Ranking Different Types Of Friends
A2 English listening practice · American English · Curated for beginners
What does “frenemy” mean in English?
“Frenemy” joins the words “friend” and “enemy.” It means a person who acts like your friend but is also someone you compete with or do not fully trust. In this clip, the speaker ranks types of friends. About the frenemy, he says: “Those just never work out.” The word is informal and a bit playful, but the feeling is real — someone who seems friendly but there is a quiet bad feeling under it.
“Frenemy” is made by joining two words into one. English has many words like this: brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), and blog (web + log). It is informal, so people use it in chat, on social media, and in TV and films, but not in formal writing. The plural is frenemies. Many cultures know this kind of person, and the English word is now in big dictionaries like Merriam-Webster and Cambridge.
Vocabulary frequency
How common is the vocabulary in this A2 English listening practice listening practice?
General English frequency
Spoken English frequency
Words above this video’s level
Quick glosses for vocabulary that goes beyond this video’s A2 level.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.