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Hole One a New See Posted 16 years ago
Vocabulary

Distinction of 'similar' words and a question about 'strengthen'

Hi everybody Emotion: smile

1. So... I would like to distinct similar words like 'smart', 'clever' and 'intelligent'. It is a particular example which I saw on youtube in the video of Marianne. Moreover I would like to get to know these words and - for me - that is even a problem to explore these ones. Is there any manner for it (e.g. a collection with these words)? Plz., help me. because it is very hard to analyze every words one by one like in the mentioned case.

2. 'I would like to strengthen my skills on the topic of programming'. Is it correct If I use the word 'strengthen' to emphasize that I would like to reach such a level on this topic (programming) which is eternal for me nobody can take it away from me? Plz., help me

3. If I'm here I ask you to correct my grammatical mistakes in the first and second issue points.

Thanks in advance.
  

Top answer

1. Smart and intelligent are very close, but smart can be negative like in "smart aleck", someone who is irritating because they show off their intelligence. Intelligent is almost always a positive word that suggests "understanding.

— Lakshwadeep

  • 1.
  • Smart and intelligent are very close, but smart can be negative like in "smart aleck", someone who is irritating because they show off their intelligence.
  • Intelligent is almost always a positive word that suggests "understanding.
  • Clever is used for unusual intelligence like someone who quickly finds a new answer to a problem.
  • Someone who is clever learns quickly and can use their knowledge.
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6 Answers
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1. Smart and intelligent are very close, but smart can be negative like in "smart aleck", someone who is irritating because they show off their intelligence. Intelligent is almost always a positive word that suggests "understanding. Clever is used for unusual intelligence like someone who quickly finds a new answer to a problem. Someone who is clever learns quickly and can use their knowledge.
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Thx, my friend, it was interesting. It is similar to Marianne's on youtube who say 'smart' is mainly used by the americans with neutral meaning, unlike The british people who use mainly 'clever' for the very very intelligent people as you said, too. She said even that 'clever' can be also negative a little bit for the american people because it has an effect on them e.g. they regard 'clever' perso
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To continue my previous comment I would appriciate sites which are similar to this one:
http://www.learnenglish.de/mistakes/CommonMistakes.htm

It is a collection but maybe there are other ones with more confusing words or other confusing words.

Thanks in advance
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Sorry, I made a mistake in my previous comment. So I also very curious about that how can I say 'more words'. I mean I would like to write down something which is similar to 'more confusing words' but just similar because I don't want to make an enhancement of 'confusing' I just would like to refer to the improved cardinality of words. (I don't want to write : 'with more words which are confusing
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Yes, clever can also have a meaning like "sly" or "cunning", which are more negative words.

"Jargon" are words that are very specific to a group/profession and hard for others to understand. "Technical" words are similar to jargon. "Verbose" is and adjective that means using more words than needed.

This is a very good site on similar words:
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