yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Advantage | Vocabulary | Khan Academy


2m read
·Nov 10, 2024

I have The High Ground, word Smiths, because we're talking about the word advantage in this video.

Advantage, a noun, it means a better position, something that helps. If we're running a foot race and I get a three-minute head start over you, that's a definite advantage. I got to start before you did. Indeed, that's what the derivation of this word gives us: avantage can literally be translated from French as "beess." So, avant means before in French, both before in time and before in space. It can mean both earlier and in front of.

A in English pronounced "AG", right? This AG is a noun-forming suffix that also comes from French. It works like this: you pack stuff into a package, you store things in storage. Leaky things are prone to leakage. You get the picture.

So, thinking about avant or advant right with the D in there and H G as a noun-forming suffix, what similar words can you think of? I'll give you ten seconds. Here we go!

[Music break]

Here are three that I came up with: disadvantage, right? The opposite of advantage. This is when something is making things harder for you, like your opponent in a foot race getting a three-minute head start, for example.

Advance is a verb that means to go forward or to go onward or up. Advantage, this noun, is usually part of the phrase "vantage point."

Means a good spot to view things from. The top of a hill is a great vantage point from which to watch a fireworks display, for example.

All right, let's use advantage in a few sentences. Elias P. Beanpole, the tallest boy in sixth grade, had a distinct advantage on the basketball court; he was like 20 feet tall. He could dunk from half court; that was his advantage. That's his superior position, right? But he did keep bonking his head on the ceiling, which I would say is a distinct disadvantage to being that tall.

Listen, just because my mom runs a candy shop doesn't mean you could take advantage of our friendship. To take advantage of an opportunity is to get some benefit from it, but not always in a fair way.

To take advantage of a friendship is to say something like, "Hey, your mom has that candy shop. How do you feel about hooking up your friend David with some free candy?"

Hm, you do that enough times, and you're probably going to exhaust your friend and your friendship.

Taking advantage doesn't have to have a negative connotation or feeling, though. You could take advantage of a windy day and fly a kite, or take advantage of a rainy day and play a board game. That kind of thing.

I hope you take advantage of these videos, dear wordsmiths, and realize that you can learn anything. Dve it out.

More Articles

View All
Eric Migicovsky - How to Talk to Users
Hi everyone, my name is Eric Richard Kazuki. I’m a partner here at YC. I actually started a company that went through Y Combinator back in 2011. I started a company called Pebble; we made one of the first smartwatches. I am really excited to be here to t…
Warren Buffett: How ANYONE Can Become Rich (5 Steps)
Omission is way bigger than commission. There’s big opportunities in life that have to be seized. Uh, we don’t do very many things, but when we get the chance to do something that’s right and big, we’ve got to do it. Even to do it on a small scale is just…
15 Secrets Only Billionaires Know
As of 2023, there are 3,112 billionaires in the world. The billionaire perspective on life is quite different from anything you’ve ever experienced, and it’ll definitely go against many of the things you believe. Here are 15 secrets only billionaires know…
Female Founders Conference - New York
[Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Okay, let’s see here. Hi, hi everyone! Good afternoon! I think we’ll get started. You’re nice and cool inside, thank goodness. I lived in New York more than 20 years ago at this poi…
Parent Quick-Start Tips: For Kids Ages 12 and Under
Hi, I’m Lauren from Khan Academy, and today I’m going to give you an overview of how to set up accounts for yourself and your children on Khan Academy. We’ll also go over how you can find relevant content for your kids and view their progress. This video …
Unreplaceable Skills: AI's Limits
Yesterday we talked about 10 skills that are now almost useless thanks to the rise of AI. Now, it’s only natural to talk about what particular skills an AI could never replace. These are the skills that even the most advanced robot cannot replicate, and p…