📚 If I Were You

Gerrard lives alone in a lonely cottage. An intruder, who is a criminal, enters his cottage. He intends to murder Gerrard and take on his identity. Does he succeed?

Let's first understand some vocabulary we'll encounter in the play.

The following words and phrases occur in the play. Do you know their meanings? Match them with the meanings given.

Try to guess the meanings before checking the answers:

• cultured - sophisticated; well mannered
• count on - depend on; rely on
• engaged - occupied; busy
• melodramatic - exaggerated
• inflection - here, a tone of voice
• wise guy - (American English) a person who pretends to know a lot
• a dandy bus - an informal expression for a fashionable vehicle
• tradespeople - merchants
• gratuitous - unnecessary and usually harmful
• dodge - avoid
• lucky break - an unexpected opportunity for success
• Sunday-school teacher - a Christian religious teacher who teaches on Sundays in Church
• frame - trap

Irony is when we say one thing but mean another, usually the opposite of what we say. When someone makes a mistake and you say, "Oh! that was clever!", that is irony. You're saying 'clever' to mean 'not clever'.

Expressions we often use in an ironic fashion are:

• Oh, wasn't that clever!/Oh that was clever!
• You have been a great help, I must say!
• You've got yourself into a lovely mess, haven't you?
• Oh, very funny!/ How funny!

We use a slightly different tone of voice when we use these words ironically.

A word can mean different things in different contexts. Look at these three sentences:

• The students are taught to respect different cultures.
• The school is organising a cultural show.
• His voice is cultured.

In the first sentence, 'culture' (noun) means way of life; in the second, 'cultural' (adjective) means connected with art, literature and music; and in the third, 'cultured' (verb) means sophisticated, well mannered.