{"id":2059,"date":"2017-07-09T09:45:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-09T13:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getmorevocab.com\/?p=2059"},"modified":"2020-03-01T21:24:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T02:24:59","slug":"common-euphemisms-you-need-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getmorevocab.com\/common-euphemisms-you-need-know\/","title":{"rendered":"100+ Common Euphemisms You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"
Sometimes we use indirect expressions instead of directly naming something unpleasant or embarrassing. We call these expressions euphemisms<\/em>, and you need to know them for two important reasons:<\/p>\n
1.<\/strong> You’ll sound insensitive if you don’t use euphemisms<\/strong>. If you say “I’m sorry your friend died,” instead of “I’m sorry your friend passed away,” your conversation partner might find your comment rude.\u00a0Death is a scary concept, and as a society we’ve agreed to use polite euphemisms as substitutes for\u00a0death<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0die<\/em>.<\/p>\n
2.<\/strong> You won’t understand much of what you read and hear if you don’t know euphemisms<\/strong>. If you read a news story about “collateral damage” from drone strikes, you need to know that the article is about civilian deaths. If you receive an email about “an outstanding balance on your account,” you need to know that you owe money. If you hear that a movie contains “adult content,” you need to know that the movie contains sexually explicit material.<\/p>\n
To help you with these expressions, I’ve put together a list of 100+ polite euphemisms you should know. There is also a practice activity at the end of the post (interactive version here<\/a>).<\/p>\n