Learn 10 American government words
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| Hi, everybody and welcome back to Top Words. My name is Alisha. Today, we're going to talk about 10 American Government Words. Let's go. |
| The first word for today is "Congress." So, Congress is a part of the United States federal government. Congress has a lower house and an upper house. In a sentence, "The U.S. Congress is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate." So, in this case, we're going to talk about these words later but Congress is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. |
| So, the next word is "president." So, the president is a very, very famous figure worldwide. The president is part of the three branches of the American government system. The president is head of the executive branch of government. In a sentence, "The U.S. president lives in the White House." The American government has a--what we call a checks and balances system. So having three branches of government, the idea is that if any one branch of the government makes an interesting decision or a bad decision or there's something that's a problem in any one of the three branches of government, the other branches will fix the error. So, the president is the head of the executive branch. |
| The next expression is the "House of Representatives." So, the House of Representatives, as I mentioned before, is part of Congress. Congress is made of the House of Representatives and the Senate. In a sentence, "The House of Representatives passes bills which are next sent to the Senate." There are members from each American state in the House of Representatives. The people who are members of the House of Representatives are chosen based on the population where they come from. |
| The next expression is "Senate." So as I mentioned before, the Senate is part of the U.S. Congress. Senate and the House of Representatives are these two components, these two houses in the U.S. Congress. In a sentence, "The U.S. vice president is president of the Senate." The Senate is different. There are two people from each state, two members of the Senate for each state. That means each state has an equal number of representatives in the Senate. |
| Alright. So, this next word is "bill." Bill, I mentioned this earlier in an example sentence. A bill is a piece of legislation. So, legislation means like a policy or a law or a set of rules relating to the government. A bill, however, is different from a law because a bill is not yet a law. In a sentence, "New bills are introduced to Congress every year." So, a bill is something that needs to be discussed and considered among members of Congress, among government officials and so on. |
| Okay. The next word is "senator." In the Senate, there is a specific word for people who are members of the Senate. So, in a sentence, "There are two senators from each U.S. state." Every state has two senators. So those are two members from each state who are members of the Senate. |
| The next word is "representative." So, just like the Senate and senators, in the House of Representatives, we say, "representative" for the members of the House of Representatives. So, in this example sentence, "State representatives are determined by population" or rather "The number of state representatives are determined by population." So, senator and representative are words we use to talk about members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. |
| The next word is "to elect." So, "to elect" someone, "to elect" a government official means to choose a government official for a government position. So to elect a president, to elect maybe a vice president. In a sentence, "Representatives are elected based on votes." You can use elect in your community, too. Depending on your country or your system, you might elect government officials or you might even elect people to things in your school, for example, like you might elect a treasurer for your school. So, "to elect" means to choose someone to lead you in some way. So, "to elect a leader." |
| Alright, the next word is an interesting word. It's "to impeach." There are a few different definitions for "impeach" but when talking about the American government, "to impeach," we can say it means to remove someone from office, to cancel their government official status. So, in a sentence, "There's talk on the news of impeaching a government official." Usually, when we impeach someone or attempt to impeach someone, it's because they are accused of bad behavior, misconduct, bad conduct, bad behavior, and then as a result, they are removed from government office. So, we use the verb, "to impeach." |
| So, the next word is "to vote." So, depending on the country, depending on the system, the government system in your country, maybe you can or cannot vote, I don't know, but "to vote" means to make a choice. The person you would like to elect to a government position. So, maybe you can vote for a president or a prime minister. So, in a sentence, "It's important to vote." "To vote" means to choose personally, "to vote for blah, blah, blah." "I want to vote for president. I want to vote for a representative in my community." It means to choose and then to give your selection, to participate in an election. You're making the choice, to vote. |
| Okay. So, that's the end. So, those are 10 American Government Words. I hope that those are helpful for talking about the American government and for comparing the American government with the government in your country. If you have any questions, please be sure to leave them in a comment below. And if you liked this video, please make sure to hit the thumbs-up button and subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already. Also, please be sure to check us out at EnglishClass101.com for more good stuff. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words and I'll see you again soon. Bye. |
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