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And now, words and

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their stories from VOA

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Learning English. You

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can trust that we are actually

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Voice of America learning English. We

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are the real deal. We

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are authentic. In

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other words, we are not bogus.

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Bogus is an adjective that

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means fake or phony. Something

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bogus is not genuine. It

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is a fraud. It's

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fraudulent. For

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example, the man's huge diamond

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ring was bogus. He

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told everyone it was a real diamond,

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but actually it was just

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a piece of glass. Bogus

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can describe something that is a lie.

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If something like an

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explanation or reason is

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bogus, it's not true. For

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example, an employee might call her

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employer to say she needs a

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sick day off from work. But

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during the call, her boss hears

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loud, live music in the

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background. The

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employee was clearly at a music

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show. Her reason

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for not being at work was

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bogus. We

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could also say the employee's

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excuse did not hold water.

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Her excuse for missing work sounded

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bogus. It was

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not believable. It

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didn't hold water. Experts

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at the online dictionary

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Merriam-Webster explain that

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bogus This began as a noun. In

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the early 19th century in the US,

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a bogus was a machine

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that made counterfeit, or

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fake, money. Here's

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a fun fact. You can

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call bogus counterfeit money, funny

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money. Here

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is another word related to bogus.

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Sham. Sham,

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a noun, describes a

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fake, made-up situation. We

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use shams to cover up the

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truth. Let's

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hear some of these terms used

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in a short story. Two

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roommates work together at a bank.

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One day they decide to steal

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all the gold and jewelry held

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in the bank's safe. So

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they plot. They plan it out.

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First they need an

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alibi. Where

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can they be while the robbery

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is actually happening? They

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create a bogus alibi. They

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tell police that at the time

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of the robbery they were together

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at a volunteer event, cleaning

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up a local park by the

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town's river. But

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after checking out their alibi, police

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brought the two in for questioning.

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Then detectives searched their shared

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apartment and found all

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the gold and jewels from the bank

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robbery. What

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made the police suspect them? Can

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you guess what detectives found at

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the river park that proved their

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alibi was a sham? A

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dirty park and river. They

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both had a huge amount of trash. Clearly

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no cleanup event had

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ever taken place. And

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that's all the time we have for this words

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and their stories. Until

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next time, I'm Anna Matteo.