happens in town without Potter's permission he's the bigwig around here."

FAT CAT "Workers on the factory floor get paid almost nothing while the fat

cats in the boardroom earn millions."

WALKIE TALKIE "Hello yes I can hear you loud and clear on my

walkie talkie." LOVEY-DOVEY "When I walked in the room Harry and Betty were getting

all lovey-dovey on the couch." WAKEY-WAKEY "it's time to get up we are leaving in

20 minutes wakey wakey." MISHMASH "The town hall

building was a mishmash of mock tudor neo-gothic modern and classical styles."

FUDDY-DUDDY "In my day songs had a nice tune

modern music is terrible, it's just a noise." - "Oh you're such a fuddy-duddy

grandpa." TOPSY-TURVY "The topsy-turvy months after the Revolution were

eventually followed by order and calm once free elections were held." BOO-BOO

"All evening I was calling her Doris but her name is Sarah it was quite a boo-boo

and I don't think she will want to see me again" BOY-TOYS "He loved his

motorbike, his sports car, his games console his drone and all his boy toys."

TOY BOY you know her boyfriend is 20 years younger than her you might call

him her toy boy." CHITCHAT "So what did you talk about?" - "Nnothing interesting just

office chitchat mostly."

ZIGZAG the path Zig zagged through the forest." like that

you see. NITWIT "yes you find people who believe the earth is flat and others who

don't believe climate change is man-made these people are just nitwits".

HANKY-PANKY "I came back after the weekend and I find empty vodka bottles, cigarette butts and

the place is a mess what kind of hanky-panky has been going on here?"

CLAP-TRAP politicians promised if we left the European Union everything would be easy

and wonderful in this country now we know this is just claptrap."