The adjective for this week is one that is used in casual conversations; it is the word “tacky”. It is used when we want to describe something or someone as being in bad taste. For example:
Did you see that tacky dress that Noreen was wearing yesterday? It was purple and green and had pictures of horses all over it!
If I were you I wouldn’t wear running shoes with a dress. It’s really tacky.
Mark often tells tacky jokes about sex at the office. I wish he wouldn’t do that.
Don is always bragging about his girlfriend and saying what big breasts she has. It’s so tacky!
I don’t want to buy my sofa at ABC Store because all of the furniture they sell is really tacky.
The city decided to put up a statue of a Greek god in the middle of the downtown area! I can’t believe they would do such a tacky thing!
So we can use the word “tacky” to describe either a person’s clothes or the things they say, as in the first four examples. It can also be used to describe things of bad taste in general, as in the last two example. In all cases, the word “tacky” is negative.
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Asheesh Said:
on December 12, 2010 at 12:43 pm
so in conclusion it has 2 menaings
1) cheap in quality
2) cheap in tatse ( vulgar )
but wat meaning it has for this sentence
The city decided to put up a statue of a Greek god in the middle of the downtown area! I can’t believe they would do such a tacky thing!
englishhelponline Said:
on December 12, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Hello.
The word “tacky” only means cheap in taste, not in quality. With the example sentence of the Greek god statue, it means that in a modern city it would seem to many people to be in bad taste to put up a statue of a Greek god in the downtown area. Of course, some people might like it but, in my opinion, most people from my culture would think it was in bad taste.
Thanks for your question.
Praiffs Said:
on May 19, 2011 at 1:19 pm
U say, the word ‘tacky’ is used only for cheap taste not for quality, bt ur this written example makes me confused “DONT WANT TO BUY MY SOFA AT ABC STORE BECAUSE ALL OF FURNITURE THEY SELL IS REALLY TACKY” in this sentence u r talking of the quality of sofa..what is the actual use of “tacky”? THANKS
englishhelponline Said:
on May 20, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Hi there.
In that sentence, I’m not talking about the quality of the sofa. It could be a very well made piece of furniture. When I say the furniture is tacky at that store, I mean that the choice of design for the furniture looks very bad. So the sofas at that store could be made very well and be very strong, but they look terrible because the choice of fabric is ugly.
I hope that answers your question.
Mike