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I want to share how we usually use the word “cool” because I’ve heard many non-native speakers use it differently.

First of all, “cool” is not a word you would use to describe yourself because it sounds too arrogant. For example, it really sounds like you are too proud of yourself to say, “I am a cool guy”. It’s not cool to say that.

We also don’t usually tell people directly that we think they are cool. For example, I wouldn’t tell my friend, “You are really cool”. If I’m talking to someone else about my friend I might say, “My friend Chris is a really cool guy”. But I wouldn’t tell Chris that. I’m not sure exactly why we do this but its almost always done this way.

We also don’t usually tell people that they look cool. If I thought someone was wearing really cool sunglasses, I might say, “Hey, those are really cool sunglasses. Where did you get those?” I wouldn’t say, “You look cool in those sunglasses”. Some other common sentences are, “That’s a really cool bar.” “This apartment is really cool”. “That was a really cool movie”.

Please share your thoughts and give me some topic ideas.

Thanks

Andrew

Grammar and Word Usage Learning and Improving English

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Learning and Improving English, Grammar and Word Usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.