Key Vocabulary

So now let’s just look at a couple of key vocabulary words and a few phrases that we can use for what we’re going to talk about in this lesson.

So let’s start with development.

Well we talked about progress.

That means things are getting better with time moving forward.

Development can be very similar to progress.

It’s often used in the same way but development can also be related to something just getting maybe more mature.

For example when we when we want to explain our personalities when we want to talk about getting older we’re talking about maturity and sometimes we’re talking about physically getting bigger.

So we often call that development but we usually don’t call that progress development doesn’t always have to be in the direction of it’s getting better and better and better not necessarily develop maybe just means it’s getting a little bit more sometimes complicated sometimes more mature.

Sometimes it’s just getting a bit more advanced and it’s not always a good thing.

But it’s very similar development has other meanings as well.

But that’s the one we’re gonna focus on functionality is often used to talk about technology.

We could be talking about gadgets That’s a G could be talking about gadgets we could be talking about bigger things like satellites.

Gadgets are usually smaller but it’s often electronic stuff.

And functionality is what those things do.

So if we’re talking about our devices like our cell phones for example or smartphones smartphone is a phone that can use the Internet maybe has apps.

If we’re going to talk about that.

Usually when people review a smartphone or maybe buy one they ask questions about its functionality.

What can it do is basically the meaning of functionality.

What can this thing do.

And again it’s often used for technology if something is very simple very basic.

Maybe it was useful a long time ago but now there are many many things which are better than it then we will use the word primitive sometimes primitive can be related to ideas it can be related to people.

It could be related to traditions primitive traditions.

It could be related to technology.

You could have a technology like a phone from when you were a kid.

Right.

And that technology seems now very primitive.

Our smartphones now are very advanced they seem very modern compared to the primitive phones that we used to carry around maybe in the 1990s.

Now old school is I think a really interesting one.

Old school is related to the idea of something being kind of classic.

And so it’s often used in a good way.

Well that phone is old school.

If somebody pulls out what’s called a flip phone that you flip open it’s got a flip phone.

If somebody takes out a flip phone and says yeah you go Oh that phone is old school.

That’s not to be too critical.

It’s often to say that’s kind of interesting that you have a really old flip phone.

Old school old school it’s used in sports.

It’s used for technology.

It’s used for ideas to use for sometimes fashion old school.

It’s got nothing to do with school.

Now there are a few phrases we can also use when we’re talking about things that happened in the past which is what we’re going to do in this in this lesson we’re going to be focusing on past telling a story back then is used when you already have said another time.

So for example in nineteen ninety nine when I was in sixth grade I had a math teacher who was always very critical of me.

Back then there was no way for students to give feedback to their teachers.

So back then it’s used once you’ve already said the time to reference it so that you don’t need to say that year again or that time again.

It’s often used for a time long ago.

It’s not used for usually 20 minutes ago or hours ago or even months ago.

It’s usually used four years ago way back then.

We can also say way back then way back then when I was.

So this is a very simple one and we use this one to either talk about our age in a certain time in the past or our status at a certain time in the past when I was 10 years old.

You could also say when I was in middle school in middle school and this is a way to again give the person listening to your story a clear idea about the time so that they’re able to picture that very well before you say what happened as we talked about in our earlier lesson about description it’s very important to give a clear picture to the other person before you actually get into more details or more complicated things.

Now I could only and I could even.

These two are very common when we want to talk about limitations and things that are so good that they have some big advantage that basically the same structure but they have almost opposite meanings.

If I could say I could only then we’re talking about limitation limitation means something you cannot do something something cannot do.

So for example when I was a kid about 12 years old I remember I got a at the time that was called a flash drive a little card a little USP actually was a USP thumb drive that could only could only store about 50 pictures.

Now that’s unbelievable to think about something that only stores 50 pictures.

Back then I could only store 50 pictures or songs in my USP drive today.

The USB drive I have can store whole Udemy courses can store much more.

It could only do that back then it was limited.

It could even is pretty much the opposite here.

If you say it could even do this it’s like saying this is good this is good.

And wow there’s one more which is even better.

So let’s look at an example or how we could use that and we’re often going to be talking about functionality for example of technology when we use it could only or it could even I had a slider phone in high school I was going to put H.S.

slider phone is a phone that you would slide up and slide down.

Not really a smartphone.

OK.

Now there are many limitations with a smartphone like that.

Ah sorry.

A phone like that a phone like that.

So then I could say it was it was really advanced at the time so maybe it compared to phones.

Now it can’t do much but at that time.

Wow.

It was really advanced it could do a lot of things should we say it was really progressed.

No.

Just to be clear when we talk about that thing the adjective of that thing we say it’s very advanced.

Sometimes we say it’s very developed although often for a phone for technology we don’t use developed we use developed maybe for language we use it developed for a person we use developed for a topic or a maybe a a subject.

Right.

Very developed a country even we could say developed advanced is often for technology.

So I had a slider phone in high school.

It was really advanced at the time.

It was really advanced at the time.

It could even or I could even if I said it could even say what it can do if I say I could even.

I’ll say what I could do with it I could even listen to music on it.

I could even listen to music on it.

What.

At that time you could listen to music using headphones on a phone.

Yeah it could even connect to the Internet.

What it could connect to the Internet.

Yes yes pretty advanced for that time or pretty advanced at the time.

So these words and phrases can be used in many ways.

But the reason I share them is because they are very common as ways to talk about things that happened in the past which improved over time.

Things which developed over time things which progressed over time.

And since we’re really talking about technology and its progress over time it’s important to know these words and phrases.

So let’s now move on and talk about an example or real example of how we can do this how we can tell a story about the past.