Hey everybody, welcome back to Let’s Talk, you are with me Meera. Well as all of us know
that there are certain confusing words in English, aren’t there? Well today we have
jotted down two such words which create confusion, why? Because they are so similar, they sound
similar in a way that, in a way of usage, right? But then what happens is, we end up
using them in the wrong sentence or situation and then you might just feel a little weird
after using them. Something like this, you know like, it doesn't sound right, am i using
it right? Well that's right. Because today's confusing vocabulary is, “power” versus
“strength”, right? That is what we're gonna clear out today. So let me begin with
a question, when it comes to the word “power”, right? What is the first thought that comes
in your mind? Quickly, try and think about it. Well when it comes to power, I end up
thinking about influence, you know someone's, someone's authority over people, someone's,
someone who knows people and people who do something for that person, that's power for
me. The first thing that I think of. Now, let me ask the same question, what do you
think about strength, in the first go? What do you relate it with? You related with physical
strength, body, right? Now try and understand that these two are still a little different
because the way we perceive it. Okay let's take a look at the meanings of, for both first,
well what is the meaning of power? When it formed, when it is in the ‘noun form’
it is the ‘ability’, right? To do something or and act, okay? In a particular way, in
a particular way, right? Well that's the noun form of it, so let me just specify here, ‘noun’.
Now try to think of it in the ‘verb form’, power in the verb form, yes any guesses? That
means, to travel with speed you know, in speed, an ability to travel with tremendous speed
that is the verb, okay? So I'm just gonna underline here and underline here. There you
go, there are your two different meanings. Now when it comes to strength, okay? Strength
in the ‘noun form’, is what? It's the quality or the state of being physically and
mentally strong, you know, it's the quality of being mentally and physically able or strong,
okay? Or to be able to handle a certain amount of force and still be stable in that, you
know? It is to handle force or certain force that comes upon you and you are still able
to withstand that force. So these were the meanings for you guys. Now let's take a look
at the usages, now whenever we think about power, right, where all can you use the word,
“power”? You can use it when you're talking about machines, machines need power, machines
need power to perform to work in order for it to be useful to the human beings, to us.
Then you can use it whenever there is a political or a social situation in terms of someone
being influential, right? That's why I have particularly mentioned political as well as
social influencers, which means when people are influential, right? Well now these days
we have so many social influencers, who try, who you take inspiration from and try to behave
like them, be like them, dressed like them, talk like them. Similarly we have people who
can politically influenced us, right? We try to think the way they think about for our
benefits, right? Now, these are the uses, okay? Since now we have like looked at the
uses, I want you to know what could be the opposite of the word “power”, it means
the ‘lack of power’ or less of power, in simple terms powerless, right? In simple
terms powerless, that's the opposite of power. Before I get to the examples, I want to move
to the “strength” section and make sure that you've understood both before we move
to the example side. We have looked at the meanings here, now we're going to take a look
at the uses just the way we have for, “power”. When we talk about strength, you can use the
word “strength”, when you want a related with a physical strength or a mental strength
of some person or somebody, right? How that person can stay strong, physically or mentally
as well. Now if we take a look at the opposite over here, the opposite of strength is weakness,
parse, parse… am I not right to say that power doesn't have a specific opposite as
such. It's just ‘lack of power’, which is not a word exactly but in the case of strength,
you have a particular opposite to it, which is, ‘weakness’. Now let's get to the examples.
Now we know the uses, machine needs power, political or social influence has, can be
used in, with the word, “power” now let's take a look at the examples, “I ran full
power today” on very purposely I have written the first example as running with full power,
now you're thinking why is Meera ma’am, talking about machines being powerful and
she's talking about political and social influence suddenly where is this running come from?
But human beings too are machines and that is why machine needs travel with speed, machine,
and that is why it is absolutely correct to use “power”, when it comes to human being
and speed related to human beings, you can use the word, “power” instead of “strength”.
We will see why, now let's move to the… okay, I'm just going to quickly write machine,
travel plus speed, okay? I'm gonna move to the next example over here, “the laptop
doesn't run without power”, now you're like yeah, now me now Meera ma’am is talking
about something we have heard in the lesson previously. Obviously laptop is a machine
and electricity is the only way it can work with battery, so laptop doesn't run without
power, here it's completely correct to use power. Now the last example, “her grandpa,
(grandfather) her grandpa is a powerful person”, in this case of course he doesn't run on electricity,
here it means that he has a lot of influence over people. That means he can talk to certain
people and get the work done for her, for his granddaughter. Her grandpa is a powerful
person he knows a lot of people and he is an influential person, okay? Now you've understood
three uses, three uses over here, one, two and three and three examples over here? Perfect!
Now I'm going to move to the examples in the “strength” side, we spoke about mental
and physical strength, right? We also spoke about being able to handle force, withstand
force. Now let's take a look at the examples, “she is a powerful woman” and you are
thinking Meera ma’am has incorrectly put the word powerful here, but no I want you
to look at the difference, ‘she is a powerful person’ which means she's an influential
person, but the moment I use the word, “strong”, she's a strong woman which means she's mentally
strong, she can handle difficulties, she can overcome difficulties and she can become the,
you know the famous person or whatever she wants to become, but she's a strong woman
and here we are talking about “mentally”, okay? Right? That's the difference between
powerful and strong. Of course, had I written only “strong’ over here, she could also
have been physically, but in specifically when you're replacing the word power with
strong, it means mentally. Now, “what are your strengths?” The most common question
asked in any interview. Are they asking you about, oh I can do 10 pull-ups, I can do like
20 push-ups, I can do number of like 500 crunches? No. In an interview, in an interview when
they're asking you about your strengths, they're asking you about your mental strengths, your
skill sets, right? Mental strengths, your skills. What are your skills and your strengths
that make you the person you are? And then lastly, “I'm strong enough to do 10 push-ups”.
Here you are talking about physical strength finally, right? So there you go, there is
your column of “power”, your “strength” take in a few moments, just pause the video
if you want, quickly understand these points, understand how you've been going wrong, this
is the example where you've been going wrong, you've been using “power” instead of “strong”
for the wrong reasons. There you go, there's your confusion which I have cleared today.
Any time in the future if you think you're getting confused again, always click this
video, quickly recap with me and just get confident and be confident while using the
word “power” or “strength”. Alright guys, that's all for today, this is me, saying
bye for now, but I'll be back in a new video with a new topic, until then, this is me Meera
saying, ciao.