The Fearless Fluency Club: Grammar
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Vanessa:

Hi, and welcome to this month's grammar lesson in the Fearless Fluency Club.
Today we're going to be talking about a word that's going to help to make your
sentence structure and your grammatical sentences more complex. So, I hope
that you'll be able to integrate it into your daily conversation and you'll also be
able to understand exactly what native speakers mean when they use it. The
word is even, even.
So, to start of this lesson, I'm going to give you two test sentences and I want you
to guess which one is the most correct. We haven't talked about this yet, so just
look into your heart and just guess, which one do you think is the most correct?
The first sentence is, this lesson is even more interesting than I thought. This
lesson is even more interesting than I thought. The second sentence is, this
lesson is even less interesting than I thought. This lesson is even less interesting
than I thought.
So, the main difference between these two sentences is the word ‘more’ and the
word ‘less.’ The word ‘even’ is present in both sentences, so I want you to
choose, which one do you think is the most correct? Take a moment. Look inside
your mind. Look inside your heart and I'm going to tell you the correct answer in
three, two, one.
It is… Actually, this was a trick question. Both of these sentences are
grammatically correct, but I hope that the first sentence, this lesson is even more
interesting than I thought, I hope that this sentence will be true for you. I hope
that this lesson will be interesting to you.
Maybe at the beginning of this lesson right now, maybe you're thinking, "I'm not
a big fan of grammar. I don't know if this lesson will be interesting to me," so I
hope that this lesson surprises you. I hope that it is even more interesting than
you thought originally.
All right. Let's get started with how to use the word ‘even.’ The first way to use

the word ‘even’ is I think one of the most common ways to use it, and that is for
an unexpected or surprising situation. If you've been following my lessons for a
while, you know that I don't drink coffee. In fact, I'm not a big fan of coffee at all.
I don't like coffee even with sugar.

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[2:19]
So, here in this sentence, I'm letting you know that I don't like coffee in any
circumstance, not with milk, not with sugar, but a lot of people who don't like
coffee, they do like coffee with sugar. So, I'm telling you something surprising. I
don't like coffee with milk. I don't like coffee with sugar. I don't like coffee at all.
So, you might be a little bit surprised about this. You might think, "Vanessa, you
don't like coffee even with sugar?" We're following the word even with
something surprising, even with sugar, because most people if you add sugar,
they'll like it. It tastes sweeter, but I don't, so here you're shocked. You're
surprised. You're encountering some kind of new information. "Even with sugar?"
I just mentioned that we usually add the word ‘even’ before the part of the
sentence that's surprising, "Even sugar."
So, let's take a look at a couple other examples because you can add the word
‘even’ at the beginning, the middle, the end, and depending on what it is in front
of, the meaning's going to be a little bit different.
So, let's take a sample sentence about meat. You might say, "I thought everyone
liked meat, but he doesn't like meat, even steak." We're kind of imagining that
steak is the tastiest, the most delicious type of meat, so you're shocked that he

doesn't like steak. Okay, maybe he doesn't like fish or pork or chicken, but you're
shocked, even steak. Whoa, this is the shocking event in the sentence, "Even
steak."
What if we put the word ‘even’ in a different place in the sentence? It's going to
mean something a little bit different. Let's imagine that Dan, my husband, loves
all food. He is a big fan of food and in fact it's quite true. He likes all different
kinds of food, but there might be a shocking or surprising situation that arises.
You might say, "I thought that everyone liked my chocolate cake." This means
that I recently made a chocolate cake and I thought it was great. I thought that
everyone would like it. So, you could say, "I thought that everyone liked my
chocolate cake, but even Dan didn't like it."
Here, we have our key word ‘even’ in front of ‘Dan.’ So, why is Dan shocking or
surprising in this situation? We're not putting it front of ‘meat’ like the previous
sentence or ‘sugar’ like the sentence before that. We're putting it in front of a
person. Even Dan didn't like my chocolate cake.
Well, it's surprising because we expect that everyone will like the chocolate cake,
but in reality, the chocolate cake was so bad that someone who loves all food, he
said that it was terrible. He didn't eat it and we expect that probably Dan will eat
it. Maybe other people won't eat it, but he likes everything, so I know, I am
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[5:25]
certain that he will eat it, but when even Dan doesn't eat it, we know it's pretty
bad. So, here, we're putting the word ‘even’ in front of that shocking part, "Even
Dan didn't eat it."
Let's take a look at how you can use even in a negative sentence. Let's imagine
that you're moving to a new apartment and you're moving all your stuff in. It's

kind of a big deal. You feel a little bit stressed and you expect that your family will
call you to check up on you to see how you're doing, but it has been a couple
days and no one has called you, not even your mom. Here, we're using even, but
this is a negative sentence, not even, "Not even your mom."
So, like before, mom is that surprising part, but what does this mean when we're
using it in a negative way? Well, we can imagine that you have a good
relationship with your family, but you don't really expect your dad to call, your
sister to call, your uncle to call, but you definitely have an expectation that your
mom will call. You know, you are certain that your mom will call you to check up
on you to see how you're doing.
So, you're most shocked, you're most surprised that your mom hasn't called you
yet, so you are making a beautiful negative sentence and saying, "My family
hasn't called me, not even my mom. I hope that they're okay. Why hasn't she
called me? Maybe the rest of my family won't call, but I expect that at least my
mom will, so why hasn't she?" Great. We're using the word ‘not’ in front of
‘even.’ Someone has not done something, so we're using a negative word, "Not
even my mom has called me."
Now we're going to go on and take a look at four sentences from the
conversation with Lana where she uses the word ‘even.’ I'm going to give a quick
explanation and then we're going to watch the clip and then I'll give another
quick explanation, and we'll watch the next clip.
So, I hope that you'll be able to see and you'll be able to hear how it was used
because I know that Lana speaks really quickly, so I hope that it will help you to
just feel more comfortable understanding her when you can pick out those words
that she says.
So, in her first sentence she says, "I didn't get my ears pierced even, not until I
was 13 or 14 or 15 years old." I didn't get my ears pierced even. Why did she use
the word ‘even’? What's the shocking piece of information here? Well, after the
word even, she mentions the age that she got her ears pierced. In the US, it's not
unusual to get your ears pierced as an elementary school student.

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[8:02]
For example, my sister was five when she got her ears pierced. She really wanted
to have it done and my mom made sure that she was responsible before she got
her ears pierced. I think she had to clean her room for one month and not miss a
day and be really responsible, and then she got her ears pierced. She loved it.
This is pretty common, even though she was five years old, but Lana didn't get
her ears pierced until she was a teenager. This is surprising because she has a lot
of piercings now and a lot of tattoos, so we expect that she would get her ears
pierced much younger, maybe as an elementary school student because she
really wanted that.
So, she's presenting us with some shocking information. "I didn't get my ears
pierced even, not until I was 14 years old." Oh, interesting. There's something
surprising and she's letting us know that she didn't start this journey of tattoos
and piercings until she was a teenager, until a little bit later in her life. Let's watch
this clip so that you can hear accurately how she used the word ‘even.’
Lana:

I didn't get my ears pierced even until I was I think 14 or 15 years old.

Vanessa:

Oh yeah?


Lana:

I didn't get my ears pierced even until I was I think 14 or 15 years old.

Vanessa:

Oh yeah?
In Lana's second sentence, she says, "I look at my tattoos and even the ones that
I don't really like, I appreciate them." What's the surprising part in this
sentence? "Even the ones that I don't really like, I appreciate them."
For me, I would expect that if I had a tattoo on my body that I didn't like, I would
hate it. I would be so upset because it's there forever. This is my expectation, but
she's showing us some kind of surprising revelation that the ones that she
doesn't like, she can still appreciate it. She's trying to find some positive outcome
for the tattoos that she doesn't really like anymore. So, she says, "Even the ones
that I don't really like." That's our shocking piece of information. All right, let's
watch this clip.

Lana:

A lot of my tattoos I got and I love them and I look at them every day and I enjoy
them, and even the ones that I don't really like, I still look at them and I'm like,
"At least that was this part of what I had," and that's what they are. They're like
tiny little memories.

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[10:13]
A lot of my tattoos I got and I love them and I look at them every day and I enjoy
them, and even the ones that I don't really like, I still look at them and I'm like,
"At least that was this part of what I had," and that's what they are. They're like
tiny little memories.
Vanessa:

In Lana's third sentence, she says, "And you even have to take out your
earrings." And you even have to take out your earrings. What's coming after the
word even? Take out your earrings. She's talking about going to the dentist and
she said that at the dentist, she has to take out her facial piercings, but she's also
showing us something a little bit surprising. She says that even her earrings, she
needs to take out. They don't seem to be in the way of the x-ray, but she's
showing us that actually, they are.
A lot of people have earrings, so this is something that at least for me, I've never
thought about, but she's saying, "Yes, this affects you, too. If you wear earrings,
you need to take them out before you get an x-ray at the dentist." So, she's
showing us some kind of surprising information. Even your earrings you need to
take out. This is a basic piercing, but you have to take it out as well, not just your
facial piercings, but also your earrings. All right. Let's listen to her say this
sentence.

Lana:

You're even supposed to take the ones out from your ears because it's in your
jaw line. You're even supposed to take the ones out from your ears because it's
in your jaw line.


Vanessa:

In Lana's fourth sentence where she uses the word ‘even,’ she's talking about her
terrible foot tattoo experience. She said that it was her most painful tattoo
experience and she said that the tattoo artist had to tape down her foot. I asked
her, "Did he have to tape it down because you just couldn't stop moving your
foot? It was so painful, you were moving your foot?"
She said he taped it down but it wasn't even because it was painful. He taped it
down because her foot was involuntarily moving. It was moving without her
doing it. Just the nerve was moving. So, of course it was painful, but she's saying
that the tape wasn't because she was moving her foot. Her foot was moving by
itself.
That sounds like a terrible nightmare experience to me. I'm so glad that I have
not experienced this, but the reason why she uses the word ‘even’ is because she
is saying, "Yes, it was painful, but the tape was not for that reason." The tape was
for another reason that is a little bit surprising. Actually, her body's biology was

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[12:43]
saying, "Your foot is moving so much that we need some tape." Her mind was not
doing that consciously. It was doing it unconsciously.
So, this sentence is a little bit more complex, but she's still revealing some kind of
surprising information that the pain wasn't moving her foot. It wasn't even
because it was painful. It was because of the nerves in her foot. There's a lot

going on here, so let's watch the clip to see when she says the word ‘even’ to talk
about her terrible foot tattoo.
Lana:

It wasn't even because it was ... It was super painful, but there's so many nerves
in your foot that my foot just kept doing like, "Eh, eh, eh," and he's sitting there
and he's like, "I'm just going to," and he just tapes it to the thing.
It wasn't even because it was ... It was super painful, but there's so many nerves
in your foot that my foot just kept doing like, "Eh, eh, eh," and he's sitting there
and he's like, "I'm just going to," and he just tapes it to the thing.

Vanessa:

All right. The second way to use the word ‘even’ is similar but slightly different.
We're still talking about something that's surprising or shocking, some kind of
new information but we're going to be using it in a comparison.
So, let me give you a quick example. Let's imagine that I have a really old car.
Maybe it's 30 years old. Well, you could say, "My car is old, but his car is even
older." So, in this sentence, his sentence is 40 years old. We're saying that it's
shocking that my car is 30 years old and it's still running, but his car is even older.
The word that we're using here is ‘older.’ That's a comparison word. The root
word is ‘old’ and we're adding ER to make it a comparison. Old, older, or we
could use tall, taller, blue, bluer, big, bigger, or if you're using a longer word, we
could add ‘more,’ more interesting, more exciting, more amazing, or we could
make a negative, less interesting, less amazing, less delicious. These are
comparison words and we're going to be adding the word ‘even’ in front of it.
So, let's take a look at a couple other examples. Let's say that your brother has
been talking all day about how hungry he is and he keeps saying, "I can't wait for
dinner. I can't wait for dinner. I'm so hungry," so you expect, you have an
expectation that he is extremely hungry.


When your family goes to a restaurant that night, you expect that he's going to
eat more than you because he's been talking about how hungry he is all day, but
really, when you get your dinner, he eats one steak, one potato, one salad, and
you eat two steaks, two potatoes, two salads.
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[15:24]
How can we make a sentence using the word ‘even’ here? We might say, "I
thought he was hungry, but I was even hungrier than he was." Even hungrier.
So, here we're using the comparison word hungrier. The root word is hungry.
We're showing something surprising. You expect that he's going to eat more, but
you're surprised that, "Oh, I was hungrier than I thought. I was even hungrier
than him."
So, in these sentences, we could always just leave out the word ‘even,’ but if you
want to emphasize that this is something surprising, great. You can add the word
even. "I was even hungrier than him. His car was even older than my car."
Beautiful.
I think in school, we've all been in these situations where you have a test the
next day and you need to study, but you are incredibly tired. So, in this situation,
you might say, "Well, I need to sleep but studying is even more important."
You're weighing two options and even though you're extremely tired, you're
saying, "Well, studying is even more important."
It's a little bit surprising because everyone can see that you are so tired, but in
fact, you're deciding studying is even more important. That's a great sentence.
Our comparison is more important, and you're just emphasizing that kind of
surprising information. "Well, studying is even more important, so I'm not going

to sleep tonight. I'm going to sleep nonstop after my exam."
Now, let's take a look at some examples, specifically one example from the
conversation with Lana where she used ‘even’ in a comparison situation. You
probably realized from the conversation with Lana that her parents were pretty
strict about things like getting her ears pierced, coloring her hair, and certainly
about getting tattoos.
So, when Lana decided to pierce her ears by herself, her parents just saw it and
had to deal with it. They realized that, okay, this is something that she did, and
they couldn't really stop her because it had already happened, but with coloring
her hair, dying her hair, that was a big deal, especially to her dad.
So, maybe when her dad saw her pierced ears he thought, "Okay, it's not great,
but it's not so terrible," but when he thought about her dying her hair, no, he did
not want her to do that. So, she said, "Dying my hair was an even bigger thing."
Here, thing, we could just substitute, "Was an even bigger deal to my dad."
Here, we're using a great comparison word, bigger. "Dying my hair was an even
bigger deal to my dad. Piercing my ears, maybe not so much, but dying my hair
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[18:16]
was a bigger deal than piercing my ears." Great. She's using ‘even’ in a
comparison situation, was an even bigger deal. She's emphasizing that word. All
right, let's watch the clip so that you can see how Lana used it.
Lana:

That was an even bigger thing. My dad was okay with getting my ears pierced.
He was like, "Eh." He just never wanted to really take me, but dying hair was a big
no no thing.

That was an even bigger thing. My dad was okay with getting my ears pierced.
He was like, "Eh." He just never wanted to really take me, but dying hair was a big
no no thing.

Vanessa:

Now that we've talked about how to use the word ‘even’ for these surprising,
shocking situations, it's your turn to use it. I'd like to ask you a question. When
was a time that you went to a cheap restaurant that you didn't expect to be
good, but it was actually good? What did you eat that was good?
Let me give you a quick example. Let's imagine that you went to an Italian
restaurant, but it was super cheap. You didn't really research it in advance. You
were just hungry and you went there, but you were shocked because even the
lasagna was good. Even the pizza, even the spaghetti, even the pasta was good.
Wow, everything was good. I was surprised. Even the lasagna was good.
So, in this situation, you have an expectation, "It's not going to be good. It's going
to be cheap, but I'm hungry, so whatever. I don't care," but if it's actually good,
you can use the word ‘even’ to show that it's different from your expectation. "I
went to an Italian restaurant and even the lasagna was good. Even the pizza
was good. I was surprised."
Great. So, I want you to pause this lesson. Take a moment. Write down your
sentence. You can write it in the lesson guide. I've written out all of the stuff from
this lesson as well as this question in the lesson guide. Take a moment to write it
out. Read it out loud. Use those muscles, because it's really helpful to understand
this word and understand the context and the nuances of the sentences when
other people say it, but you need to hear your own voice saying it as well, so
make sure that you read your sentence out loud. If you have any questions about
it, feel free to email it to me so that I can help you to correct it and make sure
that it's using it in the best way possible.
So, please review this lesson. Go to the grammar worksheet now and answer

some of those questions. Try to insert the word ‘even’ into the sentences in the

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[20:40]
worksheet. Try to make your own sentences using the word ‘even.’ Really
challenge yourself to use it as much as you can.
Thanks so much for learning for me and I hope that this lesson was even more
interesting than you thought at the beginning. Thanks so much and I'll see you
the next time. Bye.

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Transcript Index
This index will help you to quickly match the page and the time in the lesson so that you can
easily follow along and understand each word.
Page 1: 0:00 – 2:19
Page 2: 2:19 – 5:25
Page 3: 5:25 – 8:02
Page 4: 8:02 – 10:13

Page 5: 10:13 – 12:43
Page 6: 12:43 – 15:24
Page 7: 15:24 – 18:16
Page 8: 18:16 – 20:40
Page 9: 20:40 – 20:56

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