Smart English conversation tips- The amazing world of Oxymora

Today, we start a unique blog series in order to help you with simple tips to improve your English conversation. Prepping up on English grammar basics, English vocabulary and pronunciations etc is the first step of English language education.

Most online English speaking course in India address these basics. However, once you are comfortably familiar with English language basics, the next step is smart work. This blog series is an attempt to enable you with all the resources with quick fix examples.

Online spoken English classes at time may offer special “crash courses” in English grammar segments. You may find those informative but you can do definitely without them. Read more, learn often. As we have said it before, fluency in English is only possible with regular practice.

What is an oxymoron?

An oxymoron is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposing meanings within a word or phrase. This creates an apparent and at time humorous self-contradiction. An oxymoron can be used to illustrate a rhetorical point or to reveal a paradox.

Most of the oxymorons consist of two words only, and they are found to be quite funny or even odd to a few. This is because when you hear an oxymoron, it will surely capture your attention, and you would be amazed if not curious.

Online English-speaking courses usually do not cover them in depth owing to time crunch but we encourage you to prioritize using oxymora as often as possible.

Use of oxymora in daily conversations- Examples

Our online English tutors have listed here some very interesting and commonly used oxymora. We recommend that you start using them in your daily conversations frequently.

BIG BABY – He is known as BIG BABY as he cannot control his temper and always throws tantrums.

AWFULLY NICE – While playing football with my sons, I have had an AWFULLY NICE experience.

FINE MESS – After messing up the room, you have invited another FINE MESS for yourself by calling your mother.

NO CHOICE – Since you have flunked in 9th standard, you need to study harder; you have NO CHOICE.

LOVE HATE – My neighbour is not very kind, and he seems to be having a LOVE HATE relationship with his family.

ZERO TOLERANCE – The government is clear on terrorism, and there is ZERO TOLERANCE while dealing with them.

DEAFENING SILENCE – The moment the professor yelled at backbenchers, there was a DEAFENING SILENCE.

STAND DOWN – As he never stood for his people, the leader was forced to STAND DOWN from his position.

SERIOUSLY FUNNY – The comedy shows where celebrities are also invited is SERIOUSLY FUNNY.

WIRELESS CABLE – We need to install the new WIRELESS CABLE since the older one is not functioning properly.

CLEARLY CONFUSED – She seems to be in the stage of CLEARLY CONFUSED after getting various options for further studies.

FRIENDLY FIRE – The enemy needs to be scared with FRIENDLY FIRE at times.

LIVING DEAD – Her coach’s efforts are very simple brilliant, and he can raise the LIVING DEAD.

TERRIBLY PLEASED – I got TERRIBLY PLEASED after receiving the surprise gift from my father.

ORIGINAL COPIES – We need to keep the ORIGINAL COPIES of the offer letter safe and secure.

DEFINITE POSSIBILITY – The electrician did not promise, but he found the default to have DEFINITE POSSIBILITY to get repaired.

GENUINE IMITATION – You can easily find a GENUINE IMITATION of branded watches nowadays.

GOOD GRIEF – GOOD GRIEF! He needs to make it fast else we would be late for the show.

PRETTY UGLY – The friend that he invited to the party last night was PRETTY UGLY.

HONEST THIEF – Although he is a scamster, however, he is also an HONEST THIEF.

SAME DIFFERENCE – Either he has to return my watch, or he needs to pay the price; it’s the SAME DIFFERENCE.

MINOR CRISIS – You do not worry; it is just a MINOR CRISIS at work; I will sort it out.

DEEPLY SUPERFICIAL – There is no doubt that his father is a DEEPLY SUPERFICIAL person, and he would not understand our point.

WORKING HOLIDAY – Her mother is a working person, and she is mostly swamped with work; even our last trip to hill town was a WORKING HOLIDAY for her.

HEAVY DIET – You need to consider a HEAVY DIET to maintain the body shape that you desire.

SILENT SCREAM – I am so scared of cats that I let out a SILENT SCREAM, the moment I saw the cat coming out of my room.

UNPOPULAR CELEBRITY- With many flop movies, he has been tagged as an UNPOPULAR CELEBRITY.

ONLY CHOICE – You need to clear your exams this time, this is your ONLY CHOICE, or you will send it to a hostel.

TRUE MYTH – There are many stories about her village based on TRUE MYTH, so we need to be sure before commenting on her facts.

FREE LOVE – There is no such thing as FREE LOVE; you need to pay the price of every good thing in your life.

LEAST FAVORITE – Chinese food is my LEAST FAVORITE, and I may not order it for dinner. I would go for Italian.

UNBIASED OPINION – Our math teacher is very wise and believes in action than words. She mostly gives the UNBIASED OPINION about the students.

GROWING SMALLER – With mischievous behaviour, her elder son is GROWING SMALLER as he gets older.

CONSTANT VARIABLE – We need to figure out the real cost of the CONSTANT VARIABLE before driving our profits.

ENDLESS HOUR – The show got a very good response from viewers and users of their platform, so it kept going for an ENDLESS HOUR.

AWFULLY LUCKY – There is no doubt that after surviving such a terrible accident, he is surely AWFULLY LUCKY; God bless him!

SWEET SORROW- I do not get permission to do parties as my mother finds them to be SWEET SORROW as we enjoy them but get late for work the next day.

OLD NEWS – What you just shared about the chemistry teacher is already discussed, so it is nothing but OLD NEWS.

TRAGIC COMEDY – Some comedy shows are truly satire on our society, and they make us laugh and cry simultaneously. They can be easily termed as TRAGIC COMEDY.

PAINFULLY BEAUTIFUL – I must say that the painter has depicted the story of a woman quite impressively, and it is surely a PAINFULLY BEAUTIFUL piece of work.

STRANGELY FAMILIAR – The new guest at the party looked quite known and STRANGELY FAMILIAR to me, but I can’t recall where I had met or seen him before.

PEACEFUL WAR – After having a heated argument, we decided to have a PEACEFUL WAR situation and not indulge in any further talks.

OPEN SECRET – After the video of the boss behaving rudely with staff went viral, it is now an OPEN SECRET, and the management is also aware and will take stringent action soon.

ORGANIZED CHAOS – The speedy way in which you have cleaned your room only looks ORGANIZED CHAOS.

CRASH LANDING – Thankfully, every passenger survived after such an unexpected CRASH LANDING in the last news.

DELIBERATE MISTAKE – She act foolishly at times, and some of her issues are self-created and surely the DELIBERATE MISTAKES.

FRIENDLY FOE – The recent incident has opened my eyes, and I could see the FRIENDLY FOE in him, so I have to be careful while talking things with him.

SWEET MISERY – At times, in disparity also, we could see the SWEET MISERY with all family members together.

Overwhelmed?! Start slow and practice often. If there is anything specific you want us to cover, drop your feedback in the comments below.