a guy

A "guy" is a man. It's a casual word.

You use this word instead of "man" when you're talking to your friends or in a casual situation like at a party. The person you're talking about can either be someone that you know, or someone who you don't know but don't have high respect for.

For a stranger who seems older and more respectable, "man" or even "gentleman" are more polite.

Note that you can use the plural form, "guys", when you're talking to a group of men or women:

Great job today, guys. Keep up the good work.

But "guy" (singular) always refers to a man.

an ideal (something)

The word "ideal" means "perfect". You use this word to talk about something that is the best that you can imagine. Here are some examples of phrases that use "ideal":

• the ideal man
• my ideal job
• in an ideal world

(someone) is confident

The word "confident" is a positive way to talk about someone who:

• feels good about himself or herself
• isn't nervous
• doesn't doubt or hestitate too much

You use "confident" like this:

You're doing great! You just need to be more confident.

She seemed confident that she knew what she was doing, so we all followed her lead.

(someone) is cocky

The word "cocky" is a negative way to describe someone who has too much confidence. They think that they can't make any mistakes.

Here are some examples:

Don't get too cocky. The game's not over yet!

He has this cocky attitude, like he thinks he's so handsome and charming. I can't stand it!

(someone) is arrogant

Being "arrogant" means thinking that you're better than other people. Some common reasons that a person might be arrogant are because they're rich, well-educated, or have a high social status.

The word "arrogant" is negative:

An arrogant attitude won't win you a lot of friends.

(something) is (adjective) without being (adjective)

This is a phrase that you can use when you want to describe something very precisely. For example, you could describe a film like this:

It was emotional without being overly sentimental.

In this example, "emotional" and "sentimental" are two words that have similar meanings. But "sentimental" is stronger than "emotional". So this sentence describes very precisely how emotional the film was.