What do you call your boyfriend or girlfriend? Maybe you say “baby”, “honey”, “sweetheart”, “sexy”, or something else? In this lesson, I will provide you with a lot of inspiration for cute nicknames for your loved ones, guaranteed to make their hearts melt!!! WARNING: These terms are NOT to be used with strangers! After watching the video and doing the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/what-we-call-the-people-we-love/ ,and leave a comment telling me your favorite terms of endearment. TRANSCRIPT Welcome, darlings, to the lesson. How are you? Do you like my new wardrobe? Today I’m going to teach you about things or names that you can call your partner, your honey-bunch, your significant other. Rainier, Sonja, this one’s for you guys. How are ya? So these are words that we use in English to talk about the one that we love or the one that we love for the moment. In English they’re called terms of endearment. It has nothing to do with deers. But, they are terms of endearment. So, probably the most common ones are things like, as I said to you: “darling”. Now, sometimes we say: “darling”. One word of caution, ladies and gentlemen: These are for people that you know. So, for example, if you’re in a restaurant, please do not call the waitress: “babe”, or “honey”, or “sweetheart”. It is degrading. It is not cool. Women don’t like it. If you know the person, if it’s your baby, your mom, your dad-that’s weird-your child, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your other boyfriend, your other girlfriend, your dog, your cat, someone who is close to you – please, use these. But if this is a stranger, do not use these. Women, especially, do not appreciate being called these names. We find it insulting because I am not your sugarpie, darling. Unless you want a smack in the face, I’m not your sugarpie. Okay? So be careful. Say these to people you love and know. So, one thing that’s come up that I didn’t know that I found out when I was researching this is back in the… A long time ago in the 2000s or the 1990s, it was popular in rap songs to say: “My boo”. And I thought: “That’s funny, that’s what ghosts say.” But it actually is probably just people who can’t say friend properly-Americans-it comes from the French: “beau”. So in the French language they have the word “beau”, which means boyfriend or girlfriend, but I guess Americans just say “boo”. Honey Boo Boo, oh god, the horror. So, Honey Boo Boo is a really famous little girl, and her name has two names… Terms of endearment together, Honey Boo Boo, you darling. So, “boo” is the French bastardization of “beau”. So, use at will. We make these names by talking about sweet things. For example: “honey”, honey is sweet. Most of these names are older, so that’s why we’re using kind of older things. So, you can just call someone your honey, but then we can have: “honey-pie”, “honey-bun”, “honey-bunny”, “honey-baby”. I think Elvis did this a lot. Then we can be “sweet” something, so: “sweet-pea”, “sweet-cheeks”. Cheeks are here and they’re also your bum. “Sweet-thing”, but I think you should be like: “sweet-thang”, you should say it like that. Then we have: “sweetie” or “sweetiepie”. I don’t know why, but a lot of these have to do with pie. I guess back when they were making these words, they liked pie, and that’s all they had. “Sweetheart”, this is pretty common. You have: “pumpkin” or “pumpkinpie”. Again, it’s the pie. A pumpkin is a big, orange fruit or a veggie, I guess it’s really cute. And: “sugar” or again “sugar-pie”. Again, I can’t stress enough that you cannot just say these to people that you don’t know, you don’t have a relationship with. Be very careful who you say these to because you can use them sarcastically. So, for example, Mel Gibson called a cop or a police officer “sugar-tits”. I don’t think that the cop really enjoyed that, and Mel Gibson in a movie was arrested. So, “sugar-tits”, maybe a term of endearment, but be careful how you use it. You don’t want to get arrested, go to jail. We can also use this, for example, if I am speaking to another girl and I’m trying to kind of be sarcastic with her, I can say, like: “Okay, honey.” So the way that we use it, the intonation that we say it, especially to a stranger, it has a completely different meaning. So, please, again, be careful. We also have things like: “cutie” or “cutiepie”, “angel”, “apricot”. My chiropractor always calls me “apricot”, and I’m like: “I’m not an apricot, sir. I’m a person.” And: “doll”. Now, this is a very, very old expression. You hear it or see it in movies: “a doll” or “dollface”. Again, outdated, we don’t use it as much. More common ones are: “hottie” or “hot stuff”. Hot stuff, baby, oh yeah. They use that in a commercial now. Then we have just names that are silly, like: “snookums”, or “snooky”. I think Snooki was one of the characters in that terrible television show. “Snuggles” and one of my mom’s favourites: “pet”.