Lesson video

Hello everyone.

My name's Mrs. Riley, and I'm here to do some learning with you today.

Today we're going to be focusing on learning some new vocabulary.

I hope you enjoy today's lesson.

The learning outcome of today's lesson is to use the words shrewd, cunning, and devious effectively in multiple contexts.

Here are our key words for today's lesson.

I'm going to say each word and I'd like you to repeat it back to me.

My turn, your turn.

Here we go.

Noun.

Adjective.

Synonym.

Word pair.

Adverb.

Excellent, well done.

Let's go through the definitions.

So a noun is a naming word for people, places, or things.

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

For example, if I was going to, if tree was the noun, it's a thing.

I might then describe it, the tall tree.

A synonym is a word that has the same or similar meaning to another word.

So I could say the tall tree, or a synonym for tall might be the high tree.

Word pairs are words that often appear together.

And an adverb is a word that describes a verb or an adjective.

A verb is a doing or a being word.

So for example, anything that I could do.

So for example, I might yawn, and then the adverb would describe how I yawned.

(yawns) I sleepily yawned.

So in today's lesson, we are going to focus on some rich vocabulary associated with clever or sly words.

And we are going to be learning three new ways to describe someone as being clever or sly.

So by the end of the lesson today, you are hopefully going to know three new really impressive words that you can use.

Before we look at our first new clever or sly word, I want us to think about two questions.

First, can you think of any characters in stories that are clever or sly? Maybe it might be in a book you are reading, maybe it might be in a programme, or a film that you've watched.

And secondly, do you think being clever or sly is a good or a bad thing? There's a couple of sentence stems there to help you.

Mm, is a clever character because, or I think being clever is a mm thing because, really important that we're going to extend our answer by explaining why we think that using the word because.

So could you pause the video now and either have a think about that or say out loud to someone who's close by.

Off you go.

Okay, well done.

Hopefully you came up with some clever or sly characters.

Now, my daughter at the moment who's called Molly, is watching a, she loves the film "Aladdin." And in "Aladdin," some of you may have seen the film, there is a character called Jafar, and Jafar is very clever, but he's also very sly.

He's always coming up with crafty plans, and quite often he doesn't have very good intentions.

So that was my example of a character who is clever or sly.

And I was thinking, is it a good thing to be clever or sly? Because Jafar is definitely a villain.

He's definitely not a very nice character.

So I think being sly is a negative thing.

It's not a very good thing because often it's associated with someone who's a bit evil or a bit of a villain.

But being clever is something that is very positive.

I would love to be described as clever, but I'm not so sure I'd like to be described as sly.

So today it's going to be interesting because we're learning clever or sly words.

So I want us to come back to this idea of whether each word is a positive word.

Would you like to be called this word or is it a negative word? Would it be an insult to be called this word? So we'll think about that when we're introduced to our new vocabulary.

So here's our first illustration.

This word illustrates the picture that we're going to find out what the word is in a minute.

But before I tell you what the word is, I want us to really focus on this picture.

What's happening here? The terrible tiger twins are Yin and Yang, and the dog is Grit.

So could you pause the video and be a detective? Look at all the clues in this picture and describe what is happening in this picture.

Off you go.

Okay, well done.

Let me have a look at what I can see happening here.

So Yin and Yang are selling umbrellas.

I can see that because there's a bucket or a pot of umbrellas and it says, I think they're selling them for, oh, it's either $2 or $200, let's hope it's $2.

Otherwise, they'd be very expensive umbrellas.

And they are obviously wanting people to buy their umbrellas, but the problem is it doesn't look like a rainy day.

So they obviously have had a plan.

Yin is hiding behind the fence and is turning on a hose pipe that is drenched Grit.

And because grit is so wet, he's then saying, oh, I better buy an umbrella.

He's being tricked, he thinks it's raining.

So he thinks he needs an umbrella, but actually it's not raining at all, it's just Yin and Yang's little clever plan to sell more umbrellas.

So let's find out what this word is.

Shrewd, my turn, your turn.

Shrewd.

Well done.

Shrewd is an adjective.

So it's a describing word, and it means clever or sharp-witted, like someone who comes up with a smart plan to make lots of money.

Yin and Yang are being very shrewd in this picture, because they've come up with a clever way to make lots of money.

If you are sharp-witted, you are quick to notice or understand things.

Let's take a look at the synonyms of shrewd.

Sharp-witted, so quick to notice or understand things.

Intelligent, wise, and clever.

Intelligent, wise, and clever are all have a very similar meaning.

Wise, often owls are described as being very wise.

Here's the word in a sentence.

Yin and Yang were shrewd operators and thought of all kinds of ways to make money.

These words are word pairs of shrewd.

That means if you were to find this word shrewd in perhaps a book you were reading, it would very commonly be paired up with one of these words.

A shrewd remark.

A remark is like a comment that you might make.

So think about what a shrewd remark would be.

Perhaps you've thought of a remark or a comment and you've come up with a very clever idea very quickly.

A shrewd guess.

So perhaps you don't know the answer to something, but because you are very clever, or intelligent, or sharp-witted, you are able to come up with a shrewd guess.

A shrewd politician.

Now the politics is how you govern a country, how you lead a country.

So if you are a politician, you are elected as one of the people who would help govern a country.

So it would be a good thing if we have shrewd politicians because it means they're going to be very clever and intelligent and make good decisions.

A shrewd question, perhaps somebody is giving some instructions to somebody that, to a group of people and they've left out a really important piece of information.

And so somebody in the crowd, or the audience has asked a shrewd question.

And a shrewd observation.

An observation is when you make a statement based on something that you've seen or noticed.

So for example, you might observe, or look at something that's happening, and then you might be able to make a shrewd observation, a clever or intelligent observation based on what you've just seen.

Okay, I would like you now to pause the video and read the word pairs out loud, shrewd remark, shrewd guess, just like that.

The reason I want you to do this is because when we're learning new vocabulary, the only way it's going to really stick in our minds is by saying it out loud.

So it's not enough just to hear it or see it, I want you to say this word over and over again.

So pause the video now while you read these word pairs.

Okay, well done.

Let's take a look at some more word pairs of shrewd.

So we have a shrewd business woman, or it could be a businessman or just a business person.

A shrewd judge of character.

So if you are a shrewd judge of character, it would mean that you would be a good judge of character.

You would be able to work out if someone was, what kind of person someone was very quickly.

A shrewd operator and a shrewd judge.

So a judge can either be the person who makes decisions in a courtroom, or it could be the person who is, you could be the person who is making the decisions in a competition.

So if you were the judge in a cake competition, you would be the person tasting the cakes and saying, which one was the nicest or the most delicious.

So if you were shrewd judge, again, you would be very quick wit, very sharp-witted, very intelligent judge.

So just as before, could you pause the video now and read these word pairs aloud.

Off you go.

Excellent, well done.

Okay, let's just check our understanding of what we've learnt so far.

Which of these words is a synonym for shrewd? Remember synonym has a similar or same meaning.

So is it A, brave, B, wise, or C, assertive? Pause the video while you think about the answer now.

Okay, well done for giving that a go.

The correct answer is B, wise is a synonym for shrewd.

Okay, it's time for your first task.

In this task, you've got a word map with the word shrewd written in the middle.

Around the word shrewd, you have got either synonyms or word pairs.

I would first like you to circle all of the synonyms, and then I'd like you to draw a line from shrewd up or across or down to the word pairs.

Here's a sentence to help you.

Yin and Yang were shrewd operators and thought of all kinds of ways to make money.

Now, if the word is a synonym, you should not always, but you should be able to take out that word shrewd and replace it in the sentence.

So that might be a little tip to help you to work out if each word is a synonym or a word pair.

So could you pause the video now while you complete this task? Good luck.

Let's go through the answers.

The synonyms of shrewd are sharp-witted, wise, clever, and intelligent.

The rest of the words are word pairs.

A shrewd remark, a shrewd guess, a shrewd politician, a shrewd question, a shrewd business woman, a shrewd operator, a shrewd judge, and a shrewd judge of character.

For your next task, I would like you to write a sentence using the word shrewd.

Here are the word pairs to help you.

The word pairs are going to be your best friend in this task because if you pick a word pair to go with the word shrewd, then you know you are going to be using this word really appropriately.

And it can act as a, it can act as an inspiration for what your sentence could be about.

For example, if you had took the word pair judge, a shrewd judge, you can then think about your idea for your sentence.

What is the judge? Is it a judge in a court or is it a judge of a different competition? What could the competition be? And then you can start to think about what your sentence is going to be about.

So could you please pause the video now while you have a go at writing your own sentence using the word shrewd.

Okay, well done.

Let's take a look at some examples.

The student's shrewd question was so intelligent that it left his teacher speechless.

Armie wasn't sure about the quiz question, but he made a shrewd guess and it was correct.

Mrs. Wordsmith was a shrewd judge of character, so she knew who she could trust.

Let's take a look at our second new clever or sly word.

What is happening in this picture? Plato is the platypus who's painting and Grit is the dog.

Be a detective, look at all the details and either think about it or explain out loud what you can see happening here.

Pause the video now.

Well done.

In this picture, Grit is lying down and relaxing.

He has his legs crossed, he has his arms behind his head.

He looks seriously relaxed.

On the other hand, Plato is busy at work.

Plato is painting a fence, and Grit's kind of got a bit of a mischievous grin on his face.

So I wonder if maybe he has somehow got Plato to paint his fence for him.

It looks to me like maybe this is Grit's house and he's got Plato to do the job that he didn't want to do himself.

So let's find out what this word is.

This word is cunning.

My turn, your turn.

Cunning.

Cunning is an adjective and it means sly and crafty, like someone who cleverly manages to get out of doing their chores.

Ah.

So that's what's happening here.

Grit has got the chore of painting the fence, but he's somehow managed to get out of doing it by persuading Plato to do it instead.

So have a think.

Do you think this is a positive or a negative word? Pause the video now.

Hmm, it's tricky, isn't it? Because if it's like someone who cleverly manages to get out doing their chores, and if you are quite crafty, that's maybe a positive thing.

But being sly I think is a negative thing.

Foxes are often described as being it's sly or cunning, and it's usually used in quite a negative term.

So again, it's a bit, this word cunning has got positive and negative connotations, and hopefully the synonyms will help us to see that in more detail.

So these are synonyms of cunning.

Clever, well, that's a positive thing.

Devious, hmm, not so positive.

Sly, again, not so positive.

Here's the word in a sentence.

Grits cunning plan was working.

He couldn't believe Plato had fallen off his trick of timing him how long it would take to paint the fence.

That's actually a trick that me and my brother used to use on my little sister when we were too lazy to do something, like we had to go and get our, maybe we had to get the remote control for television, we would say to my little sister, who's called Florence Florence, we'll time you.

How long do you think it's gonna take you to get the remote control? And we would say, off you go.

Go.

one, two, three.

Wow, you did it in three seconds.

And my poor little sister always fell the trick, 'cause she thought it was a fun game.

And as she got older, she realised it was actually just a cunning trick of getting out of doing something ourselves, and we were just being lazy.

So I definitely can relate to what's happening in this picture here, and I think so would my sister be able to.

So these words are word pairs of cunning.

A cunning smile.

Ooh, can you show me a cunning smile? What might that look like? Ooh, yes, you'll look very cunning.

A cunning fox.

A cunning disguise.

A disguise is when you might dress up as something, or kind of cover yourself up, so that you are trying to hide who you are.

You are trying to cover up your identity.

A cunning trick.

A cunning mind.

Could you pause the video now and read these word pairs out loud? Excellent, well done.

Here are some more word pairs.

A cunning plan.

A cunning ploy.

A ploy is a cunning action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage.

A cunning thief and a cunning device.

Perhaps you might see a new device, a new piece of technology in a shop, and you might say, wow, this is a cunning device.

Okay, and finally, a cunning plot.

So just as before, I'd like you to read those wordplay aloud.

Off you go.

Okay, well done.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of these words is a synonym for cunning? Is it A, sly, B, kind, or C, jolly? Pause the video while you answer the question.

Well done.

The correct answer is A, sly is a synonym for cunning.

It has nearly the same meaning.

Okay, time for another task.

So just as before, you have a word map with the word cunning in the middle, I would like you to first circle all the synonyms for cunning.

And then I would like you to draw lines to the word pairs.

Here's a sentence to help you.

Grit's cunning plan was working.

Now if the words a synonym, you can usually replace it in the sentence.

So for example, if we look at the first word in the top left corner, clever, you could think right, Grit's, clever plan was working.

Hmm, that sounds right, so perhaps that word is a synonym.

The next word is smile.

Grits smile plan was working.

That doesn't sound right, so that may be as a word pair, let me check.

A cunning smile.

Yep, that sounds right.

So given you a bit of a clue there, I'd like you to now finish the task yourself.

Pause the video while you do that now.

Excellent, well done.

Let's go through the answers.

The synonyms are clever, devious, and sly.

The word pairs are cunning smile.

A cunning fox.

A cunning disguise.

A cunning trick.

A cunning mind.

A cunning plan.

A cunning ploy.

A cunning thief, someone who steals something, and a cuing device.

It's now your turn to write a sentence using the word cunning.

Remember the word pairs your best friend.

Pick a word pair, build your sentence around it.

For example, you might pick a fox, a cunning fox, and then you might think about what is the fox doing that is cunning? And you can build your sentence around that idea.

Remember to try and be really ambitious with your sentence.

I find it really helpful to say my sentence out loud a couple of times before I write it down.

And once I finish writing it down, I always go back to read and check it, because I find quite often I might have missed out a word, or a piece of punctuation or something like that.

And sometimes when I read my work back, I actually think of a way to improve it.

And all of those little edits we make to our work are a really good thing.

So could you pause the video now while you have a go at writing a sentence using the word cunning, good luck.

Okay, I hope you got on okay with that task and that you wrote a sentence you feel really proud of.

Let's take a look at some examples of some sentences.

Bogart's cunning plan to take over the world was evil, but brilliant.

Grit's cunning disguise meant that nobody recognised him.

As the cunning thief tiptoed into the shop, she grabbed the jewels and shoved them into her pockets.

So the three word pairs we used there was cunning plan, a cunning disguise, and a cunning thief.

Okay, so let's look at our third new clever or sly word.

What's happening in this picture? This is Bogart the fly.

How do you think he looks? How do you think he's feeling? How would you describe him? Could you pause the video and think about that now? Well done.

In this picture, Bogart is sitting on quite a grand looking chair.

Makes me wonder if he's the boss of a company or something like that, and he has got his hands together like this, and he's got a big grin on his face, and he's looking quite pleased with himself.

And if you can kind of read upside down, you might be able to see that in front of him it says evil plan.

So Bogart is sitting there.

He's got an evil plan, he's feeling very pleased with.

Let's find out what this word is.

This word is devious.

My turn, your turn.

Devious.

Well done.

I said we would come back to this word.

Devious is an adjective, meaning cheating or sly.

Like someone who is busy making evil plans.

Well, Bogart definitely is making evil plans here.

So he's definitely a devious character.

Now, devious has another meaning that we need to be wary of.

It can also mean of a journey or a route going out of the way or not straightforward.

So the way you might remember that, is imagine you are running a race or a marathon, and you are going to cheat, a bit like being a devious person might cheat in the race.

And so imagine you were going to cut a corner and you were going to go a different journey to everyone else to cut some of the journey out, to make it shorter.

That might help you to remember that it has this double, it can be used in two different ways, and we'll see that with some of the word pairs.

So these words are synonyms of devious.

They have a similar or the same meaning.

Cunning, one of our words from earlier, sly, and cheating.

Here's the word in a sentence.

The devious villain cackled at how evil he was.

Perhaps you could all do an evil cackle for me (cackles).

Well done.

So these words are word pairs of devious.

A devious villain.

A devious mind.

A devious plan, and a devious plot.

Could you pause the video and read those word pairs out loud? Off you go.

Well done.

Here are some more word pairs.

A devious trick.

a cheating or sly trick.

Devious strategy.

Now a strategy is a plan of action to achieve something.

A devious path.

Hmm, now a path can't be cheating or sly, but can you remember we said that there was another meaning of devious? And it can mean of a journey that you are going outta the way.

So a devious path and a devious course.

So again, that's an example of the alternative definition of devious.

A devious course going perhaps a different, a different course, a different way round.

So just as before, could you pause the video now and read those word pairs aloud? Okay, well done.

Let's check your understanding of this word.

Which of these words are word pairs of devious? Is it A, grin, B, plan, or C, house? There might be more than one answer.

Pause the video while you think about the answer now.

Okay, well done for giving that a go.

The correct answer is A, grin, and B, plan.

There are two correct answers.

You could have a devious grin and you could have a devious plan.

You couldn't have a devious house.

Okay, it's time for another task.

So just as before, I would like you to look at this word map and first circle the synonyms for devious, and then draw lines to the word pairs.

Here's a sentence to help you.

The devious villain cackled at how evil he was.

So pause the video while you complete this task.

Okay, well done.

Let's go through the answers.

The synonyms are sly, cunning, and cheating.

The rest of the words are word pairs, a devious villain.

A devious mind.

A devious plan.

A devious plot.

A devious trick.

A devious strategy.

And then the two slightly stranger ones, which use the other definition are a devious path and a devious course.

I'd now like you to write a sentence using the word devious.

Here are the word pairs to help you.

Pick a word pair and build your sentence around that.

And just as I said before, practise saying it out loud before you write it down.

And make sure you read it back to check it really carefully and be as ambitious as you possibly can be, thinking about all the things you've learned in your English and grammar lessons.

Good luck.

Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

I hope you're pleased with your sentence.

So here are some examples of some sentences using the word devious.

In the card game, Bogart's devious strategy was to win by cheating.

Bogart had a devious plan and he was sure it would surprise his enemy.

As she deviously grinned, the girl stirred chilli powder into her poor mother's tea.

You might also have noticed something strange about that final sentence.

Remember, our keyword or the word we're learning in this learning cycle is devious, but this sentence says as she deviously grinned.

So hopefully you may have noticed that here, devious has turned into deviously.

And maybe you might remember the beginning of the lesson, our keyword was an adverb.

An adverb often describes a verb.

So the adjunct devious can be turned into an adverb by adding LY at the end of it.

Remember, an adverb describes a verb.

So what's the doing word in this sentence? Oh, the doing word is that she grinned.

That's the thing that she did, that's the verb.

So I'm describing in the sentence how she did that.

How does she grin? She deviously grinned.

I've added LY at the end of devious the root word and turned it from an adjective at devious, into an adverb deviously.

Here's a check for understanding.

Do you think you can turn the adjectives shrewd and cunning into an adverb by adding LY or ly at the end of it? Can you pause the video and complete that now? Okay, well done.

So hopefully you've got the answers, shrewdly and cunningly.

So we've learned these three amazing words today, but actually you've kind of learned six words, because you can use them as adjectives without the LY or you can pop an LY on the end and use them as adverbs to describe a verb.

So you have got lots of really brilliant vocabulary up your sleeves at the end of this lesson.

Before we do our last task, I would like another quick check for understanding, and we're going to return to this idea of what's positive and what's negative.

How would you order these words from the most positive? So the thing, the one that you'd most like to be described as, to the most negative, so the one you'd least like to be described as.

Here's a reminder of the words shrewd, cunning, and devious.

Could you order them? Perhaps you could think, so number one is the most positive.

Number two is the middle, and number three is the least positive or the most negative.

Pause the video while you think about that now.

Well done.

Well actually, you may have noticed that they are in order.

Shrewd would be the most positive because it means clever or sharp-witted.

There's no mention of being cheating, or sly, or nasty.

It's just that you are very clever and sharp-witted.

Number two would be cunning, sly, and crafty.

So perhaps you are a little bit sneaky if you are cunning, but you are not really perhaps really, really evil.

Whereas devious actually means that you are cheating.

And cheating is always going to be a negative thing.

So I would most like to be described as being a shrewd person.

I'd be less pleased if I was described as a cunning person, but I would be very unhappy if someone described me as a devious person.

It's something I wouldn't want to be.

Okay, so let's summarise what we've learned today.

We've learned some rich vocabulary associated with clever or sly words.

The first word we learned was shrewd.

An adjective meaning clever or sharp-witted, like someone who comes up with a smart plan to make lots of money.

The second word was cunning, an adjective meaning sly and crafty, like someone who cleverly managed to get outta their chores.

And finally, we learnt devious, an adjective, meaning cheating or sly, like someone who is busy making evil plan.

So well done for all your hard work today.

And remember, as we spoke about before, you can also add an LY onto these adjectives and turn them into adverbs.

So we've learnt really six words today, shrewd, cunning, devious, shrewdly, cunningly, and deviously.

And I hope these words will be really helpful to you.

So well done for your hard work and I'll hopefully see you again soon.

Bye.