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I am discovering so many strange things about English the longer I teach... Have you ever heard of a contronym? I haven’t until recently so I will do my best to explain this to you.
We can use the word “chuffed” to express our delight about a situation: I was rather chuffed with my result for my English exam! However, there is a very different meaning. It can express displeasure about something as well. I was dead chuffed with the traffic this morning.
Often used is the word "peruse". I know that I use this all the time when I send documents to someone via email to read, I would end my email asking the person to peruse the attached document. What I didn’t know is that it could be asking the person to look at the document in an informal or relaxed way. I always thought that it meant to look at the document in a very careful and attentive manner... oops!
I don’t use the word "nonplussed" often but here is an example: I am completely nonplussed by this article. Well, it seems as if the word should mean that I don’t care about it at all, and this is correct. However, it can also mean that I am so surprised and confused that I do not know how to react...
I hope you understand what a contronym is: a word that has two opposite meanings ().
On that very confusing note, I shall end this article. I hope that you do not stop learning English because of this but that you learn even more of the language to become an expert!
Happy speaking, until next time!
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