The headline we will use for this class was published in the New York Times on November 21st, 2022.
Jewelry Counterfeits: The Age-Old Problem Just Keeps Growing
Jewelry counterfeits. What’s that? Jewelry ‘are’ those items that you might wear around your fingers, your wrist, or your neck, or hanging from your ears.
Jewelry. If it is just one item, you’d say “A piece of jewelry”. And what does the word ‘counterfeit´ mean? Something is a counterfeit if it is an unauthorized copy of something that is being presented as if it were the original. It’s an imitation.
And ‘age-old’? Well, that’s a fancy way to say something is very old.
Listen to the headline again:
Jewelry Counterfeits: The Age-Old Problem Just Keeps Growing
The article describes how the people who design original pieces of jewelry are having an increasingly bad time with those dishonest people who are manufacturing cheap copies of their designs and selling them online as if those items were the original. They are selling counterfeit jewelry.
The subtitle of the headline then reads:
Experts say online sales have fueled an increase in fakes
Online sales have fueled an increase –– fuel –– in other words, the online sales have caused, have promoted an increase in the amount of ‘fakes’.
Aha! There you go. A ‘fake’. Fake is another great way to say something is not the real deal. It is not the original. It is a copy –– and it’s being presented as if it were the original. A counterfeit. A fake.
But you know, besides talking about jewelry, let me share with you another very practical, day-to-day use for these two expressions. It’s when you want to talk about falsified currency or money because if there is one thing criminals love to copy, it is bills and coins. As long as there has been currency, there have been people trying to copy bills, coins, or whatever, and passed those on as if they were the original.
Counterfeit money. Counterfeit bills. Counterfeit coins. Fake money. Fake bills. Fake coins.
Counterfeit. Fake.
Conclusion
Alright, that’s all for today’s lesson. Short and to the point. I hope you learned something new and you will consider subscribing to this podcast if you haven’t done so already.
I also hope you check out my new course on how to give better presentations in English. This is a video course, and it is only 70 minutes long. The course will be available on December 1st, but you can register now and receive an early-bird discount. It’s called ‘How to Give a Great Presentation in English, Even if Your English Isn’t Great’.
That’s all for now! I will be back soon with another lesson.
Photo Credit: Jasmin Chew on Unsplash
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