'Get' is one of the hardest verbs to master in English. In this simple lesson, I'll teach you 20 common "get" expressions that you can start using NOW. The expressions taught in this lesson include: get blamed, get caught, get dressed, get engaged, get tired, get hit, get invited, get lost, get paid, get involved, and many more! If you want to improve your vocabulary and use common English expressions when you're speaking, this is the lesson for you. Come on. Let's get this done!

Now, watch my video on 4 types of HOW questions in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ro9075G2Q&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=5

TAKE THE QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/learn-2....0-passive-get-expres

TRANSCRIPT

Buttoned or open? Buttoned, opened. Open, okay. Hey, I was just getting dressed. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "20 Passive 'Get' Expressions". So, a lot of you guys have been asking me for more lessons on the verb "get" because it is everywhere in English, so today I'm going to look at 20 expressions that you can use in the passive sense with "get". So, basically to do a passive sentence with "get", you have: "get" plus a past participle verb. In these sentences, "get" usually replaces the verbs "to be" or "become". Okay? So if you're speaking in the past with "was" or "were", you would just replace "was" or "were" with "got". If you're replacing the verb "I am", okay? You can just say: "I get" in the passive sense. I think it will make a lot more sense once you see some examples, because if you feel confused right now, after the examples you will say: "That's better. Okay. It's not so bad." And it's really not so bad, so let's look at the examples. We'll practice pronunciation in this lesson, too.

So, first: "Get asked". If someone asks you to do something, you get asked to do something. For example: "I got asked to work overtime." Someone asked me, probably my boss, definitely my boss asked me to work overtime, so I got asked to work overtime. Now, remember, here "get" is replacing a form of the verb "to be" or "become". So, you could say: "I was asked" in a standard past simple passive sentence. "I was asked to work overtime." But in speaking we often substitute "was" or "were", or other forms of the verb "to be" in passive sentences with "get". All right, let's look at some more examples.

"Get blamed". So, if you are blamed for something, this means someone accuses you of wrongdoing, of doing something wrong. So, for example: "She always gets blamed for everything." So, if you know, maybe your sister, someone in your family, a co-worker of yours is always accused of doing the wrong thing or is always accused of being the person who does the bad thing: "She always gets blamed for everything." I always got blamed for everything when I was a kid. Not really. Usually it was my youngest sister, but just an example. All right?

So, next: "Get caught". If you get caught doing something, this means someone saw you in the act of doing something, and it's something you didn't want other people to see. So, for example: "Don't do it. You're going to get caught." You'll often see this in, you know, crime dramas or movies where there's a bad guy, and the police catch the bad guy or, you know, a video camera catches the crime in action, so the criminal gets caught. So, if you are caught, you get caught, you are seen in the act of doing something that you don't want other people to see. Okay? So: "Don't get caught."

"Get done". So, to be completed. Right? So, for example: "The project got done on time." We finished the project. The project got done by us-passive sense-on time. All right? "The project was done", "The project got done".

Next: "Get dressed". You probably know this. I did a video on, you know, getting dressed and... What was it? "Get dressed" and "Get dressed up", yeah. Undressed and dressed up. So: "I was getting dressed when you called." I wiped that a little bit, sorry. But you see it. Right? Unless you're looking on your phone, in which case, just look at a notebook or something, or keep watching on your phone because the rest of this stuff is visible. So: "Get dressed". "I was getting dressed, I was putting my clothes on when you called me." Okay?

Next: "Get elected". So, in a political election: "She got elected President. She was elected by the people to become President". -"Who got elected?" -"She got elected."/"He got elected." Just so we don't date this video I'm not going to mention the most, you know, recent political situations happening in the world because we will all be angry, and we're not going to do that.

So: "Get engaged". So, before you get married, usually one of the people asks the other person to become their husband and/or become their wife, become their life partner, and they say... You can kind of see me. "Will you marry me?" […]

In this lesson, you will learn 10+ fixed sentences that use modals. "Fixed" means that they do not change. You just use the whole sentence without changing it. That makes these kinds of sentences very useful for improving your English quickly. By the time you finish this lesson, you will sound more natural and confident when speaking English in many different situations. The fixed modal expressions covered in this video include: "You can say that again", "I couldn't help it", "I would if I could", "You would've loved it", "You shouldn't have", and more! Watch the video, do the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/fixed-modal-expressions/ and improve your English!

TRANSCRIPT

Yeah. Oh, you can say that again. [Laughs] No, no. I'm sorry, I can't help it. Next week? No, I would if I could, but I can't. Okay. I have to do a thing here. Okay. Yeah. Bye. Okay.

Oh, hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "Fixed Modal Expressions". So, in this lesson I am going to improve your speaking skills and specifically your ability to use some very common conversational expressions that use modal verbs. In case you don't know, modal verbs are verbs like: "can" or "could", "would", "should", "will", "might", "may", etc. And a modal verb is always followed by a base verb, so for example: "can" plus a base verb, so: "can do", "can make", "can play", "can see", "will play", "will do", "will make", "will see". It doesn't matter what the subject is. All right? So, for example: "I can play", "You can play", "He can play", "She can play", etc. For, you know, a deeper understanding of modal verbs and their rules, we have tons of videos on engVid for you to check out. For this video, though, I'm just going to give you a whole bunch of different fixed expressions, expressions that are fixed, meaning that you cannot change the order of the words and that they are very commonly used in conversations. So I've divided them into, you know, expressions with "can", with "would", with "should", and with "will". Obviously there are tons more than this, but these will get you started.

So: "can". "You can say that again!" When you use this expression it means that, you know, you want a person to repeat what they said because you strongly agree with them. So if your friend says: "This is impossible. It's impossible." Like: "Yeah, you can say that again." If you really think and agree the person that whatever they're talking about really is impossible, if I say: -"Oh, he really, really, really needs to get a new job." -"Yeah, you can say that again", because I know he's very stressed or something like that. Okay, next: "I can't help it." or "I couldn't help it." For this one you can use different subjects: "He can't help it.", "She can't help it.", "They can't help it." This means they have no control; they have an impulse, an instinct, a habit of doing something. So, if you are laughing at your friend and your friend thinks you shouldn't be laughing, it's a bad situation to laugh, but you can't stop laughing, say: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, I can't help it. It's really funny." Okay? And your friend's like: "Hey. Why are you laughing at me?" Okay? So, if you can't help it, it means you can't control yourself. So if you're laughing, if you... I don't know. If you like to eat ice cream and you can't help it because you want to eat a whole tub, it's like: -"Slow down, slow down." -"I can't help it. It's so good. It's so good." Okay? Next: "I can't" or "I couldn't"-in the past-"believe it". Obviously... I think you guys know what this means. Right?

And you probably use this in your life already as an English speaker: "I can't believe it", similar to: "I don't believe it." or "I couldn't believe it." It means that you don't believe what the person is saying or you don't believe what you are seeing in front of you. So if you can't believe it, you think that there is no way that this is true or this is real. "I could use a break." This can be used with other subjects, too. So, if you have a friend, for example, who is very busy all the time or who has a stressful life, maybe they're constantly working or they're constantly with their family, or you know, something else takes up a lot of their time, and you look at that... At that person, at your friend and say: "He could use a break." or "She could use a break." This means that they should go on vacation or they should... They deserve to have a break, they deserve to, you know, have some free time to relax and to recharge their batteries, basically. Not, like, real batteries; that's an idiomatic expression, but you know, get their energy back to rest and relax. Okay, so just for pronunciation, now that I've explained them, repeat these expressions after me: "You can say that again!", "I can't help it.", "I can't believe it.", "I could use a break." Good. […]

Most people only use "should" for advice. However, did you know that you can also use it to talk about your expectations and past regrets? Not only that, but you can even use it to make your statements less certain. Learn to use should for MORE than just advice, and master this common and useful English modal verb.

Now, watch my video on 4 TYPES OF 'HOW' QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ro9075G2Q&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=5

TAKE THE QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/english....-modals-4-ways-to-us

TRANSCRIPT

So come on and let me know: Should I stay or should I go? Oh, hey, everyone. One sec. Didn't see you there. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "4 Ways to Use 'Should'". Now, you are probably familiar with at least two of these ways if you have been studying English for a while. So the most common ways are the first two up here, and then we're going to look at two other ways that might be a little less familiar to you.

So, let's start with the first, the very first way that every student learns how to use "should" when they're studying English, which is for present or future advice. Now, the structure for this is "should" or "should not" if you're making a negative sentence, plus the base verb. So you have your subject: "I", "you", "he", "she", "it", "we", "they", "Mark", "Paul", "my mom", "your mom", whatever, plus this structure. So let's look at some examples of present or future advice. "You should call him." So you're giving the advice to your friend who maybe had a fight with, you know, their boyfriend or their husband or just a friend, and you think they should call him. It's a good idea for them to call him. Okay? "They shouldn't argue so much." Now, here you're kind of giving your opinion about another couple's relationship, and you're giving your advice to a friend about their situation, if that's not too confusing, I hope. So: "They shouldn't argue so much." They argue too much. My advice is they shouldn't argue so much. And third example for you guys: "He should apologize." If you, you know, want to be a good friend to your girlfriend or your boyfriend, and you want to give them, you know, support and tell them that their boyfriend needs to apologize, you're giving him advice even though he's not here. "He should apologize." It's a good idea for him to apologize to you because he made a mistake. Okay? Before we continue, I just want you guys to repeat these sentences after me so that, you know, we can practice the pronunciation and you're using the language that you're hearing in this video. So, repeat after me: "You should call him.", "They shouldn't argue so much.", "He should apologize."

All right, let's move on to the second way we use "should". Now, here you can use it for past advice or to show past regrets. So, the structure for this, just like up here, you have "should" or "should not" if it's negative, plus "have". It's always "have", it's never "has". Okay? It's always the base form of "have". "Should not have" plus the past participle of your main verb. So, let's look at some examples so this is easy to see. First one: "I shouldn't have done that." So you are showing personal regret for something you did in the past, and you feel bad because you really should have made a different decision, so you say: "I shouldn't have done that." Now, notice here, you know, I put the contraction. We're speaking. I want to give you practical skills, practical language that you can use. I could say: "He should not have done that", and be very formal, but really when most people speak, they speak in contractions, so you and I will speak in contractions in this video, too; like a pregnant woman, contractions. It's a joke. Next: "You should've asked me first." Now, again, you're talking to a friend and maybe they made a decision and you feel they made the decision without asking you your opinion or if the decision was okay. So maybe your friend, I don't know, like, grabbed your phone and used it to call long distance somewhere, and your phone plan is, you know, almost up, your data is all used up, maybe they're, I don't know, watching a YouTube video. If they're watching engVid, let them watch, like, all they want, it's cool. But if they're watching something else, you know, you say: "Oh, you should've asked me first." This is, again, contraction: "should have". "You should've asked me first." So before we continue, let's repeat these sentences one more time. So repeat after me: "I shouldn't have done that.", "You should've asked me first." Okay, so that's for past advice or past regrets. And here, again, if you're using "I", usually it's for regret. "I should have done something", "I shouldn't have done something".

Next: Expectation. So, if you expect something to happen or expect something to have happened in the past, you can use "should". Now, this can be used for present expectation, future expectation.

"How do I use phrasal verbs?" This is one of the most common questions that intermediate and advanced English students ask. In this lesson, I will teach you 30 common phrasal verbs that you can use as commands. Each phrasal verb also has useful examples, and you can check your understanding with a massive thirty-question quiz at https://www.engvid.com/30-engl....ish-phrasal-verb-com after you've watched the lesson! To give you a taste of this lesson, you will learn phrasal verb commands like: move over, gather around, chill out, listen up, hang on, get back, drink up, come on, carry on, back up, and many more! So what are you waiting for? Gather around, listen up, and carry on improving your English language skills.

Next, watch Rebecca's video on 10 easy commands! https://youtube.com/watch?v=yPZJe_5mxR8

Get the resource with 100 PHRASAL VERBS: https://www.engvid.com/english....-resource/100-phrasa

TRANSCRIPT

-"Let me see your identification." -"You don't need to see his identification." -"We don't need to see his identification." -"These aren't the droids you're looking for." -"These aren't the droids we're looking for." -"He can go about his business." -"You can go about your business." -"Move along." -"Move along." Yeah.

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on "30 Phrasal Verb Commands". So, simple enough. Right? You're going to hear 30 commands that use phrasal verbs, and I will tell you the context in which you can use each one, and we'll do some very quick pronunciation and repeat-after-me practice as well. Now, after this lesson, if you can't get enough of phrasal verb commands, you can check out the resource that Rebecca made where she lists 100 phrasal verb commands. And she also has another video that is linked to this video where you can get, you know, a lesson on 10 more commands, similar to these ones right behind me. So, let's not waste any more time and we're going to go, one, two, three, four, five, six, all the way to 30 and we'll do it relatively quickly with an example and an explanation of the context for each.

So, the first one, repeat after me: "Back off." This is what you say when you want someone to, you know, get out of your personal space. So, usually if you are annoyed at the individual, you could say: "Back off. You are too close to me." Okay?

Next: "Back up." Now, "back up" is similar to "back off", but it can be used in a more formal situation by someone, like, you know, a police officer or a security guard. So, for example, if there is, you know, a line where another line is formed and you cannot cross this line, and you do cross that line, you know, a police officer or a security guard or someone might ask you to: "Back up. Back up." This means: Go back a little bit, take a few steps back. They probably won't say: "Back off". "Back off" is much stronger, so you can use: "Back up" in a more formal situation where you want the person to move out of the way and to move back a little bit. Okay? So: "Back up. Just move back, everybody." Okay?

Next: "Carry on." So, repeat after me: "Carry on." This simply means continue, do what you were doing before. So: "Carry on. Carry on."

Next, repeat after me: "Chill out." This just means: "Be calm, relax. Okay? I see you're upset. Chill out." Okay? So: "chill" comes from, like, you know, to cool, to be calmer. Don't get so hot. Be calm, be cool, chill out.

Next, repeat: "Come back." This simply means return. Okay? So: "Hey. Come back. Come back. Return."

Next: "Come on." So, this can mean to come, follow me. "Come on. Let's go." Or, if you don't, you know, believe a person's story or you want to show surprise, you can say: "Come on. Really? Come on."

Okay, next: "Come in." So, if you have invited someone to your house, you open the door and you want to, you know, invite them to enter your house, you can say: "Come in." All right? So repeat it: "Come in."

Next: "Come over." So, if you are inviting a person to your house, you're talking to them on the phone and you want them to come to where you are, usually it's your house, but it could be another place like your work or a caf� somewhere, but usually it's, you know, their house, you can say: "Hey. Come over. I'm free now." Or: "Come over in ten minutes." Okay? So this means: Come to where I am. Usually it's the person's house. "Yeah, you can come over. Come over." Give a command.

Next: "Dream on. Dream on. Dream..." You know, the Aerosmith song from the 70s or... I think it was the 70s. And, "to dream on" basically means you don't believe what this person is saying or they have this big, big impossible dream in their head or something, like: -"Oh, I'm going to play this lottery ticket and I'm going to win the lottery this weekend. That's my plan for the weekend." -"Dream on." Okay? So, this means: "Keep dreaming, continue to dream. I don't believe you." All right?

Next: "Drink up." So, repeat: "Drink up." […]

There are some nouns in English that are simply ALWAYS plural. These are nouns like "glasses," "scissors," "pants," "jeans," "clothes," and several others, all of which are covered in this practical English grammar lesson. Do count and non-count nouns confuse you? This lesson that will make the topic easier for you. So what are you waiting for? If you want to erase some of your doubts and use grammar and vocabulary more accurately, this video will do the trick. Thanks for clicking, and don't forget to check out the quiz after the video to test your understanding of the material: https://www.engvid.com/english....-grammar-vocabulary-

TRANSCRIPT

[Exhales] So hot today. You know what? I don't need pants for this video. Whew. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "Nouns That Are Always Plural". So, if you know anything about count and noncount nouns, you know that count nouns can be singular or plural. "Cup", "cups"; "table", "tables"; "school", "schools". But there are some nouns... The list is not very long, but there are some nouns that always stay plural, that only have a plural form, and today I'm going to talk about them. Now, I know some of you might have some issues, you know, trying to memorize some of these things, but after today's lesson, I promise you: You're going to feel a lot better, a lot more confident, and you will be able to use these nouns correctly and confidently, which is really important, obviously, when you're learning and speaking a language. So... Whew. That's better. I feel the air now. I feel the air.

So: "clothes", the word "clothes" itself is permanently plural. Right? So you can say: "I have too many clothes." Not: "too much clothes", because even though it only has one form, some people say: "Do I have too much clothes or too many clothes?" No, it's a plural, permanently plural, so you use "many" with the noun "clothes". Okay? So: "I have too many clothes." You can't say... Do not say: "I have two clothes", or: "to clothes-es-es", don't do it. Okay? So, just: "I have a lot of clothes. I need new clothes. I need some new clothes." That's okay. If you want to count clothes, there is a way, but you don't use the word "clothes", you use the word "clothing" and you use the quantifier expression of "articles of clothing". Okay? So: "There are 3 new articles of clothing in my closet." Otherwise: "clothes". "I have a lot of clothes, too many clothes." Okay? "I need new clothes."

Continuing on, I've separated the second part of this video into three sections. One: leg stuff; two: other stuff; three: other other stuff. By the way, "leg stuff" is not a technical term at all, but stick with me. So, basically anything that you can, like, pull up on your legs, like the pants that I had and I no longer have, you can use in a permanent plural. Okay? So, what are some examples of leg stuff, things you can put on your legs? One, very general: "pants". Okay? You can say: "I need new pants." If you want to count pants or any of the other things I'm going to talk about related to clothes, you can also say: "I need a new pair". So, "a pair" means two. Now, again, legs have... Leg stuff, pants, jeans, etc., you have two legs and you put one and then the other, so this is a pair. So you can say: "I need a new pair of pants", or "a new pair of jeans", or "a new pair of shorts", for example. And you can also just say: "I need new pants", "new shorts", "new jeans", "new overalls". If you don't know what "overalls" are, I've drawn you a little picture. If you know Super Mario Brothers, Super Mario and Luigi wear overalls. A lot of, you know, people who work in factories have to wear clothes that cover their whole bodies from the legs all the way up, these are overalls. "Leggings", so leggings and "tights", these are very similar. When you think of leggings, think of tights. You might think of a Shakespearean theatre, a Shakespearean play where the actors wear really tight, tight, tight, thin layers of pants to cover their legs, and usually they cover your feet as well. Right? So, yeah, leggings, tights. And "shorts". Now, you might be thinking: "Well, Alex, what about that other thing that you put underneath your clothes that you're wearing?" that I'm wearing now, which is underwear. Okay? Underwear is an exception to this rule. We don't say, you know: "underwears" all the time, it's just "underwear" without a plural. Okay? But you still say: "two pairs of underwear", "three pairs of underwear", but just there's no "s" on the end of it. Okay? So, just for pronunciation, just repeat after me with these words, guys: "pants", "jeans", "overalls", "shorts", "tights", "leggings".

All right, continuing on with this, you can also say with other stuff that: "You need new", or "You need a new pair of scissors." You use scissors to cut-right?-in school, or at home. Or: "a new pair of glasses". So, I have a pair of glasses here. […]

Some words just sound better together. In this practical English vocabulary lesson, you will learn 10 common noun + noun combinations that are frequently used by English speakers. These include: pros and cons, odds and ends, peace and quiet, ups and downs, and more! Improve your understanding of these phrases and you'll be able to understand and participate in more English conversations.

Watch my video about COLLECTIVE NOUNS next:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meMx5IxuG-4&index=24&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8

TAKE THE QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/10-comm....on-word-combinations

TRANSCRIPT

Okay. Yeah, I could go anywhere I want. Okay, but it's really big and I don't have the space. Oh, hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "Common Word Pairs", specifically common noun and noun pairs. So, before, you know, I started this, I was looking at my phone because I'm trying to think about the pros and cons of buying a hot air balloon, and I'm not really sure whether I want it or not, so I'm trying to weigh the pluses and the minuses, the pros and the cons.

Speaking of pros and cons, pluses and minuses, this is the first word pair in our noun and noun set. So: "pros and cons", "pluses and minuses" basically mean the advantages and disadvantages of something. "What are the pros and cons?" When you're buying something, you're thinking about the pluses and the minuses of this thing; the pros and the cons of this thing. When you make an important life decision, you also have to weigh the pros (the pluses) and the cons (the minuses). Okay? So, these are the benefits or the disadvantages of something.

Next: "odds and ends". So, "odds and ends": "That box is full of odds and ends." Let me show you. Come here. Come here. Okay, so I got an eraser, I got a stapler, there's a remote of some kind, I think these are bubbles, Superman bubbles, marker, cloth. So, these things are not really related, but I don't have a box in my house or a drawer in my house just for erasers, or just for markers, or just for staplers, so the odds and ends of something usually just refer to the random pieces, the random articles, the junk, the miscellaneous junk. So: "That box is full of odds and ends." So I'm just going to put: Random stuff or random junk. Basically things you don't have a set place for in your house, so you just put it in one area. Yeah, the batteries, the paperclips, the tape, the pencils, odds and ends, just random stuff.

All right: "ups and downs". "They've had a lot of ups"... Ups and downs. I think you can tell what this means. It basically means they've had a lot of good times and a lot of bad times. So, good times and bad times. Good times and bad times. Now, this can refer to... You can use it in many contexts, specifically the most common being when you talk about relationships. Also, you can talk about a company's history, so the company has experienced many ups and downs. The relationship has gone through ups and downs. So, good times and bad times.

Next: "peace and quiet". So these commonly go together. "We could all use a little more peace and quiet." So, if you know the meaning of "peace", you know the meaning of "quiet", you just know this means a period of calm. Okay? So, I love peace and quiet. I need peace and quiet. I want peace and quiet. So, basically let's just say calmness, something... Period of calm. A period of calm.

"Trial and error". So, here: "We went through a long trial and error process." So, if you are working in a company and your company gives you a project, and they want you to find out the pros and cons of doing something, and they go through a long experimentation process with whatever they're working on. So, some things work, some things don't work. Or if you're trying to create, let's say a specific type of machine or a robot, but you don't know what happens if you do one thing or if you do another thing. So, "trial" means to try or experiment, and "error", to make mistakes. So this is a long process where you do experiments, and you make many mistakes before you find the final solution, you find what works. So: "trial and error" always refers to some kind of process where you're experimenting with solutions. Experimentation process. Okay. So, just like when you're learning English, you know, sometimes you just have to try speaking if you're speaking with a native speaker and you're not sure if you're using the correct verb form or if you're using the correct noun form, you're kind of going through a trial and error process, and maybe your friend says: -"No, no. Don't say: 'It is danger.' Say: 'It is dangerous.'" -"Ah, now I know it is 'dangerous', not 'It is danger.'" Okay? So, one, two, three, four, five. I think I said we're doing ten of these. Wow. […]

Clothes can be loose, baggy, sporty, or too tight. They can match, fit, look good, or bring out your eyes. In this useful English vocabulary lesson, learn how to talk about shopping for clothes, or talking about how clothes fit or look on someone in general. Once you're comfortable with the vocabulary, make sure to check out the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/real-en....glish-talking-about- to test your knowledge. So what are you waiting for? Put on something comfy and get ready to enjoy a practical English lesson.

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on commenting about clothes. So, today we are going to imagine that we are going clothes shopping, we're going into the change room, we're trying on some clothes, and I will give you some vocabulary you can use to talk about how the clothes fit. And then we are going to look at some common comments you can make about other people's clothes or about your own clothes.

So, first imagine you're in the change room and your friend is with you, and maybe your friend is trying some clothes on. Okay? And your friend comes out, and they're wearing something that is very, you know, maybe very sporty, or loose, or baggy. Don't know what these words mean? Let me explain them to you. So, if someone comes out of the change room and you want to comment on it, you could say: "It's..." And if you want to modify, you can say: "It's a bit", like a little, or: "It's not _______ enough." And you see all these words here, all these adjectives, and you can basically put: "It's not _______ enough", plus any of these adjectives if you think it's not something enough. Okay?

So first let's just start with all these words and explain them. So: "It's very" or "It's a bit sporty." Okay? Now, "sporty" means athletic. So, imagine, you know, something you wear for cycling, something tight, something for the gym, yoga pants, anything like this. "Oo, you look very sporty." or "It's very sporty." Or maybe: "It's not sporty enough. It needs to be more sporty or sportier", if you will.

Next we have "loose", so think of loose. All right? Lots of space. So, if something is: "It's too loose." Okay? You can say: "It's loose. It's a bit loose. It's too loose", or: "It's not loose enough. I want it to be more loose, to be looser, to have more space." And a similar word to "loose" is "baggy". So, those of you who were children or you grew up in the 90s and you remember MC Hammer and his MC Hammer pants that were super baggy, they were called parachute pants, but they were super baggy. Right? So, like, you're wearing bags on your pants. Usually many, like, cargo pants, cargo shorts are very baggy. Okay? So also similar to "loose".

Next, the opposite of "loose" is "tight". "Whoa, it's too tight." Or: "It's a bit tight, a little tight." Or: "It's not tight enough. I want it to be tighter." Okay? Next: "stretchy". So think of the word "stretch". Stretch, stretch your arms. Material that is stretchy is usually, you know, used for sports, but you can also have, like, you know, formal dresses that are stretchy. Clothes for pregnant women are often stretchy. You have, like, those mom pants with the extra stuff for the pregnant lady. Anyway, some of you know what I'm talking about if you have ever seen a pregnant woman with, like, pregnant pants. They're very stretchy, you can stretch them, so you can say: "It's a bit stretchy.", "It's too stretchy.", "It's not stretchy enough." Some of us like our pants to, you know, have a little more space to be able to stretch them a little more on either side.

Next: "Wow, it's very flashy." Think of, like, the flash on your camera. So, if an outfit, if someone's clothes are flashy this means they get your attention. They're like an advertisement, a billboard, like a flashy commercial. Think of, like, their outfit has almost lights on it. Not literally lights, but it gets your attention, like: "Wow, that's very flashy." If it has very bright colours, for example, it can be very flashy. "Plain". "It's too plain." Or you can say: "It's a bit plain". "Plain" means normal, boring. "Bland" is another word you can use. Check it in the subtitles, which are in this video. And this just means, you know, it's normal, it's regular, like a white t-shirt, it's plain; there's nothing special about it, it's just a normal shirt. Okay?

And finally, get used to using this word, it's a very good word especially if you can't say the word: "comfortable", you can say: "comfy". So, "comfy" is like a diminutive form of "comfortable". It's more of an informal way to say "comfortable". You can say: "Ah, it's very comfy. Yeah. Yeah. This feels good." Right? Like that shirt. […]

Are you studying English FOR get a better job, or TO get a better job? Watch this video to address a very common English student mistake. Infinitives of purpose answer the question "Why?" or "For what purpose?" Understanding how to form them and use them will help you to build better and more informative English sentences. You will also learn how to use "in order to" in the middle of a sentence to strengthen your grammatical accuracy and your formal English. When you're done with the video, don't forget to take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/learn-e....nglish-grammar-infin in order to test your understanding. Good luck!

Watch these English Grammar lessons next:
1. Permanent Plurals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TplKXtV-90&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=3

2. Using 'THE' before 'NEXT' and 'LAST': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX68G8EAczA&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=19

TRANSCRIPT

Hey. Why are you here? Are you here to learn English? Are you here to improve your grammar and your vocabulary? You are. Wonderful, because I'm here to teach you. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this grammar lesson on "Infinitives of Purpose". So, today I'm going to try and fix a very common error that some students make when they are first learning English, specifically students from Latin-speaking countries, but other countries as well.

So, what am I talking about? Now, look here: Ask "Why?" or "For what purpose?" and add "to" plus the base verb to give more information. Now, what does this mean? By itself it seems confusing, but basically if you can make a statement, if you can make a sentence and you can ask: "Why?" at the end of that sentence or: "For what purpose? For what reason?" you can actually give more information-okay?-by adding "to" plus the base verb. And I'm going to tell you what people usually do or sometimes do that's wrong in this case.

So, for example, first sentence. Let's imagine this is the sentence. "I go to the gym." Perfect sentence. Wonderful. But if you want to make that sentence longer, if you want to give more information, if you want to tell people why you go to the gym, you can add "to" plus the base verb. An infinitive of purpose. So: "I go to the gym to stay healthy." Okay? Now, again, some people usually replace "for"... Use "for" instead of "to" in this situation. So I'm just going to focus and tell you guys: Use "to" in these situations. Okay? So, repeat after me: "I go to the gym to stay healthy." Beautiful.

Next: "She called me." Why did she call you? Okay? If you can ask: "Why did she call you?" So: "She called me to ask a question." That's why she called me. Okay? "He brought his laptop." Why? For what purpose? "He brought his laptop to help him study." So, he has all his notes there and that's what helps him study. Next: "You have to leave now." Why do I have to leave now? "You have to leave now to get there on time." All right? Next: "I can watch movies." For what purpose? "Well, I can watch movies to increase my vocabulary if I'm learning a new language."

Next: "They moved here." Why did they move here? What's this? "...in order to get a better job", and there's a star on this one, which means it's special. Now, the reason I put a star here is because you noticed I put: "in order to", which basically means "for the purpose of". So, in all of these situations, to sound a little more formal you could actually add "in order" before you do the "to" plus base verb structure. So, you could say: "She called me in order to ask a question.", "I go to the gym in order to stay healthy." All of these are also possible and it sounds a little more formal. Okay? I don't know why it's more formal, but it just is for this lesson. Okay? \

Next: "I've been reading a lot of books." Great. Why? "I've been reading a lot of books to learn new things." Sure, sounds good. And finally we have: "She goes to work." Why does she go to work? "She goes to work to provide a better life for her kids."

Okay, now I want to focus on two of these that are a little special, so let's look at this one: "She goes to work to provide a better life for her kids." Now, you might be wondering: "Wait. I have 'to' here and 'to' here. Can I say 'to' hmm, 'to' hmm?" Absolutely. So, here you have... You're going to a place. Right? You're going to work, to your place of work, your office, your office building to do something. And here, different kind of situation, but similar idea in terms of one of the words: "You have to leave now to get there on time." You have two actions back to back here. So: "You have to leave to get there on time." So it is possible for you to have "to" plus base verb, "to" plus base verb. Okay? So, for example: "I like to sing to improve my voice. I like to sing to improve my voice." […]

Students often ask me for English book recommendations. In this video, I give you five and tell you whether they're for intermediate or advanced students! In addition to a couple of classics, such as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, I also recommend some more contemporary options, such as Wonder by R.J. Palacio. There's something for everyone: mystery, fantasy, young adult, and adult fiction. Tell me about some of your favourite books in the comments at https://www.engvid.com/5-books....-to-improve-your-eng !

If you're interested in any of the books mentioned in this video, you can get a free audiobook version when you sign up for a 30-day trial with Audible using this link:
https://www.engvid.com/out/audiblealex

You can also use the following links to get ebook or print versions of these books:
1. Charlotte's Web: https://www.engvid.com/to/amz_charlotte
2. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: https://www.engvid.com/to/amz_wizard
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: https://www.engvid.com/to/amz_curious
4. Fallen: https://www.engvid.com/to/amz_fallen
5. Wonder: https://www.engvid.com/to/amz_wonder

#engvid #LearnEnglish #reading

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on: "5 Books to Improve Your English". So, one of the most common questions I get from students is: "Which books should I read to improve my English?" This video is for you. So, today, I'm going to look at five books that I have chosen to help you build your vocabulary, increase your comprehension, and develop your speaking and reading confidence. Now, if you are interested in any of the five books that I mention in the video, we have a link to Amazon where you can get the e-book version or the print version of the book; or if you want the audiobook version, you can click the link below to Audible, and there, you can sign up for a 30-day trial and get your first book for free.

Now, this video is specifically for intermediate and advanced level students. If you are a beginner student, I probably wouldn't recommend jumping into, you know, this level of literature right now. So, this is specifically for intermediate and advanced level students. Let's not waste any more time, and let's look at the first book.

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. So, this is a childhood classic. It is a young adult fiction book; it is only 184 pages; and it's basically a farm story about a girl, a pig, and a spider. There's also a movie out, you know, about the book, so you can check out the book, watch the movie, and you can understand more. So, what's cool about this book: It is written in the simple past, so you get a lot of past tense practice, and the vocabulary is not that difficult. So let me read the opening paragraph of chapter two. So, before I start: Fern is the name of the girl, and Wilbur is the name of her pig.

Chapter 2: Wilbur.
Fern loved Wilbur more than anything. She loved to stroke him, to feed him, to put him to bed. Every morning as soon as she got up, she warmed his milk, tied his bib on, and held the bottle for him. Every afternoon when the school bus stopped in front of her house, she jumped out and ran to the kitchen to fix another bottle for him. She fed him again at suppertime, and again just before going to bed. Mrs. Arable gave him a feeding around noontime each day when Fern was away in school. Wilbur loved his milk, and he was never happier than when Fern was warming up a bottle for him. He would stand and gaze up at her with adoring eyes.

So, as you can see, it's a cute, sweet story with a very tragic part that I will not spoil here in this video, if you have never read the book. This is a book that makes children cry. Maybe it can make you cry. So, let's go on to the second book.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, a classic children's book that was also made into a classic children's movie. So, this book is around 250 pages; it depends on which version you get. I have this beautiful edition that was given to me as a birthday gift a couple of years ago, and it has, like, nice pictures and everything. It's kind of pretty. And, yeah, it looks really nice. So, depending on the version you get, you can get... It can be shorter or it can be longer. So, this is basically, if you don't know The Wizard of Oz, it's about a girl who goes on an adventure in a fantasy land where she meets, you know, a lion, a tinman, a scarecrow, and she goes with her dog, Toto; and there's an evil witch. And it's a really cool adventure story.

I actually read it for the first time when I was in my late 20s, and I read it super-fast because it's written in such a fun way; there's always something happening, and you're going from one adventure to the next adventure to the next; it doesn't let you breathe. So it's a really fun adventure story. Let me read a little bit of it for you, here. Let's just choose a random chapter.

Okay, so here's Chapter 10: The Guardian of the Gate. […]

There are several types of phrasal verbs in English. In this important lesson, I will teach you twenty intransitive phrasal verbs, which are phrasal verbs that aren't followed by an object. In this lesson, you'll study phrasal verbs like speak out, end up, die out, grow up, show up, drop by, and many more. This is a great way to increase your vocabulary, your listening comprehension, and your speaking skills. As always, don't forget to test your understanding by completing the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/20-intr....ansitive-phrasal-ver after the lesson!

NEXT, watch more Phrasal Verb lessons:
1. 30 Phrasal Verb Commands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7_QXVcvcfQ&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=6

2. Phrasal Verb Opposites in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y0ITptbJTU&index=19&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8

3. 6 Phrasal Verbs with HANG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7iRU79qnRk&index=67&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8

TRANSCRIPT
All right. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "20 Intransitive Phrasal Verbs". "Intransitive", this means these phrasal verbs do not have objects. Now, some examples of transitive phrasal verbs are, for example: "My friend opened up a business." This means... "Business" is an object, my friend opened it, and he opened up a business. "I will call you back", "you" are the object and I will call you back, so these two examples: "Open up a business", "Call someone back", they both have objects which means they are transitive. These phrasal verbs don't have objects, no objects, they just exist by themselves. They don't need an object after. Okay? So, let's look at the first 10.

First: "break down". "My car broke down." So, here, this means that your car stopped working. Now, you can't say, like: "My car broke down", you know, something else, like if I ran over a motorcycle with my car, say: "My car broke down a motorcycle." You can't say that. Okay? It's just: "My car broke down. My car stopped working." Other things that can break down: Your computer, your phone, usually mechanical things-okay?-or electronic things. Next:

"Catch on". If something catches on, it means it starts to become popular. So, viral videos on YouTube catch on. Okay? For example: "That new dance is really catching on." I'm not going to mention the dance and the example, because by the time you see this video, there's probably a new Gangnam Style or a new dab, or something like that available to the young kids out there in the dance clubs. So: "That new dance is really catching on", it means that that dance is becoming popular.

"Die out". If something dies out or is dying out, or has been dying out, it means it is slowly dying, slowly decreasing in popularity. So, for example: "Blackberry", the company, the cellphone company. "Blackberry has been dying out for years, for many years." So, the Blackberry is not as popular as, you know, it was or is not as popular as the iPhone or Android phones, so the company's popularity has been dying out. Okay? If a species of animal, or insect, or anything is going extinct, you can also say: "That animal, that species is dying out." So, bees, for example, are dying out across the world, which means we will all be dead soon.

Next: "drop by". "Can we drop by the bank?" So: "to drop by", this means to make a quick stop, make a quick visit. Now, you're saying: "Alex, you said intransitive phrasal verbs have no object. Why is the bank here?" Well, you're not dropping the bank, you're not doing something to the bank. The bank is not an object, here. The bank is merely a location. Okay? So: "Can we drop by?", "Can we stop...?" You can also say: "Stop by". "Can we drop by the bank?", "Can we make a visit by the bank?", "Can we stop by grandma's house?", "Can we stop by the grocery store?", "Can we make a stop and then continue to another location?"

Next: "end up". "Where did you end up?" Okay? So: Where did you, you know, end your travels? What is your final location? Not only a physical location, it can also be, you know: "Where did you end up in your career? Where did you finish in your career?" Okay. "I ended up working for Apple." Or: "I ended up working for Microsoft." I ended up doing something, my final location, my final destination in my work life or in my personal life, or a physical location, too, it can be. So: -"Oh yeah. Where did you end up moving to?" -"Oh, we ended up moving to London", for example. Or: "We ended up moving to Cadaqu�s", whatever. All right.

"Get back". So: "We got back from vacation yesterday." So: "to get back" in this context means to return. So: "We got back from vacation yesterday." We returned from vacation yesterday.

Next: "go ahead". Okay? So if you're telling someone to go ahead, you're telling them to go before you, and you will catch up with them later. So: "You go ahead. I will meet you there." […]

Are you having a hard time finding useful English lessons on the internet? Hang in there! You've come to the right place! In this lesson, I teach 10 common informal imperatives that will help you to sound more natural in your everyday English conversations. These are common and real English expressions that you will hear in many different situations. The informal imperatives in this lesson include: "cut it out", "get lost", "sleep tight", "chill out", "dig in", "watch your step", and more. Take the quiz to test your understanding: https://www.engvid.com/10-informal-commands/

NEXT, watch my lesson on 30 Phrasal Verb Commands in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7_QXVcvcfQ&t=0s&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=7

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. Ah! Ugh. Ugh, okay. I should have watched my step. Okay, let's try that again. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "Informal Imperatives". What is an imperative? It's a call to action, it's a command. It's basically a base verb, like: "Stop", "Don't do that", "Watch out". Today we're going to look at a bunch of these expressions, and they're going to be informal in nature. And I'm going to give you the informal way to use the command and expression, and then tell you the more standard way that you can, you know, use this expression as well. So, you'll be getting double the knowledge, double the fun today. And hopefully I can get through this lesson without falling on my rear end, we'll say.

Okay, first one: "Cut it out!" "Cut it out" just means: "Stop it." Okay? So, if someone is, for example, like, tickling you and you're laughing, like: "Oh, stop, stop, stop. Cut it out. Cut it out. Cut it out." This means: "Stop. I don't like what you're doing. Cut it out. Stop." If you're a parent, you might say this to your kids. If your kids are, you know, fighting with each other and you just want them to stop, say: "Cut it out. Stop. Don't do that." Okay?

Next: "Get lost!" This is very rude, very strong. It's a way to tell someone to go away. "Leave me alone." So: "Go away. Leave me alone." Or: "Get lost. I don't care where you go, you can get lost in a forest somewhere or on a highway. It doesn't matter, just leave me alone." Okay? So: "Get lost!"

Next: "Sleep tight." This is more for parents I think, so if you say: "Sleep tight" to someone, this means: "Sleep well. Have a good night. Enjoy your sleep." Okay? So usually this is parents to kids who might say this, but if you ever see it on TV or something like that, you know, you will understand what "Sleep tight" means.

Next: "Chill out!" So: "Chill out!", "Calm down!" Maybe you're more familiar with: "Calm down!" or "Relax!" Okay? So, "to chill" means to cool something, so you can chill a beverage, chill a drink in the fridge or in some ice. You can chill wine if you go to a restaurant in, like, a bucket with ice. So, to chill out, like: "You're... You're too intense. Just chill out, calm down, relax."

Next: "Dig in". In this context, basically you're sitting at a table for dinner, for lunch, and everyone's sitting down and they're doing the polite thing where they wait for everyone else to sit to get ready to eat. When everyone's ready, okay, in French you would say: "Bon appetit"; in English, you can say: "Dig in". "To dig" is to do this with a shovel, so you're digging in usually with a fork or a spoon on this... In this part of the world. So: "Dig in. Start eating. You can eat."

Next: "Watch your step", like me. "Be careful where you are walking." So, if you're walking with a friend and you're talking on the street and your friend sees some, let's say dog poo... Okay? Your friend sees some dog poo on the... On the sidewalk, says: -"Whoa, whoa. Watch your step." -"Oh, I should watch where I'm walking." Or maybe there's a little hole in the ground, so: "Watch your step." Okay?

Next: "Quit your moaning." This means: "Stop complaining." Moaning is basically this kind of sound, like: "Mmm. Mmm. Emm." And you're always complaining, you're not happy with your life or your situation, and your friend might tell you: "Quit your moaning. Stop complaining." So, informally: "Stop complaining." Sorry, standard language or formal... Not really formal, it's just standard: "Stop complaining." Informal: "Quit your moaning." Okay?

Next: "Hang in there." Okay? This means: "Don't give up. I know life is difficult, I know that you didn't get that job after the job interview, but hang in there. Don't give up." So: "hang", when you grab onto something and you hold on, you're hanging onto it, so: "Hang in there. Don't give up. Good things will happen."

Next: "Whoa, whoa. Hold your horses." Err, hold them back. So, if you're telling someone to hold their horses... Hold your horses: "Wait. Stop. Slow down. Don't get too excited. Hold your horses." […]

Level up your academic writing skills by learning fifteen cause and effect verbs that will make you sound like a fourth-year university essay writing pro. If you’re taking the IELTS or TOEFL, these verbs are essential in the writing sections of those exams. The verbs and phrases include: "cause", "produce", "lead to", "result in", "create", "bring about", "give rise to", "be responsible for", "result from", "stem from", "be caused by", "be produced by", "be brought about by", and "be triggered by". Improvement stems from regular practice and consistently challenging yourself with new material, so make sure you don’t miss out on this chance to improve your written English. Take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/academi....c-vocabulary-cause-e

WATCH NEXT:
1. LEARN 20 PASSIVE GET EXPRESSIONS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzLbKEomlCI&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=11

2. ACTIVE & PASSIVE GERUNDS IN ENGLISH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV_XlU1oxJg&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=71

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on cause and effect verbs. So, this is an academic writing lesson. In this lesson, you will learn some advanced vocabulary, specifically verbs, that you can use in your high school or university essays; or if you are an English student who is taking the IELTS or the TOEFL, you can use these verbs to really level up your writing in your writing tasks on those tests. Okay? Now, if you are a writer of another sort; if you are an essayist, a fiction writer, a non-fiction writer, or you want to be a writer in the future - it never hurts to have more vocabulary, to have more power verbs in your arsenal. So, what we're going to do today is improve your vocabulary for your writing and really make your writing that much stronger. So, I'm going to put this down, and let's start looking at some verbs.

Specifically, we are going to look at some effect verbs first. So, when you think of "effect", you think of the result of something. So, we have the verbs: "cause", "produce"; and we have verb phrases, like: "lead to", "result in"; and we have: "create", "bring about", "give rise to", and "be responsible for". So, these are all formal verbs, and these will definitely formalize your writing; specifically your essays. So, for example: "cause" - very direct. Right? So: "The 2008 financial crisis caused several problems for multinational banks." So, this crisis caused these things to happen. All right?

Let's continue with: "produce". Okay? So, to produce, create, cause. "The medication did not produce the desired effect." So, the medication was supposed to numb the pain, but it didn't do this. It didn't produce the desired effect. So, again, "to produce", think of it in the same family of words as: "cause", "produce", and "create", which we'll see a little bit later on.

Next we have: "lead to". So, if something leads to something else, this means that it causes the next step to happen. So, the next step is the effect. So, for example: "Several international incidents led to World War II." So, we're talking about international events, international incidents that led to - gave the cause for World War II. So, if something leads to something else, you know, you do this thing which causes this thing, so the effect is here. One thing leads to or causes another thing.

"Result in" - very straightforward, I think. So, "result in": "The earthquake resulted in thousands of deaths." The effect of the earthquake; the result of the earthquake. So: "The earthquake resulted in thousands of deaths." Later we'll look at "a result of", so that will be for cause; but for effect, you can say: "result in". What was the result? It resulted in blank; in something.

"Create". I think everyone is familiar with the verb "create". If you're not, here we go. "The increasing rate of crime is creating numerous issues", numerous problems. So, it's making problems, creating problems, causing problems. So, the effect is that there are numerous problems now because of this.

"Bring about". So, if something brings about something else, it kind of brings it-right?-into effect. So: "The new regime"-the new political party, the new political regime-"brought about stricter laws". So, imagine there was an election and there is a new political regime, and with them they are bringing new laws, so they brought about new laws; they caused new laws to happen. The effect of the political regime are these stricter laws. Okay?

Next: "give rise to". If something gives rise to something else, it means that the initial cause creates the conditions necessary for the effect to happen. Okay? Got that? Okay, let's look at the example. So: "The election result gave rise to public protests." So, we have the election result, and: Uh-oh, now the condition is instability in the public because maybe the public is not happy with the results of the election. […]

What’s better than learning new vocabulary from a book? Learning new vocabulary from one of the GREATEST works of fiction of the 20th century! In this dense lesson, I will drop you into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to teach a variety of nature vocabulary. The book’s fictional world of Middle-earth is full of real-life landscape descriptions, so even if you’re not a fan of fantasy genre fiction, there is still a lot for you to learn. Words covered in this lesson include: knoll, mist, fog, valley, slope, turf, hedge, bush, thicket, marsh, bog, fen, mire, brambles, and many more! If you would like to check out the book yourself, you can get the audio version FOR FREE by signing up for a 30-day trial with Audible through this link: https://www.engvid.com/out/audiblealex . You can also get the print or ebook version on Amazon here: https://www.engvid.com/to/amz_lotr . Remember, not all who wander are lost.

Take the quiz here: https://www.engvid.com/learn-n....ature-vocabulary-in-

Next, watch these other videos I've done:
1. Learn English with STAR WARS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpksX5p0J9k&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b91KUH2ne-eaQSr3WofGqm9&index=3

2. 5 books to improve your English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEDMhFFeByE&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b91KUH2ne-eaQSr3WofGqm9&index=8

3. Learn English with THE HUNGER GAMES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCZqIJAtqOI&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b91KUH2ne-eaQSr3WofGqm9&index=4

4. Learn English with HARRY POTTER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EENeehvNxWA&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b91KUH2ne-eaQSr3WofGqm9&index=2

TRANSCRIPT

Danh-danh-duh-duh-danh. Duh-duh-danh. Duh-duh-danh. Duh-danh-danh. Danh-danh-danh-danh. My precious. Come on. Thanks, Steve. He loves this book. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "Nature Vocabulary with Lord of the Rings". Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien is one of the greatest, most important, most revered not just fantasy novels; but novels, period, in the English language. It is wonderful, beautiful, full of lush landscapes and scenery. And the reason I've decided to focus on nature vocabulary for you guys is: Even if you're not a Lord of the Rings fan, this video is still useful for you because I'm going to give you some vocab that is common, but also not so common, and all of it is in this book.

Now, if you like this book that I have in my hand, and you want to know: "Alex, where can I get one?" you can get either the physical copy or the e-book version at the Amazon link that is attached to this video. Or another option is, if you want to listen to the audiobook version of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring... There're also two more books - The Two Towers and The Return of the King. If you want any one of those books, you can get the audiobook version by checking out the link to Audible that is also attached to this video. You can get the book for free by clicking at the link, and you will also sign up for a free 30-day trial.

So, if you like the book, if you like the audio quality, and... Which I think you will, because the narrator who, you know, does Lord of the Rings-Rob Inglis is his name-he's wonderful. I have the book on my own phone, I've listened to it. He does, like, the songs that are in the story, he does the poems, and he has this deep, baritone voice when he reads the book, which is just beautiful. It makes you feel like your grandfather is reading the book to you. So, the audiobook is totally excellent. Check it out if you want at the Audible link that is attached to this video. I think that's all I wanted to say before we got into things. So, I'm going to put this down far away from Steve, over here. Okay. I'm watching you.

And we're going to talk about some of the flora and the fauna of The Lord of the Rings series. And this vocabulary is found throughout the entire series. Okay? So, what I wanted to do, really, with this video and what I want to do for you guys is to make you feel comfortable in the world of Middle Earth, because there is a ton of travelling; there are a ton of natural, physical features that are described in the book. It's very beautiful, it's very poetic, and if you're... If you like nature, this is the book for you. If you like fantasy, and action, and magic, and adventure, this is definitely the book for you.

So, I thought I would start with some of the wetter parts of the geography in Middle Earth, which is the fictional fantasy land that Lord of the Rings takes place in. So, we'll start very simple, a word you might already know, and that is a "river". Now, a river is a large channel of water that flows into a sea. So, around Montreal, you have the Saint Lawrence River. The Nile is a river. The Amazon is a river. So, these are long channels of water that flow into the sea, and there's actually some debate over whether the Nile or the Amazon is the longest river in the world, depending on how you choose to measure them. […]

Do you want to sound natural in English when talking about how people look? In this practical speaking and vocabulary lesson, I’ll teach you some common idiomatic sentences and adjectives used to discuss appearance. Learn the difference between looking chic, smart, dapper, sharp, and elegant. Tell someone that he looks like he just got hit by a truck! All this and more is covered in the video. Once you’ve mastered this vocabulary, you’ll be able to have some fun talking about your friends’ appearances, and you’ll gain speaking confidence by being familiar with these intermediate-level English words and sentences. Take the quiz for this lesson at: https://www.engvid.com/improve....-your-vocabulary-adj

TRANSCRIPT

I look like hell? You should see yourself. You have one eye. Steve. Okay, you go get dressed and I'll see you in a bit. Okay? Steve.

Hey, you're looking good, though. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on commenting on people's appearance. So, in this video, I'm going to give you some expressions, most of which are idiomatic, and some adjectives that you can use to make positive and negative comments about people's appearance.

Now, before we start, I want to say: For the negative expressions, the negative adjectives - use these with, you know, some discretion. Usually you only want to use these with people you know very well or if you want to joke around with your friends. So, you don't want to tell someone at work that they look like hell, if you don't know them very well. But if it's your best friend and you just want to joke with them a little bit, it's applicable then. Okay?

All right, so let's begin with some positive expressions. So, you could say all of these things that are positive, and you start them with saying: "You look like..." You could say: "You look like a million bucks", like, just money. You look like money; like a million dollars. So, "bucks" just means "dollars". So, if someone looks very fancy or just great, you can say: "You look like a million bucks." Same with... This is self-explanatory: "You look like a movie star." Okay? So: "Yeah, you look like Russell Crowe or Keanu Reeves", if you think, you know, those guys are attractive and stuff.

"You look like a supermodel." So, this is probably, you know, much more common if you're talking to a girl; a female. Please don't say this to strangers, guys. Be... Just be smart about it. Okay? All right. And final one, you could use this for men, but usually this is for girls as well: "You look like you just walked off the runway" or "you stepped off the runway". So, "the runway" is in fashion shows. It's literally the path that the models walk. So, let me walk like a model for you. Yeah. So, I look like I just walked off the runway. So, I look like a fashion model, basically. Okay? So, if your friend comes to work and they're wearing, like, a really nice dress or their hair is really cool, you're like: "Wow. You look like a supermodel" or "You look like you just walked off the runway." All right.

Now some negative expressions. So, again, please use these expressions with people you know well if you want to joke with them, or maybe someone says: "Tell me honestly: How do I look?" Okay? You can say: "You look like a mess." Okay? So, you can say "a mess", like you're not tidy, not clean, your hair is everywhere. "You look like a total disaster", you can also say. So: "You look like hell." Not like heaven, but like hell. Okay? So, Steve thinks I look like hell today, but come on, Steve. Nah, there's no way. Sharp. I'm sharp today.

Next: "You look like a bum." I had to do that in the Rocky voice a little bit. So, if you look like a bum, you look like... It's not very polite. You mean that the person looks like someone who is homeless, someone who lives on the street, and maybe someone who hasn't taken a shower in a long time. Okay? And: "You look like a walking disaster", like a walking disaster. Okay? You can also say: "a mess" or: "a total disaster", "a walking disaster".

And these two are really cool. I love this one; I use it with Steve all the time because he looks like hell: "You look like you just rolled out of bed." Okay? So, you look like you just woke up, and you got out of bed, and you're still in your pajamas, you haven't washed your face, your eyes are baggy, and your hair is everywhere. And: "Whoa, you look like you just rolled out of bed. Can you just go to the bathroom and clean yourself up, please? For all of us."

And next: "You look like you got hit by a truck." So, imagine getting hit by a truck - your body probably doesn't look very clean or attractive if you get hit by a truck, so you can see the imagery here. Okay? So, again, just imagine: Hair everywhere, clothes everywhere, not clean, not sharp, but very, very messy and sloppy as well. Okay, so we have some positive expressions, some negative expressions. […]

When it comes to vocabulary, it's easy to mix things up. Does disinterested mean the same thing as uninterested? What's the meaning of enormity? Is enormousness actually a word? Check out this video to learn the meanings and differences between these words and others, including simplistic & simple, hung & hanged, bemused & amused, cliche & cliched, and more. Think you already know the meanings of these easily confused words? Try your luck with the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/10-word....s-youre-not-using-co ! I guarantee it is anything but simplistic.

Next, watch my lesson on the difference between WHO & WHOM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFbEfp31Lx4

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on ten words you are probably not using correctly. So, just like the title says, I will look at ten words that most people think they know the meanings of, but really you might not. So, this video is intended for people whose first language is English or advanced speakers who are studying the language. Let's not waste any more time. Here we go with number one.

"Bemused". "Bemused" means: Perplexed, puzzled, bewildered. Most people confuse it with the word "amused", so it does not mean amused. Sentence example: "The plot left me feeling bemused." If you watched a confusing movie, the plot was weird, strange, difficult to understand - it puzzled you, it perplexed you, it left you feeling bemused. Now, if you watch a comedy, that leaves you amused. All right. Let's continue to number two.

"Cliché". This one usually comes down to pronunciation. So, "cliché" is actually a noun; it is not an adjective. The adjective version is "clichéd" with the little "d" at the end. So, you can say: "Hollywood blockbusters are full of clichés" - noun. But if you want to use the adjective: "His acceptance speech was so clichéd." All right? So, make sure: If you want to say something is or was clichéd, that you're using that "d" at the end; and if you want to say something is full of clichés, you're using the noun in that case. Let's move on to number three.

"Disinterested". This means unbiased or not influenced by selfish motivation. It does not mean uninterested, as if you're not interested in something. For example: "Professional referees need to be disinterested." So, a hockey referee, a basketball referee, a football referee - they need to be disinterested; unbiased. Also think of a supreme court judge - they cannot have bias. We need a disinterested judge or a disinterested party; a mediator. And the use of "uninterested": "I'm uninterested in sports", if you're not interested in sports, for example. All right, here we go. Number four.

"Enormity". This means extreme evil; not enormousness. Yes, "enormousness" is an actual word in the dictionary. For example: "We cannot accept the enormity of child labour!" The extreme evil of child labour. And here we have "enormousness": "The enormousness of the pyramids must be seen to be believed", not the "enormity". All right? The enormousness - the size. Let's move on to number five.

"Fortuitous" - this means unplanned or coincidental. It does not mean lucky or fortunate. For example: "We ran into a fortuitous obstacle" - an unplanned problem; something you didn't plan for, and that was a coincidence when you were doing your project. And here we have "fortunate": "We were fortunate to qualify for the tax rebate." So, we were lucky or fortunate. Let's move on to number six.

"Noisome". This means smelly. It doesn't mean noisy. For example: "The noisome fish market gave me a headache." So, I'm walking in the fish market, the smells are so strong, so powerful that I start not feeling well and I got a headache. Now, it is possible to say: "The noisy fish market gave me a headache", but here, the cause is the noise; the volume of the people talking, and selling, and buying in the fish market. So, remember: "noisome" - smell; "noisy" - hearing. Let's move on to number seven.

"Nonplussed". This means stunned or bewildered; shocked, if you will. It does not mean unimpressed. It sounds like it would. "I am nonplussed" - not impressed. But it means I am stunned. Okay? So, for example: "The witnesses were nonplussed by the accident." They were stunned, bewildered by the accident. Or: "She was unimpressed by the play." So, if you're... You can be nonplussed by a play as well if it's very shocking, like "12 Angry Men" - excellent. You can feel nonplussed after that; there are some shocking, you know, revelations there. But you can also be unimpressed by a play or a performance. Whew, nonplussed. Let's continue with number eight.

"Refute". This means to prove something to be false. It does not mean to allege or argue that something is false. It means to prove it without the shadow of a doubt. So: "The lawyer refuted the defendant's story." The lawyer proved that the defendant's story was a lie. Proved that it wasn't true. […]

Did you know that it's possible to turn adjectives into nouns? No, we're not talking about word families like "heat" and "hot." We're talking about discussing social groups like the elderly, the poor, the unemployed, the middle-class, and more. This is a useful lesson for those who are interested in debating or writing about social and political issues in English. Alex will also look at the use of this language in popular culture by discussing famous English books and movies which utilize the form and vocabulary taught in this lesson. Click on this video and become one of the enlightened, then take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/adjectives-as-nouns/

TRANSCRIPT

Oh, Little Red Riding Hood, you were one of the innocent. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on using adjectives as nouns. Now, this lesson is particularly useful if you are writing academic essays, or if you are writing academic or general essays for language tests, like the IELTS or the TOEFL. This terminology that you will learn today can be used to talk about social groups, you know, that all have something in common with one another.

And to use an adjective as a noun, all you have to do is add "the" in front of the adjective. Now, this doesn't work for every single adjective. I mean, you could say: "The happy have happier lives than the sad", but "the happy" doesn't really describe a known social class, so I would stay away from that and try to stick to, you know, the stuff that you see here, when talking about different social classes.

So, again, you can use this to refer to and categorize people by their social class or their condition in life. For example, if you want to talk about rich people, you can say: "the rich"; poor people: "the poor". So, for example, here's an essay question that you might see on something like the IELTS: "Should the rich be taxed more than the poor?" Okay? So: "Should the rich... Should rich people, you know, have more taxes than poor people?" Instead of saying: "poor people, rich people", you can say: "the rich, the poor".

Now I'm going to give you some examples of very common ways... Some very common examples in which we use: "the" plus an adjective to discuss different social groups. So, here, we have: "the elderly". "The elderly" refers to people who are at an advanced age, or you can say: "older people". Okay? So, you know, the elderly need to be taken care of by society. "The unemployed" - people who do not have jobs. You know, it is difficult for the unemployed to make progress in life, for example. So, people who don't have work.

"The mentally ill", so these are people who have mental health issues. The mentally ill do not receive enough support in society, or the mentally ill should have more support from governments, you know, financial backing and everything like this. You can also use this to talk about some groups from specific countries, so: "the English", "the Irish", "the French", "the Swedish". Okay? So, you can use it to talk about whole groups from another country. Not another country; just countries in general.

"The homeless". All right? So, you can say, you know: "The government isn't doing enough to help the homeless", which refers to all homeless people. Okay? "The old" - similar to "the elderly", here. "The old"... The opposite of "old" is "the young". So, we can say: "Oh, young people today"... Or: "The young today need to have more responsibility." And I put: "the educated", "the uneducated" - people who are educated, people who are not educated. You can talk about both of these.

And while I'm looking at these, I realized that I forgot to put a couple very, very important ones for you guys, so let me do that right now. Now, these three groups don't completely follow the rule I laid out at the start of this lesson. So, I said: Use "the" plus an adjective to categorize a social class. These three classes: "the working class", "the middle class", "the upper class" use the adjective plus the noun "class" to categorize them, so this is why I left it out of, you know, these ones because the rules are a little different; it follows a slightly different structure. But you can talk about, you know, "the working class" - those who have lower paid jobs; "the middle class" - those who have medium-paying jobs; and "the upper class", so basically the rich. You can use this a lot to talk about economics; the economic situations of different people in a country, in a society.

Now I'm going to give you guys some pop culture examples of this, you know... Using adjectives as nouns. For example: "the dead". Look at this quote: "We are the dead." This is a very famous quote from the book 1984 and a song lyric by David Bowie. Those of you who don't know, 1984 is a dystopian novel by George Orwell in which a totalitarian government, you know, watches everything that their society does. […]

In this practical English writing lesson, you will learn some of the most common email phrases you can use to sound professional. If you work in any type of business environment, there’s a good chance that you use email on a regular basis. However, many people aren’t familiar or comfortable with the formality or informality of email communication. I will teach you a wide range of business email vocabulary, phrases, and sentences often used by native English speakers. Here are some examples: “as discussed”, “to follow up on our previous discussion”, “this is to inform you that...”, “Thanks for the update”, “Thanks for looking into that”, “Thanks for following up”, “I’ll get back to you”, “Keep me posted”, and many more. This is an essential lesson that will help you write like a professional in almost any workplace. Make sure you understand it by taking the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/how-to-....write-professional-e

Now it's time to continue improving your writing with these videos:

1. 15 cause and effect POWER VERBS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaBCiio8XZs&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=5

2. Infinitives of Purpose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPmjYD6Qi5I&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=9

TRANSCRIPT

Oh, there's free cake in the staff room? Thanks for letting me know. See you there. Yeah, free cake. All right. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on writing a business or professional email in English. Now, this is useful for those of you who are just starting a corporate job, or if you are looking to work in an English environment where emails are constant. So, I use my email every day. I can tell you 100% that I have used all of these at one point or another in my emailing career, we'll say. So, I've sent thousands of emails, and I've used all of these.

So, these are phrases that you can use in internal emails between yourself and your colleagues, or between yourself and someone who works with your company. So, maybe you know someone who is selling, you know, technology to your company, like printers or computers; maybe there's someone who supplies paper for your company and you have to interact with them, so you can use these phrases and expressions with them. All right?

So, first we'll start with the greeting. We have: "Hello", "Hi", "Hey, Steve". Steve - these are all for Steve. So, you notice... If you're wondering: "Why didn't you put 'Dear'? Why didn't you put 'To whom it may concern'?" You could still use those. I guess it depends on your own personal comfort with formality. Having worked, like, you know, in Canada and exchanging emails with people in the United States, most people are comfortable with a "Hello" or a "Hi". Only use a "Hey" for someone you know. So, these are in level of formality. Of these three, "Hello" would be the most formal; "Hi" would be very neutral; and "Hey" is a very familiar, very informal, so only use this with people you know well or that you have a good professional relationship with.

Next... All right, so one thing you might do in an email is to introduce a new topic or to inform someone of something; maybe not just one person, maybe a group of people, maybe a whole department. So, for example: "This is to inform you that..." Very general. So, maybe someone has received a promotion in your company. This is something you might see from your boss; or if you are a boss or a manager, you might send this to your team. "This is to inform you that", you know... Let's say Rosa; you have an employee named Rosa. "This is to inform you that Rosa has been promoted to the position of..." Okay? So you're giving information to your team.

This one: "Just to let you know"... Now, this is very informal. So, only send this to people you know well, people within your company, maybe a friend in the company. So: "Just to let you know" is a much more informal, casual way that you can use in an email, instead of: "This is to inform you that..." Okay? So, for example: "Hey. Just to let you know, I'm not here on Friday. Please see me if you need anything from me before Friday." Okay?

Also, you're introducing a topic, or informing your company, or someone of something, so: "Hey, Steve. Good news!", "Hey, Steve. Bad news.", "Hey, Steve. I've got good news.", "I've got bad news." Now, you notice, here, I used an exclamation after "Good news", you know, it's a good idea to make it seem exciting, so: "Good news! You know, I just got promoted." Okay? Or: "Good news! I'm getting a raise." Okay? Something like this. "Bad news. We're not getting pizza for free today.", "Bad news. I can't make lunch, sorry." Okay? "I can't make lunch." It doesn't mean you're creating lunch, you're making lunch; it means: "I can't go to lunch with you." Okay? So, you have: "This is to inform you that...", "Just to let you know...", "Good news!", "Bad news.", "I've got good news.", "I've got bad news." Okay? […]

Can you ever start a sentence with “but” or “and”? Are double negatives always wrong? And is it really a rule that you can never split an infinitive? In this class, unlearn what you have learned in your English classes and see that there’s a difference between a rule and a guideline, and that in most of the cases mentioned, you’re free to forget the rule entirely. Study these 5 English grammar myths and be the life of the party at your next gathering of friends by being the person who starts a conversation with “Hey, did you know that you can actually end a sentence with a preposition?” After watching this grammar lesson, don’t forget to check your understanding by completing the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/5-english-grammar-myths/

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "5 English Grammar Myths". So, these are five things that, if you went to an English-speaking high school, college, university, elementary school - you probably heard at some point from an English teacher or someone else, or your friends who heard it from an English teacher. So, today we are going to break down some of those things that you were told, and we will unlearn what you have learned. So, let's begin with number one.

Never start a sentence with "But" or "And", or other coordinating conjunctions you can extend this to. But why not? Or what? There are numerous examples in popular literature and even Holy Scripture where this rule is broken again and again and again. For example, in the story, The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans C.A. (Christian Andersen): "But the emperor has nothing at all!" Here you have a story by Francis Bacon in Of Death: "And what are you reading, Miss?" And, here, in the King James Bible: "Injustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance - these may be cured by reform or revolution. But men do not live only by fighting evils." So, as you can see, it is totally possible and it's unrealistic to expect people, especially in conversation, not to start sentences with "But" or "And" sometimes. Okay? It's a decent guideline for essay writing, but for speech, and for writing fiction and literature, it's... It just... It just doesn't happen. All right.

Number two: Don't end a sentence with a preposition. Now, a "preposition" is a word like: "at", "on", "in", "for", "by", "with", "against", and it shows a relationship of time or place between words. So, ideally, I think whoever came up with this myth thinks that, you know, you need another word after the preposition to show the relationship between the words. For example: "I'm excited about your birthday party", "I'm interested in music/video games", so you need something after that "in", you need something after that "about"; you can't just leave it just dangling at the end of a sentence.

Or can you? Let's look at some sentences where we do this all the time. So: "There's something I'd like to talk to you about." How about: "What kind of music do you listen to"? "To what kind of music do you listen?" - that's ridiculous. "What kind of music do you listen to"? "Which school do you go to?" I think you can see, here, that: "This is a rule you should be cautious of", you should be wary of, and maybe this is a rule you shouldn't care about. So let's continue to number three.

Double negatives are always wrong. Now, I kind of agree and I'm on board with the idea that we need to be careful when we use double negatives; the problem is when we say that they are always wrong. Now, in this case, if you have a phrase, a sentence, like: "I don't have nothing!" I agree; this is a bad sentence because it literally means: "I have something. I don't have nothing; I have something." So, if your meaning-your intended meaning-here, is that you have nothing, just say: "I have nothing." Okay? In that case, I agree, double negatives - not cool.

However, you can use double negatives if you want to emphasize something, like: "I can't not help people." So, imagine in... Maybe in a comic book, you have a superhero and they have these powers, and they need to help people, so they say: "I can't not help; I must help." It really makes it that much stronger to have the double negative there. "We couldn't not pay attention." Maybe the talk was very captivating or maybe it was very loud, so you were forced to pay attention. "We couldn't not pay attention; we had to pay attention." Also, double negatives are very often used in pop culture, specifically pop music, like this song here: "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone", something. Those are the only words I know, and I can't even sing them very well, so I'm going to continue to number four.

Never split infinitives - angry face. Now, for some reason, I guess people think that "to" plus base verb should always be together, and you cannot separate them because they're a compound unit of language that just sticks. […]

Want to learn common phrases with MAKE to improve your vocabulary and speaking skills? This lesson will definitely make a difference. In it, you will learn FIFTY common phrases that use MAKE! Some examples include: make a mistake, make an observation, make an exception, make your dreams come true, make believe, make friends, make progress, make a promise, make up your mind, and many more. Once you have watched the video, make sure to check out the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/50-make....-expressions-in-engl for more practice!

If you found this lesson helpful, watch these next:

1. 20 Passive 'GET' Expressions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzLbKEomlCI&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=16

2. 20 intransitive PHRASAL VERBS in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGsLrtjfE_M&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=7

TRANSCRIPT

If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad. If it makes you... You know the song. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on fifty common "make" phrases. So, in this video I am going to teach you fifty phrases with the verb "make". We will start with some of the common, easy ones, not really idiomatic, just common stuff, like: "make breakfast, lunch, dinner", etc. and then we will move on to some more idiomatic phrases in the second part of the video, so make sure you stick around for that as well.

So, let's not waste any time and we'll start with this part of the board. At the top, like I mentioned, you can "make breakfast". So, in the morning when you wake up, you make yourself a sandwich, or maybe you make a pizza for breakfast. I never do. Maybe you do. I don't know. You can also "make lunch", "make dinner". Basically, you can make a meal. Anything with, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner - the three main meals of the day, you can make them. So, this is like cooking, or baking, or creating. You can also make different foods, so "make a pizza", "make a sandwich", "make a snack", "make a cake". So, you are putting these things together, creating them, creating a pizza. You know, you have the cheese and the dough, and the pepperoni and the sauce, and you put it together, so you can make all of these things. All right? You're putting them together.

Now, next is an expression: "make up your mind". So, if you tell someone: "Make up your mind", it means that they cannot make a decision, so you want them to make up their mind; or, like I said, make a decision. Okay? So, stop going this way and that way with your mind and your options: -"Oh, I don't know. Do I want the pizza or do I want the pasta? I don't know. I don't know." -"Make up your mind." Okay? So, make a decision. Commit. Commit to a decision.

Next: "make fun of someone". This is not a polite thing to do; some would call it bullying. Most people would call it bullying actually. If you make fun of someone, you are making a joke about that person. Maybe they have a characteristic, a feature that you think is funny, like maybe they have bigger ears than you, so you say: "Haha. Look, it's Dumbo." Like, you are making fun of them. Dumbo is a Disney elephant with big ears. So, yeah, don't make fun of people, unless it's your family or friends and then it's fine - usually, unless they don't like it. Ask my sisters. I don't know. I don't know if they liked it.

So, next: "make a difference". So, if something makes a difference, it has a significant effect or a significant impact. A person can make a difference. You know, an idea can make a difference. Something that causes change in life.

"Make a joke" - similar to "make fun of someone", you can make a joke. I have many joke videos on my channel, so one of the jokes I gave you guys was: "Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven ate nine." I just made a joke. If it's a good joke or a bad joke, that's up to you to decide.

Next: "make a call" or "make a phone call". So, this is what you tell people when, you know, you want to leave a conversation maybe: "Sorry, I need to make a call. Yeah". So, if you need to call someone on your phone, you can say: "I need to make a phone call. I need to make a call." Or: "I need to call." I just want you to know that "make a call" is also possible.

"Make a promise". So, you can promise someone that you are going to do something, or you can also say you made a promise to this person or you are going to make a promise to this person.

Okay, next. These two are sometimes confused, so let me tell you the difference between a "reservation" and an "appointment". You can "make a reservation", you can "make an appointment". Number one, you can make a reservation at a restaurant or a hotel, for example. So, when you think of reservations, think of something you have to, like, secure or you have to save your spot. Right? So, you can make a reservation at a restaurant. […]

This is a mind-altering lesson that will change the way you look at how adjectives are constructed. Only hard-working English students should dare enter. If you’re ready to play with language and get creative, click the play button and learn some of the most advanced and complex vocabulary there is. This lesson covers more than twenty multi-word adjectives, including fun-loving, good-looking, well-developed, full-time, foul-smelling, blonde-haired, three-legged, two-liter, and plenty more. Enter if you dare, and make sure to test your new knowledge by completing the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/advance....d-english-vocabulary when you’re done.

Next, watch these other advanced English lessons I've done:

1. Advanced English Homophones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_uzraKOIU&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=20

2. Cause & Effect Power Verbs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaBCiio8XZs&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=5

Sign up for a free Audible trial at https://www.engvid.com/out/audiblealex !

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on multi-word adjectives. So, this is an advanced lesson, where I will give you a ton of examples of multi-word adjectives and the contexts in which you can use them, as well as the structure... the grammatical structure, the grammatical pieces and parts of speech you need to form your own, you know, multi-word adjectives.

Now, what's tricky about these is that you can't just take any words and mash them together. Unfortunately, you know, some words have gone together better than others. So, it is kind of an issue of memorizing things, but you can try to get creative. And after you watch the video, if you know any other multi-word adjectives or if you want to experiment with the language and try to create your own, you can ask me in the comments or write me in the comments, and let me know if you, you know, want to ask me if it's a multi-word adjective that exists or maybe it's something that's just fun and funny. So, if you can make me laugh, that's even better. All right, so let's begin.

What is a "multi-word adjective"? I think it's best if we just start looking at them and look at the examples, and you'll see what I mean. So, the first way... I say first, but really any of these could be first. The first way I have listed on the board is you can have an adverb, add an "ed" participle or an "ed" adjective to create a new word; a new adjective. So, for example, you can create words, like: "well-developed", "fully-trained", "highly-skilled". Okay? So, a well-developed app or a well-developed program.

So, remember: Adjectives are words which describe things. So, ideally, after these adjectives you should have some kind of noun. So, what are some things that could be well-developed? So, a well-developed app, a well-developed game, a well-developed program. Okay? "Fully-trained", so a fully-trained marine, a fully-trained police officer; someone who has received full training and is an expert in their field. Okay? "Highly-skilled" - someone who has a high degree of skill in their area. So, you can be a highly-skilled detective, or a highly-skilled doctor, a highly-skilled surgeon, a highly-skilled... Whatever profession you can think of that requires a high degree of skill.

Next, you can take an adverb, add an "ing" participle or "ing" adjective. And you have words, like: "hard-working", "fast-acting", "well-paying". So, a hard-working person, a fast-acting pain reliever or a fast-acting medication. So, if you have pain and you take medicine, and the medicine acts very quickly... Maybe in two minutes: "Oh, it works." It's a fast-acting medication. Okay? "Well-paying", so you can have a well-paying job; the company pays you well; the job is well-paying. You can also... Hey, you can also use "well-paid". So, if the company pays you, you can say, you know: "I am well-paid for my work. I have a well-paying job." Okay?

Next: You can have a noun plus "ed" participle. You notice the pattern, right? You see: "ed", "ing", "ed", "ing", "ed", "ing", "ed", "noun"... That's later. So, a noun plus "ed" participle. For example: "money-related", "self-created", "steel-enforced". So, if you can... If you say, for example, you know: "The country is experiencing some financial problems. They are having some money-related issues." Or maybe a city is having some crime-related problems. Or: "Hmm, this is an age-related issue" - an issue related to age or a problem related to money; something like that.

"Self-created", so, you know, all your problems are self-created. So, if you create problems for yourself, you are, you know, self-creating problems, so your problems are self-created. "Steel-enforced", so maybe this is at a prison that has very heavy security, and the walls are enforced with steel, so, you know, you cannot really break through them because they are enforced with steel. […]

Do you only rely on “should” and “have to” when giving advice or making suggestions in English? If you’re ready to add variety to your vocabulary and your English conversations, this is exactly the video for you. Not only do I cover the basics such as should, ought to, had better, and others, but I also teach informal ways to give advice such as “You’re gonna wanna,” “Have you thought about,” “You might wanna consider,” and many more. This is a great lesson for advanced English learners who want to sound fluent and natural when speaking English. Test your understanding with the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/20-ways....-to-give-advice-in-e

If you liked this video, I'm sure you'll like these other videos I've done, so why not watch them now and take your learning further?

1. 30 Phrasal Verb Commands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7_QXVcvcfQ&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=13

2. 4 types of 'HOW' questions in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ro9075G2Q&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=21

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on twenty ways to give advice in English. This lesson is intended for intermediate-level English learners, so some of the things I will review in this lesson, specifically the modals section, I will expect that you're already familiar with these words-okay?-and their usages. If you're not familiar with the modals that I give you today, we have a lot of lessons on engVid that discuss: "have to", "had better", "must", "should", etc. So, check out those lessons and become more familiar with modals.

However, I'm expecting that you are already familiar with them for this category. You noticed I said: "category", because I have four cate-... Four? Four categories on the board, here. So, we have modals, we have conditionals, we have formal verbs, and we have casual expressions. So, you are probably familiar with the modals, maybe the conditionals, and for sure you've seen, like: "suggest", "recommend", etc., but this casual section is probably new for quite a few of you. But let's not get too far, and start from the beginning.

So, first: Modals. You have a wide variety to choose from when you're giving advice in English. We'll start from the top: "You have to..." So, if you are telling someone that they have to do something, this is an obligation. Okay? They don't have a choice. So: "I lost my passport. Oh my goodness. What do I do?" You can say: "Okay, you have to go to the passport office" or "You have to get a new one." Okay? This is my advice to you. It's your obligation to do this.

"You had better..." Okay? So: -"Okay, I lost my passport." -"You'd better go to the passport office" or "You'd better report that to the police", maybe if it was stolen by someone and you saw the person running. So: "You'd better..." as a reminder, this means, you know, it's a strong advice and there will be negative consequences if you don't follow this action.

All right, so we have: "You should..." and "You ought to..." These are in the same family. Right? So, these are, like, well, advice: "I think it's a good idea for you to do this". -"I always feel tired." -"You should sleep more." -"I always feel tired." -"Okay, well, you ought to eat better." Okay? Or: "Tell me what you're eating. You ought to eat better. You should eat better." When you are speaking: "You ought to", you can also say: "You oughta". So, repeat after me: "You oughta". "You oughta sleep more." Good. All right?

And then: "You could..." So, "You could..." means: "Well, this is an option." I'm not saying you should, I'm not saying you have to. I'm saying: "Hey. Have you considered this option?" That's over there. We'll talk about that later, too. So: "You could..." means, like, this is a possibility. This is an option. Like: -"Ah, I don't know what to get from the lunch menu." -"I don't know. Like, what do you feel like?" -"I don't know. Like something that has protein." -"Okay, well, you could get the steak, or you could get a hamburger, or you could get something else with protein." So you're giving them options. You're advising them of what is possible. Modals, we're okay? So many of you are like: "Alex, I... I don't know what's going on." Check out the other modal videos.

Next, let's go to conditionals. So, let's start with the most common, like, advice conditional where you say: "If I were you..." I am not you; that is impossible. Maybe in the future that's something that is possible, but for now it's not possible. So, you're using the second conditional in most of these. So: "If I were you, I'd"... "I'd" means "I would". So, second conditional you always have the past form of a verb. So, here you have: "If I were you, I would do something." It's like: -"Uh-oh. I think I lost my wallet." -"Well, if I were you, I would retrace your steps". "To retrace your steps" means to go back and follow your steps; where you went before. Right? […]

Are you tired of using the same old adverbs – very, really, so, a little...? In this lesson, learn to expand your vocabulary with a wide range of adverbs that will add complexity and nuance to your speech. Study with me and learn adverbs like somewhat, utterly, totally, completely, thoroughly, quite, slightly, a bit, and plenty of others. Learn and laugh with this intense English lesson! I guarantee you’ll be thoroughly satisfied. Take the quiz on this lesson at https://www.engvid.com/improve....-your-vocabulary-adv

Next, watch these other vocabulary lessons I've done:

1. 20 Intransitive Phrasal Verbs in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGsLrtjfE_M&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=7

2. Permanent Plurals in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TplKXtV-90&list=PLrPhmmx5j5b-AjltXcrLI4iiqF7lsj_P8&index=12

TRANSCRIPT

Whoa, you are way too intense, buddy. Woo. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on adverbs of intensity or adverbs of degree. So, are you tired of constantly saying: "I'm very tired", "I'm so tired", "I'm really tired", "I'm a little tired", and that's it; you only have four adverbs you use again and again? Well, this lesson is going to fix that problem. I am going to give you a ton of different options that you can use to, for example, modify your adjectives, your adverbs, and even your verbs. Okay? So we're going to go all the way from: "ehh..." to "kind of intense", to "pretty intense", to "OH MY GOD SO INTENSE!" Okay?

So, let's start on this side with: "ehh..." Okay? So, here we have: "a little", which I think most people learn as, like, their first adverb of degree to talk about something that's, you know, kind of there, kind of not. "A little". "A bit" is another word that you can say, instead of "a little". Or: "slightly". Okay? So, for example: "I'm a little hungry. Yeah, I'm a bit tired. Yeah, it's slightly cold in here." Okay? So: "a little", "a bit", "slightly". This is just poquito. Okay? I only know it in Spanish. Or troche in Polish. That's all I know. Un puh en Fran�ais. Okay? Teach me the other words in your languages in the comments. Okay?

So, next: "kind of intense". So, you can say: "fairly", like: "I'm fairly sure they're going to win". "rather": "I'm rather certain", okay? "somewhat", so: "Mm, it was somewhat boring". "moderately": "They played moderately well". "considerably": "This movie was considerably better than the last movie." Okay? "nearly": "I nearly fell" or "I nearly died" if you want to, you know, use something that's a bit more idiomatic and not literal. "kind of": "I mean, I'm kind of excited, I guess." Okay? "sort of". "kind of", "sort of" - same group of words. I have a video on "kind of" and "sort of" that you can check out. It means a little; not really. Okay? So: "kind of", "sort of". "Yeah, I mean it was sort of okay, I guess." Okay? And: "noticeably": "The movie was noticeably better than I remember." Okay?

Next: "pretty intense". We have: "awfully", "pretty", "really", "so", "very", "mostly", and "quite". Okay? So, let's use some examples. These are just examples that come to my mind, which should let you know that these are very, very common combinations that we use with these adverbs. So: "It was awfully hot yesterday." All right? "I'm pretty sure that's right. I'm pretty sure that's incorrect". "really": "They played really terribly." Okay? Or: "They played really... They played really well.", "They played so poorly.", "They played very elegantly", maybe. Maybe not "elegantly", but, you know: "very tired", "very hungry". "very" you can use with everything pretty much. Okay? "mostly": "We're mostly finished this chart; mostly done." Okay? Mostly good. "quite": "It was quite good.", "I'm quite certain that this video is going to improve your English."

"OH MY GOD SO INTENSE!" So hot. Okay? Ready, Totoro? Yeah. Okay. So, we have: "completely" which is like 100%. Okay? So: "They got completely destroyed", if you're talking about sports and one team destroyed the other team 10-nothing in a game of, I don't know, soccer, or hockey, or baseball. "totally": "It was totally worth it." Okay? "thoroughly": "Huh, I am thoroughly impressed. You cleaned your room very well. Thoroughly impressed." So, "thoroughly" is another way to say: in all areas, completely, totally. Okay? "thoroughly". "Thoroughly impressed; satisfied".

"absolutely": "It was absolutely magical." Okay? Like, the original Lord of the Rings trilogy was absolutely magical. I went to a Lord of the Rings concert recently, which for me, was absolutely magical. Okay? "perfectly": "I am perfectly satisfied. I'm perfectly happy". "extremely": "It was extremely cold." Okay? "utterly": "It was utterly awful." Okay? So, all of these are basically synonyms for the word "completely". If you want the 100% translated definition, I recommend checking out something like a Google Translate... […]

It's so hard to say goodbye, especially if you only know one way to do it. If you want to expand your conversation skills, or if you just want to be able to identify some common English sentences for ending a conversation or meeting, this is the video for you. Learn sentences like "I gotta run," "Take it easy," "Have a good one," "Catch ya later," "Take care," and many more to increase your English vocabulary and conversation skills. Do you think you've got it? Make sure to test your knowledge by completing the quiz at the end of the video at https://www.engvid.com/20-ways....-to-say-goodbye-in-e 'Til next time, enjoy the rest of your day.

TRANSCRIPT

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday, something, something, something - I can't sing. Yeah. Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "20 Ways to Say Goodbye in English". So, I will give you some set phrases that you can use in your daily conversations. I will also tell you some of the more natural pronunciations of these phrases and these questions so that you are able to recognize them in television shows, and in movies, on the news, YouTube videos - anything else, and you're able to use them yourself to sound more natural in English.

So, let's start with the basics. We have: "Goodbye", and the shorter version: "Bye". Okay. Easy, right? We're done. See ya.

I said: "20", right? Yeah, I did, so let's keep going. So, another way to say: "Goodbye" or a way of, you know, saying: "Goodbye" - I just repeated the same thing, but ignore it. Let's keep going. "See you" or "See you later". Instead of "you", you can also just say: "ya". Okay? So, repeat after me: "See ya. See ya later. See ya later." It's kind of like: "See ya". "See ya later". All right.

And you also have - hey, a specific time of day or a specific... A specific period in time in the future, so you can say: "See ya tomorrow", "See ya Saturday", "See you at the party", "See you at the funeral". It's a weird thing to say to someone, but you know, whatever. All right?

Here's another one, a little more relaxed way to say: "Goodbye" - "All right, see ya tomorrow. Take it easy." This means, like: "Don't stress. Relax." Okay? Just take it easy. So, you can say this as a goodbye to someone. Repeat after me: "Take it easy." All right.

And if you want to be very polite, of course, you can wish someone a good day, so you can just say: "Have a good day." This is especially useful if you work in the service industry. So, if you work at a grocery store as a cashier or at a bank, or if you're talking to someone on the phone, and you end a conversation and you say: "All right, bye. Have a good day."

Or below that, two below that: "Have a nice day." And instead of saying: "Have a good day" or "Have a nice day", you can also use this phrase, which is: "Have a good one", and this means: "Have a good day"; the "one" means day. So, let's repeat that one after me. This one is, again, a little more casual, so just repeat it; you can use it in everyday situations: "Have a good one."

And for: "Have a nice day", for any of your professional wrestling fans... That's a silly question because most people who are wrestling fans do not want to tell anyone else that they are wrestling fans, so... But in the 1990s there was a professional wrestler named Mankind, also known as Mick Foley, and one of his phrases that he said and he'd say it in like a weird way, he would say: "Have a nice day!" So, there's that. Don't say it that way, but just look up: "Mankind, 'Have a nice day'." I think it's also the name of the book that he wrote about his career after. Sorry, you want to learn other phrases now. Right? Forget the last 30 seconds and professional wrestling discussion.

All right, you can also say, instead of: "See ya later", you can say: "Catch ya later". So, here I wrote: "Catch you later", so let's do the formal version first. "Catch you later." Ah, it just sounds weird because I never say that. "Catch you later." You have to say it quickly, and you kind of say: "Catch ya", right? "Hey, catch ya later." You're not even really saying, like: "Catch ya"; you're saying, like: "Catcha", okay? So: "Hey, catcha later." Okay? But let's say the "catch ya", too. Let's say that version, too. Let's practice. "Catch ya later." Okay? So, you "catch" like: "Oh, I caught a ball." It's like you're going to catch the person later; like, you will see each other later; you will catch each other. It's a metaphor; it doesn't really work in this situation.

And if you want to be, like, super cool and you don't want to bother with a lot of words because you're so minimalistic, and you're an artist, man, you're an artist, you just want to say: -"Hey, later." -"Later, what?" Just it's a word; doesn't mean anything by itself. "No, no, no. Later." Okay? So you can just say: "Later." All right? Instead of: "See you later" or "Catch ya later" - it's possible just to say: "Later. Goodbye." All right. […]

Learn expressions you can use to strengthen your academic essays. Whether you’re a high school student, an IELTS or TOEFL candidate, or an English language student, this lesson is guaranteed to boost your writing skills and to provide you with tools that will impress professors and make you fit in with any academic discussion. Learn passive prepositional verbs such as: be aimed at, be associated with, be based on, be regarded as, be defined as, be derived from, be divided into, be prejudiced against, and more. This is an advanced, but practical academic English writing lesson. Watch, learn, and your writing WILL improve. Once you have mastered the content, be sure to test your knowledge by completing the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/improve....-your-academic-writi then USE the knowledge you have acquired in your daily written work.

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this academic writing lesson. So, today I will be giving you some very practical skills, practical tools, practical expressions, words, phrases that you can use in your academic writing. So, this might prove useful if you're a high school student, a university student, college student, if you are someone who is writing an IELTS exam or a TOEFL exam, or any type of academic work. So, I'm going to tell you the name... Technical name of these tools that I'm going to give you today in a bit. First, I just want to start teaching you guys, and after the first six, I'll let you know on a little secret. Okay. "Let you in on the little secret", that's the phrase.

So, first we have: "be aimed at". Let's just stay with me. Let's read the example, and you'll start noticing a pattern. So: "The advertisement was aimed at males between the ages of 18 to 34." So, here you're saying the advertisement-the ad, the promotion-was targeted at... Aimed at males between 18 to 34. So, if you aim an advertisement, this means you try to put your focus of the advertisement on a specific group of people, a specific demographic. So, you have, you know, males between the ages of 18 to 34, so this is probably a beer commercial or a video game commercial maybe.

Next, we have the expression: "to be associated with something or someone". So, if you are associated with something or someone, this means you have a connection to something or someone. So, for example: "Drinking milk is often associated with strong bones." So this is, you know, what research says or what advertisers want us to believe. This could be an argument that you're making in a paper. So: "Drinking milk is often associated with strong bones" or with having strong bones; has a connection with it.

Next: "to be based on something". Now, this is when you're using, you know, some sort of facts to establish a theory. So, "to be based on". "The study was based on 10 years of close observation." So, this means that the study, the origin of the study, the facts from 10 years, you know, that's what we used to base this study on; to do this study.

The next phrase I want you to remember is: "to be regarded as" or "to be seen as something or someone". So, example: "Albert Einstein is regarded as the premier theoretical physicist of the 20th century." So, this means people see Einstein as, you know, the premier physicist... Theoretical physicist of the 20th century. They regard him... They hold him in a high position in their minds. So, people say this. You can use this phrase to talk about not just people, but events. Okay? Like, the Olympics, World Cup, World War II. You know, what was it regarded as? What were these things seen as by people? How did people see them?

"Be defined as" - to give a definition. Right? So: "Darkness is defined as the absence of light." If you're a high school student, this type of structure is okay to use. Many teachers say: "Don't tell me Webster's Dictionary defines this as blank." But, you know, if you're a high school student, you're just learning essays. It's important to define your terms; to give definitions, so: "Darkness is defined as the absence of light." I will be using this definition in my paper.

And, finally, here: "be derived from". If something is derived from something else, it means it comes from that thing; it originates from that thing. So, for example: "Some medicines are derived from herbs." They are taken from, they come from those herbs. Okay?

Now, we've looked at six of these. What do you see that they all have in common? Okay, they all have: "be", "be", "be", "be", "be"; they all have a past participle verb: "be aimed", "be associated", "be based"; and they all have a preposition. Now, these are known as passive prepositional verbs. Okay? So, now that we've looked at the first six of passive prepositional verbs, we're going to look at another six. […]

What’s the difference between ‘put back’ and ‘put away’? Is there any difference between ‘put out’ and ‘take out’? Check out this practical English lesson and learn 10 of the most common phrasal verbs that you can use around your house. In addition to the basics like turn on, turn off, turn up, turn down, you’ll learn the two most common uses of pick up, and see over 35 real-life examples! Are you ready? Press play, and don’t forget to do the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/10-phra....sal-verbs-for-everyd once you’ve mastered the material.

How do you talk about something that you planned to do but didn't? In this lesson, I will teach you six different ways to explain what happened and what went wrong. You will learn to explain, for example, why you were not able to finish your homework on time or why you were late for work. This will be useful to you just about every day, so don't miss this opportunity to add some common phrases to your English! After the video, take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/ to test your understanding.

TRANSCRIPT:
Hi. This is Gill at www.engvid.com, and today, we have a lesson which was requested by Karim, who left a comment on our website. So, Karim, I hope you're watching. This is for you. Okay.

So, the subject of the lesson is called: "Missed Situation", which means you were going to do something, but something else happened and it stopped you doing what you wanted to do. So, there are different ways of expressing this in English. So I'm going to show you six different ways of talking about this kind of situation. Okay, so we have the first three examples on the board, so let's have a look.

So: "I was going to go shopping,"-that was my intention. I have planned to go shopping-"but"-and there's always a "but"-"I got a phone call which lasted nearly an hour,"-someone phoned me and I was talking for nearly an hour-"and by the time the call ended"-when I finished the call, a whole hour had gone by-"the shops were all shut." The shops had closed, so that meant I could not go shopping. Okay? So I was going to go shopping, but da-da-lum, and by the time the call ended, the shops were all shut. So my plan to go shopping - I couldn't go. Right? So that's one way: "I was going to, but..." All right?

Another way of saying this is: "I was all set to", I had everything arranged. "I was all set to go on holiday, but then my car broke down,"-something went wrong with my car-"and I had to spend the money on repairs instead." Instead of going on holiday. The money I was going to spend on the holiday, I had to spend that money getting the car repaired. Okay. So, again: "All set to", "I was all set to". Maybe I'd got my suitcase packed, I'd taken time of work, I was ready to go on holiday, but this happened and I had to spend the money on repairs instead. Okay?

Right, and then the third example, this is talking to somebody. You had an intention, but you didn't do it, and that this is the reason why. "I would have called you yesterday,"-I would have phoned you yesterday-"but my phone wasn't working." Okay? So: "I would have", I was wanting to. I would have, but something stopped me - my phone wasn't working.

Okay, so that's three ways of saying what you meant to do and it didn't happen. We'll now move on to another three.

Okay, so our next three examples. "I had every intention of returning the book to the library", I planned to, I was going to. "I had every intention of returning the book to the library", this is a book that you borrow from the library, and if you don't return it by a certain date, they usually charge you a fee for late returning. So: "I had every intention of returning the book to the library last week, but"-"but" again-"I have a friend staying,"-that's a friend staying with me at my home-"and she's been reading it." So because my friend is reading the book, I can't return it yet. Okay? So once she's gone home, I will return it, but not yet. Okay.

Next example: "I had it all arranged to give my friend a surprise party", so I had made the arrangements; I had all the plans, I had invited people on a particular date and at a time. It was all arranged. "I had it all arranged to give my friend a surprise party,"-a party that she didn't know about-"but then she found out"-she discovered, she found out about my plan, she discovered my plan-"and said she didn't want one!" She didn't want a surprise party. Okay? Some people love surprise parties; some people hate them. So, obviously, this person hates surprise parties.

I once had a surprise party which I didn't know about, and it was okay. It was a surprise, obviously, but it was okay. Arranged by my husband. And then a few years later he was trying to arrange another one, but when I discovered that he was doing it, I said: "No, no. I don't want it this time." So if you find out about something, it's possible you don't actually want it. But anyway.

http://www.engvid.com/ Why do we have a lesson on a writer who died hundreds of years ago? Don't worry. There's method to my madness! The poet and playwright William Shakespeare has had a big influence on the English language. Many of he words and expressions that he invented are still in use today, and we often don't realize it. In this lesson, I will introduce you to some of the most common expressions which first appeared in print hundreds of years ago and are still used today. So come on. Break the ice, and watch the lesson! http://www.engvid.com/shakespeare-everyday-english/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. This is Gill at www.engvid.com, and today, we're going to be looking at the way William Shakespeare, the English playwright and poet, has influenced everyday English today. He wrote a lot of plays and quite a lot of poems, and some of the lines from those poems and plays have been used in the English language because they were very influential. So... And the way he said things was just very good at expressing something. It may have been that people around him were saying all these things, and that it was just... He was the one to put them down in print, but looking back through all the old books, Shakespeare was the first person to mention all of these. These are just a few examples. He was the first person to put these actual phrases and words into print. So maybe he heard other people saying them, but he was the one who wrote them down. Okay? So, let's have a look through the list.

So... Oh, and there are his dates just to show you how long ago he lived. He was born in 1564, died in 1616, so a long, long time ago. So it's quite amazing, really, that some of what he wrote is actually used in the English language today. So let's have a look.

So, first of all: "a sorry sight". Okay? So, if you see somebody walking along and they... Maybe they've been caught in the rain or something, or they've fallen over into the mud and they've got all their clothes dirty, the look terrible, they haven't eaten for two days and they look absolutely awful, you could say: "That poor man, he is a sorry sight." "Sorry" meaning sort of sad. You feel sorry for him, looking at him. He looks really dishevelled, very dirty, tired, hungry. "A sorry sight". Okay.

Next one: "wearing your heart on your sleeve". Okay? Now, this is your sleeve and here is your heart. Your heart is inside here. But if you wear your heart on your sleeve, this is a kind of a metaphor, or an idiom, an expression for showing how you're feeling. Not hiding your feelings, but making it clear how you feel. So maybe if you've fallen in love with somebody and instead of sort of keeping it to yourself and keeping it a secret, you sort of make it quite obvious to them, probably in a very embarrassing way. But if you make it very obvious to them that you... That you love them, you're wearing your heart on your sleeve. Okay? Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, so worth a try if you think so, but I don't know. Okay, so that's what that means. Right?

"In a pickle", if you're in a pickle, you're in trouble. And "pickle" is a kind of preservative in a jar. So it's like vinegar or something, which preserves food. So, "vinegar". Sometimes you get little onions in vinegar, and they're called pickled onions. Okay? You can buy them in the supermarket. So, if you're in a... If you, personally, are in a pickle, it means you're in a lot of vinegar, which isn't a very nice place to be. So that's real trouble. You don't want to be in a lot of vinegar. So: "in a pickle", that's what that means. So you have to get out of it as quickly as possible. So it means in trouble.

Okay, next one: "there's method in my madness", and if you've heard of Hamlet, this comes from that play. Hamlet pretends to be mad. He's not really mad, but he's pretending to be mad for a certain reason, which I won't explain now; it would take too long. You'll notice a lot of m's because Shakespeare is very poetic, and you get a lot of sound patterns, the same letter repeated, which makes it a stronger phrase because of that. "There's method in my madness" means you may be behaving in a very strange way, but there's a good reason for it. You have a method. There is a reason for behaving like that, which hopefully, it will all work out in the end. But for Hamlet, it didn't really work out. But I'll leave you to find out about that if you don't already know. So he pretends to be mad for his own reasons, but he's not really mad. Okay. Right?

http://www.engvid.com/ Hello! I hope you're keeping well! In this vocabulary lesson, I will explain the different ways of using the verb "keep". This common verb has more than one meaning. It can be used to easily express all kinds of situations. If you find it difficult at first, keep studying, and keep coming back for more videos! Keep up the good work! http://www.engvid.com/10-ways-to-use-verb-keep/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. This is Gill, here, at www.engvid.com. And today, we're going to have a lesson on the use of the verb "to keep". Okay? It's a verb that's used a lot in English, so it's a very useful word to know, and to know how to use it. And it can actually be used in different ways, in slightly different ways, different meanings. So I'm just going to show you three of those main ways of using the verb "to keep" in this lesson.

Okay. First of all, to explain how "to keep" is different from the verb "to hold". Sometimes people get them confused. "To hold". Okay, I'm at the moment, I'm holding, holding a pen or a board marker. I may not keep it. If I take it home with me, that means I keep it. But if I leave it in this classroom when I go, I did not keep it. I'm holding it now, but I will not be keeping it. I leave it here. Okay, so with "to hold", for example, you can ask somebody... You're holding your bag, you need to put your coat on. You can't do both, so you ask somebody: "Can you hold my bag while I put my coat on?" Okay? And then: "Thank you." You have your bag back again. They give it back. So they hold the bag, it's temporary. Just like me holding this pen is temporary; I will be putting it back on the table at the end of the session. So "to hold" is a temporary thing. Just holding something. Okay? So, that's "to hold".

So now let's have a look at the first meaning of the verb "to keep", which means something like to... To retain. Like I was saying, if I retain this, if I keep it, I take it home with me and never... Never give it back to the person it belongs to, which is stealing. So we can't do that. Can we? No. Okay.

So, you can say to somebody... Say you... If I... If this did belong to me, if this was my pen, but somebody else said: "Oh, isn't that a lovely pen? I need a pen like that. Oh." So I would say: "Oh, well, if you... Here you are. You can use it, and if you like it, you can keep it. Okay? I've got lots more pens like this, so you're very welcome to have it. You can keep it." So if you like it, the pen, you can keep it. And you keep it, you take it home with you. You use it. It's then your pen. It was my pen. Now it's your pen. You kept it. So, past tense: "kept". Irregular verb. Right. Okay.

Next example... For example, maybe I've broken my leg or something, and it's the summer. I can't go swimming for the whole of the summer because I've broken my leg. Right? So I don't need my swimsuit for the whole of the summer. So... But a friend of mine really, really, really wants to go swimming, and she's going on holidays soon, and the hotel has a swimming pool. It's near the sea. She doesn't have a swimsuit. So, I can't use my swimsuit; I've broken my leg. So, I say to her: "Here is my swimsuit - you can keep it for the summer, but I will need to have it back in September." Okay? Because my leg will be better in September, and I will want to start swimming again. So, keeping can be temporary if you say: "You can keep it for the summer,"-okay?-"but I will need to have it back"-you have to give it back to me-"in September." Okay? Right?

And similarly, if you go in a taxi and you have to pay the taxi driver... Terribly expensive, but anyway. If you're feeling generous and you've got lots of money to spare, you can say: "I told the taxi driver to keep the change." Let's say the taxi fare was, in UK money, £8.50. Okay? And you gave him a £10 note, and you said to him: "Keep the change." You didn't want £1.50 back from him; you were happy to give him a £10 note and let him keep the change. Not give you any change. It's what you call a "tip". You gave the taxi driver a tip. Okay? So, keep the change. alright?

And then finally, for this section: "You can keep your things in this drawer." Maybe you start a new job and you're on the first day, you're taken to your desk: "This is where you're going to be sitting. Here's your computer. There's a drawer here. You can keep your things in this drawer." So all of your pens, pencils, paper for writing on, anything, your diary, everything you need for your job to stop the table... The desk looking untidy. You can put the things in the drawer. "You can keep your things in this drawer." Okay. That's sort of fairly permanent: keep things in the drawer for the length of the time that you're going to be working there, so hopefully a nice long time, and hopefully a nice enjoyable job. Okay. Right, so we'll now move on to look at another aspect of the verb "to keep".

http://www.engvid.com/ Do you often not understand people or fail to hear what they are saying? Native English speakers often speak unclearly or too fast, making it difficult to understand their words. In this lesson, I will teach you some polite ways of asking people to repeat what they said. You will learn expressions such as,"pardon", "I didn't quite hear you", "Could you speak more slowly, please?" and more. Never miss a word again and become an even better English speaker with this useful lesson. And if you need me to repeat anything, just replay the video! http://www.engvid.com/polite-english-how-to-ask-people-to-repeat-themselves/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. This is Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're going to have a lesson about what to do if someone says something to you and you can't hear them properly, or it's not very clear what they say, and you need to ask them to repeat what it was they said. And this could happen anywhere, anywhere in the world, but especially if you're in maybe a big city where there are people of many different nationalities; cities like London, Toronto, New York, anywhere really in the world. So people with different accents, either because they're from other countries and English is not their first language, or even within one country, like within the UK, we have many different accents from different parts of the country, from different cities, from Scotland, Wales, Ireland. There are all different accents. And if someone has a strong accent, it's more difficult to understand them. So this lesson is about asking people to say again what they said. I have to do it even if someone says something in English, which is my first language, I sometimes have to ask people to say something again. So it happens to everybody.

Okay, so let's have a look at some of the words you can use to deal with this situation. All right? So, a very useful single word is just to say: "Sorry?" with a sort of rising in the voice. Question: "Sorry? Sorry?" And also, I've put body language at the bottom here, but it's quite important. You can sort of go like this, and say: "Sorry?" and lean towards them a little bit with your hand by your ear. So especially if they also are not English... If their first language is not English, they will understand from this that you didn't understand what they said. So a little bit of body language helps as well. So: "Sorry?" is very useful and polite, because we need it to be polite as well. So, polite. So: "Sorry?" is a polite way of asking someone to repeat.

At one time, there was also the word: "Pardon?" which is a little bit old fashioned now. So, to say: "Pardon?" it's a little... It used to be very polite, and children were taught to say: "Pardon?" but now it's a little bit old fashioned, and people might laugh at you if you use: "Pardon?" So, see what other people say to you, and then you can follow what they say, but "Pardon?" is a little bit old now.

Okay, now things not to say which are not polite. You don't just say: "What?" because that is rather rude. So, don't say: "What? What?" Very rude, especially with a loud voice and making a funny face. "What?" Not very nice at all, so don't say: "What?" And don't say things like: "Eh? Eh?" A lot of English people might say: "Eh?" but that's not polite either. So... Or: "Uh?" that's not polite either, just to say: "Uh? Uh?" No.

Okay, so the polite way, really, as one word is just to say: "Sorry?" and then the person will probably understand you need them to say it again. But there are longer sentences you can use as well, in addition to: "Sorry?" just to give you a wider range of options. And the three main things about what... The way we all speak is clarity: what we say should be clear. I hope I'm being clear in this lesson. So, that's the adjective "clear", and the noun is "clarity". Clarity of speech. Okay? So it must be clear. The pace or the speed. If people speak very quickly, it's difficult to follow what they're saying; to understand what they're saying. So the pace should be fairly slow and regular. Okay. And the volume, how loud or quiet somebody is. If someone speaks very quietly... You probably can't hear me at the moment. So some people are a bit shy, and they don't speak very loud, loudly. So the volume, how loud people are is important. So sometimes you need to ask somebody to speak more loudly, so we have different sentences for these.

Do you know when and how to use the verb "to do"? In this basic English grammar lesson, I will explain how "do" is used with different verb tenses when you make a negative statement and when you ask a question. Learn how to use this verb in the present, past, and present continuous tenses in all kinds of sentences. DO you want to watch? Yes, of course you DO! DID you click on the lesson yet?
http://www.engvid.com/do-does-did/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com, and today, we're going to look at the verb "to do", looking at "do", "does", and "did", and the way it's used, not all within a positive sentence or statement, but the way it often needs to be included in a negative statement, and also how it has to be used in a question. Okay?

So, I've just got an example here to show you what... What I mean. Okay? So, just a simple sentence: "You walk." Okay? "You walk." So, we've got the pronoun "you", the person. "P" for pronoun, "p" for person. Okay? And the verb: to walk. "You walk." Okay? But, what happens? Now this is in the present tense, and what happens is in some tenses, you have to use "do", but in other tenses you don't need it. So we're going to see the different types of sentence with different tenses to show when to use it and when not to use it, and also how to use it. Okay?

So: "You walk." Simple present tense. If you turn that into the negative, it's: "You do not walk." or "You don't walk." You can't just say: "You not walk". You have to use: "You do not walk." And so, because "do" is also a verb, the way it's used here is to sort of help the meaning and that means it's called an auxiliary verb. Okay? So, I'll just put "aux", auxiliary verb. And the "not" is the negative. Okay? So: "You do not walk." or "You don't walk." In speech, when we're speaking, we say: "You don't". Maybe if you're writing a formal essay for an exam, it's best not to use contractions, abbreviations, like "don't". It's better to use "do not". Okay? So: "You do not walk." That's the negative. Okay? And then, again, if we turn it into a question and you're asking the person, it's: "Do" again. "Do...? Do you walk?" So: "You walk", "Do you walk?" Okay? So "do" is the auxiliary; "you" is the person, the pronoun; and "walk" is the verb. Okay? So: "You walk.", "You don't walk.", "Do you walk?" Okay. So, there, in the simple present tense for the negative and for the question, you need to use "do" as an extra and as an auxiliary verb. Okay?

Right, so now I've got some little exercises to give you a chance to see if you can do them yourself before I say what they should be. Okay? So, we've got this one here: "I swim every day." Very healthy. I don't, actually, but some people do. Swim, swimming in a swimming pool. "I swim every day." Okay? So, if you are going to turn that into the negative... I just said it probably, without realizing. I hope you've forgotten what I've said now when I gave you the negative. [Laughs]. I'm not going to do that every time, don't worry. "Don't worry." Okay, so: "I swim every day." What would be the negative? "I ____ ____ _____ ___." Just have a think before I tell you what it should be: "I", then we have to use "do not"/"don't", "I don't", and then it's the same. We've got "walk" there and "walk" there, so it's just: "I don't swim every day." Okay? So you just have to put "don't" in there: "I don't swim every day." Okay? And then, again, for the question version of it: "I swim every day." And then somebody asks or I ask... I don't know why I would ask that question. I should know the answer, but: "Do", what should it be? "Do I swim every day?" So, "swim every day", "walk", "walk", "swim every day". "Do I swim every day?" Okay. So, it's always "Do" at the beginning of the question, and then you just use the same words.

Okay, so let's try the next one. I hope by now that you understand what I'm explaining about the verb "to do". "You understand." Okay? Now, what if it's still negative? I'm not going to say it this time; I'll leave it for you to think: How would you say the negative of this? "You __ ___ understand." Okay? So, it's: "You", like this one here, "don't"... Sorry about my writing. "You don't" and then "understand" again. Okay? "You understand.", "You don't understand." Right? And then the question version, I've already started it with: "Do", so if I'm asking you yes or no: "Do you understand?" Okay? So: "Do you understand?" And the question mark, of course, at the end. Always remember the question mark. Right. Okay. So I hope that's clear so far.

http://www.engvid.com/ Want to practice your conversational English? In this lesson we'll talk about stress! Do you stress out about school? Work? Public speaking? Or do you thrive in stressful situations? Today, you'll learn vocabulary and expressions to describe stress and the situations that cause stress. I'll also share my tips to cope with stress. Whether at work, school, or at home, we often talk about stress. Watch this lesson and don't let speaking English stress you out! http://www.engvid.com/speaking-english-stress/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. This is Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're going to look at a particular type of thing that happens to people in their lives and also to look at the kind of way we describe it in the English language. Okay? So, we're saying: "Don't get stressed out!" Right? Now, getting stressed out is, with modern life, there are so many demands; we have to do things quickly, we have to survive, have somewhere to live, enough food to eat, somewhere to work, all of these things, and it causes a lot of stress. Okay? So this word "stress" is when you're feeling very... Very upset and agitated, and worried because of everything that you have to do and everything that's happening, and whether you can cope with it or not. So, modern life has a lot of stresses and strains. "Strains" are the same idea, really, things sort of pulling you around, making you do this and that, and you feel all the time you're having to do what other people want you to do, and you have no control over what you're doing, all of that kind of thing. And it can be quite upsetting if you don't feel you're in control of the situation.

So... So we're saying: "Don't get stressed out!" This is maybe a little bit of advice in here, along with the way of expressing it, about how to cope with stress if you're feeling stressed. Okay? So there's lots of pressure in the modern world, it can be traumatic, it can cause you a lot of anxiety. We're always being bombarded by information, advertising: "Buy this. Do this. You should be doing this." And there's a lot of pressure on people to do things that maybe they don't really want to do or they don't see the point of doing, but other people are pressurizing them to do it. Okay?

So... So what someone might say if they're in a job that is very, what we'd say highly pressured, a job that is very busy with a lot of responsibilities, somebody might say: "I can't take the stress of this job!" Meaning: "I can't... I can't do it. I can't keep having all this stress every day. It's too much." Okay? So: "I can't take the stress of this job!" All right?

One of the terms we use for when you're more comfortable with what you're doing is that you're in your "comfort zone". It's like a zone, it's an area where you're comfortable. The things that you're happy doing, the things that you are confident doing, that's in your comfort zone. So maybe being at home, watching television is in your comfort zone. Maybe going and playing some sports, going swimming which you enjoy, going out with friends may all be in your comfort zone where you are comfortable. Okay? So you stay inside your comfort zone if you don't really want to try new things.

But sometimes, it's a good idea to go outside your comfort zone or step outside your comfort zone just to test what you might be capable of doing. Okay? Just try a little something that's different to see how it goes. So it's not always a good idea to stay within your comfort zone all the time. Try to step outside it occasionally. I often try to try something new, see how it goes, and if it's successful, then you feel great. "I've learnt something new, here", and then you feel good about yourself. Okay? So, this term also: "Pushing the envelope" is another way of saying "going outside your comfort zone", "stepping outside". The idea of being inside an envelope, you have a letter inside, but the envelope is closed. But if you push the envelope, you're sort of pushing outside it, trying something new, something different. Okay? So trying new things.

You probably know the word 'back'. But did you know that it can be used as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and a phrasal verb? In this lesson, you'll learn to use this very common word in each of these ways. The English language has many words that can have different meanings. I'll explain how this simple word can take on many different meanings, and I'll give you examples to help you understand each of them. You'll also learn expressions with the word 'back'. So don't hold back, and don't back out. Check out this video!
Go back to Engvid to take the quiz: http://[a]www.engvid.com%2Fenglish-vocabulary-back%2F[/a]

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at [a]www.engvid.com%2C[/a] and today we have a lesson on a little word "back". And this is in response to a request from Najma, who posted a comment on the www.engvid.com website. So, thank you, Najma, I hope you're watching. This is for you. Okay. So, the use of the word "back". It's a very common word; it's used all the time. And it's also used in different ways as different parts of speech. So it can be used as a noun, as an adjective, as an adverb, as a verb, and it can be used as part of a phrasal verb. So I'll be showing you examples of all of these. Okay?

So, let's start with "back" used as a noun. Okay? So, for example, if you're talking about a friend of yours who, when they get on the bus, they always go to the back, they like to sit at the back. So: "He always sits at the back of the bus." You can tell it's a noun because it has "the" in front of it. "The back", okay? Right, so: "He always sits at the back of the bus."

Second one, the back can be in a location, but you can also talk about my back, that's this, part of your body is your back at the back. So: "My back is itching!" Oo, ah, oo. I have to scratch. It's itching. Ah. Okay? "My back is itching." Okay? Useful word: "itching". It's probably not polite, though, to sort of scratch in public. So you have to be a bit careful about that. It's probably safe to scratch your back and to scratch your head up to a certain extent, but other parts of the body, maybe not a good idea in public. So, okay, better move on.

Right, you're arranging to meet somebody and depending on whether you're in America or in another part of the world where English is spoken, you can either say: "I'll meet you in back of the building." That's the American way of using "back" or in the U.K., for example, we would say: "I will meet you behind the building." That means at the back, behind. It's a similar idea. So "in back of" is American. In the U.K., we say "behind". All right. So that's "back" as a noun.

Moving on to "back" used as an adjective to describe something, a back something. Question: "Did you close the back door?" Okay? In your house, you might have a back door and a front door. This is the back door, the door at the back of the house, the back door. Okay? And also: "He's in the back room." So different rooms in the house, a room at the back is called "a back room" as an adjective. Okay. All right.

Then moving on, using "back" as an adverb where it's sort of modifies a verb: "I'm going back home now." You can say: "I'm going home now." But going back home is like the idea of returning home. "I'm going back home now." To go back. Right? And, finally, in this section: "Our neighbours are back from holiday." So, that again is an adverb: "they are back from holiday". Okay, so we'll move on now to look at "back" used as a verb.

Okay, so now let's have a look at "back" used as a verb. Right? So, for example: "The car was backing into the street." So the car was going backwards into the street, it was backing. So "to back" is what a car can do. Okay? Another way of backing somebody or something, if you say: "Don't worry - if you want to raise this issue with the boss I will back you." Meaning: I will support you. If there's a problem in the office, and your friend is a little bit unsure about whether to talk to the boss about it, they need a bit of support, you say: "I will back you." Meaning: "I will agree with you and say the same thing to the boss that you are saying." Okay? "I will back you", support you. And a similar idea of supporting: "The company will back the project." That usually means money, putting money into a project to make something happen, so "to back something" can be financial. Okay.

Ready for a fun English lesson? Today I'll teach you English with a funny poem called "The Owl and the Pussycat"! I've chosen an easy poem and will read it with you one line at a time, so you can understand everything. You'll learn vocabulary and gain knowledge about British culture with this classic poem, written by Edward Lear in 1871. Reading poetry and immersing yourself in English culture is a great way to learn the language. So is taking the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/learn-english-with-a-poem/ , and subscribing to my YouTube channel!

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're going to do something a little bit different. We're going to look at an English poem. And I know you're probably thinking: "Poetry, that's too difficult. English prose is hard enough, but poetry, ah no." But I'm hoping to make you realize that it is possible to read an English poem and to understand it.

I've chosen quite an easy, straightforward one. It's called "The Owl and the Pussy-cat", which is in the first line, here. And it was written by a poet called Edward Lear. Edward Lear in 1871. Okay. And Edward Lear was well-known for his humorous writing, so a lot of his writing is funny, it makes you smile, it makes you laugh. So, hopefully this poem will do that for you. And so, it tells a story. It's in three sections. This is the first of three sections, and I'm just going to go through it with you and I will explain any words that I think maybe need explaining, and I hope you enjoy it. Okay? So, I'll read it.

"The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea". Okay? Now, the Owl, do you know what an "owl" is? You probably know what a bird is. A bird that flies? Well, an owl is the kind of bird that is awake at night. It has big, round eyes. If you look it up on Google images, you'll see lots of pictures of owls. Okay? So we have a bird, here, an owl. And a pussy-cat. I'm sure you know what a cat is. We use the word "pussy-cat", it's a sort of a comic name or a... An affectionate name for a cat. People say: "Oh, puss, puss, puss. Here, pussy, pussy, pussy." So, it's a name for a cat. And children also say: "Oh, pussy-cat, pussy-cat". So, "pussy" is a cat, but here, it's being called "Pussy-cat" with a hyphen.

So: "The Owl and the Pussy-cat", so we have a bird and a cat. Okay? Which usually, birds and cats don't usually make friends. Usually, the cat is going to attack the bird and kill it, probably. But in this poem, because it's Edward Lear and because he's being funny, he's put a bird and a cat together, and they're not just friends, but they're going on a journey together. They're on a trip together, so we'll see what happens, shall we?

So: "The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea", on the sea. So even more dangerous. "Went to sea In a beautiful pea green boat". So, they're in a boat. You know the word "boat" on the sea. "Boat". It's "pea green". It's not just a green boat, it's the colour of a green pea, the vegetable that you eat. Little green peas. So it's pea green. We have all sorts of shades of green. Olive green, sage green, light green, dark green, pea green. So the boat is the colour of a green pea. No particular reason. It just... It just sort of fits for the rhythm, because rhythm is important. "In a beautiful pea green boat", something had to go in there.

Okay, so what did they take with them? "They took some honey". You know honey? The sweet stuff that the bees go to flowers and then they make honey? Honey, it's like jam, only it's honey in a pot. Very sweet, you put it on the bread and eat it, or you put it in the pudding or something. "They took some honey, and plenty of money", well that was sensible. They're not very sensible, I don't think, going on to the sea in a boat, but at least they've been sensible enough to take some money with them.

Okay, "plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note." Okay. Well, here, this is a modern five pound note. It has the Queen on it. Okay? And some of the pictures on the back. Five pound note. But that's quite small compared with in 1871, a five pound note I think was a lot bigger than this, and it was a big white sheet of paper. So much easier to wrap other things in. You wouldn't be able to wrap much in this little thing. You can't buy much with this either these days.

Anyway, ah: "They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up". Wrapped. So if you wrap something up, you put it inside, and you fold the pieces over and that's wrapped up. Okay? "Wrapped up in a five pound note." I just hope that the honey and the money didn't get all, eww, that would be horrible. I hope they managed to keep it separate. Anyway: "Wrapped up in a five pound note." Right.

"The Owl looked up to the stars above", so it's nighttime and the stars are in the sky, little stars in the sky. Looking up at the sky is very romantic at night. "The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang", a singing owl. You see? I told you it was funny.

Psst! What? Oh! Really? This lesson is all about interjections – which is a big word for the little sounds people make to express different feelings. These sounds can have a lot of meaning. It is important to know how to use them correctly because they can be polite or very impolite. Interjections can express interest and enthusiasm, or disinterest and boredom. Learn how to use these very common English expressions to communicate in ways textbooks will not teach you!
After the lesson, take the quiz here: http://www.engvid.com/interjections-what-are-they/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. This is Gill, here, at www.engvid.com, and today the lesson is about "Interjections". That's a very long word. What it really means is something quite short: Little expressions that we make to express a particular feeling. Okay? And just to say thank you, someone on our website at engVid, somebody... One of you suggested this topic, so thank you for the suggestion. And here is the lesson. So, I hope you're watching, whoever it was. Right. So interjections: A short word expressing a feeling. So, we'll just go through different groups of these.

So, first one to start with is just: "Ha!" Usually, if you're surprised or something has amused you, if you think something is funny, you just say: "Ha!" Or you can say it with a different tone of voice to sound a little bit sarcastic. So, if someone has said: "Oh, I had a really good job interview the other day. I think I'm going to get that job." And you say: "Ha!" You know, so different body language, different tone of voice, it can mean something slightly different. It's as if you're saying to that person: "Oh, you think you're going to get that job, do you? You're very confident. Mm." But you can just use it in one little expression. "Ha!" and a sort of nod, and a certain look on your face. So, body language goes with it, and tone of voice.

If you put an "a" in front of this "ha": "Aha!", "Aha!" So, if you say: "Aha!" that is like saying: "Oh, you've said something really important, there." And: "Aha!" Well, that is very true. Something like that. "Aha!"

Similarly: "Oho!", "Oho!" also. Or if somebody says something that tells you something more about them maybe that they didn't really want you to know, like, oh okay, if your friend says: "Oh, I... I didn't get up on Sunday until 1 o'clock in the afternoon." And you say: "Oho!" as if you're sort of imagining why that friend stayed in bed so long. You can use your own imagination, there, but it's a sort of suggestive kind of expression. "Oho! Mm."

This one is rather different. It doesn't really belong with those three, but it's on the same line. If you say: "Wow!" There's a thing called "the wow factor", which is used often with property. If you're looking at somebody's house or somebody's flat or apartment, and you walk in for the first time, and it's so nice and so impressive, you just look around and you say: "Wow!" And I once walked into a friend's flat, and they had a glass floor and you went into their main door, and you looked down and they had a basement area, a lower floor, and you walked in their front door, you looked down at the floor and it's made of glass that you can see through. And I just looked down, and to see their basement, and I said: "Oh, wow! Well, that's amazing." So: "Wow!" is for surprise or when you're feeling really impressed by something. And the wow factor is what estate agents talk about when they are trying to sell a property, they say: "This property really has the wow factor." So it's that kind of word. I think maybe this word appears in other languages in a similar meaning.

But just to say that these expressions in English are not necessarily the same in other languages. So, in your language, you may have different sounds, different vowel sounds, probably, for different things.

If you're interested in British culture, you need to know British measurements. It's useful to know about the different measurement systems, and interesting to learn how they came to be used. In the UK, we use a combination of imperial and metric measurements. In this lesson I will explain the British measurements we use for height, weight, distance, and temperature. I'll also teach you some vocabulary connected with measurement. Watch the video, then take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/british-....measurements-pints-f and see how you measure up!

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson is all about wonderful "British Measurements". Okay? The way that we measure things like height, how high somebody is (in my case, not very high); weight, how much people weigh (and again, in my case, not very much); how food and drink are weighed, like the volume, the quantity; property, like space in houses, the space, the shape of a room, how big a room is; things like temperature, how hot or cold it is in a room; and things like in farming, land, the amount of space that belongs to a farm for agriculture or dairy farming, or whatever.

Okay, so there are all these different things that have to be measured. I'm sure you have your own system in your country. You may use a similar system to us, but in the U.K., we actually now have a mixture of two systems which makes it a little bit complicated. We have an older system called the "imperial system", which is not based on 10. A lot of things from our old systems were not based on units of 10 or 100 or 1,000, a little bit like the old money that we used to have, which we're talking about in another lesson. So, the imperial system, all sorts of strange numbers for different things; for height, weight, etc.

And then, though, when we joined the European community, the European Union, as it's now called, we became part of Europe, and because a lot of European countries, probably all of them, were using the "metric system", we had to take on that system as well. Okay. But it's very difficult to suddenly change from one system to another. So, what we have now is a mixture of both. And for different categories of measurements, we either use imperial or metric, or sometimes both together just to... So that you can choose which one to look at.

Okay, so let's just start by looking at height. So, my height would be measured in feet and inches. Okay? Now, I've got a tape measure, here. It's quite an old tape measure, and it's marked on both sides. And these are inches, so where you can see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, going across, those are inches. Okay? And if I go up to 12... So, here we are, it's not a 10, it's a 12, 12 inches are one foot. So we've got feet and inches. One foot and several feet. So this tape measure, actually, it goes up to 60... It goes up to 60 inches. There's 59, there's 60. So 60 inches. Divide 60 by 12, that gives you 5. So this tape measure is 5 feet. So you can see from that, I'm just over 5 feet. I'm actually 5 feet, 2 inches. Okay? My height. So, that is how people generally, in the U.K., measure their height. So it's not metres.

So, if you're talking to an English friend and you ask them: "How tall are you?" "Tall" is a useful word. "How tall are you?" They will probably reply, if they are English or British, they will probably reply in feet and inches; whereas you, perhaps, might know your own height in metres. Okay? So, that's quite difficult. You can find websites on the internet which do conversions, so it's very easy if you just Google: "convert feet-metres", you can find a little calculator to do the conversions, so it's okay, it just takes a bit of time. Right. So, feet and inches. So there are 12 inches in one foot. So, instead of 10, the unit is 12. 12 inches in one foot, and then if you have 3 feet, 3 feet, which is 36 inches, that's called a yard. That is one yard. And I think it's a little bit less than one metre, just slightly less than one metre. So, 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard. 3 feet in a yard.

And then, anything bigger than a yard, we... When we go up to a mile, which is a lot, lot longer than a yard, how many do we have? We have 1,760 yards in a mile. So, 1,760 yards in a mile. So you can see all these numbers: 12, 3, 1,760, they're... There's no tens or hundreds in there; it's all very, very strange mixtures of numbers. Okay? So that's the way it is. Some people put both. If I put 5 foot 2, I might put in brackets 1.57 metres. Okay? So, it's a random number; it's not a very equal number.

Did you know that some English words change their meaning if you change the syllable stress? For example, there is a huge difference between CON-tent and con-TENT! With 14 examples of this amazing phenomenon, this lesson is a PER-fect way to per-FECT your English!
After watching, you can download and print the resource page which contains 30 more examples for you to practice: http://www.engvid.com/english-....resource/35-words-st
There is also a quiz to test your understanding at: http://www.engvid.com/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. This is Gill at www.engvid.com, and today, we're going to be having a look at a very interesting aspect of the English language: What happens with some words if you stress a different syllable. Okay? This is quite important, because sometimes the change of stress just changes a noun to a verb, or a verb to a noun, but there are some other words which we will also be looking at where the meaning of the word completely changes if you change which syllable you're stressing. Okay. So this is quite important to be clear on which syllable to stress for the particular meaning that you want. Okay.

So, we're going to start with the easier part, which is a two-syllable word, so two syllables: "mm-mm, mm-mm", two syllables where if you stress it on the first syllable where I've put capital letters, it's the noun; and if you stress it on the second syllable, again, capital letters, it becomes the verb. The general meaning is the same with this group of words, but you're changing from noun to verb when you're changing the stress. Okay? So it's important to know whether you're saying a noun or a verb. So remember it's always the first stress syllable is the noun, second syllable stressed is the verb.

Okay, so let's have a look at the example, here. So, a "RE-cord", if you keep a record of something or if you play a record that has music on it in the days when we used to have black plastic records that went round and round on a gramophone or a record player. A "record" is something recorded, or if you write down in a document, you make a note of something, you make a... You keep a record of something that happened, or something that was agreed. Maybe in a meeting somebody keeps a note of the discussion of the meeting, and then they print it out and send it to everyone who was at the meeting as a record of that meeting, what was discussed, what was agreed, and so on. So, the "record", that's the noun: "the record", "a record" is the noun. But if you then change the stress and say: "re-CORD", that becomes the verb. We are going to record a song. So if you're making a CD, now, rather than a black plastic record that goes around, a CD, we are going to record the new song that we've written. Or at the meeting, we will record the agreement. So, that is the verb, the action of recording. If you say: "recording", "recording", it's the "cord" bit that you stress. But a record is the thing itself, the noun. Okay. And you'll also notice the vowel sound changes slightly, because you're changing the stress. So: "record", "eh", the "eh" sound, but "record", "a", it becomes an "a" sound, here. "RE-cord", "re-CORD", so sometimes with the change of stress, the vowel sound changes, too. Okay.

Right, next one: "SUS-pect" and "sus-PECT". Right? So, "suspect", if someone is a suspect, they are usually, maybe the police think that they committed a crime. We have caught the suspect. We are questioning a suspect of someone who maybe stole something from a shop, and then somebody identifies them later, and that is a suspect. So that's the noun, the person, usually, is a suspect. If you suspect someone, if you do the action of suspecting, the police suspect this person of having committed that crime. So, we suspect, if you do the action of suspecting. So: "SUS-pect" is the noun, "sus-PECT" is the verb, the action of having suspicion about somebody. Okay.

"IM-port" and "im-PORT". An import or the import is some product that is imported from one country to another. We have imports. The goods themselves, the products, which arrive by plane, or ship, that's the import. Okay? The thing itself. But the action is we import these goods on a daily basis. We are importing the goods. So the action is import. All right?

Do you know what a metaphor is? I'd like to show you how English speakers commonly use metaphors in everyday conversations. Metaphors make our language more interesting and beautiful. I'll give you many examples of metaphors and show you how they are used. I'll teach you some easy metaphors like "busy bee" and "melting pot", and even show you an extended metaphor written by Shakespeare. If you're learning about metaphors in school, it's also important to understand the difference between metaphors and similes and to know their definitions. Practice these expressions and use them when you're speaking to your friends and classmates. After the lesson, test your understanding of metaphors by taking the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/using-me....taphors-to-speak-eng

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com, and today in this lesson, we're going to look at metaphors, which are a different way of using language, really. But these metaphors are used a lot in everyday life. You could also call them idioms. They're a little bit like idioms. And there are a lot of them.

But I just want to mention that there are metaphors and similes, and they're similar in a way, but different. So, a metaphor says one thing is another thing. So, for example, in my first sentence, here: "Thanks for helping me - you're an angel!" Okay? An angel is supposed to be a good person who helps people, but you're talking here to an ordinary human being and calling them an angel because they've helped you. Okay. So, you're saying: "You are an angel." So, "you" equals "angel". So, in a metaphor, it's saying something is or somebody is something else. The other type of style of speaking is called a simile, and we'll have another lesson on that; a separate lesson. And with a simile, you don't say "A" is "B", you say "A" is like "B". So, with this one, you'd say: "You are like an angel." Or: "You are as good as an angel." But with the metaphor: "You are an angel." So that's the difference between metaphors and similes. So, please look at the other lesson about similes to see some examples of that. Okay?

Right, so concentrating on metaphors. "Thanks for helping me - you're an angel!" if someone helps you. You could say this to somebody if they help you. "Thank you - you're an angel." It's a nice compliment, a nice thing to say to somebody who's helped you.

Second example: "The people in that club are just a bunch of sheep!" Okay? "A bunch", that's just sort of casual, informal word. "A bunch", it means a group. A group. A group of people. You can have a bunch of flowers. That's the normal use for "bunch". Bunch of flowers, several flowers held together. But this is people who are being called sheep. They're not literally sheep. People are not sheep; sheep are animals, people are humans. But this is saying the people in that club are a bunch of sheep. They're behaving like sheep, because what sheep do, they all stick together, they all stay together, and they all follow each other. They all do the same thing. So this happens with people sometimes. They... They don't have their own independent ideas; they just copy what everybody else does. So that's the meaning of this... This one. The people in that club are just a bunch of sheep. Okay.

This one is probably more of a positive thing to say to somebody: "You're such a busy bee!" It maybe sounds a bit patronizing, perhaps. But if someone is really busy, you can say they're a busy bee. And the two b's is a sort of poetic thing, again. But busy bee. The thing about bees is... The bees that buzz around, they... They're always busy. They're collecting pollen from flowers, and going back to the hive, and they're making honey. So they seem to be busy all the time. So, to call a person a busy bee is that they are also running around and doing things, and being very busy and working a lot, and never stopping. Okay.

Here's another one: "London is a melting pot of people and cultures." Okay, so London is a melting pot. It's not literally a pot with food in it. It's a melting pot of people and cultures. The people and cultures aren't being thrown into a pot. London, the city, just contains a lot of people from different cultures and different countries. Okay.

Here's a good one from if you're... If you're working in an office or somewhere and you have some ideas, and you tell them to your boss: "I had some good ideas but my boss shot them down." Okay? So to shoot something is like with a gun, [shooting noises], all these good ideas that you've just produced, and your boss doesn't like them or he doesn't like you maybe. But he shoots down your... All your ideas, and they come falling to the floor. Not literally. Again, it's not literally true. Not literally true. It's just a picture in your mind, like your boss with a gun, shooting down your ideas. So he doesn't like any of your ideas, he just shoots them. Destroys them. So, you had some good ideas, but my boss shot them down. Okay?

Do you know what a 'simile' is? Do you know the difference between a metaphor and a simile? Similes are expressions that compare two different things. We use these expressions to make our spoken and written English sound clearer, nicer, and more poetic at the same time. Native speakers use similes often. Most of the time you will be able to understand the meaning from the context, but it is good to know some common similes so that you can start using them yourself! In today's lesson, I'll teach you the difference between a simile and a metaphor, and go over some examples of similes I hear in everyday life in the UK. Similes are a fun part of the English language, so join me for this lesson and test your understanding of these expressions with the quiz!
http://www.engvid.com/using-si....miles-to-improve-you

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at engVid, and the lesson we're having today is about similes. And just to explain what a simile is: It's when you compare two different things. Okay? Now, there's another lesson that we have about metaphors and at the beginning of that one, we explain the difference between metaphors and similes. So I'm going to do the same again with this lesson.

So, the simile is when you say A is like B-okay?-or A is as big as B or as small as B, so it's comparing using "like" or "as". Whereas the metaphor is when you say A is B. If you say: "He is a pig", it's not literally true, but he behaves like a pig. But: "He is a pig" is a metaphor. If you say: "He is like a pig", that's a simile because you're using the word "like" and comparing him with a pig. Okay.

So, let's just have a look at a few examples. Also, because similes use either "like" or "as", we're going to look at some examples using "like" to begin with, and then we'll move on to look at a few "as" examples. So these are all examples that you would hear in everyday life that people tend to use, so they're quite familiar ones.

Okay, so first one: "She eats like a pig." Which isn't a very nice thing to say about someone, but if she's quite... Makes a mess and a lot of noise, you know what a pig eats like, she eats like a pig. So it's not a very nice thing to say about someone, but it's comparing "she", a woman or a girl, comparing her to the way a pig eats. "She eats like a pig." So that's a simile.

So, a similar example to that is: "He drinks like a fish." This usually means alcohol. Not just water, but it's usually alcohol; beer, wine, whisky, anything. "He drinks like a fish." Again, it's not a nice thing to say about somebody, but it can sometimes be true, so... Of course, fish, I don't know if fish actually drink water, but because they live under water, they're immersed in water; water is all around them. So that's the idea, this man who drinks is surrounded by liquid. It's that sort of idea. "He drinks like a fish."

Okay, next example is using... We've got animals, and fish, and another animal now: "I've been working like a dog." And that means working really hard. Okay. Working like a dog. You may know a Beatle song called "A Hard Day's Night", and that is part of the lyrics of that song. Okay. "I've been working like a dog." Which is actually true at the moment, but I've been quite enjoying it, so that's all right. Okay.

Maybe if you're talking about two children, a brother and a sister, for example, who are always fighting-this often happens, I think-you can say: "They are fighting like cat and dog." Because cats and dogs don't always... They're not always very friendly with each other. So traditionally, cats and dogs perhaps fight. So: "They are fighting like cat and dog." Okay. So all of these, it's "like", comparing. Okay? So two children, human children compared to a cat and a dog because they're fighting. Okay?

Coming back to a little bit like eating, drinking: Smoking is another thing that people do, which isn't a very healthy thing to do. So if you say to someone: "You smoke like a chimney." Cigarettes, cigars, a pipe, maybe, any tobacco. And a chimney is what you get on a house, the smoke comes out of the chimney. There's the roof of the house, the smoke comes out of the chimney if you have a fire in the house. So if you say to your friend: "You smoke like a chimney." it's not a very nice thing to say, but maybe you will persuade them to stop smoking, because it's very bad for your health. Okay. So, that's a very common expression anyway.

And then finally in this section, you can say... If you're waiting for something and you're waiting a really long time, you can say: "It's like watching paint dry." If you've been painting a wall or a door with a paint and a brush, when you've painted something, it takes a few hours for the paint to dry. So if you're waiting for something to happen, and you're waiting, and you'd rather like it to happen quite quickly, but you've been waiting 10 minutes and it's still not happening, you can say: "It's like watching paint dry."

The words 'look', 'see', and 'watch' all seem to mean the same thing, so how do you decide which one to use? Today you'll learn how to use these words correctly! Native English speakers know when to use these words. But it can be difficult for English learners to understand the difference. For example, you can WATCH English lessons on engVid, LOOK for the quiz under each video, and SEE your score once you've completed it. I'll teach you the basic principle of when to use each one of these words and show you many examples, so that you can be sure that you are using them correctly. You'll also sharpen your comprehension skills by practicing looking at the context of sentences -- one of the keys to learning new vocabulary. Think you've mastered it? Take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/basic-en....glish-how-and-when-t to test yourself!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we're going to be looking at the verb... Well, three verbs: "to look", "to see", and "to watch", which all involve using your eyes, but they are used in different ways and different contexts. So, it's quite complicated, really, but we're going to look at some examples, and I'll try to explain why you choose "look" in certain cases, "watch" in other cases, and "see" in other cases. Sometimes there's a choice, but both or all three would work; other times, it has to be one particular one for it to sound right in English. Okay.

So, let's have a look at "look" to begin with. "Look" is quite an active verb, because to look, you have to deliberately decide to use your eyes and move... Move your head around, and look to see, look to "see" what's there. So, we'll do "see" in a minute, but you're looking in a deliberate, active way, because you want to, maybe you want to find something. So, if you're looking for something, if you start to use prepositions with it: "I'm looking for my book", for example. Where is my book? I'm looking for it. I can't see it at the moment. I'm looking for it. Or you can be "looking at" something. If it's there and you're seeing it... A picture on the wall: "Looking at the picture", and it's a deliberate looking at the details, taking in the colours, the shapes, everything in the picture, so it's quite an active process. Okay.

With "watch", it's similar because it's quite an active thing again, you're watching something. But with "watch", it's often used when you're watching things which might be moving, either on a film or on television, a sports match, either you're there at the sports field or you watching sport on television. Or people, if you're sitting outside a café having a coffee and you're watching people going by, or you're watching some animals in the zoo, what they're doing in their cage. It tends to be with things that are moving. So you're watching because there's a constant change happening. You're watching and it's holding your interest because it's developing, either a film, a TV program. You're watching the news, the details keep changing, the picture keeps changing; people moving around, animals. It's a kind of watching something in a process, a process is happening. Okay.

With "see", it's a little bit different. I've already used the word. It's a little bit more passive in some ways, because it's like you're receiving the image through your eyes; you're not deliberately looking for something. If I'm not looking for my book, but I just happen to look over that side of the room, and: "Oh, I see my book." I just happen to see my book; I'm not looking for it, but there it is. I see it. The image comes through my eye, down my optic nerve, into my brain, and my brain tells me: -"That is your book." -"Ah, I've seen my book." Okay? So it's receiving. It's more passive. It's sort of recognizing something when it's there in front of your eyes. Okay.

If a bird flies past the window, you're not looking... You're not deliberately looking out the window, waiting: "Oh, I'm waiting to see a bird." You don't expect it to happen, but then you say: "Oh. Oh, did you see that? Did you see that? The bird flew past the window with very bright feathers. What kind of bird is that?" So: "I saw a bird", so past tense. I saw a bird fly past the window. You weren't looking for it. It happened, and you received that image unexpectedly. Okay.

But as I said, it's a bit complicated because sometimes... Well, let me show you this example to illustrate what can happen. We talked about watching a film, and if you're in the present tense: "We are watching a film now." So the phone rings, a friend is there, and: "Oh. Can...? Sorry. Can I call you back? Because we're watching a film now. I don't want to miss it." So, at the moment we are watching a film. But if you are talking about yesterday: "We saw a film yesterday." Okay? You can say: "We saw a film." You could also say: "We watched a film yesterday", which sort of makes it sound a bit more active.

The word "think" and all its forms are used very often in English. In this lesson, I will explain some of its main uses, including how to use "think" with different verb tenses. I will also teach you several "think" expressions, such as "let me have a think" and "think something up". Watch this video! I think you will find that it helps you to expand your vocabulary.
http://www.engvid.com/how-to-u....se-the-word-think-in

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we have a lesson on the word "think", the use of "think". And it's used mostly as a verb, "I think". I know. I mean, I know it is used mostly as a verb. When we think, we are using our brain to think with, so okay. "I think", I know. Okay, sorry. I'm going to confuse you.

So, as a verb, then very simple use. We use the word all the time. But here was a French philosopher who used the word in a very famous thing that he said, which he wrote down: "I think, therefore I am." So he was saying because he knows he's using his brain to think, that proves to him that he exists, that he is, because he thinks. So proof of existence, using your brain. It's always a good idea to use your brain every day. Keep it active. Okay. Learning a language, anything like that. So, very simple. We use it all the time. "I think". Past tense, because it's an irregular verb: "thought". So: "I thought", "you thought", "he thought", "we thought", "they thought". Same all the time. Okay.

It's also sometimes used as a noun. You can have "a think" and you can have "a thought", except in America or Canada, you can't have "a think" apparently. I have been told on good authority that people in America and Canada do not say: "Let me have a think." They might say: "Let me think", but maybe only in Britain, in the U.K. I don't know. I can't speak for people in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, all the other places where English is spoken. But anyway: "Let me have a think" is fine if you're in the U.K. But people in America and Canada will think you're a bit strange if you say that. So: "Let me have a think." But you can say: "I've just had a thought!" And in America and Canada, you can say that. So, there you go, the inconsistencies of language in different countries. Very interesting. So, "a think", "a thought", that is a noun. Okay.

So, let's move on, because it's mostly used as a verb, so we have some phrasal verbs where the word "think" is combined with a preposition. So: "What do you think of my idea?" That's: What is your opinion? "What do you think of my idea?" Okay? Or if you see your friend looking very thoughtful, you can ask: "What are you thinking about?" Okay? That's the subject in your mind: "What are you thinking about?"

And then if you have a problem and you need to really think about it very deeply in detail: "I need to think this through." And here, sometimes with a phrasal verb, the phrasal verb "to think through something", to think about it in detail, is split and there's another word in between. "This" meaning the problem that you have to think through. So: "I need to think this through." Okay.

Then if somebody has some idea to do something, but you're being a little bit negative about it, a little bit sarcastic because whenever that person has an idea, it can be a bit... Mm. A bit strange. Things don't really work out, so: "What has he thought up now?" This person who's always having strange ideas, some new project which never really works. "Ah, no. What has he thought up now?" So "to think up something" is to create something, to invent something. And it could be a good idea, but if you say it like this: "What has he thought up now?" it can be fairly negative. Okay.

Right, so moving on, we have another set of examples, here. So, you've been thinking of moving house and it seemed like a good idea at the time, but then for various reasons, you start to think: "Mm, is it the right time?" So you might say to your partner: "I know we agreed to move house, but we need to think again." So, "to think again" is to reconsider. Think again. It may be the wrong decision, let's think again and maybe come up with a different result. Maybe we'll stay where we are for another year or two until the circumstances are better. "To think again". All right.

If you read a plan for something and you think that's really good, very good: "That plan has been really well thought out." If you think something out, you consider all the details, all the possibilities, everything that could happen. If things go wrong, what to do if things go wrong. If you think something out, it means you're planning really well for every possibility. Okay?

Did you know that the English word "human" has a Latin origin? And did you know that the word "people" actually comes from French? Today, hundreds of millions of people speak English either as their first or second language. But hundreds of years ago, the English language that we know today did not exist. It has been evolving through the centuries and continues to do so now. In this lesson, I will teach you the history of invasions, migrations, and other influences that have helped to shape English as we know it. You will also discover English words that have origins in Latin, French, and other languages. Don't miss this fascinating lesson!
http://www.engvid.com/discover....-the-history-of-engl

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from engVid, and today... As you know, I usually teach an aspect of the English language, but today, we're going to be looking at the English language from a different perspective, a different angle, and looking at the history of the language and how it has developed, because the English language hasn't always been the way it is today. It's developed over hundreds and hundreds of years.

Now, today, hundreds of millions of people speak English all over the world, whether it's their first language or their second language, or just one of the foreign languages that they speak and learn at school, and so on. So, hundreds of millions of people speak English and learn English. But hundreds of years ago, the English language that we know today didn't really exist. It sort of got put together gradually by different historical events. So we're going to go back in history now, and have a look at a timeline.

I don't know if you've seen a timeline before, but it is literally the time, the years going from left to right, like you get on a graph if you've done graphs, and the time goes across along the line. So the different developments that happened can be shown on that line. So we're starting here in 55 BC, hundreds of years ago, and we're coming up to... Well, beyond. We have 1066, here, but because I ran out of space on the board, the time went on for such a long time, I couldn't get all the centuries in, but I will still tell you about them. Okay. But these are the very interesting parts, which are on the board.

So, 55 BC, the Roman invasion of Britain, of the U.K., where we are at the moment. So, you've heard of the Roman Empire with Julius Caesar and all the other Caesars, the Roman Empire that spread in different directions, and Britain is one of the directions they spread in. They came here, and stayed for a while, and built some nice buildings, and they built a wall that goes across between Scotland and England, called Hadrian's Wall, because the Emperor at the time was called Hadrian. So, anyway, when they came and stayed for some time, they brought their language with them, the Latin language. Okay? And the Latin language, it's called a dead language today, but it has influenced so many other languages, especially in Southern Europe, so languages like Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, they all come from Latin. So, in this country, in the English language, we have had the Latin influence at different times. So, the Romans brought their Latin language with them. Okay? So that influenced the way people were speaking to each other as time went on. And the natives of this country started learning Latin words, and it became integrated into the language.

Okay, so let's have a look at some of the words that we use today that were influenced or that came from Latin words. Right? And we have this pie chart, here, which you may know if you've been studying things for IELTS and the writing task. A pie chart... So, the whole circle represents 100%. So if you're thinking of all the words in the English language at the moment, Latin, the Latin words that came from... Partly from the Roman invasion, we have 29% of the words in the English language have come from a Latin origin, from a source, Latin source. Okay. So here are just a few of very words that we use every day, really. Words like: "human", "animal", "dental" to do with the teeth, "decimal" which is to do with the fingers because we have 10 fingers, "decimal", and "digital", also fingers, "factory" where things are made, manufacture, "library" where you read books, "libre" meaning book, "library", the building where the books are kept, "manual" to do with if you do things with your hand it comes from the Latin word for "hand", "manual". "Lunar" to do with the moon, because the Latin word for the moon was "luna", "luna". And "solar" to do with the sun, again, because the Latin word was like that, "solar". "Military", anything to do with soldiers because the Latin Roman Empire soldiers were... That was the word that was used for "soldiers". "Melees" I think. And we also get our "mile", the distance, the mile from that, because that was the distance that they would march, I think, before they had a rest or something like that.

Did you know that there are over 30 different English accents in England alone? And that's not all. Would you believe there are over a hundred different English dialects accross the world? In this lesson, I will tell you about some common British accents you might hear. You'll hear examples of Cockney, RP, Estuary, Northern, Scottish, Welsh, and many more accents. Don't miss this opportunity to add some spice to your English pronunciation and comprehension! Take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/learn-br....itish-accents-and-di

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson is about accents in the U.K. So, U.K. accents and also dialects. Okay, so what's the difference between an accent and a dialect? Right. Well, an accent, as you know, is to do with pronunciation, how you pronounce the word. Dialect is when you have a word that only people in a certain area of the country use; it's not a national word, it's a local word that maybe people from other parts of the country, they won't even know what it means, so that's dialect. Okay. So, let's just have a look through some of the accents that we have in the U.K.

The one that you're probably learning as you're learning to pronounce English words is RP. "RP" stands for "Received Pronunciation". It's a slightly strange term. "Received" where do you receive it from? Well, maybe you receive it from your teacher. This is how to say this word. It's a slightly strange expression, but RP, it's usually referred to by the initials. And it's the kind of accent you will hear if you're watching BBC Television programs or listening to BBC Radio. Not everybody on the BBC speaks with an RP accent. The news readers tend to be RP speakers, but not always. But the strange thing is that in this country, only a very small percentage of people do speak with this accent. Apparently, just 3%, but they tend to be people in positions of power, authority, responsibility. They probably earn a lot of money. They live in big houses. You know the idea. So, people like the Prime Minster, at the moment David Cameron, he went to a private school, he went to university, Oxford, so people who have been to Oxford and Cambridge Universities often speak in RP, even if they didn't speak in RP before they went to Oxford or Cambridge, they often change their accent while they are there because of the big influence of their surroundings and the people that they're meeting. So that's RP. It's a very clear accent. So, it's probably a good idea to either learn to speak English with an RP accent, or you may be learning with an American accent, a Canadian accent, all of those accents are very clear. Okay. And being clear is the most important thing.

Okay, so moving on. RP, as I should have said, is mostly in the south of the country; London and the south. So, also "Cockney" and "Estuary English" are in the south. Okay. So, Cockney is the local London accent, and it tends to spread further out to places like Kent, Essex, other places like that. Surrey. There's a newer version of Cockney called "Estuary English". If you think an estuary is connected to a river, so the River Thames which flows across the country, goes quite a long way west. So anyone living along the estuary, near the river can possibly have this accent as well.

So, just to give you some examples, then, of the Cockney accent, there are different features. So, one example is the "th" sound, as you know to make a "th" sound, some of you may find it difficult anyway, "the", when you put your tongue through your teeth, "the", but a Cockney person may not use the "the", they will use an "f" sound or a "v" sound instead, so the word "think", "I think", they would say would say instead of: "think", they would say it like that: "fink", "fink", and the top teeth are on the bottom lip, "think". And words like "with" that end with the "th", instead of "with", it will be "wiv", "wiv", "wiv". "Are you coming wiv me?" So that is one of the things that happens with the Cockney accent.

Words like "together" would be "togever". Okay? The number "three", t-h-r-e-e is often pronounced "free": "We have free people coming to dinner. Free people." So, there can be confusion there, because we have the word "free", which has a meaning in itself, "free", but if you actually mean "three", the number three, there can be some confusion. So don't get confused by "free people". -"Oh, they're free? They're free to come?" -"No, there are three of them. Three people who are free to come." Ah, okay.

An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not predictable from the meaning of the words it contains. For example, "It's a biting wind today" does not mean that the wind is going around chewing on people! In this lesson, I will introduce you to eight common idioms that use the word "bite". There are just eight examples in this lesson, as I didn't want you to bite off more than you could chew! So go ahead, bite the bullet: watch the video, and take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/8-expres....sions-using-bite-in-

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. This is Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson is giving you eight different expressions, using the word "bite". Okay?

So, first of all, to give you the literal meaning of "bite", in case you don't know the word: If you bite something, you do that. Okay? You either bite... Maybe bite into an apple, or hopefully you don't bite your fingernails, which is a very bad habit. But it's always to do with "mm, mm, mm", doing that. Okay, so that's the literal meaning of "bite", but the examples here are expressions, which means metaphorical meanings, metaphors, idioms, so they're particular ways of using the word "bite", which sometimes create a picture in your mind, which expresses the idea in quite an interesting way.

Okay, so let's have a look at the first one. So, if someone says: "Oh, that woman, she bit my head off!" Obviously, it's not literal. It's not the literal meaning. She can't have literally bitten your head off; it would be impossible, because her mouth wouldn't be big enough, to start with, to go like that. But it means if you say something to somebody, and they just reply in a very bad, aggressive way, unpleasant, like: "What do you mean?" or "Oh, don't bother me now, I'm busy", things like that, that's called "biting somebody's head off". Okay? You go to them in a friendly way, and you get this unpleasant response, so that's "biting somebody's head off". Or, if you say: "Oh, oh I do like that picture up there", and someone else says: "Ugh, it's dreadful! How can you possibly like that? Stupid of you to like that picture", that's really, you know, biting somebody's head off when you've just expressed a... You know, a nice, pleasant opinion about a picture. So: "biting somebody's head off". Right, okay. Enough of that.

Oh, and then the next one almost follows, because: "She bit my head off!", "I had to bite my tongue." Which means... Mm. It's not literally "mm, mm, mm", biting your tongue, but if you bite your tongue, you're holding your tongue with your teeth, it means you can't speak. So, when this woman bites your head off, rather than you reply and say: "Don't be so horrible", and then some argument begins - instead, to avoid it getting worse into an argument, or a fight or anything like that, you bite your tongue. "I had to bite my tongue." Just keep quiet, don't say anything, because it will only make the situation worse. Okay. So: "She bit my head off!", "I had to bite my tongue." Okay, so they almost belong together, there. Okay.

Next one: "We'll have to bite the bullet." Okay. Now, this is quite a tricky one, but "to bite the bullet", a "bullet" is what you have in a gun that fires. So, that sort of shape. A metal bullet with maybe gunpowder inside, something that explodes or hits, hopefully not another person. Okay. But "to bite the bullet", it means sort of catching the bullet in your mouth before it goes through the back of your head. It's horrible to think of, but there's a... There's a circus trick, I think, where in the circus somebody stands and they have a gun firing at them, and they catch the bullet in their mouth. I don't know how that works. I don't know if it's real, or whether it's just imaginary. I don't know how somebody can catch a bullet in their mouth, because it must be going very fast. But anyway, "to bite the bullet", it sort of suggests that circus trick, but what it really means is we've really got to tackle a problem. There's a problem, we have to deal with it, tackle it. So, we've got to bite the bullet. We've got to sort this problem out. Maybe in your home, there's some repair... The roof. The roof needs to be repaired, the rain is coming through, and you don't know how to deal with it, but you just say: "Look, we've got to do this. We can't just have rain coming through every day. We'll have to bite the bullet, go and find some company who will come, and we'll have to pay them thousands of pounds for them to fix it, but we've got to do it." So that's "biting the bullet". It's, you know, something you don't really want to have to do, but you've got to do it. Okay.

Next one: If you've "bitten off more than you can chew"... And "to chew" is what you do when you're eating food. The food is in your mouth, and you're doing... You're chewing it with your teeth. Right? If you bite off more than you can chew...

Learn how to use AT, IN THE, AGO, and more words to talk about time! Do you know how to express the time and day of an event? For example, if you say, "at breakfast" or "in the morning", does that refer to the past, present, or future? In this essential lesson, I will explain how to express different times of day using words like "at", "in the", and "ago".  You will also learn other useful ways of talking about days and times in the past, present, and future using words like "yesterday", "tomorrow", "tonight", "last night", and more. At the end of the lesson, make sure to complete the quiz to test your understanding: http://www.engvid.com/learn-en....glish-using-at-in-th

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson, we're looking at how to talk about days and times. And we're going to start by looking at prepositions, because sometimes it's a little bit confusing which preposition to use for particular references to the day or the time. Okay?

So, there are two main prepositions. There's "at" and there's "in", and "in the" usually or always, probably. So, with "at", we can have the... A specific time on the clock: "At 2pm" or "At 2:00", "At 2:30", "At midnight", all the times on the clock or on your watch is "at". And then when you're referring to mealtimes: "At breakfast time", "At lunchtime", "At teatime". We like teatime, here in the UK. It's very traditional. Around 4:00, nice cup of tea. Lovely. "At teatime", "At dinnertime", and "At night". Okay? So, "At night". But when it comes to other words that are linked with morning, afternoon, evening, night - we use a different preposition. So, it's just "night" that has "at" with it there, and then the mealtime, and the specific times on your watch.

Okay, so let's have a look at the "in" preposition, and see what goes with "in". So, you can say: "In the morning", "In the afternoon", "In the daytime", meaning anytime during the day. "In the daytime", "In the middle of the day", so that's roughly maybe midday, 12:00 or 1:00, 2:00, that sort of time. "In the middle of the day". "In the evening". You can also say: "In the night", which has the sort of meaning: "During the night". We've got: "At night" there, but you can say: "In the night" meaning: "Oh, I woke up in the night because I'd had a bad dream." So: "I woke up during the night because I had a bad dream." So you can use it with "night" with both prepositions. Okay? And then: "In the middle of the night". You can also say: "I woke up in the middle of the night." Okay, so I hope that helps to make clear which preposition to use. And now we're going to move on and look at some past, present, and future words. Okay.

Okay, so moving on to look at some words about the past, the present, and the future. Okay? Past, present, future. We have, for example: "yesterday". Yesterday was Tuesday. "Today". Today is Wednesday. "Tomorrow", tomorrow is Thursday. Okay? Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Then, when you're talking about different parts of today-okay?-we use "this", so you say: "This morning". That is whether it is morning at the moment: "This morning we are going to do something" or you can say: "This morning we had our breakfast at 9:00." So, "this morning" you can use in the present or the past. "This morning", "this afternoon". And again, oh, you could say: "This afternoon we will", so that's like future, or: "This afternoon we are doing something", in the present. So you can use these past, present, future, but it's all with: "This morning", "This afternoon", "This evening", but it then changes. We don't say: "This night", we say: "Tonight", all one word, "Tonight". Okay? So that's just one little exception: "Tonight". Okay.

And then looking at something similar for yesterday, we can say: "Yesterday morning", "Yesterday afternoon we went to see a film", "Yesterday evening we went to see some friends", but again, we don't say: "Yesterday night", we say: "Last night". Okay, so another little exception. "Tonight", "Last night" are different. Okay. Right.

And then moving on to look at the future: "Tomorrow morning", "Tomorrow afternoon", "Tomorrow evening". There is a good program on television tomorrow evening. And this time it's the same: "Tomorrow night". So, it doesn't change. "Tonight", "Last night", "Tomorrow night".

And then moving on to look either further back in the past, or other times in the present, or further into the future. With the day of the week, you can say: "Last Monday", which was Monday of last week; you could say: "This Monday", Monday of this week; or "Next Monday" in the future, "Monday of next week". Okay? And similarly, you can use these in combination. "Last week", "This week", "Next week", "Last month", "This month", "Next month", "Last year", "This year", and "Next year". So they're all very straightforward. Okay?

Do you pronounce "bow" with an ending sound similar to "cow" or "low"? Both are correct, but each has a different meaning! In this lesson, you'll learn the pronunciations of "bow" and sets of words that end with "-atch", and "-ough". To speak correctly in English, you have to learn and memorize common vocabulary. I'm going to teach you to pronounce some common words that English students often make mistakes with. I'll give you definitions so that you can expand your vocabulary and learn to speak correctly at the same time. Some of these words are homophones -- words that are spelled differently but sound the same. You'll also see homonyms -- words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently. Know them all? Take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/fix-thes....e-3-common-pronuncia to see if you have learned the meaning, spelling, and pronunciation of these words!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're having a lesson on confusing pronunciations and spellings. Okay? I've got three main examples for you of confusion, because sometimes they... They're spelt in the same way, but they are pronounced differently. Okay. So, let's start.

So, the first one is this word "bow", which can be pronounced in two different ways. Okay? If it's this, it's a bow. Either a bowtie or a bow, a ribbon with a bow in your hair. Or if you tie your shoelaces in a bow. Okay? So that's a bow. So, for example, you can say: "She has a bow in her hair." And it's this... This sort of shape. Maybe a ribbon tied into a bow. Or: "He is wearing a bowtie." So, instead of a long tie, a bowtie like that. Okay? So that's "bow". So that's pronounced like "oh", "bow". Okay? But then there's another kind of word spelt the same but pronounced differently: "bow". Okay? So, it's like this here, if you do this. Usually men bow. Women curtsy. If this is when you meet the Queen, men bow, women curtsy. So, men do this, bending. "Men often bow when they meet the Queen." So, this one is like "ow", if that helps. "Ow". So: "bow", "bow", and they're spelt exactly the same. So, you can only tell... If you're reading it, you can only tell from the context which one it is. If someone is speaking, you can tell from the pronunciation. Okay. Bow, bow.

Right, so moving on to the second example, completely different, but there's one little confusion with this one. Words that end "atch". Okay? So, usually it's just one letter in front of "atch". So, we'll have words like: "batch", "catch", "hatch", "latch", "match", "patch". You may not know the meaning of those; I'll tell you in a second. But they all have this short "ah" sound, like with "apple". Okay? When you say: "Apple", "ah" like that. "Batch", "catch", "hatch", "latch", "match", "patch". But this with the time on it is a "watch". So it's not a watch; it's a watch, so it's short "o" sound, "aw", as in "orange". So it's apples and oranges, really. So, "ah" and "aw", so a watch. I realized this when a student of mine who is in Russia said: "Catch", and I thought: "Catch and..." When she typed it, wrote it via Skype, I saw it was "catch", so I realized then: Ah, she was thinking of "watch", and saying "catch". But it's wrong. It's "catch". So "watch" is the only one I can think of that has the short "o" sound. Okay, so we know what a "watch" is.

A "batch", if you don't know what a batch is, it's like a set of things, like bread... Bread rolls in a batch, a batch of six or a batch of 12 rolls of bread. A batch that go into the oven to be baked all together. That's a batch. "To catch", if someone throws a ball to you, you try to catch it. Oh. "Hatch", if there's an egg and the bird is sitting on the egg, keeping it nice and warm, and then one day the shell starts to break and a little beak comes out, and the little bird... Little baby bird is hatching. That's "to hatch", when the egg breaks and the little baby bird comes out. That's "to hatch". A "latch" is on a door to close the door. And sometimes it's just something that goes over, and it closes the door. That's the latch. Okay?

A "match" is something you... If you're... Oh, hope you don't smoke cigarettes, but to light a cigarette, people often use a match, a little wooden... It's got a red or brown tip on it, and a piece of wood, and you go like that with it, and you get a flame, and you light the cigarette. Or you may be lighting a fire, you strike a match and you light the fire with it. Okay? "Match". "Match" can also mean putting two things together that are the same, or colours that match. The purple and blue, maybe, you think: "Oh, yes, purple and blue, they go together well. They match." So, two totally different meanings of "match".

How many words do you know that mean 'happy'? What about 'sad'? In today's lesson you'll learn LOTS of different ways to describe how you're feeling. When you're learning a language, it's important to have a broad vocabulary. Whether you're writing an essay or you're speaking with your boss, using more interesting and expressive vocabulary will make your sentences clearer, and you'll sound more intelligent, too. Try using the adjectives in this lesson instead of ordinary ones at work, school, or in the writing and speaking sections of exams like the IELTS, TOEFL, or CAE. You'll also learn some common expressions and idioms that native speakers use to talk about their mood, like "over the moon", "happy bunny", and "down in the dumps".
Test your knowledge with the quiz: http://www.engvid.com/improve-....your-vocabulary-23-w

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com, and today, in this lesson we're going to be looking at some vocabulary for moods, emotions, and feelings, which are all the same thing, really. So, there you are, you've learnt three words that all mean the same thing; "mood", "emotion", "feeling". They're all pretty much the same meaning. Okay? And we're looking at positive words for good... Good emotions, and some negative words for not so happy emotions. Okay.

Right, so let's have a look. Most people are going to use "happy" and "sad", those are probably the first words you learn when you want to describe emotions, but sometimes I hear people talking and having a conversation, and they just keep using the same "happy", "sad", and there's no variation. I mean, it's okay, but to have a broader vocabulary is good, especially if you're going to be using it in the IELTS, for example, in the speaking test, or in some essay writing, or any... Any exams you're doing, whether they're written or spoken. It's good to have a wider range of vocabulary. So, I've got some for you, here. So, look no further. Right.

So, "happy" and "glad". You may have heard "glad". "Oh, I'm so glad." If your friend tells you that they've just got a new job and they're really enjoying it, you can say: "Oh, I'm so glad to hear that." Or "pleased" is very similar. "I'm really pleased for you.", "Very pleased", "Very glad". Okay? So those are all, "happy", "glad", "pleased", they're all pretty much the same sort of meaning, sort of generally; positive and happy.

Then we come to some words that are a little bit more intense; they're stronger. Stronger words. "Delighted". If your friend has this new job, and you say: "Oh, I'm delighted." That's three syllables for one thing, so that makes it "delighted", that makes it more stronger. But also, it's a nice word to know. Also, if you get an invitation to a party, and you say: "Oh, I'd be delighted to come. Thank you." Or an invitation anywhere. "Oh, delighted." Unless, of course, you want to play it cool and not be too, you know. Okay, so you can use "delighted" in writing and in speaking. Okay.

The same with this word: "thrilled". There's the word "thrill", which is the noun. "What a thrill", and you can practice your: "th", "thra", "thra". It's difficult to say, because it's not just the "th", which is hard for some people, but there's an "r" as well, so it's: "thrilled", it's quite hard to say if you're not used to that kind of pronunciation. "Thrill" and "thrilled". "I'd be thrilled"-okay?-"to go to the party".

And, here's another, this is a very sophisticated word: "elated". It's not the sort of word, perhaps, that you would use in a sort of informal, casual conversation. "Elated" is quite a high, high status kind of word, but it's a good one in certain contexts. Okay. And "elation", the noun, "elation", but it's not used in sort of everyday life. Okay, "ecstatic" is a little bit like "elated". You've probably heard of the noun "ecstasy", okay? Which, unfortunately, is also now linked with a drug, which is probably unfortunate, but there we are. But that's the drug "ecstasy" produces a result of feeling ecstasy. So, ecstatic, but please don't try it; not a good idea. So, "ecstatic", it's a very extreme, extreme kind of word again. Extreme. Okay?

"Delirious" is another. Sometimes this is used in a medical sense by doctors. If someone is delirious, they may have a high temperature. If the doctor takes their temperature and it's way up, and maybe they've got a cold or a fever - delirious. You can be deliriously happy. That doesn't mean you have a temperature and a cold; it just means you're really, really, really happy. But, you can also be delirious with a fever, so it's that sort of extreme sense with that word. Okay?

"In a good mood" is: "Oh, we're back down to earth again. It was getting a little bit too exciting." We're back down to earth. If you say you're in a good mood, that's sort of normal. It's like saying: "happy", "glad", "pleased", "in a good mood".

"Listen" or "hear"? Do you know which word to use? These verbs may seem the same, but we use them differently in English. In this easy lesson, you'll learn how to use these words correctly. I'll also teach you some of the most common expressions we use with "listen" and "hear" so that you get real-life examples of these words in English. After you watch, take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/confusin....g-words-in-english-l to make sure you know the difference between "listening" and "hearing".

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we have a lesson on two verbs: "listen" and "hear", and we're going to look at the ways that you use them, because they're a bit similar; they're both to do with your hearing and listening. You... When you're using your ears. So, it's a little confusing sometimes for people to know when to use "listen" and when to use "hear", so I've got a few examples, here, to try to show what context they can be used in. Okay.

So, let's have a look first at "listen", which is quite an active thing. You're really concentrating when you're listening, listening to a piece of music, really thinking about it as you're listening, so it's quite active. So, "listening to something", you're using the preposition with it. Listening to the radio, listening to a CD, listening to. Somebody might say to a friend: "Oh, you never listen to me. I'm telling you something, but you're not listening. You're thinking about something else. You never listen to me." So, "to" again, there. "You don't concentrate on what I'm saying." Okay? And there's another way you can use "listen", you can "listen out" for something. That's a different preposition. If you're in an office and your colleague needs to go out, they're expecting a phone call, they might say to you: "Will you listen out for the phone? And answer the phone for me while I'm not here? Take a message", maybe. "Will you listen out for the phone?" So it's quite an active listening, focusing, concentrating on the sound. Okay.

Compared with that, "to hear" is a little bit more passive. You sort of receive the soundwaves into your ears, whether you decide to or not. So, someone might say: "Did you hear that strange noise just then?" You weren't listening for a noise, but you heard a noise. It sort of came in through your ear into your brain, and your brain recognized: "Oh, what was that noise?" So: "Did you hear that strange noise?" Okay? And another one, if you don't hear what someone says: "Could you speak up, please?" Meaning: Speak more loudly. "I can't hear you." So, you wouldn't say: "I can't listen you", that... That's not right. "I can't hear you." The sound isn't getting to my ear. Okay. If a friend wants to tell you about something, and you don't really... You're not interested, really: "I don't want to hear about that." I don't want to receive that information. Okay? And then finally, last example: "Have you heard", so this is the past tense. "Have you heard from your sister recently?" So, "to hear from" someone, another preposition is to receive maybe a phone call. You're not expecting it, maybe, the phone rings, you answer it. Ah, it's your sister. You've heard from your sister. Okay.

So, I hope that helps to explain the difference between "listen" and "hear". "Listen", more active; "hear" more just receiving passively. Okay. So, if you'd like to test your understanding of this, please go to the website: www.engvid.com, and do the quiz. And if you found this lesson helpful, please subscribe to my channel on YouTube. And hope to see you again soon. Okay? Bye.

Are you planning to visit the UK, or to live here? If so, you will need to know about British money. Maybe you watch shows like Downton Abbey or Sherlock and want to understand what they're saying when they talk about money. In this lesson, I'll show you modern British currency. I'll also show you our older money that was used before 1971, explain a little bit about the history of currency in the UK, and give you some related vocabulary. You'll learn words like pound, shilling, guinea, and florin. You'll also learn some slang for coins and notes, so you can understand and communicate naturally with locals. Test your understanding by taking the quiz: http://www.engvid.com/learn-ab....out-british-money-ne

If you liked this video, watch my video on about British measurements next:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqR_EI2Dm4

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson we're looking at British money, the UK currency. Okay? And we're going to be looking at the present day currency, the notes and coins; and then in the second part of the lesson, we'll be looking at the older currency, which we had sometime in the past which is a bit different. Okay.

So, just looking briefly at the present day. I'll be showing you in a minute some actual notes and coins. So, these are the main numbers of notes and coins, the pounds, and the pennies. Okay? And just to explain: The "penny" is the singular, and there are two plural versions: "pennies" and "pence". So, you can talk about 20 pence, 50 pence, or 50 pennies. Most people say "pence" when they're giving the figure. 10 pence, five... Five pence, two pence, and then obviously one penny or one p. Sometimes people just say: "P", just the letter "p". 50p, 20p. So, we use that as well. Okay, so let's have a look at some of the actual notes and coins.

Okay, so here are some examples of the notes and the coins. And starting at the top... We don't have a 50-pound note, unfortunately, but here is a 20-pound note in a nice mauve colour. They all have the Queen's head on one side, Queen Elizabeth II. On the other side, there's a portrait of a famous person who's made some big contribution to the national life. So, we've got here Adam Smith, the economist, going back to the 18th century. Okay, so that's a 20-pound note.

Next one, the 10-pound note. Again, the Queen's head. Now, there's a slang term for the 10-pound note, which is a "tenner", t, e, double-n, e,r, "tenner", okay. So, turning this one over, we have Charles Darwin, the scientist. Okay. 19th century.

And then moving on to the 5-pound note, and the slang term for this is a "fiver", f-i-v-e-r, "fiver". And there's the Queen again, and on the back we have a woman this time. A token woman, Elizabeth Fry, who was a prison reformer in the early 19th century. Okay, so that's a fiver. Okay.

And then... Oh, moving down to here, this is... There is a 2-pound coin that's bigger than this one but the same colour, 2-pound coin. This is a 1-pound coin, and the slang term for that is a "quid", q-u-i-d. Okay. Then half of a pound is the 50, 50-pence piece. And this has this distinctive edge; little, flat edges to it. Okay. And on the back, this is the back of the coin, Britannia, the sort of female figure who represents Britain, Britannia. Okay. And so that's 50p.

Moving on to the 20p piece. Okay, the Queen's head on the front and another design on the back. That also has little, flat edges. Right. We don't have a 10p, but that's slightly bigger than these 5ps, and has a circular edge. So these are 5ps, a 2-pence piece or a 2p, and finally, 1p, one pence or one penny. They used to be a half... Half penny, but they... They were taken out of the currency a few years ago because they were so worthless, really. Okay, so that's the current currency, and let's just go back now and have a look at a few more slang terms for money.

Okay, so we've just looked at the slang terms for the notes: "tenner", "fiver", and "quid". And then there are a few other terms: "ready money" or "readies", that's, you know, cash. "Cash" is another useful term. It's not a slang term, but people say they would like to be paid in cash, or: "Do you have the cash?" So this is the "ready money", "readies", rather than paying by credit card, or debit card, or cheque. Okay. "Folding stuff", that's the paper notes. It folds up, so it's called the folding stuff.

There are two terms to do with food: "bread" and "dough". The dough is what you put in the oven, and the bread is what you take out. "Bread" and "dough", that's also a word for money. "Dosh", "loot", "lolly", they're all sort of quite comical, humorous terms for... For money as well. Okay, so now we'll move on to look at the older currency.

http://www.engvid.com/ Do you know the difference between one and won? Whole and hole? Threw and through? These word pairs are pronounced exactly the same, but have different spellings and meanings. These sets of words are called homonyms, and I'm going to teach you 10 pairs of these words so that you can learn to spell them correctly. It's also a great chance to learn new vocabulary through these example sentences. So, what is a homonym? Check out this lesson to find out. Take the quiz to make sure you know the correct spelling of these common words. http://www.engvid.com/fix-your-spelling-mistakes-10-confusing-words-that-sound-the-same/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson is about what are called homonyms. And don't worry about the change word. All it means is words which have the same sound, the same pronunciation, but there are different spellings of them, and the different spelling has a different meaning. Okay. So, I think there's sometimes a bit of confusion about whether these words are actually pronounced differently, as well as being spelt differently. But the point about homonyms is they are pronounced exactly the same, and it's only the spelling that's different. Okay, so we have 10 little quizzes for you, here.

So, the first one. I've put in a gap to give you a chance to think of the word and the spelling yourself. So, for this sentence, it should read:
"There was a __________ in the road, and it took a __________ group of workmen to fix it."
Okay, so for the word hole/whole, there are two different spellings. So, can you think what kind of hole/whole this is, the hole/whole in the road; and what kind of hole/whole this is, a hole/whole group of people? Okay. I'll just give you a few seconds to think, and you might like to write it down if you have a pencil and paper handy. Okay, so a "hole" in the road, meaning something that needs to be repaired is spelt like that, h-o-l-e. Okay? But a "whole", meaning a total group of workmen is like this, only with a "w" at the beginning, so: "whole", and the pronunciation is exactly the same. Hole in the road, whole group of workmen. There's no difference in how you say it. Okay, good.

Right, second one:
"Do you __________ where my phone is?" And then somebody else replies: "I'm sorry, __________ I don't."
So: "Do you no/know?" and "no/know I don't", so I'll just give you a couple of seconds to think about the two different spellings of that. Okay. So: "Do you know where my phone is?" Okay. K-n-o-w. Okay. That's one of our famous silent letters, the "k" at the beginning. So, k-n-o-w to "know" something: -"Do you know where my phone is?" -"I'm sorry, no", just the negative "no", n-o. So, you can see n-o is in the middle of k-n-o-w, and the negative there, no. Okay.

Right, the third one:
"Yesterday I __________ where I had put my __________ coat. Today I have forgotten."
So, you can see I'm forgetting things, I'm losing things. I don't usually. It's just for the quiz, really. I try not to forget things, I try not to lose things, but it happens sometimes. Okay. So: "Yesterday I new/knew where I had put my new/knew coat. Today I have forgotten." Where is it? Oh, dear. So: "Yesterday I knew", okay, so another one. It's the past tense of "know", "knew", another silent "k". "I knew where I put my new coat." The new coat, which I only bought a few days ago. Okay? So, again, those are the spellings, but the sound is exactly the same. Right.

Next one:
"I don't know __________ I'm going to __________ this hat."
So this word is wear/where in two different spellings. "I don't know wear/where I'm going to wear/where this hat." Okay? So, that's "where", in what place, like the question word: Where? Where shall I wear...? Okay? "I don't know where I'm going to..." Okay, so that's a slightly different... W-e-a-r. To "wear", to put something on. "Where" and "wear".

Okay, and then finally from this first five:
"Can you wait __________ me, please? I shouldn't be more than __________ minutes."
"For/four" and "for/four". Okay? So, f-o-r: "...wait for me", and then the number of minutes, we don't just put the figure because that's cheating, we put the word. Okay? "Four" minutes, so f-o-u-r for the word. Okay, so I hope you've enjoyed that so far, and we will now move on to another five.

Okay, our next five. So, the first one:
"The boy __________ the ball __________ the window."
Okay? So he must have broken the window doing that. "The boy threw/through the ball threw/through the window." Same pronunciation, different spelling. Can you think what the two are? Okay, so, "threw", that's the past tense of "to throw", an irregular verb. So, to throw, he threw in the past. "The boy threw the ball threw/through the window." Oops. Quite a difficult spelling, that one. T-h-r-o-u-g-h. Okay. "...through the window." Right.

Do you want to practice your English and get some work experience? In this video, I'll explain how to volunteer at a charity shop, also called a thrift store. I'll teach you sentences you can use to ask for a volunteer position at a charity shop. You'll also learn important vocabulary about the things you will find in a British charity shop. Spending time in this environment is an excellent way for you to improve your English. In London and across the UK there are many charity volunteering opportunities. I'll also tell you about the biggest charity shop chains and a teach you a little bit about them. After you watch the video, head to http://www.engvid.com/improve-....your-english-by-work to take a practice test to see if you're ready to work in a charity shop, or browse over 1000 other free English lesson videos and resources.

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're going to look at: "Working in a Charity Shop" or sometimes called a "Thrift Store" in... More in America, Canada. So, to explain what I mean by a charity shop - a charity raises money for a particular purpose, so either for people in a disaster area; people needing food, clothing, shelter. Money has to be raised, transport to take the things to the place where the disaster has happened.

So, places like Oxfam, a charity called Oxfam which operates all around the world. It began in Oxford, which partly explains its name. It started in Oxford, and in response to a famine. So, they put those two words together: "Oxfam", and so, it has been running now for many, many years, and is a big, international charity. Okay? So, we have Oxfam. The Salvation Army is another charity who operate in various countries, and they are partly a religious organization, but they are also very practical, and they arrange shelter for homeless people, and they have hostels for people to stay in overnight or to live in on a more permanent basis, and they provide food and clothing. So, again, they need to raise money to do all of that. Then there are two medical charities, here, that I've written down. The Cancer Research and the particular UK-based charity, the British Heart Foundation who do research into heart disease. Okay?

And perhaps I should just explain "famine". So, I mentioned Oxford, and I said a famine, I didn't explain famine. When there is no food, maybe the people have been growing their crops, but there has been very bad weather and they have lost their crops-wheat, maize, vegetables, perhaps the whole harvest has been lost because of very bad weather, like heavy rain; or if it's been very, very dry in a hot country and the crops don't grow, and they haven't had the water to put on the crops for them to grow-there will be no food, so that is a famine. Okay. That's the full word, there: "famine". Okay, so that explains "Oxfam", how they started.

So, working in a charity shop... You find these shops in many cities and towns, in the UK, in North America, and often you can go in and buy maybe second-hand clothes or shoes, all sorts of things that you need; books, coffee, tea, things like that. It's also called a thrift store, because "thrift" means you don't spend a lot of money. If you don't have a lot of money to spend, a charity shop or a thrift store is a good place to go if you need some new clothes. Sometimes the clothes are completely new and they have not been worn. Maybe they were given as a present and the person didn't want the present, they never even tried it on, so they give it to the charity shop. So... And then the charity shop sells it, and that is how they raise their money for their particular purpose. Right. So, if...

One of the good things about working in a charity shop if you come to an English-speaking country and you're trying to learn the language, it's a very, very good opportunity to learn the language, because you'll be working with other English-speaking people, so you have to speak to them to work with them. You might be having to speak to customers in the shop as well. So, it's a very good opportunity to learn a lot more vocabulary, how to say things, grammar maybe as well. So, it's a very good place to go if you're trying to get a job, but you haven't been able to get a job. It's good experience. It's good work experience to spend some time in a charity shop. Maybe just for a few hours a week or one day a week. I should explain that it's usually voluntary, which means it's not paid. It's unpaid work, but it's very good experience. Right. So, an opportunity to learn the language.

So, these are some of the charities whose shops you might see, and they're all in the centre of towns and cities, you see them everywhere. Sometimes if they need volunteers, they will put a piece of paper in the window, a notice that says: "We need more volunteers. Please come in and talk to us about it." But if you don't see a notice, don't let that put you off.

The verb "get" is very common in English. This verb can be used in so many different ways, including in some expressions. In this lesson, I will give you many examples of how to use it, like "to get going somewhere", "to get well", "to get over it", and many more. So why not get started, get into it, and watch the video?

Take the quiz on this lesson: http://www.engvid.com/how-to-u....se-the-verb-get-in-e

Make sure to watch my lesson on 11 ways to use "get": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cTkYJX_8Ls

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com, and today we're going to have a look at the verb "to get", and the different uses of it, or some of the different uses. It's used all the time and in different ways. So, there are too many uses to look at in one lesson, so there will be another lesson on this as well. So, look out for that one, too. Okay? So, the verb "to get", it's a very, very common English word, used all the time in many different ways.

So, let's start by looking at some very ordinary uses of the verb "to get". So, you could "get wet". If you're out in the rain: "Aw, I got wet in the rain." So: "got", past tense. Or you can say: "Don't get wet. It's going to rain." So: "to get wet". "To get thirsty". If you haven't had a drink for a long time, you get thirsty, you need a drink. "To get annoyed", you can get annoyed, angry about something or about someone, the way somebody behaves. Okay?

You can get... "Get tired". If you've been working all day, you get really tired late at night and you need to go to bed. You can "get drunk", which means drinking a lot of alcohol so that you're sort of reeling around, and maybe falling on the floor. Not a good idea. So, you can "get drunk". Or you can say to somebody who's going to a party: "Don't get drunk." Okay? "You'll feel terrible the next day. Don't get drunk." So: "drunk", it's always to do with alcohol. You can say: "I have drunk a class of water." That's just the past tense of "to drink", but in this sense, it's to do with alcohol. Okay, you can "get married". Well, you can "get engaged", "get married", "get divorced", all of those for "get". Use "get". Okay? You can "get the flu" or "a cold", when you're sneezing and you're feeling really ill, the flu.

You can "get the sack", which means losing your job. It's a colloquial expression that means to lose your job: "the sack". A sack is like a... Something, a container, a sack made of cloth, usually, or plastic, you can have a plastic sack. But the... It's just an expression for losing your job. I think you're given a bag with all your belongings in to take away with you so that you don't leave all your stuff in a drawer somewhere in the office where you don't work anymore, so that may be the reason. "To get the sack". And then, having gotten the sack, you can "get a new job", where hopefully things will go better. "To get a new job". And "to get ready", to get ready, put some nice clothes on to go out to a party. Get ready to go to work, get ready to do something. Okay. So, that's all very, very simple uses of the verb "to get".

Right, so now let's have a look at some imperatives, which means telling people what to do or what not to do sometimes. They're like orders: "Do this, do that." Okay? So, and some can be quite rude, so you have to be careful how you use them because telling people what to do isn't always very nice. So, if you say to someone: "Get out!" that is very strong. If you ask them: "Get out". If someone walked in here now, I might say... Well, I wouldn't, but I could say: "Get out. We're filming." But I would probably say: "Oh. Do you mind? We're filming at the moment, so please, would you mind leaving the room?" But a rude person would say: "Get out! We're filming." So: "Get out!"

"Get in", maybe your friend is... Has arrived with the car, ready to go on a trip, and she's waiting for you to get into the car as well, and she's in a hurry, so she might say: "Get in, get in, we're ready to go. We don't want to be late. Get in!"

"Get off", so again, in the car: "We need to get off now." We can go, we can get off. Or if someone is standing on a chair, and you... They're spoiling the chair with their dirty shoes, you can say: "Get off the chair. Get off the chair. You're making it dirty." Okay? "Get up", if you're in bed in the morning, you have to get up, get dressed, get washed, all of those things. Get ready to go out. "Get up". If you're on some very nice grass that you're not supposed to be on, somebody might shout: "Get off the grass!" because you could be spoiling it, and turning it into muddy tracks.

And this one is quite a nice one, because this... These words appear on a card. You can buy a greetings card from a shop that says: "Get well soon!" If you're ill, if somebody is ill either at home or in hospital, and you feel sorry for them, you want them to get better, you can send a card that says: "Get well soon." Okay?

A cat goes "meow!" A shotgun goes "bang!" A doorbell goes "ding dong!" When we imitate sounds, we call those words "onomatopoeia". In this fun lesson, I will teach you some useful English words that imitate sounds and noises made by different people, animals, objects, and even the noises made by a well-known breakfast cereal! This will make your conversations more animated and descriptive. You will also encounter these words when reading novels and comic books. Onomatopoeia are NOT the same in every language, so after watching, do the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/onomatop....oeia-words-that-imit to see if you recognize these sounds in English!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're going to be looking at "Onomatopoeia". Now, don't run away. It's a very long Greek word, but it means something quite simple. It means words that imitate sounds. Okay? So, like a cat that makes a sound: "Meow, meow, meow", and it's been turned into a word. Either "mew, mew, mew, mew" or "meow", "miaow", two different spellings, there. Three. Three different spellings. In your language, you... I'm sure you have words for these sounds as well, but they may be different because of your language having different vowel sounds in it and so on. You probably have words for sounds, but they won't be exactly the same, probably, as the English version. Okay.

So, I've divided them into three categories: sounds of animals, sounds that human can make (sometimes embarrassing), and other, other sounds. Okay. So, let's start with the animals. So, we've already had the cat sound: "Meow". So, that's the kind of spelling we have for that. For a dog, it's either: "bark" or "woof", and you can sort of make the sound or try to: "Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark". That's the sort of "bark" sound. "Woof, woof, woof, woof", that's the "woof" sound. Okay? So that's the dog. This one, b-a-a is: "Baaaaaaa", and that's a sheep. Okay? So, in normal speak, we don't go around using the words like this, we don't actually imitate the animal sound. We just say it normally, like: "Meow", "bark", "woof", "baa", but you can actually make the real sound if you can, if you want to. But not in normal conversation. People might think you're a little bit strange if you start going around making the actual animal sounds. So, be careful how you use them. Okay? So, that's the sheep.

"Mooooooo" is a... Can you guess what a...? What makes that sound: "Moo, moo"? Oh dear, I can't do that one very well. That is a cow. Okay? And children actually call them "moo cows". They put the sound of the cow with the name of the cow, and they say: "Oh, look, moo cows." So, they put the sound with the name. Okay? Also, with the "baa", with the baby sheep, the lamb, they say: "Aww, baa lambs, baa lambs." So, they put the sound the animal makes with the name of the animal. Okay. This one: "whinny" and "neigh" is for a horse or a pony. I don't know if I can do this. "Neigh", something like that, or: "Buh-le-le-le-le-le", that sort of sound, and they shake their head as well. Okay? So that's a horse or a pony. The pony is a smaller version of a horse. Okay.

Can you guess what makes this sound: "Quack, quack, quack, quack"? In normal speech, you just say: "Quack", but you can make it more like: "Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quaaack". That's a duck. Okay? A duck, a bird. Right. "Hisssssss", and normally you just say: "Hiss", make a shorter sound. But if you're going to imitate the thing: "Hisssssss", and that would be like a snake. Or sometimes a cat makes a hissing sound as well, so anything making a hissing sound. Okay. This one: "howl" or "yowl", nice, round open vowel sound: "Howwwwwl, yowwwwwl", so it could be a dog who's very unhappy and the owner has left the dog at home all day on its own and it's getting very upset without human company. And this is what the dogs do eventually: "Owww, owwwww", meaning: "I've been abandoned. Where is my family? I'm all on my own." Or it... Sorry. It can be a dog, a domestic dog, but it can also be a wild animal, like a wolf. Okay. So, quite a fun one, too, to do that. I've always enjoyed: "Owww", howling. Okay.

So, moving on to humans. This one you may already have seen a lesson that contains this word: "burp", "belch", both mean if you have some air inside you when you've been eating and you have to let the air come out: "Burp". I can't do it because I haven't got any air to come out. "Blah", it's when the air comes out. I can't do it, sorry. If you watch Ronnie, I think Ronnie does a perfect one of these. So, okay. Right, so that's "burp" or "belch", to let out some air from your stomach.

"Clap", can you guess what that is, to clap? [Claps hands] So that's the clapping sound. Right? When people clap, an audience clap after someone has performed.

The words 'touch' and 'feel' both seem to mean the same thing, so how do you know which one to use? While they are similar words, we use them differently. If you want to use them correctly, you need to know the difference between them. In this English vocabulary lesson, I'll define 'touch' and 'feel', and show you example sentences where each is used. By the end of the lesson you'll know when to use each word depending on the context.
TAKE THE QUIZ: http://www.engvid.com/learn-en....glish-vocabulary-tou

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill from engVid, and today we have a lesson about two verbs: "to touch" and "to feel", and we're going to look at how they are used. They... Because they mean something very similar, it's to do with the same sort of action of touching or feeling, it's very easy to get them confused. So sometimes you use "touch", other times you use "feel". So, I'm going to show a few examples just to illustrate how they are used.

Okay, so let's first have a look at the verb "to touch", and it's an active verb. It's something you actively do, physically. If you just touch... Touch something like that, it can be quite a light, brief, a short time, touching. It's not something that you hold on to. It's short, usually, touch. Or if you just touch someone on the arm to get their attention or on the shoulder. Okay.

So, here's the first example, then: "I touched the kettle to see if it was still hot." And if you're not sure what a kettle is, you boil water in the kettle to make a cup of tea or coffee, so you boil the water in an electric kettle or on the gas. So: "I touched"-past tense-"the kettle to see if it was still hot". So, "touched". So, with something that might be very hot, you don't want to hold your hand on it for too long because you could burn your hand, so you just touched it lightly like that. So it's a short, quick touch to see if it's hot. Okay?

And second example: "If you touch the cat, she might scratch you!" So it's a warning. "To scratch", if the cat doesn't like to be touched... Some cats don't like people to touch them, especially if they're total strangers. Cats are very particular, I think. So if you touch the cat, be careful, she might scratch you with the sharp claws. So, again, if you were going to just stroke the cat like that and: "No, don't stroke the cat. She doesn't like it." So: "If you touch the cat, she might scratch you! Be careful." Okay? So it's a sort of light, short time of contact. Okay.

So moving on to "feel", this is also quite an active verb. For example, it's still making contact like this. For example, this material, like on a blouse or a shirt: "This material is so silky"-kind of silk-"just feel it!" Oo, just feel. Oh, lovely. Soft and smooth. Isn't that nice? So with "feel" you sort of... It sort of suggests a longer time that you're in contact with what it is that you're feeling. Okay, so: "Just feel it", like that.

And another example: "I'm feeling around in the dark." So we're adding a preposition here. "To feel around in the dark". For example, if you're sleeping in a friend's house and you've never been there before, you wake up in the middle of the night, you know that you're not in your own home, it's completely dark and you want to put the light on for some reason, to see the time or whatever. So, you get out of bed and you're not quite sure... You want to put the light on, you're not quite sure where it is, so you're doing this in the dark, feeling around for the wall, trying to find the switch on the wall or find a lamp, turn on the lamp. You don't know the room, so you're having to feel around. So it's about stretching out your hand, making contact with things to find your way to where you're trying to get. So: "I'm feeling around in the dark."

And then for people who shave... I luckily don't have to shave. Some women do, apparently. But I shouldn't joke about that because it's not funny. If you shaved you might: "Feel your face after shaving", to see if it's rough or smooth. Okay? To see if you... It's a good razor, a good sharp, razor that you've used. Or an electric razor that goes: "Mmmm", like that sort of sound. So you feel your face after shaving to see if it's nice and smooth. So, again, making contact and for quite a long time. Not just touching. Touching would be like that. But feeling is more like that. Okay.

Okay, so that's "touch" and "feel". And there's one other use of the verb "to feel", a slightly different way of using it in a kind of more general way to do with how you feel inside yourself, emotionally or in your head, how you're thinking. Or physically, it can be physically as well. So if you walk into a room and you say: "It feels cold in here!" Okay? Just the physical sensation is: "Oo, it's cold. We need to put some heating on." So that's the physical feeling that you're sort of receiving a signal that the temperature is low.

Here in the U.K., we love using phrasal verbs! If you want to speak with us and understand us, you've got to learn these English expressions. In this lesson, you'll learn 10 phrasal verbs with the preposition 'up' in them. I'll explain the meaning of each phrasal verb and give you examples of their common usage. You'll learn 'dress up', 'drink up', 'wash up', 'look up', 'speak up', 'read up', 'grow up', 'mess up', 'cook up', and 'make up'. After the lesson, you can take the quiz on EngVid, where you can also watch many other free lessons on phrasal verbs. http://www.engvid.com/learn-10....-english-phrasal-ver

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. This is Gill at www.engvid.com, and in today's lesson we're going to be looking at some phrasal verbs using the preposition "up". So, a phrasal verb, just to remind you, is the verb plus the preposition. So, in this case, the preposition in all of these examples is "up", so it's being put with a main verb to turn it into a phrasal verb. Okay? So let's have a look at what we have here.

So, first of all: "Children love to dress up." Okay? Children like to put clothes on, maybe their mother's clothes, put makeup on, ear rings, all sorts of things to dress up. So, that's the phrasal verb. "To dress up" is to put sort of special clothes on for, you know, just for fun really. Adults dress up as well if they're going somewhere special. "Oh, we'll have to dress up for this party", put some jewellery on and a long full-length's dress or a tuxedo with a bowtie, all that sort of thing. Dressing up in special clothes for a special occasion. Okay? Dressing up.

Second one: "It's time to drink up - the bar is closing." So, "to drink up" is to finish your drink. Drink up, you're putting the glass up like that to finish your drink because the bar is closing and you have to go, so you don't want to leave your drink there. You want to drink it because you paid for it, so you don't want to waste it. Okay. "Time to drink up".

Right, now, this is a common complaint that somebody in the household: "He never washes up." And we have the noun from this: "the washing up", which is about washing the dishes after a meal. "He never washes up.", "To wash up" means washing all the dishes after a meal. Okay.

Now, next one, if there's a word you don't know: "I don't know that word - I'll have to look it up." So the phrasal verb is "to look up". But you'll notice that the pronoun "it" has to go in the middle there. You don't... You can't say: "I have to look up it." You have to put the pronoun in the middle: "I have to look it up." Okay. Right, so and "looking it up", that means getting the dictionary or using a computer, looking for the word to find the meaning. "Looking it up" means find the page, look down the page: "Ah, there it is. What does it mean? Ah, okay." Looking up, referring to a book or referring to a website to find out the definition.

Okay, next one: "I can't hear you - please speak up." Okay? "Speak up" means get louder, say it louder. "I can't hear you. Please speak up. Turn up the volume." Okay? "Speak up".

Okay, next one, you're studying and you say: "I'm having to read up on Shakespeare for the test next week." So, if you "read up" on a subject that means you're reading lots of information about the subject. You're finding books, you're finding websites, all sorts of sources to get lots of information, learning all the information, get it into your head for a test, for the test next week. "Reading up" means to gather information about a subject. Okay.

Right. Now, this next one is not a very nice thing to say to somebody, especially if they're maybe over 40: "When are you going to grow up?" Okay? It's okay... If you say it to a child, that doesn't really make sense because a child hasn't grown up yet. But people tend to say this to adults because if an adult is behaving in a very silly way like a child, a childish way, somebody might say to them: "When are you going to grow up?" Meaning become mature. "Grow up" can mean to get taller, but it also means to become more sensible, more mature, you know, be a more responsible adult person. Okay. Rather than messing about and being silly. All right.

Okay, next one: "You've really messed that up." So, mess... "To mess up", if you mess up... And again, you'll see another word comes in between, but this is the phrasal verb: "to mess up". "To mess something up" is to do something badly. Just a mess is untidy, not very good. If you mess something up, you've made a very bad job of it. You've not done it at all well. You've done it very badly. Okay.

Next one: "What are you cooking up now?" So, "to cook up", you might think this is some food that you're cooking in the kitchen, but in this sense it's more metaphorical. If you cook something up, you're planning something.

We often talk about our feelings, but how many words do you know to talk about anger? Fear? What about confusion? In this video, I'll explain many different words, expressions, and idioms we use to talk about these emotions in English. Some are serious, some are funny, and others are extreme. We have so many different emotions! Learn to express how you're feeling accurately. Knowing these words will improve your overall English comprehension and help you out in social situations.

Take the quiz: http://www.engvid.com/vocabula....ry-to-talk-about-you

Want even more vocabulary? Watch my video on 23 words you can use to talk about feeling good or bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Q2N11-Ruw

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill from engVid and today in this lesson we're going to be looking at some moods, emotions, feelings, and state of mind which means what your... What state your head is in. Okay? Whether it's good or bad. But in this lesson it's all the not so good examples. In fact, we're looking at three areas of feelings: Anger, fear, and confusion. So it's a little heavy. We call that heavy. Heavy, but it's important to know this vocabulary. And you probably already know the basic words: "angry", "afraid" or "scared", "confused". But again, it's useful to have a wider vocabulary for use in everyday life talking to people, to friends, to other people. If you're taking exams, whether it's written or spoken, again, it's good to have a good range of different words that mean the same things or similar things. Okay, so...

And it's important. I mean, these are difficult subjects. Like, I say heavy. When we say "heavy" it means it's a difficult subject to talk about, but it's important to talk about feelings like this because say you're talking to a friend about it, it's helping you to understand yourself and if you have a good friend who is a good listener, they will help you by listening and understanding. So it's really good to be able to explain your feelings in a very precise way, not just saying: "Ah, I felt angry. I felt scared. I was confused." But to be able to say more... More than that. Okay. In English. So, anyway, let's start with the angry words.

So, anger: "angry". Okay? You probably know that word already. "Mad", that's a more colloquial, informal sort of word but means angry. "Mad" can also mean someone who's, you know, they're not very... Oh dear. They have a problem in their mind. They're... They're not thinking rationally. But in this meaning, this casual meaning, "mad" can mean angry. "Oh, I was so mad with that woman. She was so rude to me. She makes me so mad." It means the same as angry. "Irritable". Now, if you're irritable it's just everything annoys you. Irritation. Okay, sometimes it can be just irritation can mean something on your skin that you have to scratch, that's a kind of an irritation. There's also people can irritate you by the things they do, the things they say. And if you're feeling more irritated than usual, then that's maybe because you're tired or something else has upset you earlier, or whatever. So, "irritable" is just everything, everything makes you angry. Okay. "Prickly" is a bit similar. "Prickly", it means... Oh dear. There's an animal called a hedgehog. I don't know if you know this animal, but I'm going to attempt to draw it. People love hedgehogs. They're so cute. They have a lovely, little face. But they also have very sharp, like, needles sticking out to protect them. So, they have all these points sticking out, and if you touch them it's probably: "Ouch", like touching the end of a needle or a pin. They're very sharp. But they're called prickles. These sharp things are called prickles. So if someone's prickly, it's as if they got these sharp things all over them and if you say... You can say anything to them and they will react in a bad way as if you've said something rude when you had no intention to be rude. They just react badly. That person is prickly. So it helps to be able to say: "That woman I work with, she is so prickly. I can't say anything to her. I've stopped talking to her because it's impossible." "Prickly", okay. "Touchy" is similar. You touch... To touch. "Touchy" means like "prickly", you just say one thing to someone and they react badly as if you've touched them and it hurt or something. Okay? Okay, we're back to something a bit more normal now. "Upset". If you're upset you're probably about to cry. You're going to be crying any minute with tears if you're upset. Okay. "Upset". "Furious" is a more extreme word for "angry". We have the word "fury". "Fury", it's extreme anger, so very, very angry. "Furious". I was furious when that woman said that to me. Okay. And similar, now we're getting into some idioms. Here's an idiom. "Blowing your top". If you blow your top... This is your top, your head, and if you blow your top you just shout very loudly at somebody and lose your temper.

How do you use the verb USE? The answer is, in several different ways! In this lesson, I will explain how to use this common verb, with lots of examples from everyday English. We will also look at the difference between "used" and "used to", which can mean two very different things. Thanks for watching! http://[a]www.engvid.com%2Flearn-english-grammar-use-used-and-used-to%2F[/a]

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com and we're having a lesson today on the verb "to use", which is quite an interesting verb and it is used in different ways. So I'm going to show you a few ways that we can use the verb "to use". Okay. So: "use" in the past tense: "used", and we also talk about being "used to", so I'll be showing you some examples of the different ways of using "used to". Okay.

Let's just start with the simple meaning. Right, to use something, the simple meaning. "I use a computer at work." Okay? I have a computer on my desk, I use it. It's part of my job to use the computer. Okay? "She uses a sat-nav in her car." To help her find her direction, how to go to somewhere when she doesn't know the way, a sat-nav machine in her car. She uses. So, obviously, "use", "uses" depending on the person. I use, you use, but he/she/it uses. We just add the "s" on the end in the present tense. Okay. And then just the past tense, if I... If I... In the past I had a job where I used a computer at work, so we could change that to past tense if we want to and say: "I used a computer at work", just the same. Okay. So that's just the simple way of using "use".

So let's have a look at some more complicated ways of using this word. And the first one is "to get used to" something. And you may have noticed when I said that I made more of an "s" sound here: "used", "ss"; whereas with this one, it has a sort of "z": "to use". "Use", but then when we come to this, "use", "used", "used to". Okay? So just remember there is a slight change of pronunciation when you say "to get used to something". And this is when you're adapting to a new situation, to get used to. You're probably having to get used to the English language and all the complications in it, and the new vocabulary that you're learning. You have to get used to a new language, adapt to it.

Okay, so looking at this first example, maybe this is someone who has moved from a hot country to a cold one, and they're finding it very difficult in the winter because the winters are cold and long. So, they might say: "I can't get used to the long, cold winters." It's really difficult to adapt, to get used to the long, cold winters. Okay? And then this one, maybe someone who has started a new job and there are a lot of new things to learn, so they're saying: "There's a lot to learn in my new job, but I'm getting used to it. I'm adapting gradually. I'm getting used to it." Okay? So this is about adapting, a gradual process of getting used to something. Okay? So that's getting used to something.

And similarly: "to be used to". Again, it's the "s" sound, to be used to something is when you have adapted or it was... It's always been like that. It's normal, it's a regular situation. So there's nothing new here. It's something that you've always done or you've done for a long time so it feels normal. So, you say: "I'm used to getting up early". "I'm used to", "to be", "I am", so that's part of the verb "to be". "I am used to getting up early." I'm not used to getting up early, but some people are. I find it very difficult, getting up early. Oh dear, especially in the long, cold winters. Mmm. Okay: "I'm used to getting", well, somebody. "He is used to getting up early." I'm not.

Oh, here's a negative one: "He's not used to driving on the left." Maybe someone who's moved countries, again, in his country they drive on the right, so he moves to a country where they drive on the left, how confusing, and he's not used to driving on the left. You can even have an accident if you're not used to it. I think you have to practice quite carefully first. Not used to driving his car on the left. Okay?

And then finally in this section, again, the weather in this country, in the UK: "We're used to wet weather in the UK." Okay? "We are used to wet weather". It rains a lot, especially in the autumn. Okay. And in the spring, and in the winter, and sometimes in the summer as well, so it's very... It can be very wet here. You may not want to come now I've told you that, but anyway. Perhaps you're here already. Anyway: "We're used to wet weather in the UK." And the longer you spend here, you... Easier you'll get used to it as well. Okay, so that is the first part of the lesson. We have one more set of examples which we'll be covering next.

Are you feeling like a day out with a friend? Great! Let me teach you how to arrange a meeting so you can have a chance to practise your English together! In this lesson, I will teach you some of the vocabulary you need to make plans. We will cover all the essential details, such as when, meaning the time of the meeting, and where, meaning the location. After watching, make sure to do the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/real-eng....lish-using-when-wher to check your understanding of the lesson. Have a fun day out!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com, and today we have a lesson on quite a nice social subject: "Making Arrangements to Meet a Friend". Okay? And the idea is that this friend is an English-speaking friend. They may be English, or American, or Canadian, or they may speak another language, but you and they can only communicate in English. Maybe they're Chinese and you're Spanish or something, and the only language you have in common is English. But either way, you have to communicate in English, and this is one of the best ways to learn English, is to have friends who speak English, and have to communicate with them in English. So please make friends with English speakers, because apart from being friends, it will be very good for your language learning. Okay, right.

So, first of all say you're phoning your friend and you're saying... First of all, you're not going to just go straight in and say: "Let's arrange to meet." You want to first of all say things like: "Hi! How are you?" because if they're not very well, it's not a good idea to start making arrangements to meet. So, just socially you need to say: "Hello. How are you? How is everything going? I haven't seen you for a while. Shall we meet up? Are you free to meet up?" "To meet up" is to meet, but we often say "meet up", with the "up" preposition. "Shall we meet up?" And the "shall" is used when you make a suggestion. "Shall we? Shall we do something?" Okay?

So once you've done your little introductory part and they're feeling well, and they want to meet you and go somewhere interesting, we can move on to the second part, you need to decide when. When are you both free? Okay, so you might say: "When are you free?" and they might say: "Oh, well, I'm free on Tuesday afternoon, Thursday morning, Saturday afternoon", so you decide between yourselves which is the best time for both of you. "I'm free on" and the day. Okay? You use "on" with the day. "I'm free on Tuesday, on Saturday". Okay? And then just to check: "Is that okay for you?" You have to check with the other person: Is that okay for them as well? And then if they say: -"Yes." -"Great. Great." Useful word: "Great", whenever you're pleased about something. "Great."

So, you've got the day, you now need to decide on the time. "What time shall we meet?" Again, using "shall" as the suggestion. "What time shall we meet?" And because you're meeting a friend, you don't want to make it like: "Oh, I start work at 9:30 in the morning, I have to be there." This is a nice, social occasion. You don't have to say: "Be there at 2 o'clock." As it's a friend and it's a social meeting, you can be a little bit more casual about it and say: "Oh, around... Around 2 o'clock", which means just before 2, just after 2. "Around" is a very useful word for time. "Let's meet around 2 o'clock." Okay? So you've decided on the day and the time.

So thirdly, you have to then decide where to meet, somewhere interesting maybe that you haven't been before. "Where shall we meet?" So "shall" again. "Where shall we meet?" And your friend might suggest: -"Oh, an art gallery. I haven't been to that art gallery for a while. Shall we meet there? Have you ever been there?" -"No, I haven't been to that one." -"Oh, okay then. Well, let's meet there. I think you'd like it." Okay?

So, once you've decided on the location, the art gallery... An art gallery is a big place, and there's an outside and an inside. You have to decide exactly where, so: "Whereabouts?" is a useful word. "Whereabouts?" It's just like saying: "Where? Where shall we meet around the building? Whereabouts shall we meet? Inside or outside?" But if it's in the UK, because of the weather, it's not always a good idea to meet outside somewhere because it could be bad weather, so you say: "In case it's raining, in case it's cold it might be better to meet inside", so you can be dry and warm while you're waiting for your friend. So: "In case" means "if", "if". It might be raining, it might be cold, so: "In case it's raining, in case it's cold, we'd better meet inside." Okay? Always a good idea. And you can sit down as well usually if you want to.

Have you ever wondered how the days of the week got their names? In this video, I will explain their origins. You'll learn how these names are related to ancient mythology and to the planets. 'Etymology' is the study of the origin of words. Some of the days of the week have a simple etymology, like 'Sunday' -- the day of the Sun, but many of the others aren't as easy! This is a very interesting way to learn about the English language and the cultures that have influenced modern English. I'll also explain how these names relate to the French and German languages. Join me as we will travel back in history, and out into the solar system. I hope you enjoy the journey! Take the quiz to test yourself at http://www.engvid.com/days-of-the-week-etymology/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're going to be looking at the days of the week and the origin of the names of the days, which are obviously different in different languages, but in the English language, the days, a lot of them, apart from the sun and the moon, a lot of the days are named after gods. Not... Not god, not the Christian god, but before Christianity came to the UK or to Britain, we had these... It's called pagan gods. "Pagan" just means before Christianity. So, there were these not just one god, but a group of gods, and a goddess as well, a female god. And the days were named after them. Okay. So let's have a look through the days of the week and I'll tell you all about how the day got its name. Okay. So, this goes back hundreds of years, so that's why it's a little strange.

So, "Sunday", the main religious day in the Christian world, but before Christianity in the pagan times, Sunday-obviously, "sun"-was named after the sun. Sun's Day. Because, obviously, you look up into the sky and the sun is the brightest thing there, and it keeps you warm and all of that, so everyone knew the sun was very important for human life to survive, so they named the first day of the week after the sun. Sun's Day. And just to make a link, here, with the German language because we share a lot of similar words with the German language: "Sonntag", so in German as well, the sun... The word for "sun" in German is in the name of the German word for Sunday. Okay. Right, so that's Sunday, Sun's Day, the day dedicated to the sun.

Next day: "Monday". It's not totally obvious, but it's named after the moon. Moon. "Mon", "moon", so there's a little moon. And again, because the sun, most important and then after that you look up in the sky at night and you see the moon, so it's like the second most important thing that you see. So, Moon's Day, Monday. And in German: "Montag", so that's the moon in German. But also, the example from French because in French the word for "moon" is "lune", "la lune", so in French, again, the day is named after the moon and it's called "lundi". So even in French, which has a different word, it's still connected with the moon. Okay. Right, so that's the sun and the moon for the first two days of the week.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. "Tuesday" is named after one of the pagan gods called Tiu, T-i-u. Tiu's Day. Okay? And he came from the sort of North European group of gods. Okay? And Tiu was the god of war. He represented war or... And the god of the sky, generally. And the link, here, with the Southern European gods which come mostly from the Roman gods. So, the French name for Tuesday, and the French words come from the southern group of gods, the Roman god of war is Mars. Okay? Like the planet... There's also a link with the planets, and that's the red planet, Mars. So, in French, Tuesday is called "mardi" because it's linked to Mars. So, in the northern group of gods we have Tiu's Day and he's the god of war, and in the southern group of gods we have mardi, Mars, and Mars is also the god of war in the Southern European gods. Okay. Whoops, sorry. Right.

Moving on: "Wednesday", which is always a tricky one to spell, difficult to spell. It's Wed-nes-day, but we pronounce it: "Wensday". That's named after Woden. Woden's Day. Okay? And Woden was the sort of chief god in charge of all the other gods. He was the top god. Woden's Day. Okay. In the southern group of gods, in French, Wednesday is "mercredi", which is named after Mercury. But in this case, Mercury is not the equivalent of Woden. So, sorry, that's a bit not very... Anyway, that's the way it goes. We can't change it. "mercredi" in French is named after Mercury, who was the messenger god. Okay. And again, there's a planet named after Mercury as well. So, anyway, Northern European, Woden's Day. Wednesday. Right.

The verb "look" is used in many ways in English. In this lesson, you'll learn the different meanings that "look" can have, as well as phrasal verbs that have the word "look" in them. You probably didn't realize how this one word can express so many ideas! I'll explain and give you examples of how these expressions are used. Want to unlock your conversational English? Look no further! http://www.engvid.com/learn-en....glish-vocabulary-and

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and this lesson is on the use of the word "look". And I'd like to thank King Future who requested this topic on the engVid's Facebook page, so thank you very much. I hope you're watching. Thanks for suggesting it, because it's an interesting word. And we're going to be looking at five different ways of using the word "look". We have three here. These are all verbal uses. We also have the use of "look" as a noun and also combined with other words in the second part of the lesson. So, okay, let's have a look at how to use the word "look". Okay?

So, first one is the obvious one, to use your eyes. Look. Look at that. Look at that picture on the wall. Look both ways... When you're crossing the road, look both ways before crossing. Okay? Just to make sure there are no cars coming, look both ways before crossing. And: "Look at that! Look at that!" just telling someone: "What's that? Look at that." Or: "Look at that picture." Okay. So just the simple "look", using your eyes.

Second way, a bit different, this means to appear like something, to appear something. So: She looks tired today. She appears tired today. She seems to be tired today. Okay. So that's to appear. She looks tired today. Or, more happily: That cake looks nice. I'd like a piece of that. My favourite chocolate cake looks very nice. So, that cake looks nice. It's a sort of a hint that you would like a piece. Okay.

Right, so then moving on, phrasal verbs where you combine "look" with a preposition to create a new meaning. So, we have 10 phrasal verbs here to illustrate how it can be used. So, first of all: "I'll look after you." Okay? So "look" with "after", it means to take care of somebody. Don't worry. I'll look after you. Okay. Right. And then a fairly simple one, if you go into a shoe shop and they say: "Can I help?" And you say: "I'd like to look at some shoes, please." Okay, so very simply, to look at some shoes. If you're buying anything in a shop, you ask to look at something. Okay? Slightly different meaning: "She's always looking back at her childhood." Okay? Looking back in time, in history. She's maybe 70 years old now. She's always remembering her childhood, looking back and telling people about it. So, looking back in history. Okay? Another one: "I'm looking for my hat." So if there's something you're trying to find, you're looking for it. Okay? Then instead of "looking back", we have "looking forward": "We're looking forward to our holiday." All right? We're anticipating. We really want to go soon. We want to have a nice holiday. We're really looking forward to it. It's in a lovely place, lots of sunshine, and nice food and everything. Okay. Right. Now, the next one maybe this is one you get on the holiday, and you say: "Oh. Isn't this lovely? The house looks onto the sea." So you're staying in a house, you look out of the window and there is the sea straight ahead of you. So the house looks onto the sea. You can see the sea straight through the window. Right.

Now, if you're waiting for the postman... And sometimes, you know, the postman in this country anyway, they don't knock, they don't ring, they just... They fill in a card, thinking that you're not at home and they say: "We tried to deliver something for you while you were out", and they fill in this card and they put it through the letterbox, and they haven't even tried to ring or knock. And you go to the front door or sometime later, you see: "Oh. What's this card?" You pick it up. "What? The postman was here? He didn't ring." So, next day I better get that postman, I'm going to tell him what I think of him. Well, not really. Probably best not to get into an argument, but anyway, you might say to your friend who's with you at home: "Will you look out for the postman, please?" Okay? "To look out for", so we've got two prepositions there. If you look out for somebody, you don't want to miss them. If you see them through the window, you go to the door quickly and say: "Oh. Could I have a word, please, about that card you put through yesterday? I was in, actually." Okay. Would you look out for the postman?

Next. Okay, you go into a shop and maybe it feels a little bit... You're not sure that you can look around. Maybe it's a very expensive shop, an antique shop or something, and you're not sure it's okay to just look round, so: "May we look round the shop?" Okay. You say it to the assistant there.

Do you know the difference between "backbone", "background", "backpack", and" backside"? All these words are based on the noun "back" but mean very different things. In this lesson, I will teach you the meaning of ten words and expressions using "back". So don't back out. Watch the video, and you'll look back with satisfaction at the new vocabulary you've learned!

QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/vocabulary-10-back-words/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com. And today we're having a lesson on the use of the word "back". We've already given you a lesson on the word "back" in different parts of speech, so do have a look for that if you haven't already seen it. This lesson is about words which are based on the word "back" or they begin with "back". So, let's have a look at a few examples.

First of all, if you say: "That man has no backbone!" Your backbone is your spine that runs down the back of your body, and it sort of holds you upright. So if you think literally someone has no backbone, they're going to go over like that, but this is used in a metaphorical sense, not a literal sense. So if you describe someone as having no backbone, it means they're not a very strong person. You can easily make them do things, or stop them doing things. They don't sort of have a mind of their own or they don't have a strong will. You can push them around, that sort of thing. They're a bit weak. So, no backbone is quite a bad criticism of anybody. Okay.

Second example, if you're applying for a job, usually: "Your job application will require the backing of two referees." Meaning people who will give you a reference, maybe people you have worked with before who will say how well you did your job, what sort of person you are. Hopefully they will say nice things. Otherwise, you wouldn't choose them to give you references. So when you fill in an application form, you often have to put the name and address, and job title of two referees. Okay? So the backing of referees means the support, the telling the new company about you, and helping you to get the new job. Okay. Right.

Another business-related one, if you want to find out more information about a company, you can ask somebody: "Could you give me some background information on the company?" So, information tells you really what it means. Background means just general information about maybe when the company was started; what does the company do, what is their business, how many people work there, do they have one building in one city or several buildings in different cities? All the sort of background, maybe a bit historical; what has happened in the past? Are they on the stock market? That sort of thing. Background information. Okay.

Next example, sometimes when a government decide to do something new, a new policy, sometimes people don't like it very much and it can cause demonstrations, riots, all sorts of things. It can cause bad things to happen. People react to the new policy. So if you say: "The government's new policy could result in a backlash." that's like if you're using a whip... The whip which does a lash, you lash something with a whip. If it comes back at you and hits you, that is a backlash. So, the government is doing this, and it comes back at them and something bad happens. A bad result, basically. A backlash is a bad result from something. Okay.

And finally in this first half of the lesson, if I have been on holiday for two weeks and I come back, and my desk has got lots of papers mounted up, lots of emails on the computer, lots of work to do because I've been away: "I have a huge backlog of work!" It means just lots of work that has come in while I have been away. Why did I bother going on holiday? I got all this extra work to do now. A backlog. So it's best to avoid a backlog if you can, but not going on holiday is not so nice. But when you think sometimes: "What will it be like when I go back? There'll be so much to do", so that's a backlog. Okay, we'll move on to the next few examples.

Okay, so you'll see I am now carrying my backpack to illustrate the next sentence. So, let's see what it is. "He is going to backpack around India." Okay? And that's what you do if you're travelling just with a pack on your back like this, so you're travelling very light and you're just getting buses, you're walking, you're maybe getting rides in cars and lorries, backpack. And this... This is all that you have with you. No suitcases or anything like that. So, it's a very popular way of travelling if you're feeling quite brave and you're happy just to go day to day seeing different places. Okay, so that's a backpack. Right. Okay.

And next sentence... Now, this is a little bit rude. So sometimes I hear people saying this word: "backside" because they've put "back" and "side" together, and because English is not their first language, they don't realize that "backside" as one word has a very specific meaning.

"How are you?" is probably the most common question you'll be asked in English. Go beyond the simple answers and learn to express your physical and mental state with vocabulary, expressions, and idioms. You'll learn positive expressions like "in the pink", "full of beans", and negative ones like "out of sorts", and "losing my grip". We'll also cover a lot of vocabulary to talk about your mood, such as "exhausted", "anxious", "depressed", and many more. Your conversations will be much more interesting once you learn to express this wide range of physical and emotional states.

Test your knowledge with the quiz! https://www.engvid.com/how-are....-you-feeling-mental-

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and the lesson today is on the subject of "Physical and Mental Health". Okay? So, physical, your body; and mental, your mind. Okay. And health, how you're feeling, whether it's good or bad. Okay. For physical health people talk about that a lot, but for mental health people maybe don't talk about that so much because it's maybe more embarrassing sometimes. But it's important to know these words. And you probably know the basic ones, like: "feeling well", "feeling ill" or "sick", but it's good to have other words as well to describe different ways that you're feeling. Especially if you're going to see the doctor, you need to be able to explain as clearly as possible how you're feeling so that the doctor can help you. Or if you're just talking to a friend, it's important to be able to explain how you're feeling. Okay.

So, we'll start with the physical health, then, and looking at the positive ways. If you're feeling really well, the ways of saying that. Okay? So: "feeling well", obviously. "I'm feeling well.", "I'm feeling good." "Feeling good" is a little bit more colloquial, more informal, but you'd say that to your friends. -"How are you?" -"Oh, I'm good. I'm feeling good." Okay? "In the pink", I think maybe this is a little bit old, old-fashioned, but people sometimes say: "Oh, I'm in the pink." And I think it refers to pink cheeks on your face, so maybe you have to be a white person, really, to be able to say this. If you have pink cheeks it suggests that you're healthy, you can see the blood in your face, so that suggests oxygen and good health. So: "in the pink", that's what it means, even if people don't use it very much anymore. Okay?

Just a straightforward one, if you say: "I'm in the best of health", "I'm very lucky. I'm in the best of health." If someone has a lot of energy, and this one is an idiom, if they say they're full of beans: "Oh, I'm feeling full of beans today", it doesn't mean... It doesn't mean that literally they have eaten a lot of beans, but it probably comes from the fact that beans are a very healthy food, and they give you energy, and maybe protein. I don't know all the ingredients, but if someone is full of beans it means they're jumping around, and lots of energy, and... So you might say: "Oh, he's full of beans today", but it doesn't mean he's been eating beans literally; it's an idiom. Okay?

Another one that people use is a little bit old-fashioned again: "full of the joys of spring", the season, spring, because it's the time when everything starts growing and new life and everything, and joy means happiness. So if you're full of the joys of spring, if you say: "I'm full of the joys of spring today", it may be because the sun's shining and you're feeling healthy, you're feeling good, happy, lots of energy. So that's the joys of spring. And finally for this section: "I'm feeling on top of the world." So right up there on top of the world, another idiom. It doesn't literally mean... You'd have to be up on the Arctic to be on top of the world, which wouldn't really be a very comfortable place, but: "on top of the world" just means you're really... You feel you're on top of everything. You're in control of everything and you're feeling good. Okay? Right, well, those are all the positive words we have in this lesson, and all the rest are negative.

We have negative for the physical health and negative for mental health, because probably we take mental health for granted and if we're in good mental health we don't really need to say much about it. So, anyway, if you have to go to the doctor because you're not feeling well, these are the kinds of words you could use. Okay. "Not feeling well", "I'm not feeling well." And then the doctor says: "Well, what exactly is it?" So that's why we need a few other words. "I'm feeling ill.", "I'm feeling sick." Sick, sometimes you feel like being sick, vomiting, but also in a more general way, if you feel sick it doesn't literally mean you're going to vomit. It's just generally not feeling very good. Okay.

"Tired", if you have no energy: "I'm feeling tired." Or: "I've been feeling tired for the whole... A whole week.", "Worn out" is another meaning for tired. "Worn out" is more colloquial.

Is there a difference between "may" and "might"? These words have a similar meaning and are usually used to talk about a possibility or to politely ask for permission. In this lesson, you'll learn how these words differ from each other and how to use them correctly. I'll teach you the common usages of "may" and "might" and show you examples of how they are used in sentences and expressions. I'll also discuss "maybe" and "may be"—English learners and even native speakers often get confused with these. After watching, take the quiz to make sure you've understood everything! https://[a]www.engvid.com%2Fmay-or-might%2F[/a]

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com and today the lesson is about the two words "may" and "might", and I know these can be a little bit confusing because they are connected. "May" and "might" come from the same verb, but it's a rather strange verb that is only used in certain ways. So, I'm just going to give you a few examples to show how these words are actually used in sentences and in different situations.

So, starting with "may", which as you know, is also the name of a month, it can be a woman's name, but it's also a verb. And it's used in two main different ways. It's used to express something that is possible, a possibility of something happening; and it can also be used differently to ask permission in a polite way, to say: "May I do something?" It's more polite than saying: "Can I" or "Could I". "Could I" is polite, "Can I" is less polite, but "May I" is the really nice, polite way of asking for something.

Okay, so let's have a look first of all at "may" used to express something possible, a possibility. So, first of all: I've lost my gloves. I can't find my gloves that go on my hands. So I say to my friend: "Oh, I can't find my gloves." And my friend replies: "Do you think you may have dropped them in the street?" Okay. So I was walking through the street with my friend, we have arrived home. "Do you think you may have dropped them in the street? Is that possible that you dropped them somewhere?" So, that's possibility.

Okay. And again, going out again, so in this colder weather, my friend says: "You'd better take a coat - it may get cold later." If we're going out in the daytime, but we're going to be out in the evening as well when it gets colder, so: "You'd better take a coat." Good advice. "Take a coat. It may get cold later." It's possible it will get cold later and you'll need to put your coat on. Okay?

And then finally for these examples of what is possible, I say to my friend: "Was that John who just walked by? Someone walked by, was that John?" And my friend replies: "It may have been. I'm not sure." Because my friend didn't really see. It may have been, but I'm not really sure. So, possibly. Possibly it was John. I'm not 100% sure.

Okay, so those are three examples of this first meaning of "may". And then just two examples of asking permission using "may" in a polite way. If I don't have a pen, I can say to someone: "May I borrow your pen, please?" Okay. "To borrow" is just to have for a short time, use it, give it back. Okay. "May I borrow your pen, please?" That's all very polite. "May I", "please". Okay?

And then finally, somebody asks you a question and it's maybe quite a complicated thing. You can't decide. They invite you to something, you can't decide: Yes, no, not sure. You need to think about it. So, you reply: "I can't decide at the moment - may I have a few days to think about it?" Okay? And hopefully the other person is willing to give you time to think. It might be a very serious decision, so: "May I have a few days? Give me some time to think about it."

Okay, so that's the two main meanings for "may". We'll now move on to look at "might". Okay, so moving on to "might". It's similar in a way, similar to the first meaning of "may", meaning possible. Okay? But the feeling with "might" is that it's a little bit less likely to be true. It's more remote, less possible. There's more doubt about it. Okay? Just slightly more doubt.

So let's have a look at some examples.

Okay, so I might say: "I don't feel well." And my friend might say: "Oh dear - do you think it might be something you've eaten? Some food you've eaten. Do you think it might be, possibly?" With some doubt. Maybe she cooked the dinner so she doesn't want to think it was anything she cooked. So: "Do you think it might be?" Okay?

Another example, someone asks: "Where are you going for your holidays?" And I might reply: "We haven't decided yet, but we might go to Italy." It's possible, possible, but not definite. "We might go to Italy."

Another example, you're waiting for your friend to arrive, Anna. "Anna hasn't arrived yet - do you think she might have forgotten?" the arrangement to meet. "Do you think she might have forgotten?" It's not... It's not like her to forget, so there's a lot of doubt there. "She might have forgotten, but mm." Okay?

Are you afraid to answer the phone or make calls in English? This is very common among English learners because it is more difficult to understand a new language over the phone than face-to-face. In this lesson, I will cover all the different situations and problems that come up during phone calls, and show you how to solve them easily. I will also give you useful expressions you can use over the phone to make the call go more smoothly. Don't forget to do the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/real-en....glish-speaking-on-th to practice your phone conversation skills!

TRANSCRIPT

Well... Oo, actually I've got to go now because you know I'm at work. Yeah. I've just got to teach a lesson. Okay. Yeah, I'm teaching a lesson right now. Uh-huh. Okay, so I'll see ya later. Yeah? All right. See ya later, then. Bye. Bye. Sorry about that.

Hi. Oo. Pen. Hi. I'm Gill from engVid, and today-sorry-we have a lesson on the phone. Not on the phone. I was just on the phone. I apologize about that. Unexpected phone call. We're looking today at: "Phone Vocabulary". Okay? So words and phrases to use to do with making phone calls, being on the phone, calling people. Okay. Maybe just with your friends, phoning your friends, but also in your job if you have to use the phone at work - this is all useful stuff for that. Okay. Right. So, phone vocabulary.

First of all, if the phone rings you "answer the phone". Okay? Answer the phone. You say: "Oh, the phone is ringing. I'll have to answer the phone." Okay. Now, if you're making the call, you're phoning, you're making... Making a phone call. Okay? And somebody answers at the other end, you have to say something. So you might say: "Hello, is that Anne? Is that Anne?" So: "Hello, is that", and the name of the person that you want to speak to. That's more maybe informal if you're phoning somebody's home. If you're phoning an office, a business, you might say: "Hello. Could I speak to...?" This is a little bit more... More formal. "Could I speak to Mr. Jones?" Something like that. Okay.

Sometimes when you make a phone call and somebody answers, and you're not quite sure if it's the person you want or not, you don't quite recognize the voice, so you sometimes want to ask them their name to see if that is the person you were phoning to speak to. So you can say: "Who am I speaking to, please?" It's always a good idea to use "please" when you're asking a question on the phone. "Who am I speaking to, please?" And then they will say who they are and if they are the person you want to speak to, you can continue with your call; if they are not the person you want to speak to, you would use this: "Could I speak to Mr. Jones, please?" Okay, right.

Now, sometimes if you phone and the person at the other end, they want you to wait probably because they need to find the person you want to speak to, so they say: "Could you hang on?" or "Could you hold on?" That's the same thing. It just means to wait. "Hang on" or "Hold on". Or if they're being very polite or if this is you in an office taking a phone call, and it might be a customer, an important person, so you might say very politely: "Would you mind holding?" Instead of just saying: "Hang on", which is a little bit casual and informal, or even: "Hold on" which is a little... Not very... It's okay, but it's not very polite. This is much more polite: "Would you mind holding?" It's a much nicer way. "Would you mind holding, please?" is even better. Okay, so that's a good one to use.

And then say this is you going to try to find somebody in the office to take this phone call, you come back. If you have to go back to the same person after they've been holding on or hanging on, or holding, you come and say: "Sorry to keep you waiting. Sorry to keep you waiting." Especially if they're a customer. And, again: "Sorry", if there is other bad news like the person they want to speak to is not there: "Sorry, she's not here." You might say: "She's not here at the moment." At the moment. Or if that person is already on the phone talking to somebody else, you can say: "Sorry, he's on the other line", meaning the telephone line. "Sorry, he's on the other line."

So, when that situation happens and say it's you in an office taking the call, you don't want to just say: "Oh, sorry, he's on the other line" and then wait for the person to say something, like: "Oh well, okay then, good bye." You have to be helpful. You've got to then continue being helpful because this could be a customer or it could be the boss, it could be anybody. So you need to be helpful and say: "Sorry, he's on the other line. Can I take a message?" Okay? Take a message, to write down a message to say this person called, and either they will call again or can you call them back. So: "Can I take a message?" or "Can I give her a message?" Okay? And if it's you that's calling, you have phoned somewhere and the person is not available-okay?-you can say, politely: "Could I leave a message?" Okay?

In this lesson I will explain a little about how the UK political system works, and introduce you to some of the vocabulary. You'll learn about the major parties, local councils, constituencies, and more. So, welcome to the unpredictable world of UK politics! This is a great lesson to help you understand the news, even if you don't live in the UK. Listening to British news is a great way to practise your English, and understanding what they are talking about will really help! When I made this video in early 2017, I thought that the next UK General Election would not happen until 2020 -- how wrong I was! So here is the video, just a few days ahead of a surprise General Election in June 2017.

Native English speakers love to use expressions to show how they feel and think. In this lesson, I will teach you 12 common expressions that use the verb "think". Some examples include "It's later than you think", "Don't think better of it", "Don't think twice", and "think big". Watch the video to add some useful expressions to your English. You will think the world of this lesson! https://[a]www.engvid.com%2F12-think-expressions%2F[/a]

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com and today we're going to have a look at some expressions using the word "think". Okay? We've already had the lesson on the use of "think". This is more to do with expressions now, particular meanings.

So, let's have a look at the first example. And if you say: "What was I thinking?!" or "What were you thinking?!" and especially if you have a question mark and an exclamation mark afterwards-"What was I thinking?! Why did I do that?", "Why did you do that? What were you thinking?!"-it's like a criticism either of yourself or someone else because of something they have done. "Why did they do that? It was stupid. What were you thinking?! Oh, dear." Don't do it again, whatever it was. Okay, so that's a very useful expression. But you have to be a bit careful, though, how you use it. Be careful who you criticize. Uh-huh. Okay.

Next one, this is somebody who thinks too much without doing anything, so: "She tends to overthink things." Meaning she thinks about doing things or she dwells on things too much, maybe she gets a little bit depressed because she thinks too much. Too much thinking, not enough action is not always a good thing. It depends what the action is, of course. But: "She tends to overthink things." And the more you think about something, maybe the harder it is to actually do it, so you need a balance. Okay?

Now, this is about somebody's opinion of themselves. So: "He thinks of himself as a great artist." Okay? So he's not very modest. He's an artist, he paints paintings maybe, and he thinks he's really good. So for people to have a really high opinion of themselves is not always a good thing. A little bit of modesty is always useful. Okay? So: "He thinks of himself as a great artist." It sounds a little bit like a criticism. You know, he has a high opinion of himself. Okay.

Now, this one: "It's later than you think!" It is like a warning. It could be in a... In a horror film, a horror movie or something, you know, The Martian, The Landing: "It's later than you think!" It seems to have an American accent with it. Sort of something to frighten people. It could be part of an entertainment, though, like a film. It doesn't always mean just literally: "Oh, you think it's 3 o'clock and it's actually 4 o'clock. It's later than you think." It's an hour later than you think. So you could use it that way, but it usually has a special meaning to make people worry a little bit. Maybe people advertising, trying to sell insurance, life insurance. "How old are you? 40. It's later than you think and you haven't taken out life insurance yet. What will happen to your family if anything happens to you? It's later than you think." So companies, you know, insurance companies especially try to worry people, so you can be aware of that.

Okay, next example: "Come to think of it, I haven't seen her for a month or two." So, you're saying: "Well, now... Now I'm thinking about it, about that woman, now I'm thinking about her, I haven't seen her for a month or two." So you weren't aware that you hadn't seen her, but then when somebody mentions her name: "Oh, yeah, come to think of it, I haven't seen her for some time." So: "Come to think of it" is quite a useful phrase. Okay?

Next one, if someone says: "Oh, I'm just thinking aloud." or "I'm just thinking out loud." they're saying things, they're saying their thoughts, and maybe they don't make a lot of sense sometimes. If you say what you're thinking all the time, it can be very strange for other people. If you're speaking your thoughts all the time you have to be careful to select a little bit. If someone's having some ideas for a project and they're sort of brainstorming-yeah?-they're thinking aloud, thinking of different ideas... Thinking usually is silent, inside your head. But if you're saying what you're thinking, you're thinking aloud or you're thinking out loud. You're speaking your thoughts. And if you say: "Oh, don't... Don't mind me. I'm just thinking aloud. Don't take any notice of me. These are just my thoughts." You know? I have to arrange them later into some sort of order and sense. Okay? So, just thinking aloud.

Right, moving on. If you have an idea, but then later you're not quite sure it's a good idea, you say: "I did have an idea, but I've thought better of it." Meaning: "Well, it wasn't such a good idea. I thought better of it", meaning I'm not going to do that now, that idea.

When you are not feeling well, you should visit the doctor to get help. But how do you explain your problem in English? In this lesson, I will give you lots of vocabulary to help you describe what is wrong. There will also be some useful practical information about prescriptions and medicines. After watching, make sure to do the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/english....-vocabulary-visiting to test your understanding!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com, and oh dear, I've been working all day, I've got a terrible headache. I think I need to see the doctor. But later. I have to put you first, all of you watching. You're my priority. So, let's have a look today. The subject of the lesson is visiting the doctor when you have a headache or a pain somewhere else, if you're feeling sick, all of those things.

So, visiting the doctor. Going to the GP's surgery. Now, in the UK a doctor who has a... Where you go to them in a building, it's called their surgery. It doesn't mean they cut you open and do surgery. It's not that kind of surgery. That's done in a hospital in an operating theatre, but this is like... Often it's just an ordinary house type of building, you go in, you see the doctor. It's called the doctor's surgery. And GP is sometimes used. It stands for "General Practitioner". It just means that doctor deals with all kinds of different problems. People come in off the street when they have something wrong with them.

So, visiting the doctor. First of all, you have to make an appointment. It's not called a meeting. It's an appointment. You can either phone, go in. Some doctors you can book online through their website, making an appointment. Then you go in to see the doctor or possibly a nurse, some surgeries have nurses as well as doctors. You go in to see the doctor or to see the nurse. Okay? You have to describe your symptoms, like, what is wrong. My headache. Or: "Oh, feeling sick", that's a symptom, what you're feeling that is wrong, why you are there. Describe the symptoms. And we will look at some specific symptoms in the second half of the lesson. Right.

You may, depending on what the problem is, the doctor or the nurse may want to give you a physical examination. They want to sort of feel things and have a look, and... So sometimes you may want someone, if you're a lady, you may want a female doctor. If you're a man, you may want to see a male doctor. In the UK it's very easy to ask for whichever you prefer. If it's a bit embarrassing, you may want to see a doctor who is the same gender as you. So that's okay. Right.

When you see the doctor and the doctor decides what kind of medication you need or medicine, medication, the doctor gives you a piece of paper which is called a prescription which is for medicine, either pills... Another word for "pills" is "tablets", little things you take out of a bottle and swallow. It might be cream. If you've burnt your skin, you might have some cream to put on to heal it. Or liquid if you need something, like to drink some kind of tonic. There may be a liquid in a bottle that you have to drink. Okay.

You've got your prescription, piece of paper, you have to go and get the medicine because the doctor at the surgery does not usually give you the medication. You have to go, you have to take your prescription to a pharmacy. The other name for "pharmacy" is "chemist" or "chemist shop" where they have a place where they keep lots of pills, all sorts of drugs and things, legal drugs I hasten to add. When you say "drugs", people sometimes think: "Oh, illegal." But no, these are drugs. Medicine is drugs. Okay? So you go to get your prescription, you get your medication.

The instructions on the bottle or on the container tells you the dosage, how much to take. Maybe two pills per day, four pills per day, one pill after each meal, that kind of thing. That's the dosage or the dose. And how often, the frequency; once a day, twice a day, so on.

Hopefully with one set of medication you will be better within a few days, but if there is still a problem after a few days and you've taken all your pills or whatever, you may have to make a return visit to the doctor. So another appointment. You may need a repeat prescription, which is more... More drugs because the first drugs haven't worked. A repeat prescription for the same thing. If the doctor decides to try different drugs, then it will be a different prescription, not a repeat prescription. Okay, so that's just the general introduction to the whole process, and we will now move on and have a look at the symptoms and how to describe what is wrong. Okay.

Okay, so here we have the various symptoms that you may have to describe to the doctor or to the nurse. First of all, the word "ache" is pronounced like a "k". It looks like "h", but it's pronounced: "ake" with a "k" sound. You can have a backache. Oh, back is aching. Stomach ache.

Ever wondered about the English in Game of Thrones? In this video, I'll explain the accents of Jon Snow and Ygritte. You'll learn WHY they sound tougher and stronger than other characters! Want to try speaking in a northern accent, like the Wildlings and the Starks do? You know nothin'! I'll show you how it's done! You'll hear and be able to practice how the tougher characters from Game of Thrones and other fantasy shows and movies speak. This lesson is important for anyone living in or visiting the Seven Kingdoms, and crucial if you're planning to go north of the Wall. Don't wait! Winter is coming.

TAKE THE QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/learn-t....he-game-of-thrones-a

TRANSCRIPT

"Righ' foo', lef' foo', right foot, left foot". Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson is on the northern UK accent, and we've used as our example a program called Game of Thrones, and you may be a big fan of this program. I think it's very popular. But if you're not, if you've never seen an episode of Game of Thrones, then just to explain that it's a historical, medieval, fantasy about power struggles mostly, hence the "Throne" in the title.

And we're looking today at one episode which comes from series 3, episode 7 which shows two of the characters, Jon Snow and Ygritte, a young man and a young woman walking through the countryside, and they're going off to fight somewhere. So they're having a conversation on the way. So we've taken some of the words that they say during their conversations to look at how they pronounce them. So they're both speaking in a northern UK accent, which is around the sort of Yorkshire, Lancashire area about 200 miles north of London. But the actors themselves are not northern. They are performing in a northern accent, so it's possible to learn different accents. The actress actually comes from Scotland, but she speaks in normal life, in her real life she speaks with a southern London, quite a cultured-London accent; whereas the actor, the male actor who plays Jon Snow, he's from the London area and he speaks with a London accent. So they are both speaking with accents that they don't normally speak. But anyway, we're going to look at some of the words from that episode today, and I will demonstrate how they're pronounced compared with the standard RP, Received Pronunciation, southern way of saying the words. Okay. So, right.

So the idea with the northern UK accent, it fits the medieval fantasy type of program more probably than the southern accent because it has a sort of historical feel to it. It sounds strong. The people who speak that way sound very strong. And this word: "gritty", "grit" is little pieces of stone. So if you think of stone it's very hard and tough, it's hard to break. So if somebody is gritty, they're quite strong and tough. So the northern accent has this strong, tough, gritty feel to it. So it fits with the historical drama where people are living quite difficult lives, and they haven't got central heating, for example, and they haven't got electricity. So, life is hard. Okay?

So, okay, let's have a look at the... Some of the vowel sounds which are different from the southern. So, first of all, these examples. In sorts of southern RP, what we call "RP", Received Pronunciation, these would be pronounced: "snow", "won't", "don't", "know", "road", so it's the "o" sound. Just an "o" sound. But in the northern accent that's used in the program, it's much broader. It's: "snoow", and "woon't", "doon't", "knoow", "rooad", it's like that. Okay? So maybe you'd like to try repeating after me: "snow", "won't", "don't", "know", "road", so you have to really push your mouth forward and make it quite dark and heavy-sounding. Okay? So that's the "o" sound or the "oo" sound. Okay, it's a bit longer. You hold it on for longer as well. Right.

Next one, these words would, in RP, would be: "blood", "love", "drums", and "come" as in "come on", "come on. Let's go", "come". But... So it's a sort of "ah" sound. But in the northern accent it's: "blood", and "love", "drums", "come". So, again, it's much darker and "oo", pushing your mouth forward again. So perhaps you'd like to repeat after me again. So: "blood", "love", "drums", "come on". So, I hope you know all these words. Drums, the things that you hit, a musical instrument, percussion instrument. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Drums which are used in military, you know, marches and so on for people to march along to because they give a strong rhythm. So: "drums", "come on", okay?

Next one, in the south people would say: "save", "make", "lady", "brave", "day". So it's a bit like "a", like that. But again, in the northern accent it's a longer sound, and it's: "saave", "maake", "laady", "braave", "daay", so it's much sort of wider and, again, longer and darker. You make the sound a bit darker as well. So, would you like to repeat after me? "Save", "make", "lady", "brave", "day".

Learn ALL the negative contractions (isn't, aren't, wasn't, won't, and more) of the verb TO BE, in the present, past, and future tenses. This is basic English, so learn it right the first time, or review these if you're at a more advanced level -- many English students make mistakes with these! I'll even show you a non-standard, ungrammatical form, so that you'll recognise it when you hear it, though my advice is to avoid using it yourself! If you aren't sure what this lesson is about, I'm not joking -- all you need to do is click and all will be revealed!

TAKE THE QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/english....-grammar-to-be-negat

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson is on negative contractions or abbreviations, so this is something you will hear a lot when people speak because people use these abbreviations or contractions all the time, in informal speech especially because it's quicker. Okay? So we're looking at some contractions using the negative because the way it's constructed is a bit different from the way it's done with the positive statement. Okay, so negative contractions, verb "to be".

So, let's have a look first of all at the present tense. So, the positive would be: "I am", but the negative is: "I am not", but in the contracted form people say all the time when they're speaking: "I'm not. I'm not." And when it's written down you have an apostrophe which shows that there's something missing. So the letter "a" is missing here for "I am", so: "I'm not." Okay? Then... That's the first-person singular. So then second-person singular, "you": "You're not" because "am" changes to "are", "a-r-e", so: "You are not" contracted becomes "You're not" with an apostrophe, but then with all of these after the first person, all the other ones have an alternative version. So, you can either say: "You're not" or "You aren't", "You are", and instead of "not" spelt out, you've got "n't", so there are two different ways of saying it, either: "You're not" or "You aren't", and there isn't really much difference between them in terms of which is... They're both similar, they're both informal spoken. There isn't one that sounds more old-fashioned than the other. They're just alternatives. So: "You're not" or "You aren't". You may have heard people using this form and perhaps being confused by it, or you may be used to one form and not the other one, so this is giving you both here. So: "You're not" or "You aren't". Okay, then the third-person singular, so it's: "he", "she", "it", third-person singular. So it's either: "He's not" for "He is not", "He's not", or "She's not", or "It's not"; or it can be: "He isn't", and again, it's the "not" part that gets the apostrophe rather than the "is" part. "He's not" or "He isn't"; "She's not", "She isn't"; "It's not", "It isn't". Okay. And then moving on to the plural, first-person plural, "we", so: "We are not" becomes "We're not", "We are not". You may also be not quite sure how to pronounce these when they're contracted, so I hope this lesson helps you with that as well. Some people get a bit confused about how to say it, so: "We are not", "We're not", or: "We aren't", "We aren't". Okay? And then "you" will be the same again here in the plural, the second-person plural is just the same: "You", "You're not", "You aren't". And then we have the third-person plural for "they": "They are not" becomes "They're not", "They're not", or: "They aren't", "They aren't". Okay? So, I hope that's helpful, there.

And then there's a funny thing that happens, there's a non-standard version of this which you might hear in the UK, especially in the London area, but I think it's also used in other parts of the country, too. And it's a non-standard, which some people call bad grammar, but to be more polite, it's called non-standard. It's not the standard grammar, and it's this "ain't", and again an "'t" shows that it's not, but "a", "not", nobody says: "a not", but in the contracted form it's pronounced: "ain't" and it can be used for all the pronouns, which is quite useful really that it doesn't change. It may be non-standard, but at least it doesn't change so it's easy, although I wouldn't advise you to use it because it sounds very casual, very informal. So you would say: "I ain't", "I ain't", "You ain't", "He ain't", "She ain't", "It ain't", "We ain't", "They ain't", so meaning: "I ain't going to the cinema", "We ain't going tonight", "He ain't working today", things like that. So, "ain't" you will hear probably people saying it, especially if you're in the UK; you might hear it on television, on the radio, in films, and so on. Okay?

And then back to the standard grammar again now, going to the past tense, so: "Was not" becomes "Wasn't", "Wasn't", and "Were not" becomes "Weren't", "Weren't". So: "was" and "were" depending on which person. So: "I wasn't", "You weren't", "He/She/It wasn't", "We weren't", "They weren't".

Interested in the UK and the British Royal Family? Don't know who all these dukes and duchesses are? In this lesson, I'll explain how the British monarchy works. You'll learn about the members and titles of the royal family, the history of monarchy in the UK, and how our constitutional monarchy works. I'll answer questions like: What is the queen's job? Why is there no king right now, even though Queen Elizabeth II has a husband? Who will inherit the throne?... and more. Watch this lesson to understand the royal family and the culture of monarchy in the UK.

TAKE THIS QUIZ TO TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE: https://www.engvid.com/british-royal-family/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson is all about the British Royal Family. Okay, so if you probably see items in the news about our royal family, you'll have seen the queen, Queen Elizabeth; maybe her husband, Prince Philip; but they're a big family, and also not all countries have a royal family so I've just put this lesson together with a bit of information to tell you a little bit more about them. Okay, right, so the British Royal Family are also known as the House of Windsor, because Windsor is their name, which comes from Windsor. This place here, Windsor Castle is one of their homes. So years ago they decided to use the name Windsor.

So, some people like the royal family, admire them. They think of them as kind of celebrities, just like film stars, and sports celebrities. They're reported in the newspapers in a similar way. You get gossip about them. In some newspapers who like to write a lot of gossip, if they've heard something, it may not be accurate, but they've heard a story about some member of the royal family, and they print the story. They might have a photograph to go with it. So they're always in the news, the royal family, for one reason or another, either a good reason or a bad reason. Pretty much every day you can hear something about the royal family or read something in the newspaper. So, some people do like them, and even, you know, think of them as celebrities, and maybe give too much time and thought to them.

But then at the other extreme, some people dislike them because they're thinking of the fact that they spend a lot of money, they have all these buildings which are expensive to look after, people say: "What work do they do?" They don't seem to do any work, so why should they live such rich lives if they don't do anything? But, of course, a lot of the royal family do things all the time. They're not working for money always, sometimes they do that as well, they have jobs some of them with a salary, but some of them, they may not be working and being paid for it, but they're doing kind of diplomatic work, they're meeting visitors from other countries, they're being kind of ambassadors, that sort of thing. So they keep busy, and they're patrons of charities and they go to events, and they give their support to things and so on. So, a lot of the royal family do keep quite busy trying to live useful lives, and so I think if they didn't do that there would be a lot more sort of criticism of them. But because you can't see that they're doing things, working hard, that stops a lot of people from criticizing and saying we shouldn't have a royal family. Some people are called Republicans, and they say we should have a president instead of a queen or a king. We should have a president and a prime minister instead of a queen and a prime minister. So there are Republicans around and have been for more than a hundred years, people who wanted to get rid of the royal family, but it hasn't happened yet.

Okay, so the kind of system we have in the UK, it's called a constitutional monarchy. The "monarchy" part is to do with the royal family, with the queen. The monarch, so the word "monarch" means king or queen. The "constitutional" part is to do with politics, and the government, and parliament. So what happens, really, is the government, the MPs, the ministers in parliament, they make the decisions. The government makes the decisions. And if they have a new piece of, an act of parliament, a new law, for example, the queen just has to sign it. If it's been democratically decided already by the politicians that this will become law, the queen can't just say: "No, I don't like that. I'm not going to sign it." She just has to sign it because it's gone through a democratic process. So that's why it's a constitutional monarchy. It's the monarch or king or queen governed by the parliament, by the politicians. Okay.

So, let's have a look at some of the vocabulary which is fairly simple most of it. So a king or queen is the monarch, the head of state if you like. Usually any children they have will be prince or princess, so prince for male, princess of female. There are some other titles used as well, which are sort of high aristocratic titles. Duke for the male, duchess for the female.

Do we say "I have catched a cold" or, "I have caught a cold"? From present simple to present perfect, how do you know which past participle to use? Wait a minute. Use a PAST participle with the present perfect? Yes! In fact, there are two types of irregular past participles, and in this lesson, I will teach you when to use them. Be sure to complete the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/irregular-past-participles/ to confirm your understanding.

Study and download a list of the most common irregular verbs in English here: https://www.engvid.com/english....-resource/common-irr

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson is on irregular past tenses. Okay? And in particular: "Irregular Past Participles"-okay?-of irregular verbs. So, let me just show you some examples to make it clearer what I mean. Okay.

So what we're doing, we're looking at three different tenses to show how the verb changes, so the present simple of the verb, then the past simple, and then when we use the present perfect that's when you have to use the past participle. And what happens is sometimes it's the same for both the past simple and the present perfect, but with other verbs it's different. So I just have two examples here to show you, one verb where it's the same and one verb where it's different just to illustrate. And then in the second part of the lesson we will have a list of two separate sets of verbs, and I will test you on your knowledge of the past participles of those and they're listed under "same" and "different" just to clarify which ones stay the same, which ones are different. Okay. So let's have a look at some examples, and then it should all become clearer.

So, first of all, this is the present simple: "I catch a cold every winter." Every winter, achoo, I'm sneezing. Oh, terrible, every winter I catch a cold. So for something that happens regularly, that is one way that we use the present simple when something happens regularly. Every, every winter I catch a cold, so the verb is "to catch", okay? So then if we put it into the past tense, the past simple and we say: "Last month... I caught a cold last month." Okay? So: "caught" is the irregular past simple form of the verb "to catch". "I caught a cold last month." I caught a cold last month, but I'm much better now. That sort of idea. Okay. So then the third example here is using the present perfect which involves using this word: "have" as an auxiliary, as an extra verb. So: "I have caught another cold!" Oh dear, I only had a cold... I caught a cold last month, and now I have caught another cold. That's one cold after another. So this is in the more recent past, the present perfect using "have": "I have caught another cold." Meaning just recently. So you can see here that "caught" stays the same, it's the same. So it's an example where the past simple and the present perfect stay the same, but let's have a look now at an example where there's a change and where they're different. Okay?

So, back to the present simple again and the verb is "to write", which is an irregular verb, so: "I write to my cousin once a year." I have a cousin who is not on email, and it makes it rather inconvenient to keep in touch with her, so writing letters and putting them in the post I find a terrible job these days. I'm so used to using email for everybody, but I have a cousin who's not on email and she will not have a computer. So I have to write a letter to her. "I write to my cousin once a year." Okay? So, again, that's using the present simple for a regular action. Once a year is the regular action, I write. Okay, so then if we move to the past simple: "Last week... I wrote to my cousin last week." So that's the past simple. So, the form there for the past simple is "wrote", from "write" to "wrote", but then if we use the present perfect using the auxiliary "have": "Today... I have written to my cousin today." So recent past, it's a completed action. "I have written". Thank goodness I've got that letter written and posted, and it's gone now, so that's a job done for the year. So: "I have written", so you can see there that this form is not the same. They're the same here: "I caught", "I have caught", but with "write": "I wrote", "I have written to my cousin today." So you can see how past simple and present perfect with different verbs, sometimes they stay the same, other times they're different. Okay. So let's move on to the second part of the lesson, and we'll have a look at two lists of verbs, and I will test you on your knowledge of the past participles.

Okay, so let's have a look at these which are the verbs which stay the same in the past simple and the present perfect, and I will just write that form in, but just to give you an opportunity first to think what it is. So: "to send", I send in the present.

I will teach you when to use 'a' and when to use 'an' in an English sentence. Just watch this video, and you will never be confused by this again. I'll give examples and practice sentences so you can test yourself at https://www.engvid.com/easy-english-a-an/ to make sure you have understood.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from engVid, back to give you another lesson on an aspect of English, and today we're looking at the indefinite article, which is "a" and "an", and when to use each one. So: "a", "an", indefinite article. So, there's one main rule to this that you use "a" before a consonant sound and "an" before a vowel sound. But as you'll see, sometimes there are some little exceptions where you just have to bear something in mind to do with how the word is pronounced, rather than how it's spelt. You'll see that as we go through.

So, just to look at the list here, the letter "a", some people will say: "a" which is okay if you're emphasizing it, but normally we just pronounce it "uh". So: "uh bag", "uh coat", you don't say: "a bag", "a coat". It doesn't sound very, you know, normal. So: "a bag", "a coat", "a dress". And then here's the first exception to the rule, this word is spelt with an "E", it begins with an "E", which you might think: "Well, that's one of the vowels: a, e, i, o u. Why is a vowel here for 'E'?" And the answer is that when you pronounce this word you're making a "y" sound, so it's not "e", "e", "European", it's: "Yuropean", so: "a European", and that's why there are sometimes these exceptions, so that is one of them.

Okay. So, then, continuing: "a fridge", "a giraffe", "a kitchen", "a map", "a sound". And again, letter "u" is a vowel, but the pronunciation is this "y" sound again, so: "a university". Okay, so it's important to know how the word sounds before you know whether to write "a" or "an". Okay? So I hope that's clear.

So let's move on to the other column. This one, "an" comes before a vowel sound. And, again, we pronounce it... This is: "a", this is "un", "un". We don't say: "an". People do, again, for emphasis, but: "un", because this is a very small, little word, it's not one of the most important words in a sentence, we don't usually emphasize it. So: "an artist", "an exhibition", "an insult". If you're not sure what "insult" is, if someone says something bad about you, they've... That's an insult. If you... If you hear them as well, you say: "That's an insult. How can you insult me like that?" So, that's an insult, an insult.

"An offer", make me an offer. "An upset", again, if you're not sure of the word "upset", if you hear somebody insulting you, you will become upset and it becomes an upset. That was an upset when I heard that insult. So: "an upset". Okay? And then, finally, one other exception, here's one beginning with "h", but it's one of the small number of words beginning with "h" where you don't pronounce the "h", so it's pronounced: "onour", so it's as if it began with an "o", so: "an honour". We don't say: "h-onour", it's: "onour", so: "an honour". So, that's another little exception. Okay, so I hope that's clear. And we'll now move on to a second board, where I'll give you a little test where you can choose which of these two to put in the gaps. Okay.

Okay, so now we have a test, and it's for you to decide whether to put "a" or "an" in each gap. Okay, so let's go.

"Do you have _____ pen?"
Which would you put there? "Do you have a pen?" Okay? Because "p" is a consonant, "pen". "A pen", okay.

"I'm looking for _____ cup."
What would you put there? So: "I'm looking for a cup", because "c" is another consonant. Okay?

Next one:
"Shall we boil _____ egg? Shall we boil _____ egg?"
So "e", is that a consonant or is it a vowel? So, it's a vowel, isn't it? So it's: "Shall we boil an egg?" Okay. Right.

Next one:
"How much is _____ Euro worth?"
"Worth" meaning: What is the value of...? Maybe compared to dollars or pounds. So: "How much is _____ Euro worth?" Euro, it's an "E", but remember it's also about how it sounds. So, when you say: "Yuro", you're making a "y" sound, like that: "ya". So, it's not "an" in this case, it's "a". "How much is a Euro worth?" Okay. Right.

So, next one. This is an ominous thing that sometimes people say:
"We need to have _____ talk."
And you think: "Oh my goodness, what is this going to be about?" Anyway. "We need to have a talk." Okay? Because "t" is another consonant. "A talk". Right.

Next one. You see a tree with apples growing, and you feel like eating one, so you say:
"I'm going to pick _____ apple."
So, which one would you put there? "I'm going to pick an apple." Because "a" is a vowel sound, okay.

Next one:
"They used to have _____ dog."

What's it like to move to and live in London? In this video, I interview Kamila, one of my students, who moved to the UK from Poland. You will hear about Kamila's experiences of coming to the UK to live, study, and work. Kamila talks about her first impressions, the weather, the food, and the differences between her life in Poland and in London. And of course, we talk about her experience of learning English and adapting to life and work in an English-speaking country!

Watch over 1000 English lesson videos for free at https://[a]www.engvid.com%2F[/a]

TRANSCRIPT

Gill: Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com and today's lesson is not really a lesson because we're doing something a little bit different. We're having an interview with someone I know who has come to the UK from another country and is living and working here. So, I'd like to introduce Camilla, and we're going to ask her some questions about her experience of coming to the UK and living here. So, let's get started. So, Camilla, thank you for coming.

Kamila: Thank you for having me.

Gill: It's lovely to see you. You're very welcome. Thank you. And so, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're from, how you came to decide to come to the UK?

Kamila: Yes, so my name is Camilla. I come from Poland. So my first language is Polish. Before I arrived in the UK I have lived in Warsaw for a couple of years. And so I worked there for a bank for over seven years in corporate banking as Product Manager. And here in London I work for a fintech startup. I'm a credit analyst of small companies. I really like my job. I enjoy it. There is a lot of going on there. My company is still developing, so I also have opportunities to develop in diverse areas.

Gill: Okay.

Kamila: So yeah, I'm really happy to be part of it.

Gill: Oh, that's good. So, lovely. So, "fintech", that means financial...?

Kamila: Financial and technology.

Gill: Finance and technology.

Kamila: Yes, exactly.

Gill: Used together for...

Kamila: Yes, exactly.

Gill: Financial, for funding.

Kamila: Yeah, because... Yeah, exactly. Because we lent money for small companies, but making our credit decisions we use a lot of technology. We use some algorithms and so on, so that's why fintech.

Gill: Okay, lovely. So, have you always spoken English? When did you first start to learn English in your life?

Kamila: Yeah, so I learned English in high school and during my studies. Also after I finished my education I attended some English lessons in Poland where I was working there. And so I felt that I understood quite a lot, but I had a fear of speaking because I think that in my opinion teachers put a lot of pressure on drama, which is good of course, but there is... Because of that there is a little time for practicing speaking, so a lot of people fear of speaking. They don't feel confident enough to speak. Yeah, and that was also my case.

Gill: Yes. I think I experienced the same when I was at school. It was... A lot of it was based on written, and reading and writing.

Kamila: Yes, exactly.

Gill: And exams, writing exams and the tests.

Kamila: Yes, exactly.

Gill: So... So... So since then, do you feel that you...? Was it when you came to the UK that you started getting more practice at speaking?

Kamila: Yes, exactly. So, I feel that since I arrived here in the UK my English language skills have improved. I feel more confident. So, yeah, I decided that first couple month I would work on my English, so I read lots of newspapers, I watched some TV programs, I watched some TV series with subtitles, and I also attended private English lessons with great teacher.

Gill: Oh. [Laughter]

Kamila: Who has also helped me not only to improve my spoken English, but also to... It gave me some insight into English culture and politics sometimes, and everyday life, and things to see in London, so I really enjoyed that and I would recommend it to everyone who...

Gill: Yeah.

Kamila: Is thinking about moving to UK, for example.

Gill: Yeah, so I remember we... We've had a lot of very interesting conversations about English politics.

Kamila: Yeah.

Gill: And about the culture and different types of food.

Kamila: Yeah, yeah.

Gill: And all of that.

Kamila: Yes, exactly.

Gill: So... So, did you ever come to the UK for a holiday before you came to live here?

Kamila: Yeah, so it's a funny story because the first school trip abroad I took part in was to London, I was 11 years old, but I can still recall some memories from this trip. For example, my first impression was that there were lots of people walking along the pavement, so it was really crowded. And also I saw a lot of people very smart dressed and it was a really big surprise for me because then I lived in small city, so you know, that smart clothes were designed for some special occasions, like wedding or something, and here I saw a lot of people so smart, like dressed up, so...

Gill: Yes, being the capital city.

Kamila: Yeah.

Learn English with a funny traditional Christmas song. In the UK and in North America, people love to sing Christmas songs during the December holiday season. You'll hear these songs playing in shops at this time as well. You won't really be able to avoid these songs no matter what, even if you HATE them, so it would help if you understood the words to one or two of them, right? Because these songs have been around for a long time, you'll learn different vocabulary from these songs than you would from current pop music. Expand your vocabulary and your lungs at the same time and sing along with me!

TAKE THE QUIZ OR SANTA WON'T BRING YOU A PRESENT: https://www.engvid.com/the-12-....days-of-christmas-si

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we're going to be looking at a song, and it's a Christmas song. So, Christmas in the UK, Christmas Day is the 25th of December, but the Christmas period is longer than just one day. There are different versions and different traditions, but one tradition is that there are 12 days of Christmas. So, in that tradition the 12 days of Christmas run from the 25th of December through to the 5th of January, and the 5th of January is known as 12th night. Okay, and it's the time, the date when you start taking down all the Christmas decorations, get rid of the tree if you had a tree, put things away, get back to normal again, Christmas is over.

So... But this song has come out of that 12-day tradition, and it's quite a funny song because some... It's about somebody who sends his girlfriend a present on each day of the 12 days of Christmas. But it's not just one present each time, it's... It's the present for that day, but also all the presents from the previous day as well, so it's sort of... It's a huge number of presents and it's impossible, really, for it to happen, but this is it. So, when I say: "12 days of Christmas", of course people joke about Christmas starting around October because if you walk into a supermarket in the UK, probably in other countries as well where Christmas is celebrated, the supermarkets often put their Christmas things out in October, and you go in and you see mince pies, Christmas cards for sale, and Christmas puddings, and: "Oh no, not Christmas already and it's only October", so Christmas sometimes feels like 12 weeks, not 12 days, but anyway, this song limits it to 12 days. So let's have a look at the words.

So, it begins... And I will teach you the tune as well in a minute. It begins: "On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree." So, a partridge is a kind of bird, okay; and a pear tree, a tree which grows pears obviously. Okay, so that's the first day. Just one present. But then by the second day: "On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love sent to me 2 Turtle Doves", that's two more birds, doves, "and a Partridge in a Pear Tree". So, now the recipient... The person receiving the gifts has two pear trees with two partridges and two turtle doves by the end of day two. Okay?

So, this is a song, so at this point I think I need to sing you how it sounds so far. So, here we go: "On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a Partridge in a Pear Tree. On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love sent to me 2 Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree." Okay, so that's how it goes. It's quite repetitive. It's the same tune all the way through, basically, but I'll sing it again as we go through, as the song gets longer and longer. And you'll see also that this is quite a useful song for learning the numbers when you say: "First, 2nd, 3rd" because in English when you put the number and "nd" or "3rd", "4" and then after... From 4 onwards you have "th", but can see the "st", when you have "first" you put "1st", "second, 2nd; third, 3rd", and then "fourth, 4th". So this song helps you with those numbers as well.

Okay, so the 3rd day... "On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love sent to me 3 French Hens", so more birds. Lots of birds flying around. 3 French hens, whatever French hens are, I'm not sure, but there we are. So, third day the person receives three French hens, two turtle doves, and another partridge in a pear tree, so all of these things are adding up. Okay. Fourth day, are you ready? Are you still with me? So: "On the 4th day of Christmas my true love sent to me 4 Calling Birds". So, more birds, calling. The birds that make calling sounds. "4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree." Okay?

So, the fifth day, this line is a little bit different because it sort of slows down and there's a bit of a pause, so it's a good place to breathe a bit. So: "On the 5th day of Christmas my true love sent to me 5 Gold Rings." So, that's a bit slower and you can take your time over that. "5 Gold Rings, 4 Calling Birds, 3 French Hens, 2 Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree." So, okay, and so it goes on. So you get the idea of how the song works.

Did you ever wonder how the months of the year got their names? Maybe you know it has something to do with gods and mythology or Roman emperors, but don't know the details. Some things don't even seem to make sense. For instance, an octagon has eight sides, but October is not the eighth month, it's the tenth! What's going on? Watch this video, and you won't have to wonder anymore! You'll understand why January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December all have the names that they do! After watching this video, watch my other video about how the names of the days of the week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aEsu3EU88k

Take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/how-did....-the-months-get-thei

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. This is Gill here from engVid, and today's lesson is on the subject of the "Months of the Year" and where the names for the months come from. This links to an earlier lesson I did on the days of the week and where those names come from. And this is very similar, really, because a lot of the names come from Roman times, the Roman Empire, the emperors and so on, Roman mythology, gods and goddesses, that kind of thing, as well as a few Latin words. So, let's have a look.

The months of the year, so we begin with January, and the God Janus, the god of doors... If you see a statue or a picture of Janus, you see two faces looking in two different directions, usually left and right. The god who looks both ways, back to the past and forward to the future, and also with doors, of course, you either go in through the door or out through the door, so it's about two directions, a place of transition. Okay? So that's January, coming from Janus. Okay.

February, this is maybe not so clear where the name comes from, but people think it comes from the word... The Latin word "februare" which means to purify, because at that time of year in the Roman Empire there was a Festival of Forgiveness where people were forgiven for things that they'd done. So it was a kind of purification period. So it may be that February comes from that, februare. Okay.

Then we have March, which is named after the god of war, Mars. Okay. And at one time for a long time March was the first month in the Roman calendar. It was counted from here, and then presumably they went to the end and January, February came at the end. So, Mars... March was the first month of the year in the Roman Empire calendar. But that changed in the 16th century when Pope Gregory brought in his Gregorian Calendar and made January the first month of the year officially, and that explains a little bit what we will be coming to at the end of the list where these numbers don't make sense, but we'll come to that. Okay, so that's March.

April, Aprilis in the Latin name, and it could come, people think, from the Latin word to open: "apperire", and if you think of flowers in the spring opening, it's that kind of idea after the winter, flowers start to appear, so it's a springtime kind of word. Okay.

May is named after Maia, the Roman goddess who was the mother of Mercury.

June named after Juno, another goddess who was the wife of Jupiter.

July is named after the famous emperor, Julius Caesar who was born in that month. He was born in that month when it was called Quintilis, which is the Latin word for fifth, which explains if you start with March as one... One, two, three, four, five, July was the fifth month at that time. But they renamed it anyway after Julius Caesar and it's now called July. Okay.

And similarly, with August, that used to be called the sixth month, Latin, Sextilis, but it was named... It was changed and named after Augustus Caesar in the 8th century BC. So, August comes from the emperor Augustus, okay.

And then the last four are just based on the numbers, and this is where it... This is why it seems strange that September nowadays, it's not the seventh month at all, it's the ninth month, but at that time when they were counting from March, it was the seventh month. That's why it's so confusing. So: "septem" Latin for 7th, September. October, "octo", Latin for 8th. November, "novem", Latin for 9th. December, "decem", Latin for 10th, so that explains why those months don't have the right number connection at all. So, that explains that mystery. And it explains also how we have this influence from so many hundreds of years ago from the Roman Empire and we've never really replaced that system. It's a bit like the days of the week, with the northern and southern mythology names. It would be too difficult, probably to try to change the names now, so we still have those names from hundreds of years ago.

So, there we are. So I hope that's been useful. And as I mentioned, we already have a lesson on the days of the week, and a lot of them are also based on the Roman... Roman mythology and also the northern Norse mythology from the northern European area. […]

The verb "get" is used all the time in English, and in many different ways. In this vocabulary lesson I will give you some slightly advanced examples of how it is used. We'll go over eleven different uses. So, why not get a move on, get yourself together, and watch the video! Be sure to also watch my other video on ways to use "get" to take your learning even further! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Dj6j5rbKc

Take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/11-uses-of-get-english/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're going to look at the verb "to get". Now, we've looked at this verb in other lessons, but that's because it is used so much, in so many different ways that it does need several lessons to cover the different ways that it's used. And we have 11 expressions here which are a little bit more difficult to understand. If you translate each word individually, you probably still might not understand what the meaning really is, because these are, like, metaphorical or idiomatic expressions which really need to be explained in other words. So, let's have a look and I think you'll see what I mean by that. Okay.

So, the first one is: "To get out of hand". If things get out of hand... Well, you think: "Hand. Out of hand?" It means things get out of control. So if you imagine you're holding something with your hand, you're controlling it; but if things get out of hand, they go free, anything could happen then. So, if you're losing control of something, you could say: "Things are getting out of hand." Okay.

Secondly: "To get rid of something". This word "rid", it means to throw something away usually or give something away that you don't want anymore. "Let's get rid of it. You know, that old chair, it's broken. It's just taking up space in the room; we can't sit on it, we can't get it repaired. Let's get rid of it." Okay. Throw it away, give it away, just leave it on the street, some people do, they leave all sorts of things on the street, and the local council have to come and pick them up. So, to get rid of something, okay, that you don't want anymore.

Next one: "To get used to something" is when it's a new thing or maybe a new person, "to get used to someone", to get used to a new person. If you're working in an office, a new person starts working there, maybe they're a bit different from normal, from your other colleagues for some reason, you have to get used to them; their personality, the things they say, their way of working. So, you have to get used to them. Or to get used to some situation, some new situation. Okay.

"To get back home", so "get back" is a phrasal verb, verb plus preposition. We're here at a party, but we're a bit tired, it's not very exciting, we want to get back home. We'd rather be at home; we would prefer to be at home. "Let's get back home, shall we? It's late anyway." So, that's fairly straightforward.

"To get hold of something" is just to hold, to get hold of. Maybe it could be in a situation where somebody is falling down a cliff or something, they could be falling off a building, and to stop themselves from falling, they need to get hold of something, a curtain in a window or a tree growing on the cliff, or whatever it is, get hold of something before you fall right down a very long way. So: "Oh, I've got to get a hold of something." Okay?

"To get going". "Get going", "We need to get going". "We need to go", but it's a way of saying: We need to get going. We need to start, start travelling, or to get started on a job that you're doing. Right?

Another phrasal verb: "To get together for a chat", for example, or to get together for a meal, all sorts of reasons. So: "To get together" is to meet someone, a friend, relative. "Let's get together next week for a chat, for a talk, for a meal. Just get together because we haven't seen each other for a while." Okay.

"To get a move on", if you're, you know, it's time we got a move on, we need to get moving, either you've got to be somewhere else, we need to leave here and start travelling to get a move on. You've got to move forward. All right.

"To get on in your career", "to get on", another phrasal verb, is to progress, maybe promotions, new positions, learning new skills. You're getting on earning a higher salary, you're getting on making progress in your career, in your job, your profession.

This kind of getting on, though, has a different meaning. This is when somebody is getting older. I've put "She", but it could equally be "He". If they're getting on a bit, it's a way of saying: "Oh, you know, they're getting quite old now", not that that's a bad thing, but maybe, I don't know. Possibly for the kind of job where you need to be very fit, physically fit, or maybe a ballet dancer, for example, they can't continue being a ballet dancer probably from the age of 50 or 60; they might do training of other ballet dancers, but: "She's getting on a bit now." […]

Did you know that the little word 'the' can be pronounced in two different ways? But when do you use each pronunciation? In this lesson, I will explain a simple rule that will tell you how to pronounce it in all cases. Watch this pronunciation lesson and erase your mistakes!

Next, watch this lesson on the difference between 'A' and 'AN':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zFF7tXmfR0

Take the quiz on this lesson at:
https://www.engvid.com/2-ways-to-pronounce-the/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from engVid, and today's lesson is about the little word "the", and how to say it, how to pronounce it. You might think: "What? I know how to pronounce that word", but there are two different ways of pronouncing it, and this lesson is designed to show you how to work out which way to say it. Okay.

So, the simple rule is: Before a consonant you say "thuh", but before a vowel sound you say "thee". So it's either "thuh" or "thee". So, let me just go through some examples to show you how that works. So, before a consonant sound: "thuh". "The banana", "the dog", but then we get our first exception, which is confusing because this word begins with an E which is a vowel letter, but the way it's pronounced, it has a "ya" at the beginning: "Ya. European. European", so we say: "Thuh European", okay? So that's a slight confusion to be aware of. Continuing on: "The flowers", "the house", "the man", "the people". Another exception again because this word begins with a U, which is a vowel letter, but the actual sound when you say this sound is a "ya", "university", "university". It's not: "university", it's "university". So: "thUH university", okay? And finally: "The woman, the woman". So that's "the" before a consonant sound.

So, let's have a look at the other column. Before the vowel sound we say "thee", so: "The apple", "the elephant", "the ice cream", "the orange", "the umbrella". You can see here "umbrella" also begins with a U, just like "university", but it's not pronounced: "yumbrella", it's pronounced: "umbrella", so: "thee umbrella, the umbrella". Okay. And finally, here's another funny one, it begins with an H, so you might think: "Well, that's a consonant", but it is actually a vowel sound because we don't pronounce the H in this word. You may know the word "heir", which we had in another lesson about using "a" and "an". The heir is usually, well, male, and the heiress, female; but often the word "heir" is used for female as well nowadays for reasons of equality. So, but: "the heiress", "e", so it's an "e", "heiress", so that's a vowel sound, so: "the heiress". Okay? So that's another one to remember, along with the "ya" sound here. So, it's purely the way you say it which decides whether it's "thuh" or "thee". Okay? So now we'll move on to a second screen, and we'll do some sentences for you to work out how to pronounce each time the word "the" or "the" appears, so...

Okay, so what I should have said at the end of the last section was the word "heir" and "heiress", I didn't explain what they meant. So, if you hadn't seen the other lesson you wouldn't... You might not know that, so "an heir" or "an heiress" is someone who inherits something, often money or property, something like that. So, okay.

Right, so here is the test for you of how to pronounce the word "t-h-e": "thuh" or "thee", and as you can see, we have some sentences here. And every time the word appears I've underlined it in red just to help you to see it. So, first sentence: "The ferry crossed the Irish Sea." So, how would you pronounce the word there? Okay. So: "thuh" goes before a consonant sound, so "f" is a consonant, so: "Thuh fairy. The fairy crossed", and what about this one? "I" is a vowel sound, so it's "thee Irish Sea, the Irish Sea". So: "The fairy crossed the Irish Sea." Okay?

Next one: "The right way is the only way." Okay, so how would you pronounce those two? So, "r" is a consonant, so: "Thuh right way. The right way is", "only", that begins with an "o", which is a vowel, "only". So: "thee only way. The right way is the only way." Okay?

Next one, we have three examples in this sentence, so: "The answer is at the back of the book." So, what would you do there? "The answer, the back, the book", so "answer" begins with "a", which is a vowel, so it's: "Thee answer. The answer is at". "Back" and "book" begin with "b", which is a consonant, so: "Thuh back of thuh book." Okay.

Next one: "The fire hasn't reached the upper floor". "Upper" means at the top of the building, up at the top. Okay, so: "fire" begins with an "f", so that's a consonant, so: "thuh fire. The fire hasn't reached", "upper" begins with "u" which is a vowel sound, so it's: "thee upper floor. The fire hasn't reached the upper floor." Okay. Right.

Next one: "The girl felt at home in the empty house." So if you feel at home, you feel comfortable, you like your surroundings. Okay. So: "girl" begins with "g" which is a consonant, so: "thuh girl.

In most English-speaking countries in the world, the holiday of Easter is celebrated every spring. In this video, I will teach you where Easter comes from and why it is celebrated by Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christians in many different countries. It's also a secular holiday, which means that not everybody thinks of it as a religious festival -- it's complicated, because it has been changing and developing for hundreds of years. I'll also tell you about the customs and symbols of Easter that you will encounter in the UK and North America. Watch this lesson and learn more about Western culture and traditions. You'll learn about everything from Jesus on the cross to chocolate eggs.

TAKE THE QUIZ: https:///www.engvid.com/learn-all-about-easter/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on: Easter, and what's it all about? So, if you're in a country where Easter is celebrated, you will already know a lot about it, but maybe if you're not in an English-speaking country, this will be useful for you to know the vocabulary connected with Easter in English-speaking countries. You may be in a country where Easter isn't celebrated, so this is also designed to explain the background, some of the history connected with Easter, and all the sort of traditions and the things that people do to celebrate Easter. And if you're in... For example, if you're in the U.K., you will notice that every spring around March or April there is an Easter holiday where there are two public holidays, the schools have two weeks' holiday, so you'll be aware of this Easter holiday period. So this is designed to explain some of the background to it. Okay.

So, it's a bit of a mixture, but going back hundreds of years before Christianity, for example, I think people celebrated the coming of spring after the long, cold winter, so it's a kind of spring celebration when, you know, the flowers start coming out, and blossom on the trees, and so on. Blossom. If you have fruit trees, like an apple tree or a cherry tree, they get flowers appearing on the tree, either white or pink, so that's blossom. And then the flowers that grow. So... and little animals, often animals are born in the spring. They're born all year round, of course, but in particular spring is associated with little animals being born, like little chicks that come out of eggs; little, yellow, fluffy birds; tiny, little chicks. They are associated with Easter, as well as flowers. Rabbits as well are associated with Easter. And eggs, because eggs are about things being born or rebirth, the rebirth of the... of the season, the spring coming back after the winter when nothing seemed to grow. So, people, you know... people generally feel happier and better when spring comes because the weather gets warmer. Of course it depends what part of the planet you're on, because I know March and April in somewhere like Brazil, for example, it's not... it's not your spring period, but I think people still celebrate Easter at that time of year anyway. But in where we are in the U.K. and also North America, it is the spring.

So, it falls in March or April, and people send cards sometimes that say: "Happy Easter", and you get pictures of flowers, and little chicks, and rabbits, and eggs. And so the eggs, they can either be real, you know, chicken eggs, hens' eggs from birds, or they can be chocolate eggs. So the shops... of course, shops sell eggs all the year round, real eggs; but also chocolate eggs, a lot of them are sold just before Easter. In fact, usually the shops, being very commercially-minded, as soon as Christmas is over and January comes, you start to see chocolate Easter eggs in the supermarkets, which it's a bit early in January, but that's what the shops are like. So, you get chocolate eggs, and also... In the U.K. anyway, I'm not sure about other countries, you have a sweet... a bun with fruit in it, which is called a hot cross bun. And it's a round... not a cake exactly. It's more like bread, but it's quite sweet, and it has a cross on it in a lighter colour, so it's a dark-brown or medium-brown colour when it's baked in the oven, but it has a whiter-coloured or cream-coloured cross on it, which connects with one of the religious associations that Easter has, which we'll come to a bit later. Okay. So, all of these things are associated with Easter.

Also, there's a thing called an Easter bonnet, which is a hat. Usually women, they might have a hat and they will add a lot of flowers to it, and decorate it with ribbons. They might even put little... Not real ones, but they might put little chicks on it; little, yellow birds on it, but not real ones, not live ones, but artificial ones. And there's a song and a film I think connected with this, Easter bonnet. And people might have a parade in the street, they have a competition for who's wearing the best Easter bonnet, and somebody can win the competition. So, that can happen as well. […]

Today we are out and about in the suburbs of London. Come with me and visit a very special shop, an art gallery full of paintings, sculptures, and other art works. But it's an art gallery with a difference, as money made from sales goes to an organisation called Street Souls, a charity for homeless people. We'll be chatting to David, who runs the gallery and chooses the art works to display there. We'll hear about the special opening of the gallery, attended by a famous London-based film star (I'll give you a clue -- he has appeared in Lord of the Rings!). This is a chance for you to listen to real conversation between two native English speakers, as well as to learn about English culture. So, if you're ready, let's go in...

Learn more about Artful Pelican and the Street Souls organization at their Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/artfulpelican/
https://www.facebook.com/streetsoulshomeless/

Did you like this video? Why not watch Jade's video tour of another part of London called Covent Garden:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpnDAGVEeZg&index=34&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7

TRANSCRIPT

Gill: Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we're doing something a little bit different for our lesson. We are going to be visiting a place in... Seven miles away from Central London, the Artful Pelican Art Gallery, which is a small art gallery and shop. And if you visit or if you're in the U.K., or if you visit a U.K. city you will probably see places like this, so this lesson will help you to find out what to expect if you go in one of these places. It's also an opportunity to hear two native English speakers, that will be me and David, the owner of the shop, speaking, having a conversation in English, so it's an opportunity to hear an English conversation between two people. Okay, so... And also we'll be seeing what kind of thing to expect if you visit an art gallery like this; pictures and sculptures. And so, we'll be seeing pictures of London, pictures of famous people who you may have seen in films, so let's go in and have a look.

David: Hi, Gill.

Gill: Oh, hi, David.

David: Hey. It's nice to see you.

Gill: Hi. Nice to see you. How are you?

David: Excellent. Thanks.

Gill: Oh, good.

David: You too?

Gill: Fine, thank you. Thank you for letting us come in...

David: Hey.

Gill: And have a look around.

David: You know you're always welcome.

Gill: Oh, that's really nice. Well, thank you.

David: This has always been one of my favourites, this charcoal. Amazing art.

Gill: That's lovely. Lovely detail. So, David, so you've been here for a while now, haven't you?

David: Yes.

Gill: I remember the place gradually being decorated and open.

David: Yeah, well, we... I would imagine sometime around about May 2015.

Gill: Yes.

David: And we opened in July in 2015.

Gill: Right, that sounds about right. Yeah.

David: Yeah.

Gill: So that's nearly going on two years?

David: We're getting on for two years, aren't we?

Gill: Yeah.

David: I think you came to our opening, didn't you?

Gill: I did.

David: When we had Sir Ian McKellen here.

Gill: Yes.

David: And a big crowd.

Gill: Wow. You could hardly move.

David: No. It was...

Gill: The place was packed, wasn't it?

David: It was good. It was a nice, fun evening; and very well-supported.

Gill: Yes, it was really nice. And to get Sir Ian McKellen to come and...

David: Quite a coup.

Gill: Open the place was a real coup, wasn't it?

David: Yeah, and it went very well.

Gill: And it was so nice to see him so close. He was about, you know, where that chair is away from me, and I thought: "My god, that's Sir Ian McKellen."

David: "It's really you", yeah.

Gill: And I'd first seen him on the stage in the 1970s, and been really knocked out by his...

David: Oh, good.

Gill: Like, he was in the Shakespeare play, Richard II, so that was when I first ever saw him.

David: So we fulfilled a wish, then, you got to meet him.

Gill: So all those years later, there he was.

David: Oh, good.

Gill: Slightly nearer.

David: He was very good with everyone that came, yeah.

Gill: So that was great, that was great because he cares a lot about the charity.

David: He cares a lot about homelessness.

Gill: Yes.

David: He has two pet likes, which is homelessness, which is what we're all about.

Gill: Yes.

David: And AIDS, they're his two main... main things.

Gill: Right. Yes, yes.

David: So the homeless thing...

Gill: Yeah.

David: He was very keen to help.

Gill: Yes, yes. So you... This is an art gallery, obviously, but you have this sort of fundraising element for charity?

David: Well... Yes, of course, it is an art gallery, but it's a non-profit art gallery.

Gill: Right.

David: So no one earns a salary in here. Every penny of the profits gets plowed back into the gallery or at homeless projects, Street Souls. So we help homeless people street-level.

Gill: Right.

David: And in particular homeless artists through the art gallery. […]

Learn and practice the correct English pronunciation of two tricky sounds: TH and THR. These sounds are very common in English, but they can be difficult for English learners, Even if your language uses these same letter combinations, the sound they make in English might not be the same! In this video, I'll show you how to make the correct sounds, and we'll practice with many example words and sentences.

Test yourself with the quiz! https://www.engvid.com/learn-e....nglish-pronunciation

Keep your learning going! Watch more videos now to keep learning.
1. How to use the word 'THINK' in English (practice your 'TH'!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkoyQMSSxpQ&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&t=0s&index=37

2. MAY or MIGHT?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YND9m8q3TJ8&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&t=6s&index=15

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from engVid, and today we're looking at some pronunciation of "th" and "thr". And it's especially useful for those of you whose first language may be French or Italian, any language which doesn't have the "th", "th", or "thr" sound in it. I know it's a difficult sound to get used to and to feel confident that you're doing it properly, so here is a lesson with some examples of words for you to practice along with me. Okay.

So, the thing about "th" is you just put your tongue behind your top teeth at the front: "th", "th", "th", and blow a bit of air through. "Th", "th", "th", like that. It might help you originally, to begin with if you put your tongue through your teeth a little bit. "Th", "th", like that, but you don't have to do that. Once you get used to making the sound, you don't have to stick your tongue through your teeth; you can just do it behind your teeth. "Th", "th", "th", but your tongue goes up and just touches the back of your top teeth. Okay, for: "th", "th", "th". And then "thr", "thr", you have to then do an "r" sound added to it, so we'll come to that in a minute.

But let's have a look, first of all, at a few words beginning with "th". Okay? So we've got: "things", if you'd like to repeat it after me. "Things", "things". Okay. "Think", "think", "think". Okay. "Thursday", "th", "th", "th", "Thursday", "Thursday". Okay. "Thirsty". If you're thirsty, you need a drink, you haven't had enough water or something to drink. "Thirsty", "thirsty". Okay. If someone gives you something, you say: "Thanks", "thanks", "th", "th", "th". "Thanks". Okay. And then if you want to go out for the evening and see a play and some actors on a stage, you go to the: "theatre", "theatre", "theatre". Okay. And then if... If you... If you're feeling under stress and you need to talk to somebody about it, you might say: "I need some therapy." It can be physical or psychological. "Therapy", "therapy". Okay. Then these are two opposites: "Thick" and "thin". Thick with material, if it's thick material. "Thick" or "thin", "thin" material. Okay. "Thick" and "thin". And then some numbers: "Third", "thirteen", "thirty", and "thousand". Okay. And finally, this is a "thumb", "thumb", "thumb". Okay, so I hope that's helped you to practice those sounds.

Right, so moving on. This one is perhaps a little bit more difficult because you have to add an "r" sound, and some people can make their tongue vibrate when they do an "r": "rr", "rr", "rr", like that. At one time I couldn't do that at all, but for some reason I can do it now. Maybe I do a lot more talking and my tongue is more, you know, can move around, more athletic. So, anyway, you don't have to make that rolling sound with your tongue with these words, because they're just one word so you can't say every word with a "rr" in it, it takes too long. It's just enough to say: "Through", "through". So for the "r", "r", you push your mouth forward a little bit. "Thr", "thr", "through", "through", like that. Okay? And then: "Thread", "thread". When you have some cotton and a needle, and you're doing some sewing, the cotton is the thread. "Thread". Okay? And then the number: "Three", "three", "three". And then if you're a fan of Game of Thrones, you will know this word, the "throne" that the king or queen sits on. "Throne", "throne". And finally if you... If you have a ball that you're throwing: "Throw", "throw", "throw", like that. So, I hope that's helped you to practice those sounds a little bit.

Okay, so I'll just go through these words again one more time at a sort of normal speed, so without any emphasis, just at the normal speed so that you can hear how each word sounds normally, without a big emphasis on anything. Okay, so here we go. So: "things", "think", "Thursday", "thirsty", "thanks", "theatre", "therapy", "thick", "thin", "third", "thirteen", "thirty", "thousand", "thumb". Okay, and then the "thr": "through", "thread", "three", "throne", "throw". Okay, so now we'll go on to the second part of the lesson. […]

In this grammar lesson, you will learn about the many uses of the auxiliary verb "could" in English. I will teach you how to use it correctly when speaking about the past, the conditional, and even when making polite requests for the future. For example, do we say "Can you tell me" or "Could you tell me"? What about "I could have been" or "I could of been"? I will give you many examples of how it can be used in different contexts. Even native English speakers use "could" incorrectly, so watch this video to avoid making common mistakes! Next, take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/auxiliary-verb-could/

Watch my lesson how to use the auxiliary verb 'WOULD': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imfmh66zlX8

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we have a lesson on an auxiliary modal verb: "could", the use of "could". So, there are two ways... Well, we have five ways that it's used here, but "could" comes either from as the past tense of the verb "can", which is also an auxiliary modal verb, "can": "could" in the past; or it's used as an auxiliary verb with other verbs combined. So, sorry that sounds very complicated, but I hope it comes clearer with the sentences to illustrate how it can be used. Okay.

So, first of all, just to show the simple past tense of "can", if I can do something: I can do something today, yesterday I could do it as well; or I couldn't do it yesterday, you could use the negative as well. So, first sentence, then: "At one time"-in the past-"I could run a mile and not get out of breath". So, to get out of breath is when you've been running a lot, and then you can't... You're breathing very quickly and you have to wait for your body to get back to normal. And if you're running, also, it might be painful and you have to stop, so that's getting out of breath. Okay? So: "At one time in the past I could run a mile." I can't say now in the present I can run a mile, because I can't, okay? But in the past, at one time, I could run a mile and not get out of breath. Okay, so that's just the past tense of "can".

But then the other four examples are where it's used as an auxiliary modal verb with different ways of using it. So we have four different ways of using it, here. First of all, number two is a polite request. So, instead of: "Can I...?" you say: "Could I...? Could I borrow your pen, please, just for a moment? Could I borrow your pen, please?" If you say: "Can I...?" it's okay, but it's not quite as polite. So if you really want the person to say: "Yes, of course", if you're polite they are more likely to let you borrow their pen. So: "Could. Could I please?" So we've got: "Could I" and we also have "please" at the end. Or you could put: "Please" near the beginning: "Please. Please could I...? Could I please...?" Any order. "Can I borrow your pen, please, just for a moment?" So that's a polite request. Okay.

And then the third sentence is when you're saying that something is possible. You're telling somebody something is possible if... If they do something, so this is called a conditional. Okay. And that... We have lots of video lessons on conditionals, so do have a look for those. So, here is an example: "You could get good marks in the exam if you study every day." So, the conditional: "Could" often uses "if", because you have a choice. Are you going to study every day and get good marks in the exam, or are you going to maybe study once or twice a week and then you get to the exam and you don't do so well, or what's your choice? So this is your teacher, your tutor might tell you: "You could get good marks in the exam if you study every day", if you work hard regularly every day. So that's a possibility, a conditional. Right.

So, then number four, this is a polite way of maybe giving a criticism or suggesting something isn't right, there's a mistake, or something may have gone wrong. If you say: "I could be wrong, but... I could be wrong, but I think there's a mistake (an error) in these figures." So if you're looking at some accounts, and the figures in columns and they're supposed to add up accurately, and you look at it and you think: "This doesn't look right." If you're an accounting genius, you can maybe see immediately something isn't right; the figures don't balance or something. So... But you don't want to say: "Oh, that's wrong. That's not right." You don't want to be so direct, so you're very careful that when you begin your sentence: "I could be wrong, but I think..." So you're not saying: "I know. I can see there's a mistake there." You wouldn't say that. "I think there's a mistake (an error) in these figures", so it's a polite way of suggesting there could be a mistake. "I could be wrong, but..." Okay. Useful phrase.

And then, finally, in this first half of the lesson, when somebody is saying they could have done something or they could have been something, a profession: "I could have been a ballet dancer, but something happened to stop me." […]

Today we will look at the haiku, which is a Japanese poetry style made up of three short lines. Because haikus are short and often use simple vocabulary, they are great for learners of English to read and write. I will teach you about the history of the haiku and how it is constructed. Some haikus have a very deep philosophical meaning despite being so short, which is why they are so interesting. By the end of the lesson, I hope you'll be inspired to write a haiku of your own and post it in the EngVid comments section! https://www.engvid.com/learn-t....o-write-poetry-haiku

Next, watch my video about learning English from another type of poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVidL1o28gw&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=49&t=0s

TRANSCRIPT

"Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto."

Okay, so don't adjust your set, this is an English lesson, but we're looking today at haiku, which is a Japanese form of poetry, but lots of English poems have been written in the haiku form. So, first of all, I'd like to thank my students, Kuni and Negu, for their help in training me to recite this haiku in Japanese. I hope it was okay.

So, this is a poem about a frog jumping into a pond and making a splash. So, it's a very simple, straightforward scene, just a description of something in nature, and haiku is often describing something in nature. And you might think: "Well, why...? How is haiku going to help me learn English?" Okay? So, the... It's a very, very short kind of poem. You can see it's three lines, not many words, so it's a manageable, short thing to read every now and then, if you find some on the internet or whatever. And to find if there is a word in there that you don't know, you can look it up and then you've learnt a new word. And also, with haiku there is often a philosophical aspect. It's a description of something in nature, but there's also something there for you to think about.

So, okay, let me just summarize. So, the haiku comes from Japan originally. It started in the 9th century, so that's a long time ago. Basho, who wrote this poem, lived in the 17th century, and he's very famous as a writer of haiku and as a poet generally. Okay. One of the things about haiku is it's always... It's usually in three lines, and the number of syllables is five, seven, five. Some poets, some haiku I've read in English don't always follow that number of syllables, but basically they're usually three lines, very short, so they're very quick and easy to read, and it doesn't take a lot of time to read a haiku and think about it a little bit, and maybe learn a new word or two.

So, let's count the syllables, shall we? Just to be clear what syllables are. So: "Fu-ru i-ke ya"-that's five-"ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu"-that's seven-"mi-zu no o-to", five. So that's the number of syllables, because rhythm is very important in poetry. Okay.

So, now we get on to an English version, and because of copyright rules and all that sort of thing, I decided I would write one of my own so that I can give myself permission to use it in this lesson. Okay, so here it is, and I've drawn a tree because that is relevant to the poem, so... And you might like to count the syllables just to check that I got it right. So:

"What do I do now?
I'm the last leaf on the tree
Waving in the breeze."

Okay? So "waving" is this sort of thing, the breeze is the wind. The breeze... A breeze is a very small wind; not a very strong wind, just a gentle, little wind. Okay. So, here's the tree with one leaf left on it. So, it's a scene from nature, if you've ever seen a tree with just one leaf left, and you're looking and thinking: "Is that going to be blown off soon or will it stay all winter?" But a part from being a scene from nature, you might think: "Well, that's quite philosophical as well", because if you relate it to a human person who is feeling alone like the last leaf on the tree... Maybe the last person in their family. "What do I do now? I'm the last leaf on the tree, waving in the breeze." So it has a kind of philosophical element as well if you start thinking about the deeper meaning of it. Okay.

So, I'm not really a poet, so that just proves that you don't have to be a poet to write a haiku. So I'm going to encourage you to try to write one of your own and just follow the number of syllables, write one in English, and post it in the comments on the engVid website. But before we finish this lesson, I just have one more haiku to show you written by a friend of mine who has given her permission for us to use her poem, and it's actually quite a funny one, so you can have humour in haiku as well, so let's have a look at that.

Okay, so here is an example of a modern haiku written by my friend Sarah Lawson who has given us her permission to use her poem. That's the copyright symbol there to show that it's her copyright, her property. […]

A, B, C, D, E, er... what comes next? Do you find it difficult to remember the letters of the English alphabet in the right order? After all, there are 26 letters, and the English alphabet may be very different from your native language's alphabet. Watch this video to learn an easy little memory trick that is designed to help you! By the end of the video, you will have the tools you need to remember your ABCs forever. After watching, try the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/learn-r....emember-the-english- to test your memory.

Next, watch these lessons:

1. Words that imitate sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFS2TiSH5YQ&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=30

2. Basic English – How and when to use LOOK, SEE, and WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eVxr7zn6uE&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=43

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com, and here we are in London on a rainy day, and we're going to be looking at the English alphabet. And I have for you an alphabet memory trick to help you remember. Okay? Because every alphabet in every language is different, so the English alphabet with 26 letters is... Sorry, that's probably too high, so I'm going to put that down here. 26 letters is different from other alphabets, and the letters come in a certain order. So some people start, "Okay: A, B, C, D, E..." So this is to help you remember all of the letters in the correct order. Okay. So it's like a little poem or story. And the first word... The first letter of each word is the letter of the alphabet. So let's just look at the first line, okay?

So we have: "All Boys Can Do Exercise", okay? So that's A, B, C, D, E, the first five letters of the alphabet. Okay? So it... Because it means something in a sentence, hopefully it's easier to remember. So: A, B, C, D, E: "All Boys Can Do Exercise". "Exercise" meaning this sort of thing. Okay? Exercise. Right. Okay.

Second line, continuing: "French Girls Help In June", okay? So: "French Girls Help In June", the month of June, okay? I always think of French au pairs here. I don't know if you know that word: "au pair", it's French itself, but it means usually a young woman who comes from another country to live with a family and help them with their housework, help them with the children, the shopping, and they're called an au pair, so this always reminds me of French au pairs, so maybe that will help you remember as well. So: "French Girls Help In June", and that's in the summer when maybe more French girls will want to come because the weather isn't that bad in the summer. Okay. So, we've had A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, okay? And then, finally... Because the alphabet is 26 letters long, it helps to divide it into two and stop halfway, so it's 13 plus 13, and that's how I learned the alphabet when I was a very little girl at school. So I always stopped halfway and knew I was halfway. So we're going to do the same here, okay?

So, next one: K, L, M, okay? "Kids Like Milk". Now, if you don't know the word "kids", it's an informal, casual word for children. Okay? So: Children Like Milk, but it's "Kids". And a kid is also a baby goat, maybe that's why children are called kids; I don't know. Don't quote me. A kid is a baby goat, which is an animal-okay?-that you find on the farm. A baby goat is a kid, but here it means children. "Kids Like Milk". You can also remember this line because it's K, L, M, and I hope we're allowed to advertise, you may know of the airline, I think it's the Dutch airline, KLM, that's another way of remembering this line. If you can't remember about kids liking milk, think of the Dutch airline KLM. Okay? So then here we are halfway through the alphabet. So, we've got: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, halfway. Right. Okay, ready to go on? Right.

Next line, this sounds strange, but it sort of makes sense, so we have: "Now Our Professor"-our teacher, our professor-"Quits Reading". Okay? "Quits" means stops. It's another informal word, it means stops. Okay, so... And the professor, that's usually someone in a university. So it sounds pretty strange that a professor would stop reading, because that is what professors are supposed to do, but maybe this professor is retiring, or they got very tired, or they need a holiday, and they think: "Right, no more books." So: "Now Our Professor Quits Reading". Okay, so: N, O, P, Q, R. Okay.

Now, the next bit is totally unconnected; it doesn't really follow in the story, but I'll explain what this means if you're not sure: "Socks Turn Up". "Socks", what you wear on your feet, okay? Your socks. Sometimes you lose your socks. You think: "Where are my lovely red socks? I can't find them." And you go for about a week or two weeks, and you're still thinking: "What happened to my socks?" And then suddenly one day you go into the kitchen maybe, you open the kitchen cupboard, and there are your socks and you say: "Oh, my socks turned up." […]

A family may be big or small, but it is important to learn everyone's title so you can understand how they are related to one another. From granddaughter to father-in-law, there are many words to learn and master. In this lesson, I will give you all the main vocabulary you need to identify all the members of a family. I will also teach you the difference between some formal and informal terms. You will get a chance to practise in the quiz at the end of the video at https://www.engvid.com/learn-b....asic-english-vocabul How many titles can you remember?

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and we have a lesson today on vocabulary connected with the family; so all the names, the family relationships, and the standard names, and also some informal names that are used within a family for different family members. Okay.

So, let's have a look. So, first of all: "mother", a very important person. So: "mother" is the standard name for mother, but within the family, she might be called: "mum", or "mummy", or "mom". "Mom" is a more American type of way of saying: "mum". We say in the U.K.: "mum", but America... In America it's usually "mom", so... And this one... This is a bit old-fashioned: "mamma". So, if you're watching an old film that's set in the maybe 19th century, something like that, the mother might be called "mamma", which was a bit more formal in those days. In the 19th century, in this country, anyway, children and parents were more formal in the way they spoke to each other than they are now. So, that's "mamma". And, also: "mater", this is a funny one. This comes from the Latin word for "mother": "mater". Although, if you're studying Latin, you might pronounce it: "mahter", rather than: "mater", but this was a slightly jokey name that mostly boys who went to private schools, where they studied Latin, and they were... They were living... They were residential schools, so when they came home to visit their parents, they would call their mother "mater" and their father "pater". That's "pater", there; the Latin names for mother and father. I think it was a little bit jokey, and they're not really used so much now.

Okay, so let's move on. "Father" is the standard word for "father", but he could be called: "dad", or "daddy", "pop". Don't ask me why: How can it change to "Pop"? Don't know. "Pop", "pops"; then "papa" is the equivalent of "mama", so those... Again, that's old-fashioned, 19th century; very formal: "mama", "mama", "papa". And "pater", the Latin version of it. Okay.

So then we have: "brother", if you have a brother, they could be called in a very informal way: "bro". Not many people use this, but some people do. "Bro". So, the first three letters of "brother": "bro". Or: "bruv". "Brother", but "bruv", like a "v". That comes from the sort of London accent; the Cockney London accent where Cockneys, instead of pronouncing "th": "brother", they make a "v" sound instead: "bruver", "bruver". So, that comes from that. "Bruv", "bruv".

Okay, and then a female... These are called "siblings", by the way. Siblings. If you have brothers and sisters, they are called siblings. So, a "sister", "sister" is the standard word; it can be shortened to "sis" in an informal way.

Okay. And then you have "uncle" who could be the brother of your father or the brother of your mother. It's the same word for both; there's no difference. Maybe in some languages you have different words for that, but "uncle" is the brother of either your mother or your father. And there's no... As far as I know, there's no short, informal version of "uncle".

But with "aunt", which is the female version-so the sister of your mother or the sister of your father-there is - there's: "auntie", so you just add "ie" at the end. "Auntie". And just to mention, that in India, these words: "uncle" and "aunt", or "auntie" are used as a term of respect. So, we don't do that in the U.K.; we only use these for the actual family relative. We don't... You know, if there's an older person, we wouldn't automatically call them "auntie" or "uncle". We might say... I don't know what you'd say. "Sir" or "madam", or something, if you're being very formal; but not "uncle" or "auntie". Okay. That's in India. Maybe in some other countries as well; I don't know. Please put in the comments if you know a bit more about that.

Okay, so then: "nephew" and "niece" are the next pair. This is the male version and the female version. So, a "nephew" is the son of your brother or sister. Okay. So, if you have a brother or sister who has had some children, the brother's son or the sister's... Your brother's son or your sister's son is your nephew. Okay? And there's no... As far as I know, there's no informal word for that. And then the "niece" is the female version, so your brother's daughter or your sister's daughter is your niece. Okay? So: "nephew" and "niece"; male, female. […]

Some letter combinations in English can be pronounced in different ways, and that is the case for the sound "-ow". It can be said in both a long sound and a short sound, by opening or closing your throat and lips. In this lesson, I'll explain the pronunciation of some common words ending in -ow. Some of them can be pronounced in two different ways and have two different meanings. But most of them can only be pronounced in one way. Some of the words you may already know, but others will be new, so you will expand your vocabulary, too! Take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/english-pronunciation-ow/ .

WATCH NEXT:
1. Pronunciation of TH & THR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPIOxYtguhk&list=PLs_glF4TIn5YX6MbXasE7a0g8wvBUlrtZ&index=4
2. Accent training exercises -- Learn vowel sounds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6o6NOjGv7I&list=PLs_glF4TIn5YX6MbXasE7a0g8wvBUlrtZ&index=8

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. This is Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on the pronunciation of words containing the letters "o-w". Okay? So, there are two different ways of pronouncing these words, and some are pronounced both ways and spelt the same, but they mean different things; there are other words which are only pronounced in one way, and not the other. So, let's just have a look at these examples. Okay.

So, "o-w" in the word, it's either the vowel sound: "a-oo", which I've spelt: "a-o-o", "a-oo", like when somebody hits you, you say: "Ow! Ow, that hurt. Ow." Or at least in English we say it that way. Okay. So: "a-oo" is one of the pronunciations. And: "oh", like when you're surprised: "Oh. Oh. I didn't know that. Oh." So: "oh" is the other vowel sound. Okay.

So, first of all, let's look at the three words where there are both. So: "a-oo", you can have: "bow" and you can have: "bow". So, "bow" is when you go like this. You sort of bend over politely: "bow". Usually men do that. "Bow". But there's also something called a "bow", which is if you have a ribbon in your hair or something like that, and you tie it in a bow; you do this. Or if you have shoes with laces, you tie your shoelaces in a bow. Okay, so we have: "bow", "ba-oo", and "bow". Right. Okay.

Next one: "row" and "row". So, a "row" is a lot of noise. "Oh, there's a row going on out there. That's noisy. People are shouting. There's a row." It could be an argument between people: "They're having a row." The neighbours next door, you can hear their voices, they're having a row; they're disagreeing about something, so that's "row". But "row" is either when things are in lines, like that, that's a line or a row; or you can also... If you're in a boat with oars like this, you row; you row the boat. You're doing this with the wooden oars to get through the water, to move through the water. That's also to row the boat, and it's a rowing boat. Okay.

Next one: "sow" and "sow". So, a "sow" is a female pig; that's pretty much the only meaning for it - a female pig is a sow. Okay. To "sow", s-o-w is to put seeds in the ground for them to grow. So, you can link "sow" with "grow", if it helps you remember - put the seeds in the soil, they will grow. Sow the seeds, they will grow. It's not the same as this spelling of "sew", "s-e-w", which is with a needle and thread. If I'm sewing on a button which has come off, that's "sew" with an "e", so it's not that; but it's the same pronunciation. Okay.

Right. So those are the three pairs which have both pronunciations. And then we have two lists of words which just have one. So, the "a-oo" vowel sound, we have: "brow", which is the same as your forehead; is your brow. And you've got "eyebrows". These are eyebrows and this is your brow. Okay?

"Cow", the animal that you get milk from. The cow. "How? How do you do something? How?" or: "How are you?"

"Now", at this moment; now. "Plow", this is the American spelling; the English spelling is slightly different, but it's the same pronunciation. We spell it, in the U.K.: "p-l-o-u-g-h", but the American spelling is "plow" - "p-l-o-w". So, that's another one. To plow a field; to churn up the soil - again, maybe if you're sowing seeds in agriculture. Okay. So, the plow is the equipment that you use to cut into the soil; often pulled by horses, or it may be a tractor or something with an engine nowadays. Okay. "Plow".

This word: "pow" is a sort of, like a comic book. "Pow", "pow", when people hit each other. You get this "pow". It sort of represents the sound of someone being hit or something exploding, that sort of thing. Okay. "Prow" is the front of a ship. The prow of a ship. And "vow" is another word for a promise; to vow to do something is to promise to do something. Okay. So those are the "a-oos", there.

And then the "oh" list, from here: a "crow" is a bird; a big, black bird. "Crow". "Flow", "flow". Water flows; liquid flows. "Flow". "Glow" is to do with light shining. […]

The auxiliary verb "would" has many uses. For example, it can be used for a polite request ("would you like..."), to express a conditional statement ("If I could, I would..."), a past action (In the past, I would always do..."), or even a personal preference ("I would like..."). In this lesson, I will cover all the various uses of "would" and give you many examples of how it is used. Would you like to watch this video? I think it would be useful for you! And would you please do the quiz after watching? https://www.engvid.com/auxiliary-verb-would/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson is about the verb: "would" and how to use it. So, it's an auxiliary modal verb, okay? This lesson also links with two other lessons; one on "could" and the other on "should". So, if you haven't already seen those, do look out for them.

So, what we have, we have eight different examples of how the word "would" is used in different kinds of sentences. So, we have the first four here, and then we'll have another four, and then at the end of the lesson there'll be a little test for you to do yourselves-okay-as well as the quiz on the website.

Okay, so let's have a look: Use of "would". So, first of all, you can use it in a question. If you're just offering somebody something: "Would you like...?" So: "Would you like" is a useful set of words, construction: "Would you like a cup of tea?" So it's... If you have a guest in your... In your home, something like that, or if you're out in a caf� or you're in the street and there is a caf�: "Would you like a cup of tea? Shall we go in here?" So, it's a good way of asking a question in a polite way. Okay? So, that's that one; nice and simple.

And then another one, which is quite simple and straightforward as well as a polite request... If maybe someone asks you: "What would you like? What would you like?" if they're offering you some food, so you can reply: "I would like some salad, please", or whatever it is. If someone is serving some food: "I would like some salad, please." So they're very similar, using "like" with "would". Right, okay.

So, the next two examples are called conditionals, so they're a little bit more complicated but we do have some lessons on conditionals as well. So, if you're not sure about conditionals, do have a look at those. So the first one, it's a kind of... If you're imagining something, a future situation, it's imaginary... "Hypothetical" is another word for that. Okay? You're imagining: "Oh, if I won... If I won a lot of money, what would I do?" So: "I would..." What would you do if you won a lot of money? "I would maybe give some of it to charity", for example. So, that's just imagining a possible future thing. If you're very lucky and win a lot of money: "I would", but you wouldn't say: "I will" because it's not definite. "I would" is because it's not certain or definite that you would win a lot of money; this is just imaginary or hypothetical. Okay.

And then there's another conditional which is in the past, so it's actually too late to do anything about it now, but you're saying you would have done something if... If you had known about it, or whatever. So: "If I had known that your car had broken down"... If the car breaks down, it's not working, the person can't drive. "If I had known that your car had broken down, I would have given you a lift in my car." To give someone a lift, in this context is if you have your car and your neighbour, their car has broken down, you might say: "Oh, well, I'm going in that direction. I'll give you a lift." Meaning: You can get in my car as a passenger, I will drive it, and I will drive you to that place, as your car isn't working. So that's giving a lift. So: "If I had known that your car had broken down, I would have given", so three verbs there, but have a look at another lesson for that construction on conditionals. "I would have given you a lift", but the reason that it's too late, this is one... The conditional... Conditional number three, when it's too late to do anything about it because you didn't know, so you couldn't offer a lift. So... But that's... You would use "would" in that situation. "I would have, but I didn't know, so I didn't." Okay, so that's the first four examples. So let's move on and have a look at the next four.

Okay, so let's have a look at the next four. So, number five: "would" is used after all of these question words. So, you probably know all the question words: "Who", "what", "when", "where", "why", and "how"; so you can use "would" following each of those words to ask a question. So: "Who would be the best person for this job?" If there's a job vacancy, people are trying to decide from within the company, perhaps, promote somebody: "Who would be the best person for this job?" Or maybe they're interviewing people for the job and they've interviewed a few people, and then they're sitting, trying to decide: "Who would be the best person for this job?" Okay? […]

Whether you watch British TV or are travelling throughout England, you have likely heard the Cockney accent, which is one of the many English dialects found throughout the country. This accent may be difficult to understand at first. To help you, I've prepared a lesson on the main features of the London-based Cockney accent as well as some of its non-standard grammatical aspects. We will look at pronunciation features along with vocabulary and slang found particularly in Cockney English. I'll also tell you a little bit about the history and social context of Cockney English. After watching the video, you will have the tools you need to better recognize and understand this dialect. You can test your knowledge with the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/cockney....-english-accent-dial

Next, watch this video about the RP accent (also known as BBC English): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcIX-U5w5Ws&index=16&list=PLs_glF4TIn5YtEqu0I-8URDr8GT0JyYnI

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson is about an accent-and it's an accent that we hear a lot in the U.K., especially in the south of the country-and it's called the Cockney accent. And it's centered around the London area, London and the southeast, so it spreads quite a long way out from London as well. And I don't know if you've ever heard of these actors: "Michael Caine, Barbara Windsor - they are actors whose natural accent is the Cockney accent, because they both grew up in the London area, so they grew up speaking the Cockney accent.

So, the Cockney accent is like a regional accent, really, it just happens to be the regional accent for the capital city of England. So, that's just like any other regional accent; you could have a Yorkshire accent, a Liverpool accent, a Birmingham accent, London has its own regional accent as well. So, rather than RP, Received Pronunciation, which is the accent that English teachers usually teach people who are learning English, if they're teaching them British English, that is. Of course, American teachers will teach in an American accent, etc.; Australian teachers will teach in an Australian accent; but if I'm teaching English, because I'm in the U.K., I would teach the RP, Received Pronunciation accent.

But the Cockney accent, it's very useful to know about because if you happen to be in London, or you may be watching a film or a television program where people are speaking with this accent, and you may at first have difficulty understanding what the person is saying. I had a student a while ago who was from Italy, and he had started working in a company, and he told me: "I can't understand my boss very well when he speaks to me. I can't... I have to keep asking him to repeat, and it's getting embarrassing." So I sort of guessed his boss might have a Cockney accent, and said: -"Well, does he do this? Does he do that?" -"Oh yeah, that's what he sounds like." So, I said: "Okay, he's probably speaking with a Cockney accent", so there are lots and lots of people in the London area who speak with this accent.

Traditionally, it's been associated with a kind of working-class accent, but nowadays it's much more complicated than that; there are people working in very professional jobs who also have Cockney accents. I had a Chinese student at one time from China, and... But I noticed she had some sort of... She sounded a little bit Cockney when she spoke English, so I asked her about that-and she worked in finance, I think in investment banking-and she said: "Oh, my boss... It's my boss, he's Cockney, so I sort of hear him speaking and it influences me." So someone in a sort of very high professional job could have a Cockney accent, so there's no difference, really, nowadays. But the thing is: If your boss speaks with a certain accent, there is a tendency to try to speak like them just to be able to relate to them well in your work, so that does happen. Depending on who you're with, your accent can change. So, it happens to me as well. Okay. So...

So what I've done here, I've just chosen six aspects or features of the Cockney accent just to explain what they are and to demonstrate how they sound, so that when you do hear a Cockney speaker, even if it's just in a film or a television program or on the radio, you will know what you're hearing and you'll think: "Ah, okay, I know what that should be. What that word is", because you know how the Cockney accent changes some of the consonant sounds, and makes some of the little changes to what we would call RP, the standard British pronunciation.

So here's a little summary, then, of the Cockney accent and some of the main features. So, first of all, the "th" sound, which a lot of people... If you're learning English, you may not have "th" in your own native language, and so people have difficulty pronouncing: "th", "th", "th", like that. […]

Did you know that you can transform a positive word into a negative one simply by adding a prefix to it? A prefix is a syllable you add before a word to change its meaning. For example, you can change “possible” into its opposite by adding the prefix “im-”, to make “impossible”. In this lesson, I’ll help you improve your vocabulary by teaching you FIVE negative prefixes, all beginning with “i”. Test your understanding of the lesson by taking the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/negativ....e-prefixes-in-englis

To learn the rest of the negative prefixes, watch the next video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRmn-23xoDg&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=71

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. This is Gill here at engVid, and today we have a lesson on... Well, how to increase your vocabulary just by adding a little bit at the beginning of a word to make it negative, so that's called a negative prefix.

So, for example, this is probably one word you will know: the word "correct", when you get something right; "correct". If you say "incorrect", then that's the negative, meaning not correct. So, you can automatically add a word to your vocabulary just by adding the negative bit at the beginning. Okay?

So, we're looking today at different what are called prefixes because you put it in front of the word. In English, there are 12 of these prefixes, so we're going to look at them in two different lessons. In this lesson, we're looking at five of them; and then in the other lesson, we'll look at seven. So, does that add up to...? Seven, eight - yes, that adds up to 12. Good. So, the reason we have five here and seven in the other one: All of these begin with the letter "i", so we've put these all together, but the other seven are different; they're all different. So, let's have a look at these.

So, increase your vocabulary by using a negative prefix. So, the first prefix, which is used for a lot of words... You have to know which is the right one to use; you can't just use any negative prefix with any word. They belong with certain words. So, the ones that belong with "in", here are some examples; there are lots more. So, if something is complete, it's complete, everything is there; but if it's incomplete... If your... If your homework is incomplete, it means you haven't finished it. So: "Is your homework complete, or is it incomplete? Do you still need to do some more work on it?" So, that's "incomplete" - the negative. Okay?

So... And then when you get your homework back, is it all correct? Did you get full marks, or was there anything in it that was incorrect? If you got something incorrect, you maybe lost a mark or two. Okay. So, "incorrect".

If you're efficient, you do things very efficiently; very well, very... You have a good method for doing things - but if you're inefficient or if somebody is inefficient, it means they're not very well-organized; they don't do things in a very logical way. It takes them longer to do it, they might make mistakes, and so on. So, that's "inefficient". Okay.

"Formal". We sometimes talk about formal language, and then the opposite of that is "informal", informal language is when you're having a conversation with a friend, you might be using slang terms and so on. But if you're meeting somebody important or you're going for a job interview, you will be fairly formal. So, you're either formal or informal, depending on who you're with. Okay. And who you're talking to. So, "informal".

Human, we're all human, but sometimes if people do something bad, it's called "inhuman". If someone does something really bad to somebody else, they're being inhuman; they're not thinking of that person's feelings. They're hurting them in some way. So you could say: "That was inhuman, what he did." Maybe to give... You know, to get... If someone leaves a job, they're given the sack, they're asked to go in a bad way - it's not very nice; it's inhuman to just tell somebody: "You've got to go." So: "human", "inhuman".

"Secure", if you feel secure, you feel safe. If you feel insecure, then you don't feel safe. So: "secure", "insecure".

And then, finally, for "in": "visible". If something is visible, you can see it; it's right there. I can see the camera; it's visible. But if something is invisible... If the camera is hidden and I don't know I'm being filmed, then it's an invisible camera. So: "visible", "invisible". Anything you can't see is invisible. Okay.

There's one funny, little exception with the "in" prefix. If somebody's famous, then they're a celebrity; they're very well-known, they're on television all the time, they're in films, etc. So they're famous. Famous person. If you see them in the street, you think: "Oh my goodness! Wow! It's that famous actor right near me in the street." Okay? So you might think that the prefix "in" with "famous" would mean the opposite; that they're not famous, but it doesn't mean that. This is an exception. […]

This is a special vocabulary lesson for musicians and for anyone who is interested in music! I’ll introduce you to the technical vocabulary of musical theory and notation. You may already have an understanding of music and how it’s written. But if you don’t, then I hope this will be a useful introduction for you, whether you’re learning English as a foreign language or are a native English speaker. You’ll learn words such as note, flat, sharp, clef, tone, signature, semibreve, timbre, melody, texture, and more. I’ll also talk about some of the words that are different in the UK and the US. Also, whatever style of music you like – classical, jazz, pop, folk, country, heavy metal – this lesson has something in it for you. So let’s rock on!

Take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/music-vocabulary/

Next, join me in visiting a London art gallery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK4OrYTsf-Q

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson especially for people who already know a bit about music, but would like to know what the English words are for some of the terminology in music. So, this is just a brief summary of some of the main aspects of music, and to do with the way it's written, called notation; and things connected with the theory of music; and all the technical... Well, not all the technical things; some of the technical things connected with it. So... So that you can talk about music with people in English. Okay? If you don't know anything about music, I hope it will also be an introduction to some of the ideas and some of the words connected with music, and you can find other websites to find out more. So, let's have a look.

So, music vocabulary in English. The names of the notes are: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. So, that would give you an octave. "Octave." Well, up to the next A, that is. A to A would be an octave. Okay? So, if you're looking at a piano keyboard, for example, those are the notes on there; the white notes. So, we have, on the piano keyboard, if you're thinking of music in that way, you've got the white notes and the black notes. Okay. White notes are these letters; the black notes are the flats and sharps. Okay. So, if you know about music already, you know what I mean. If you don't know, there are lots of sites on the internet to find out more, if you want to do that after this lesson. Okay.

So, a flat, that's the symbol for flat, as you know, because the musical notation is a universal notation, so it's used all over the world. So, you will know the symbols, I'm sure, but you may not know the English words for them. So, the flat; that's a flat. The sharp; that's a sharp. And the natural, if you need to cancel out a flat or a sharp - that's the natural. The symbol is called "natural", there. Okay. Right.

So, then, coming down to the way the music is written, the five lines that it's written on - that's called a "stave" in English. Okay. So, I've written a couple of examples, here, with some of the words describing what's... What's there. So, this stave of five lines has some notes on it, so they're notes. These are the notes. This is called the treble clef-"treble clef"-which rests on the G, so it shows you that that line is G. Treble clef. And this one is called the bass clef, which rests on the F. So, you know that line is the F. Okay.

So, what I've done, I've shown a time signature, here, 4:4; four beats in the bar, so the bar... That's a bar. Up to the bar line. Okay. And with the bass clef stave, I've shown 3:4 time signature. 3:4. Three beats in the bar. Okay? So, we call it 3:4; 4:4.Okay?

And there's also the key signature, there, for the key. So, that's the key signature, as you know for G major. Or it could be what's called the relative minor; would be E minor with the same key signature. E minor. Okay, so that's called a key signature, just like this is called a time signature. Key signature, one sharp, G major or E minor.

This one, I've given it a key signature for F major with one flat. So, the relative minor for that, again, would be D... D minor. So, that could be the key signature for something in D minor or an F major, of course. Okay. Right. So, that's covering the key signatures and the time signatures, the treble clef, the bass clef, the notes.

Then the spaces between the notes are called intervals in English. So, the interval could be a small interval, like a tone or a semi-tone, or a larger interval. I haven't written them down, but a third, a fifth, an octave. We've got octave, there. So, G to F sharp, of course, is a semi-tone; the smallest you can get. Well, yeah. I know in modern music you can get even less than that, but that's getting too... Too technical for me. […]

You might think poetry is difficult to understand, but think again! I will introduce you to the limerick. This short, funny form of poetry is a verse of five lines, in which some of the lines rhyme with each other. Watch the lesson, and you will learn about rhyme and rhythm. I’ll show you a few examples and explain the rules. The best part? The rules can be broken! I hope this will inspire you to write a limerick of your own. Try writing one in the comments.

NEXT, watch this video about another poem:
1. Learn English with a poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVidL1o28gw

2. Learn to write poetry: THE HAIKU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhIE4Dw6HKc

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on a particular type of comic poem, which is called a limerick. Okay? So, these are some examples of limericks, and they're a very popular form of poem. They're usually very simple; they're not, like, difficult poetry that's hard to understand. They usually tell a story and it's usually quite funny; sometimes it's a bit crazy, kind of what you call nonsense poetry. It doesn't really make sense, but it's funny anyway. So, okay.

So, to begin with the first example, it's a nursery rhyme, which is the kind of poem that children learn and listen to as they're children in the nursery where they're... When people used to have big houses, they would have one room which was called the nursery and they put their children in there, and they might have somebody to look after the children, like a nanny or a nurse. And... As well as the mother and father, the children would have other people to help to look after them and bring them up, and make food for them, and so on. That's if they were rich.

But also children of all sorts. I remember, as a child, hearing nursery rhymes, and my mother especially telling me nursery rhymes. And the fun thing about them is that they have a rhythm and a rhyme, so there's a pattern, which children enjoy hearing the pattern of the rhythm and the rhyming of the ends of the lines. So, here's a nursery rhyme which you may have heard. Perhaps you have a version of it in your own language, if English isn't your first language. So, some of the words don't really make sense because they're more to do with imitating the sound of a clock ticking. So, here we go:

Hickory dickory dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse ran down
Hickory dickory dock.

So, it's... It's a clock, there's a mouse. The mouse goes up the clock, the clock chimes one: "Dong", and because of that, the mouse is frightened and runs down again. And then that's it - that's all that happens, but it's quite fun for children to hear that. So, you can see that there's a pattern, there: "dock" and "clock" rhyme, and then we have "dock" again. So, if we use a sort of letter form of rhyme scheme, you can label that A, like that. That's rhyme A. And then one is... Doesn't rhyme, so that's B. "One" and... Usually... Usually the third and fourth lines rhyme. These don't exactly rhyme, but they're a little bit similar. "One" and "down", and it's sort of what's called a half rhyme. So, it's a kind of... You could call it B again, really, or B with a little one on it just to show it's slightly different. But, anyway, this is... This sort of shows what the pattern is: A, A, B, B, A is the rhyme pattern for a limerick.

And, also, the first two lines and the fifth lines are usually a bit longer than the lines three and four. So: "Hickory dickory dock, The mouse ran up the clock" so that's, like, three strong beats. "Hickory dickory dock, The mouse ran up the clock". But then we've got: "The clock struck one", so that's only two strong beats. "The clock struck one, The mouse ran down, Hickory dickory dock". So, it's that sort of rhythm; 3, 3, 2, 2, 3. So, that kind of pattern of rhythm and rhyme you find in most limericks. Okay?

So, I hope you... I mean, "Hickory dickory dock", that's just imitating the sound of the clock. So, don't worry about: "What are those words? What do they mean?" They don't really mean anything, but the mouse-little animal-ran up the clock - it's a clock up on the wall, so... Or it's a clock... Big, tall clock that stands on the floor, so a mouse could run up it.

"The clock struck one". "To strike"... "To strike" is when the clock chimes. To strike; to chime. If it goes: "Ding" or "Bong", anything like that, one sound to show that it's one o'clock; it just makes one single sound for one o'clock. "The clock struck one". Usually strikes because it's hitting something inside to make that sound. "The mouse ran down, Hickory dickory dock". So that's... That's it. Okay. So, that illustrates the pattern.

And then we have an example from the 19th century. If you've seen another lesson that I did called: "The Owl and the Pussycat", you might remember the name of the poet, Edward Lear, who wrote a lot of funny poetry. […]

We use “should” when we want to express a recommendation, give advice, give our opinion, ask a question, and more. In this important grammar lesson, I’ll cover the many uses of the auxiliary verb “should” and give you lots of examples to help you understand. I will also teach you some short forms, such as the short form of “should have” and its slang version. Many people write “should of”, but that is incorrect. Watch to find out why. You should really watch this video if you want to improve your English!

Take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/auxiliary-verb-should/

Make sure you watch the other two videos in this series:
1. 5 ways to use 'COULD': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ip8kwjiW6w

2. 9 ways to use 'WOULD': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imfmh66zlX8

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on the use of the verb "should", and it's an auxiliary (modal) verb. "Should". So, there are particular ways you can use it. Okay? And this lesson links with two other lessons; there's one on "could" and there's one on "would", so please look out for those as well. Right. So, "should". How do you use "should"?

So, first of all, you can use it in a question. For example: "Should we invite the neighbours to our party?" You're having a party, the people who live next door - the neighbours. You might be thinking: "Well, they're nice people; we get on well with them. We don't want them to be disturbed if the party gets noisy, or they may be upset to know that we're having a party and we didn't invite them, so there are all these questions to think about: Should we ask...? Should we invite them?" Or: "Do you think they will like our other friends?" So: "Should we...? Should we?" It's like saying: "Ought we". So, there's another word: "ought", which is also used in the same way. "Ought we to...?" But "should" is more usual. "Should we invite the neighbours to our party?" And then you have to decide yes or no. You might invite them and they might say: "Oh, sorry. We're going out that night already. We have something else." Or they might come; it depends. So: "Should we" used as a question. Okay. Meaning, you know: "Would it be a good idea to?" Okay.

Second sentence is when you're telling someone what is a sensible thing to do; what is a good idea to do. "You should..." What you ought to do, again. "You ought to... You should look both ways before crossing the road." You have to look to see: Is...? Is there any traffic? Are there cars coming? Buses? To be safe, you have to look both ways. So: "You should look both ways before crossing the road." It's a sensible thing to do. It's the right thing to do. Okay.

And then this one, this one is a little bit old-fashioned and it sounds rather formal, but maybe in a formal situation, like if you're taking an exam and the person organizing it is being very formal with everybody; or there may be a notice up on the wall somewhere in a room, which might say: "Should you wish to do so, you may go for lunch at 12:30." So, "should" here is the same as saying: "if". It's just like "if". "If... If you like, if you want to, if you wish... If you wish to do so" is a little bit formal, again. That's a little bit formal, but you might see it written up on a notice. So: "Should you wish to do so, you may go for lunch at 12:30." That is an acceptable time to go. If you want to go for lunch, 12:30 is the time. So that's instead of "if". Okay. But it's a little bit old-fashioned in style. Okay.

Another one, this one begins with "if", but it's different from the previous one. So, somebody may have been asking: "How long will it take me to get to London from here?" So, you may be two hours away by car, so the person would reply: "If... If you take the motorway"-which is the quickest way; the motorway-"you should be there in two hours". So, there's a very good possibility, almost 100% possibility that you will be there. Instead of saying "will"... I mean, that person doesn't know for sure you will be there in two hours; nobody can predict. But: "You should be. 99% sure that you... That... That you will be." So, "should" is 99% sure or certain that you will be there in two hours. It will take you two hours, driving, to arrive in London. Okay. So: "If you take the motorway, you should be there." There's every possibility that you will be there in two hours. Okay.

And then, finally, the neighbours are back again. We... So, it looks like you didn't invite the neighbours to the party and perhaps they were upset, either because you didn't invite them or because of the noise that was made at your party with maybe loud music and so on, going late into the night. So: "We should have invited the neighbours to our party, but it's too late now." It's 3 o'clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning, and the neighbours are maybe banging on the wall, trying to get us to stop the noise. […]

TO BE or not TO BE? That is the question! In this lesson, I’ll be covering all the forms of the most important verb in English – the irregular verb TO BE. Even if you already know this verb, you may want to review and make sure you know how to use it correctly in every form in present, past, and future tenses. I’ll also give you some examples of famous sayings and song titles using this verb. I AM certain this lesson WILL BE helpful to you. Don’t forget to test your knowledge by doing the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/basic-e....nglish-grammar-verb-

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson is on the verb "to be", which I'm sure you're familiar with already, but because it's an irregular verb and it changes a lot, there are lots of different words... They don't look like this "be", which is the base form; they look completely different. You may think you know it, and perhaps you do; but sometimes, under pressure or whatever, you might just forget the correct form. So, this is just to go over the details of it for you to be sure that you really do know this verb really well, because the thing about the verb "to be" is that it's used all the time. The equivalent in your own language... I'm sure you use all the time the equivalent verb "to be" in your language. So, in English, too, it is... Is used all the time. Okay? So, here we go, let's have a look at the details. Right.

So, the infinitive, the base form: "to be". Okay? And then in the present tense: "am", "are", and "is" for the different people. First-, second-, third-person, singular, and plural. Okay? So: "I am" - first person; "you are" - second-person"; "he", "she", "it", "is" - third-person. They're all singular. And then in the plural: "we are" - first-person plural, "we are"; "you are" - second-person plural; and "they are" - third-person plural. So, "are" is used in all of the plural forms, so that's easier to remember. Okay. So: "am", "are", "is" are the options in the present tense. Okay.

So, then when we move to the past tense, it changes completely. So, it's: "was" and "were". So, you might think: "Is that really part of the verb 'to be'? It looks completely different", but it is. "I was", "you were", "he was", "she was", "it was", "we were", "you were", "they were". Okay? "Was" and "were" in the past... Simple past tense. Okay.

And then, for the future, it's very, very easy. The future tense for all English verbs is very easy, because you just use this word: "will" plus the base form of the verb. "Will be". So, where some verbs in some languages, you change the ending of the verb to form the future tense, in English, we just add this word in front. "Will", "will be", "will sing", "will eat", "will drink", "will talk". It's just "will", so that's nice and easy. Okay. But it's the base form from the infinitive that you use with "will". "Will be". Right.

And then we come to the present participle, the "ing" form, which is: "being", so that's easy. You've got the base form plus "ing", which is just like a lot of other... All the other verbs "ing"; "drinking", "eating", "talking". Right. So, somebody... You could say: "Oh, the shop assistant is being helpful". Or: "A friend of mine is being silly", or "being difficult", or whatever. So, in the present participle; a sort of continuous activity of being helpful, or being silly, or being difficult. Okay.

And based on this present participle, you can also use it as a noun. "A being" is a person... It's a strange word for a person, really. "A being". It's when you think: "Oo, is that...? Is that an alien or something? What is that being over there? Is that a human"? "Being". We do have the term: "human being", that's quite a normal word to use with the word "human". "Human being". Okay? But "beings" in the plural often suggests aliens from some other planet. Beings from Mars, or something like that. Okay? So, you can use it as a noun. Right.

And then, finally, in this part of the lesson, the past participle is "been". "Been". Okay? So, you got "be" and "en" added. And with the past participle, you have to use the auxiliary verb. "Have" or "has". "Has been". "It has been a really good day.", "We have been to the seaside", something like that. We went to... On holiday... "We have been somewhere really nice today.", "The weather has been really good." Okay? So that's the past participle.

And, again, just like here, you can have a noun: "a has-been" with a little hyphen in it. "He's just... Oh, he's a has-been." It may be someone who's had a really good career, but now he's finished; he's past his best. So, it's not a very nice way to talk about somebody. "Oh, that old has-been, you know?" And it's like just thinking somebody's finished and they're of no interest, or no use to anybody anymore. So, it's not a very nice thing to say about anybody. […]

Do you need some help with your English pronunciation? Today we are focusing on words ending in “-ing” and “-ink”. For example, words like “sing”, “ring”, “bring”, “pink”, “sink”, and “blink” are all words that end in either “-ing” or “-ink”. Some of these words have one syllable, and some have two, such as in “singing”. In this lesson, I will pronounce the words for you and explain how to say them. You will get a chance to practise your pronunciation with me. As a bonus, you may also learn some new vocabulary! Whether you are a beginner or you want to brush up on your English pronunciation, this lesson is for you. I think you may be on the brink of learning something new!

NEXT, watch these other pronunciation lessons I've made for you:

1. Pronunciation – How to say words ending with -OW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lc7pucsco4&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=7

2. Pronunciation – TH & THR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPIOxYtguhk&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=12

3. Pronunciation – The 2 ways to pronounce 'THE': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3zMxYQC0TM&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=15

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from at engVid, and we have a lesson today on pronunciation of two sounds, which are similar, but different: "ing", which comes at the end of a lot of verbs: "walking", "talking", "cooking", "cleaning", that sort of thing; the present participle. And another one: "ink", which also has a sort of "in" sound in it as well, so they are... They have a similarity, but there's also a difference.

So, I find that with some of my students, they don't quite get the pronunciations right, and some students with "ing" do a sort of hard "g" sound at the end, like: "ing", "ing", but you don't need to do that. You can stop before that hard "g" sound. It looks, from the spelling, as if it's needed, but it's not, so it's just: "ing", "ing", "ing", and it's sort of in the throat, and you don't have to do a "ga", "ga" in... In your mouth, the sound in the mouth with it. So: "ing".

And then with "ink", there's still a "in" sound in it, but it ends with a "k". And I find also some of my students, maybe from Eastern Europe in particular, say "ink" when they're really trying to say "ing", so they might say: "singingk", "lookingk", "cleaningk", and that also is wrong. So, no hard "g" and no "k" for the "ings".

So, I thought what we could do is look at some words that are real words in both... Under both headings. So, we've got: "sing" and "sink", so it helps you to practice the slight difference between them. So, also hopefully there may be some new vocabulary here for you, so you can learn some new words at the same time. So, let's have a look.

Let's go through the "ings" first, so: "sing", and we can also... With some of these, if they're a verb, we can say: "singing", "singing", so both of those sounds; that sound comes twice. "Singing". So, don't make the "ga" or "ka" sound with it. "Thing", "thing". "Ring", so you could have: "ringing", "ringing", and it's just "na", "na", "na" in your throat, like that. "Ringing", "ringing". Okay.

"Ping", "pinging", "pinging". So, "ping"... "Ping" is a funny word. It sort of suggests a sound, like a little ringing sound: "Ping, ping, ping", if something makes that sort of sound. And also it's used in computing, if you ping someone to see how long it takes for a message to arrive. Or some people just say: "I'll ping that across to you", meaning: I will email it across to you. They use "ping" to mean send, as well as the more technical meaning of seeing how long it takes for a message to reach somewhere. Okay. So: "ping" and "pinging".

"Bring", I'm sure you know that word. "Bring", to bring something with you. I... "Will you bring a bottle to the party?" Something like that. "Wing" on a bird, the... The bird flies with the wings. "Wing". Okay. "Ming" has a capital "M" because it's the Ming dynasty in China, so you get very valuable pieces of pottery or porcelain. A vase - you could have a Ming vase, for example; very valuable, very old. So: "Ming". Okay. "King", I'm sure you know the word "king". The king and the queen in countries where they have royalty. "King".

Ah, now this is a funny one. "Bling" is a little bit sort of an informal, slang word. It refers to people who like to wear a lot of jewellery, lots of very noticeable, thick... A thick, gold necklace, lots of rings, big rings on their hands, on their fingers. Just to show how much money they have, they buy lots of jewellery, and it's big and shiny, and that's called "bling". A lot of very noticeable jewellery is... is called "bling", to show off how much money you have to spend on things like that. So, that's quite a funny word. Okay.

So, just to go on to the "ink", so: "sink". So, you still get the "in" sound in it, but you can then put the "k" on. So, you might have: "sinking"; you might actually add "ing" to it. A lot of these, you could add "ing". […]

Have you noticed anything strange about short words beginning with W? Some of them (but not all) have a different vowel sound from words with a similar spelling. For example, “car” and “war” have a different vowel sound, but “day” and “way” have the same vowel sound. Say them out loud if you are uncertain of what I mean. How do you know what vowel sound comes after the W? Don’t worry, because in this lesson, I will clear up the confusion and show you exactly how to pronounce them. I’ll give you some examples of these words, and I will demonstrate the pronunciation, allowing you to practise with me. You can also take a quiz on this lesson at https://www.engvid.com/english....-pronunciation-words

NEXT, watch these three other pronunciation lessons:
1. Pronunciation – How to say words ending with -OW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lc7pucsco4&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=7

2. Pronunciation – TH & THR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPIOxYtguhk&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=12

3. Pronunciation – The 2 ways to pronounce 'THE': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3zMxYQC0TM&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=15

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on pronunciation which is connected with the letter "w", and how in some words, which are usually very short words, the "w" makes a difference to the vowel sound. Okay. So, it's worth knowing about these, and also to know that there are exceptions as well. So, some words this happens; other words it doesn't happen, so it helps to know which ones are which, which ones change the vowel sound and which ones don't change the vowel sound. Okay, so let's have a look at some examples.

So, these short words, they all have the same vowel sound, so: "bad", "dad", "had", "lad", "mad", "sad" have the "ah" vowel sound. I'll explain the meanings of the words in a minute, but when you come to "w", it's not pronounced: "wad"; it's pronounced "wod", so it's like an "o": "wo" sound. "ah", "o". So, the "w" changes the vowel sound. Okay.

So, let me just go over that again. So, you probably know the word "bad". "Dad" is an informal name for a father. Your father, you might call them: "Dad" or "Daddy". So: "bad", "dad". "Had" - past tense of "have". "Lad" is another slightly informal word for a boy; a young boy or a young man. A lad. "Mad" is if you're angry or if you're crazy; it can mean both. "Mad" in two different ways. And "sad" if you're feeling... If you're feeling sad, you're unhappy. I'm sure you know that word. Okay.

Oh, and then this word: "wad" is a strange word, but it means a collection, usually of either pieces of paper or maybe a piece of material in a lump. So, you might have a wad of money, for example. If you have some bank notes, paper money and you have a lot of them in your hand, so 20 or more and it's quite a thick... You'd say: "It's a thick wad of money." Or if you have some cloth in your hand, you could say: "That's a wad of cloth." Okay. So, it's a strange word, but it's quite useful sometimes. So... Okay, so: "bad", "dad", "had", "lad", "mad", "sad", "wad". Right.

So, next one, so this is the "ah" vowel sound: "ban", "can", "man", "ran", "tan", "van". But when we come to this, it's: "wan", "wan". So, it's the same vowel sound as "wad"; "wad", "wan", "wan". So, I'll explain the meanings of the words as well.

"Ban" - when you ban something, you try to stop it happening. "Can", it's either I can do something or it's a metal can container for a drink or whatever; a tin can for food or drink. "Man", I'm sure you know. "Ran" - the past tense of "run". "Tan". If you go on holiday and your skin gets browner... My skin is very light-coloured. If... If I go somewhere hot and sunny and I get browner, a browner skin, that's called a "tan", a "sun tan". Okay.

And a "van" - a vehicle that people drive; bigger than a car. A van. So... And then this one: "wan" is... Means pale. So, again, if you think of pale skin, that's "wan". If someone looks very pale and ill, they look wan. It suggests someone who's not really looking well because they're so pale. Okay. So: "ban", "can", "man", "ran", "tan", "van", "wan". So, the vowel sound changes. Okay?

So, next one we've got: "bar". So, this is the "ah" sound. "Bar", "car", "far", "jar", "tar", but then we have "war". So, it's an "aw" sound. Okay. So: "bar" is a... Is a bar; a metal... Piece of metal... A metal rod, or a bar in a cocktail bar or a pub, a wine bar. So, different meanings of that word: "bar".

A "car" that you drive. "Far" - a long way; distance. A "jar" is a container. "Tar" is... It's short for "tarmac", which is the black stuff that is put on, on the road usually; a covering for the road. The tar; black, sticky stuff that just dries and goes hard - that's tar. […]

You probably know that “down” is a direction in English. But more than just a preposition, “down” is a short word with a long list of usages. In this lesson, I will introduce you to many uses of the word “down”, including as a noun, an adjective, a verb, a phrasal verb, and several expressions. You will learn the meaning of “down a drink”, “track down”, “down to earth”, “downright”, “down with”, and more. These expressions are all common ways of using “down” that native English speakers use on a regular basis. Whether or not you watch and do the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/use-down-in-english/ comes down to you. But I’m down if you are!

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson is on the use of the word "down". Okay. So, the word "down" appears in a lot of different ways, and it can be a preposition, which means in this direction - down; it can be a noun or an adjective; and it can be a verb and a phrasal verb. Okay? And also, as we'll see in this column, it can be used in combination with other words to mean something specific. So, in this first half of the lesson we'll just look at a few examples of that.

So, first of all, as a preposition-very simple-"down the hill". I'm walking down the hill in this direction, or I'm going down the stairs in a building. Down the stairs. So, the opposite of "up": "down". Okay? So, that's simple.

Then as a noun... "Down" as a noun can mean feathers. There are certain very soft feathers which you can put inside a quilt that you sleep under and they're very... It's very comfortable, very soft, very warm. So, "down". From ducks in particular - the duck, the bird. Feathers are very soft, so a "down quilt" is a very soft, warm quilt. And then you can have the adjective that comes from that. If something is "downy", "downy", it's very soft when you touch it. "Downy". Okay. Maybe the feathers themselves. Right.

And then also as an adjective, coming back to the sort of preposition type of meaning, the "down escalator". If you're in a big department store with many floors, you... Usually you may have lifts that go up and down, you may have stairs that go up and down, but you could also have an escalator - an automatic, electric escalator where you just stand on the steps. Or you're in a Metro, like in the London Underground or some other big city where they have they have the Metro, you have a moving staircase called an "escalator". So, you can have the "down escalator" - the one that goes down; you can have the "up escalator" - the one that goes up. So, the "down escalator". "Down" is used as an adjective to describe which escalator it is; it's the one that goes down. Okay.

And then another use as an adjective: If somebody makes a "down payment" on something, they want to buy, for example, a car - if it's an expensive item. It's... another word for this is a "deposit". Okay. A "deposit". So, you might pay a 10% deposit on a car. So, that's called a "down payment", because you put the money down. The idea is you put the money down on the table, metaphorically, to show that you're serious about buying the item, so that's a down payment. And then you would pay the rest later when... when you collect the car, hopefully. So... if everything goes well. That's a "down payment". Okay. Right.

And then using "down" as part of a verb, an action: "To down a drink" is to drink... to finish a drink. Maybe if you're in a hurry sometimes if you're somewhere like a pub or a bar or a cafe and you have to go quickly, but you don't want to leave half of your drink behind - you down your drink quickly, like this. It goes down into your stomach. So: "To down your drink" is to swallow it quickly. So, to swallow or to drink. To drink your drink quickly. Okay?

And then it's used with the verb "to put": "to put something down". "I put my keys down somewhere, and now I don't remember where. I put the keys down." But also you can have this, again, as a noun: a "put-down"-"put" with a hyphen, "down" - a "put-down" is when somebody says something to make another person feel a bit small, and you... You would say: "Oh, dear, that was a bit of a put-down", if someone has said something that sounded as if they were criticizing you, and made you feel about that big. "Oh, dear, that was a put-down. I'll have to live with that. That person wasn't very nice to say that", whatever it was. So, a "put-down" is when someone says something that puts you down, metaphorically; pushes you down, like that. Okay?

And then as a phrasal verb: "to track down", "to track something down", or "to track somebody down" is to look for somebody and to find them. You look for them and you find them; "to track down". Maybe someone who's committed a crime, the police have to track them down and catch them. Okay? So, the "track" is like the pathway that you're following to find that person. Okay. […]

Do you know how to turn positive words into negative words? It’s easy when you know your negative prefixes, which is the focus of this lesson. A prefix is one or more letters we add in front of a word to modify its meaning. There are many kinds of prefixes, but today we will talk about the prefixes that turn a word into its negative. As an example, you can turn “happy” into “unhappy”, “honest” into “dishonest”, and “fiction” into “non-fiction”. There are 12 different negative prefixes in English. This lesson will cover seven of them. The other five are covered my other lesson here, so be sure to complete your negative prefix collection by watching the other lesson after this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-P-yQGQKyg&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=4

Take the quiz on this lesson at https://www.engvid.com/more-ne....gative-prefixes-in-e

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from engVid, and today we have a lesson on a way of increasing your vocabulary by turning a positive word into a negative one just by adding a few letters at the front, which is called a "negative prefix". Okay. So, it's a rather nice way of adding to the... All the words that you know in English. And in English, there are actually 12 different prefixes, negative prefixes, so what we've done: We have done two separate lessons. There's another lesson covering five of the negative prefixes that all begin with the letter "i". This one, we have seven, the other seven which all begin with different letters. Okay. So, just a way to increase your vocabulary, turning a positive word to a negative one. Right. So, let's... let's start.

And looking first of all at the prefix: "un" which makes something negative. So, if something is "believable", you believe it. "That seems believable." If someone makes an excuse, why they're late for... For their class or for work - they had a believable excuse; a believable reason why they were late. But if you think: "Oh, that doesn't sou-... I don't think I believe that. That doesn't sound right. I think they're lying", basically. Telling a lie, then their... their reason is "unbelievable". "That was unbelievable." Okay, so that turns it to the negative. So, there are a lot of words in English which you can add "un" at the beginning.

So, another one, if you're "certain" about something, you're... You're very sure about it. You know it's true. But if you're "uncertain", then you're not sure. Okay.

"Fair". If things are fair, then it's... Everything is good; everybody is being treated equally and treated well. But if something is "unfair". If someone's handing out chocolates... I keep coming back to chocolates - I wonder why. If someone is handing out chocolates to a room full of people and they give five chocolates to one person, one chocolate to another person, and no chocolates to another person, then that seems a little bit unfair. That's unfair; everyone should have an equal number. Okay. So, "unfair".

"Friendly". We all try to be friendly and nice to each other. If people are friendly, that's great. But if they're "unfriendly", if they're not very nice, then that's the opposite, of course. "Unfriendly". "That woman was rather unfriendly." Okay.

And then: "happy". If you're happy, everything's going well; but then something bad happens and it makes you "unhappy". "Unhappy". Okay.

"Kind". When people behave nicely, they're kind to each other. And then the opposite would be "unkind", again, if someone does something not very nice. "That was an unkind thing to do." Okay.

"Lucky". If you're a lucky person, if you... If you go in for competitions, and the lottery, things like that and you win some money or you win a prize quite often, then you're a lucky person; good things happen to you. Or just life in general, you feel: "I've... I've been very lucky; getting a good job, finding somewhere nice to live, etc. I've been very lucky." But if... if it's the opposite and a lot of things go wrong all the time, or you never win a prize or anything, or a competition, then you're "unlucky". "That was unlucky. That was an unlucky day; everything went wrong." Okay.

"Popular". If lots of people like you, then you're popular. But if there's someone that people don't seem to like; they don't have much to do with them, they don't have a nice chat, a conversation with them, they stay away from them, then that person is "unpopular". For whatever reason, people don't like to be with that person; they're unpopular. Okay.

So, "sure" is a bit like "certain". "Certain" and "sure". "I'm... I'm sure I did well in the exam. I'm sure." But if you're not sure, you feel a little bit "unsure". You're unsure about how you did in the exam; it's hard to know: "Did I do well? I... I'm not sure. I'm unsure." Okay.

And then, finally, in this column: "tidy" is when you keep your room, your house tidy, everything looks nice, there's not a lot of stuff lying all over the place. […]

Let’s say you arrange to meet a friend at an art gallery or museum. There will be a lot to comment on while you are there. To help you talk about art in English, I bring you this lesson filled with useful vocabulary and expressions to talk about painting, photography, sculpture, and more. I will give you ideas of what to talk about and how to express those ideas. I will also give you tips on how to understand the artwork itself and how to comment about it to your friend. You will learn the meaning of words like “installation”, “medium”, “watercolour”, “seascape”, “marble”, “bronze”, and more. You will also discover the difference between traditional art and experimental art. There is a lot to learn in this video, so don’t miss it! Make sure you understand it by taking the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/real-en....glish-how-to-talk-ab

WATCH NEXT:

1. REAL ENGLISH – Making Plans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWW1yi7BoEI&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=34

2. Life in London – Visiting an art gallery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK4OrYTsf-Q&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=13

3. The Vocabulary of Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf0N2Y4ReR8&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=3

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today's lesson is about visiting an art gallery and the kinds of things you'd see there, and also how to talk about them. So, you may have seen a lesson I did a while ago on arranging to meet a friend, and one of the places you could have met your friend was at an art gallery, so this lesson follows on from that. If you're meeting your friend at the art gallery and you go around the art gallery with that person, what do you talk about and how do you say things? Okay?

So, first of all, then, you have to decide where... You've probably already arranged where to meet: Outside the gallery; inside the gallery; in the foyer - the entrance to the building; if there's a cafe which there usually is, meet in the cafe, have a drink first maybe; or there's usually a shop or more than one shop - there could be a gift shop, a book shop, so you might meet in a... In the shop in the gallery.

You might decide to meet in a particular room in the gallery. If you know there's a room with paintings in it that you're particularly interested in, you could say: "We'll meet in that room where they have those paintings", because you can start looking while you're waiting. So, a particular room or a particular gallery. Within an art gallery, the separate rooms are also called "galleries". So, you might say: "Let's meet in the... Oh, the gallery where they have all the... The kings and queens in the portraits", something like that. I'm thinking of the... The National Gallery in London because this lesson really is for the big art galleries, museums, so I'm thinking of the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Britain, the Tate Modern, big art galleries like that. Okay, so they have different rooms which are called "galleries".

You might also say: "Let's meet on the first floor or the second floor", because you know that that's a good place; you can sit down somewhere or you can start looking at something while you're waiting, whoever gets there first. So, that's how you decide where to meet.

And then once you've met, then you want to go in and start looking at some of the... The art. So, what are you going to see in the art gallery? You... You may already go to lots of art galleries, so you will have a good idea of what to expect; but if you haven't been to many art galleries, this is just a summary, and also giving the English names for things of all the kinds of things you would expect to see.

So, the kinds of things you see could be pictures and paintings, sculptures, statues, photographs, and these modern things called "installations". And all of those, those types of art - that's called the "medium." The "medium" is really what's... What the work of art is made of. So, all these things here in brackets, some of them are telling you what... For example, you could have a painting. And what is it made of? It's canvas, which is a kind of cloth with oil paint on it. So, it's called "oil on canvas". Sometimes pictures are painted on a panel, a wooden panel, so it could be: "oil on wood" or "oil on panel". Panel. Okay.

Sometimes the... The paint is not an oil paint; it's a water colour. So... Which is much paler. So, it could be a water colour. So, there are different... The medium is the type of material that's been used to make the work of art. Okay. So, with a sculpture, for example, a statue, it could be made of stone, like marble; metal, like bronze; or could be wood, it could be carved out of wood. Okay, so those... That's the medium used to make the sculpture.

And then photographs are always, of course, black and white or colour. Oh, there's another type as well. […]

In this lesson, I will give you a list of words that have different spellings but all contain the same vowel sound: “or”. I will go over the pronunciation of words like “born”, “court”, “law”, “pore”, “tourist”, “yawn”, and more. I will demonstrate every word, and you will get a chance to practise your British English pronunciation with me. Listen closely to British and American English, and you will notice that, even though they are the same language, there are many pronunciation differences between them. In British English, for example, we tend to make the R sound much less pronounced, even if it is in the spelling of the word. Also, the syllable “or” is pronounced more like “aw”. So these words sound very different in British English and American English. Find out how well you understand this lesson by taking the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/pronunc....iation-or-sound-engl

NEXT, watch these three other pronunciation lessons:
1. Pronunciation – How to say words ending with -OW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lc7pucsco4&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=7

2. Pronunciation – TH & THR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPIOxYtguhk&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=12

3. Pronunciation – The 2 ways to pronounce 'THE': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3zMxYQC0TM&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=15

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson is on the pronunciation of a vowel sound, and what it sounds like is: "or", and this is a British English vowel sound. If you're listening to American speakers or Canadian speakers, the words will be a little bit different. And also, depending on whether there is an "r" in the spelling, Americans and Canadians do pronounce those words differently from the ones that don't have an "r", because they make the "or" sound in their pronunciation; but in the UK, in Britain, we don't make the "r" sound so much, even if it's in the spelling.

So, we have a lot of words here which all have different spellings, but they're all pronounced in British English with one vowel sound, which is: "or", "or". So, it's like the word: "or", and you can see I'm pushing my mouth forward when I'm saying it: "or", "or", and it's just a round shape; I'm not making any "r" sound with it. It's just: "or", "or". So... and a lot of people get distracted, really, by the spellings and try to say the word according to the way that it's spelt; when, in fact, sometimes that produces the wrong sound.

So, a word like this, for example... Well, with "ght", of course that makes it even more difficult. But that's just: "caught", "caught". You don't have to try to make "au", "co-... coat". Some people try to say: "coat", but it's not. It's "caught". Okay? Just like that spelling of "caught", it's just the same; no different. So, that's the case for all of these words, even if they have double "l" in them - it's "or", like that. Even if they have a "w" at the end, it's still "or".

So, let's go through the words, and also there may be some words you're not familiar with and I'll explain the meaning as we go along. So, let's have a look. So: "all", "all". You probably know this word - everything; all. This one: "awful", "awful". So, there's a "w" there but we don't say "wa", "awa", "awa", "wa" like that; it's just "or" - it's an open, circular shape. "Awful", "awful". So, people use the word "awful" if something is bad. If they're eating something and they're not liking the taste, they say: "Oh, this sandwich. Oh, it's awful. Awful." So, that's "awful". And "awkward" is similar. If you feel awkward, you don't feel comfortable. You feel a bit shy or unhappy. If you feel awkward... At a party for example, if you don't know anybody and nobody's talking to you, you sort of feel awkward. Okay? Right.

So, next line: "ball". So, "ball" - I'm sure you know that word; sports, football. Ball. And "bald". So, this "bald" is when someone has no hair; they are bald. Okay? And a "bore", this "bore" is when someone isn't very interesting. You're talking to them. Maybe you're at that party and then you do find somebody to talk to, but the person you're talking to is really a bore - what they're talking about isn't very interesting and you're doing your best to look interested, but it's very difficult. A bore. Okay. And "born". When a baby is born on a certain date, then that's their birthday. "When were you born?" Usually someone will ask: "What year were you born?" Okay. So that's that one. So, you notice by now I'm making the same shape with my mouth for every word.

So, next line: "call", to call someone. "Call", shout out to them. Call. Or just simply the name of somebody: What do you call them? You call them by their name. Okay? "Core", "c-o-r-e", "core" is the middle of something. Like, if you have an apple and you eat the apple, but there's a bit left in the middle, that's the core; that's the inside part - the core. […]

Cricket is traditionally an English sport, and it is a big part of modern English culture. Many words associated with the sport are used in everyday language. Have you ever heard the words “wicket”, “innings”, “pitch”, “score”, or “stumps”? In this lesson, I will tell you about the sport of cricket, the vocabulary connected with it, and some metaphors and idioms which come from it. Whether you are a sports fan or not, this is a chance to expand your vocabulary and learn about English culture. Take the quiz for this lesson here: https://www.engvid.com/learn-about-sport-cricket

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from engVid, and today's lesson is on the subject of cricket; the game of cricket, which is a very English sport. And you might be thinking: "Well, how is this useful for me? I'm trying to learn English." So, it's useful to you for the vocabulary; the words connected with cricket. You might find it useful, for example, to watch a cricket match on television and listen to the commentary, and see if you can follow it, if you recognize some of these words appearing. It's usually at a... quite a... the commentary is quite quick, so it's a good test for you to see if you can follow it and hear all the particular words.

And apart from the vocabulary itself and having some practice at listening, if you listen to a commentary, some of the cricket terms are used in idioms and metaphors in everyday life, even by people who don't really know they're connected with cricket. So, we'll be looking at those later in the lesson. In the second part of the lesson we'll be looking at eleven idioms/metaphors connected with cricket, so this should all be useful to you in your... expanding your English vocabulary. So, here we go. And it's also of cultural interest, of course, to see what strange sports English people play, and also some other countries who play cricket as well. So, let's have a look.

So, it's a very English sport; traditionally it's English. There's a picture of a bat; cricket bat, and the cricket ball, there. So, basically, like with a lot of sports, you have a "team" of players - the members of the cricket team are called "players", and each team has eleven players. Okay? And there's a "captain" who's the person in charge of the team; the captain. Okay.

The place where the game is played is called a "cricket ground", so it's a big open space with grass; and, of course, room for people to sit and watch. In the middle of the big open space is a smaller area called the "pitch", which is a long, narrow piece, like that, piece of grass; long, narrow piece of grass called the "pitch". And this is where... people have to run backwards and forwards on the pitch sometimes. I'll explain that in a minute.

There's the pitch, and at both ends of the pitch is something called a "wicket". I think I better draw a wicket as well. That's a wicket. So, the wicket is made up of three sticks that go into the ground; they're wooden - they're called "stumps". So, three stumps go into the ground. And two... Two little pieces of wood sit on top - those are called "bails" on top. So, the point of the wicket is that if somebody throws the ball or bowls the ball at the person with the bat, if the ball hits the wicket and the bails fall off, that batsman is finished; he can't continue playing and somebody has to come and replace him. So, that's part of the game. So, at the end of the pitch in both places you have the wicket. Okay.

So, then you have the "bat", which the "batsman" uses, which is made of a wood from a willow; willow tree, so it's quite hard. There's a "ball", which is covered in red leather, traditionally. Okay. There are two "batsmen"; one at each end of the pitch. There's a "bowler" who belongs in the other team, who throws the ball like this, bowls the ball at the batsman, and the batsman has to hit the ball. So, it's a little bit like American baseball; that sort of idea, but not... the details are different. Okay.

"Bowler", and you'll also have "fielders" - these are people also from the same team as the bowler who are standing around the field. Some are close to the pitch, some are further away, but they're all waiting to see what happens when the batsman hits the ball because they have to run after that ball and get it back as quickly as possible. If they don't get the ball back, the two batsmen can run backwards and forwards on the pitch, scoring points, which are called "runs". So, they want to try to stop them scoring too many points, so they get the ball back as quickly as possible. Okay.

So, the "pavilion" is the sort of building at the edge of the... of the cricket ground where the cricket players go into and come out of. When they're ready to play, they come out of the pavilion. When... when maybe they've been knocked out, they go back into the pavilion, so that's... the pavilion is quite important. […]

In this lesson, we will look at a poem by an American poet, Emily Dickinson. In this poem, she describes the sunrise and sunset with metaphors. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used in a non-literal way to describe something else. Metaphors help the reader get a deeper understanding of the situation the author is trying to convey. You will see how Dickinson almost makes you feel and experience the sunrise and sunset with words only. Watch the lesson to learn more about how to analyse a poem and also improve your reading and writing skills.

Take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/metapho....rs-in-english-emily-

Next, watch these other lessons about poetry in English:

Learn English with a Poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVidL1o28gw&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=65

English Poetry – The Limerick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5fOvCTBIzQ&list=PLjvCo2ax1ZUdXCO23ICAF0H3N9c35SWfv&index=10

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill from engVid, and today's lesson is a poem. When I did a previous poem called: "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear, people said: "Oh, please give us some more poems", so here is one which I hope you enjoy. Okay, so it's a poem by a woman called Emily Dickinson, and she was American. And she lived from 1830 to 1886, and she lived in a place called Amherst in Massachusetts in the eastern... On the eastern side of America; New England. Okay.

And she... She was the kind of person who likes to stay at home most of the time; she didn't go out much. She stayed in her own room, I think writing poetry most of the time; maybe writing letters as well. But she wrote a lot of poetry; and not much of it was published in her lifetime, but it was found after she died, and then it was all published. I think she only published one or two poems in her lifetime. Okay.

So, here is the first half of a poem by Emily Dickinson. And it's very simple, really. It's not a difficult poem. There are some words which may be unfamiliar, but I'll explain them as we go along. Okay. So, here we are, so the poem begins:

"I'll tell you how the sun rose, -
A ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran."

Okay, so there may be a few words there that you're not familiar with, so let's have a look. So, she's talking to somebody; maybe the person who's reading the poem, and she's telling them: "I'll tell you how the sun rose". She's going to describe what it looked like when the sun came up in the morning. Okay.

And it was "a ribbon at a time". So, when you see the sun and the clouds in the sky sometimes, you have sort of lines in the sky that look... They could look... Be like ribbons; pieces of silk, ribbons that people put in their hair and so on. So, the way it looked as the sun rose, there were coloured lines in the sky-okay-like that. So, a ribbon at a time as the sun came up, these lines appeared. Okay.

The steeples... "steeples" are on a building; they're a pointed thing, like this. So, it's often usually a church building where you have a pointed... It's called a "spire" as well. A "steeple" or a "spire", so that's a steeple - that pointed bit. So, the steeples, there's more than one. So, if she's looking out of her bedroom window, seeing the town and seeing the sun coming up, she's seeing all the buildings as well in the town. There may be several church buildings with a pointed spire or steeple.

So, the steeple swam... swimming. So, it sounds like... It sounds strange because it's more metaphorical; that's why it's poetry. It's not literally true, but the metaphor. "The steeples swam in amethyst". So, "amethyst" is a deep blue colour. So, there's a sort of blue around the steeples in the sky; a deep blue colour. So, it's as if the steeples are swimming; they're almost moving against the sky because of the effects of the light as the sun comes up. So, the steeples swam. It's almost as if they're in water; swimming in water. So, the blue is like water, as well as being the blue of the sky. Okay.

"The news like squirrels ran". "News" we don't know. What? What news? Oh, the news that the sun is rising? Could it be that? Sometimes in a poem it's not exactly clear what's happening; what's going on. What is the news? The news that the sun is rising, perhaps; that a new day is beginning. It's getting light. So, people start to wake up, and animals and birds start to wake up. "Ah, it's a new day." That may be what the news is.

And a "squirrel" is a little animal. Oo, I'll try and draw one. The main thing is that it has a long tail, like that. So, little squirrels, they can go up a tree, and think things like that, you know. So: "The news like squirrels ran". The news ran like squirrels. The way squirrels run - very quickly. So, the news spreads very quickly that it's a new day; everybody wakes up and thinks: "Oh, the new day is starting." You soon notice when the sun rises. Okay. […]

In this lesson I'll introduce you to 14 different English idioms using metaphors from food and drink. Idioms are words or phrases that mean something you might not expect from the words' normal meaning. For example, if something is "fishy", it means that it is suspicious. I will teach you the meaning of "which side your bread is buttered", "nice as pie", "gravy train", "not my cup of tea", "crying over spilt milk", and more. Native English speakers use these expressions regularly in conversation. So to get your "share of the cake", watch this lesson, do the quiz at https://http://www.engvid.com/....14-english-idioms-sa , and improve your understanding of everyday informal speech!

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today's lesson is on idioms and sayings which are based on references to food and drink. Okay? So, these are sayings that are sort of metaphorical, meaning they're not literally true, but they mean something in a different kind of context. So, you'll see what I mean when we look at the examples. Okay?

So, the first one is this, which is actually true literally, as well as metaphorically perhaps, but it's: "There's no point crying over spilt milk." So, if you spill... "To spill". If you drop the milk and it goes all over the floor, you've lost it; you can't use it, and milk is... Well, milk costs money; it's inconvenient to lose some milk when you need it for your... To put in your coffee or whatever. So, if you spill some milk, it's... You know, I... if it happens to me, I feel annoyed and upset because I've wasted some milk which I needed, really, and you have to then go out and buy some more. And it makes a mess; you have to clean it up. If you don't clean it up properly, it goes bad and it starts to smell. So, there are all those things to think about. So...

But then this saying is: "There's no point crying over spilt milk." The idea is once it's spilt, you can't do anything about it - that's it, you just have to get on, clean it up, carry on, go and buy some more or do without it; don't bother getting any more, have your... Drink your tea without any milk in it - whatever it is. So, this is what people say sometimes if someone's complaining and they're upset about something, people say that just to say: "Well, there's no point being upset about it. That doesn't achieve anything. You've just got to move on and be positive; carry on and don't just be negative all the time, saying: 'Oh, dear. Oh, dear, isn't this terrible?'" The main thing is to do something positive about it, and not just cry... Crying when you spill the milk. There's no point. Okay, that's that one.

Then the next one, if you say: "That's not my cup of tea" or "That's not really my cup of tea", it doesn't mean literally: "That's not my cup of tea; that's somebody else's cup of tea." What it means is that's not my taste. Okay. If somebody invites you to go to a film at the cinema, and maybe it's a horror film, and if you don't really like horror films, you probably don't want to go. So, you say: "Oh, that's a horror film, isn't it? That's not really my cup of tea. I don't think so. Tell me when there's a different kind of film on, and I might go to that with you, but horror film - no, not my cup of tea." So it's just a saying that we have. "It's not my cup of tea. It's not my taste; I don't enjoy that sort of thing." Okay. Right.

So, next one, if someone is on the gravy train... If someone said: "Oh, she's on the gravy train", it may be that someone has got a job, or maybe it's like a politician sometimes - they get the kind of job where they earn a lot of money, they have the opportunity to go out for meals in restaurants quite a lot, and it's all paid for on their work expenses and so on. So, if you're on the gravy train... The "gravy" is the kind of sauce that you put on your food. In English cooking, it's a kind of brown sauce; it could have beef flavour in it or chicken flavour, but it's hot liquid, quite thick. It's a bit like a soup, and you pour it on your meal with... If you have a meat and vegetable meal, you can pour gravy onto it to give you a kind of sauce to add to your food. So, it's the idea of sort of rich food and something nice to eat. So, if someone is on the gravy train, it means they're in a position where they can have a really nice time and lots of nice things to eat, and generally not have to worry about money and so on. So, that's that one.

Okay, next one: "He knows which side his bread is buttered." Okay. So, if you think of a slice of bread... There's a slice of bread. And if you put butter on your bread... You... I think you only put it on one side usually, don't you? If you put butter on both sides, it would get very messy because you'd be putting the butter down onto the plate, it would stick to the plate - you know, not a good idea. So, usually you put butter on one side of your bread, there. […]

http://www.engvid.com Are you learning English in a way that suits your personality and makes you an effective learner? When you learn in a way that fits your personality, you will enjoy your studies more and progress faster.

Find out the different ways introverts and extroverts like to learn. If you don't know if you're an introvert or extrovert, and what that means exactly -- I explain all you need to know.

Once you know more about your personality and whether you are mostly introverted or extroverted, you can find out what your language-learning strengths and weaknesses are. Remember -- it's not good or bad to be an extrovert or introvert. We're just different! ...But for the record, I'm an introvert and proud ;)

Take the quiz on this lesson here: http://www.engvid.com/extrovert-introvert/
Subscribe to both my channels:
English Jade: http://www.youtube.com/subscri....ption_center?add_use
Jade Joddle: http://www.youtube.com/subscri....ption_center?add_use

TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everyone. I'm Jade. I'm your new teacher! That's my name. I'm from London. So it's really nice to meet you all, and if -- I want you to watch my video, and I really do want you to subscribe at the end of the lesson so you get to see my other new videos on EngVid.

But, first of all, for today's lesson, I've got a confession to make. I am an introvert. What's an "introvert"? This is a kind of person who, actually, just prefers to spend a lot of time alone. But people misunderstand introverts, and they always think that it means "shy". They think that every introvert is shy, and I wouldn't say I'm shy. It's just the way my personality is. For me, when I spend time alone, that's kind of, like, how I get energy. And then after, I feel good again, and I can go out into the world. But most people in the world, they're, actually, opposite to me. They are extroverts, okay? And this means that -- when you are an "extrovert", you just love to be around people all the time, and that's what makes you feel great, basically. So we've got some people who are extroverts in the world, and we've got some people who are introverts in the world.
How does this relate to you learning English? Well, I think it does, because it can really help you know that the way you're learning English is right for you or, you know, you could change it and make it better for you. But also, I would say that, in general, the whole world of English language teaching kind of focuses more on these guys because, actually, they've got a great advantage when it comes to learning languages.

So we're going to talk a little bit about these guys and give advice for, you know, the majority of you watching this video. But we're also going to look at the introvert perspective because this is something that I just found out myself when I was trying to learn languages. I found out that, although I didn't realize it at the time, I was just really slow. Like, I'd be trying to remember a word and really, really slow, and everybody else has already said it or everybody else has already finished. Like, the words came really, really slowly to me. But I always understood a lot, and that confused me because I'd think sometimes, "I'm just rubbish at this language." But I understood a lot. So my speaking wasn't as advanced as my other skills in the language. It's not something I realized until later. I wish I'd seen a video like this to help me explain why.

So let's take a look, first of all, at some expressions that can describe extroverts and introverts. So an extrovert who -- an extrovert is somebody who thinks "the more the merrier". And that means, "The more people there are around me, the happier I am." They love to be around people. Extroverts also are often "the life and soul of the party". That means they're the most fun person in the room, and people like to be around them -- great, fun people to have at a party. Also, very often, extroverts are "chatterboxes", blah, blah, blah, blah, talking all the time, always got something to say. Extroverts are chatterboxes. And I'm just pointing out the differences. I'm not saying that you guys are wrong to be extroverts. That's just the way you are.

Let's have a look at the introvert, the person who likes to spend time alone a lot of the time. For them, you could say their motto is, "It's just me, myself, and I." Happy to be alone. You could also say an introvert at a party is more likely to be a "wallflower". A "wallflower" is someone who's not going to start conversation with anyone, who's not going to be dancing around having great, amazing conversations. The wallflower is going to be a bit shy and is going to wait for other people to come to talk to them. And the introvert, also, likes to have deep and meaningful conversations, okay? Doesn't like small talk. Doesn't like chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter -- likes to talk on a meaningful level.

This is a grammar lesson about the best ways to make suggestions in English. I explain different ways to make a suggestion and give you some useful phrases to use. I'm sure you will be surprised by how many different ways we can make suggestions! We have a lot of different ways to make suggestions in English because it depends on how polite we need to be in the situation and how attached we are to the outcome. If we really want our suggestion to happen, we will be more direct with our language. How about testing your understanding of this lesson with the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/how-to-m....ake-suggestions-in-e ?

http://www.engvid.com The key to sounding like a native speaker is the rhythm of your speech. When trying to improve their pronunciation, a lot of people put all their effort and energy into learning how to say the individual sounds of English properly. These people don't realise that until you understand the rhythm of English, you will just be speaking English with the same rhythm you have in your first language. Your English will be unclear and sometimes hard for native speakers of English to understand. That's why you must learn as much as you can about the rhythm of English.

Word stress is one of the features that gives English its distinct rhythm. In this lesson, you will learn the grammatical rules of word stress. Importantly, you will see how changing the stress of the word sometimes changes the meaning of the word into something completely different! Test yourself on word stress rules with the quiz: http://www.engvid.com/word-stress/

"Hi. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is word stress in English. What's word stress? Well, it's part of the rhythm of English, and it's what can help your English sound much more natural. So we'll be looking at that. But more specifically, we'll be learning some rules for word stress because you might understand it in principle, "Yeah some parts of the word are stressed, and some bits aren't." But how do you actually apply that? And that's what you're going to learn today.
So we'll start by looking at an interesting sentence, "We must POLISH the POLISH furniture." "Polish" is an action, verb, for cleaning something, making it shiny; and "Polish" is an adjective for furniture from Poland. So although they're the same spelling, they have different sounds, and that's because of word stress. And we'll look at those words. So just make a note of it. That's the verb, and that's the adjective. And we're going to -- we're now going to look at where to put the stress.
So the general rule for two-syllable words is: the noun or adjective, the stress is on the first syllable. The noun or adjective, the stress is on the first syllable. And that's how you show word stress. The stress is the circle, and the unstress is a line. It's above the -- it's probably not something you can see right now. I've just realized. So I'll do it like that. You can see now. What about this one, the verb? The verb is the second syllable. So unstress; stress for the second syllable.
Let's have a look at some sentences with the word stress rules. So in these sentences, I've got examples where we've got a noun in a sentence and a verb with a similar meaning in a different sentence. So you will hear a little bit of a different pronunciation. Perhaps quite a subtle difference in pronunciation, but the stress is in a different place. So I'm going to show you that.
So in this sentence, "decrease" is in the noun form. So looking at our rule, where is the stress here? On the first syllable. We show the stress by the circle and the unstress by the line. And what about this one? "Decreased" is in the verb position, so we swap; we stress the second syllable. Now, I'll read them to you. "There has been a DEcrease in wages. Wages deCREASED last year."
Let's take a look at the second one. "Present" here, is a noun because we've got "a" there, "a lovely present". So, again, we put the stress here. And here is the verb. So we do that pattern again. Now, I'll read them to you. "Tom bought me a lovely PREsent." Second example, "We now preSENT the star of the show."
Let's take a look at this third example here. "Permit" -- "permit" in this sense, "You need a PERmit to park here" is saying -- in England, you need a little piece of paper from the government to say that you can park in some places. So it means you are allowed to park there. And it's similar to the verb, which means "to allow". So "PERmit" here is a noun. Because it's a noun, we're going to stress the first syllable. And here, "perMIT" is in the verb form, so we're going to change it. We're going to do it like that. And I'll read those to you now. "You need a PERmit to park here." Compare that to, "The school doesn't perMIT students to wear trainers." So it's not "per" anymore; it's "pe", "pe-MIT".
When we come back, we're going to look at some other general rules and important things to know about word stress.
Are you ready for more word stress rules? Well, first of all, we've got some exceptions. In the case of exceptions, the pronunciation is the same for the verb, the adjective, and the noun if they have one.

IELTS, CAE, or FCE? Are you thinking about taking a formal English exam for work, study or your personal development? Not sure which one to take? Here I talk about two of the most common tests taken by people who wish to work or study in English-speaking countries -- the IELTS and the Cambridge CAE (Certificate of Advanced English). I also talk about Cambridge's FCE test. I compare and contrast the exams in detail to help you decide which test is right for your needs.

I will tell you:
- Who takes these English exams?
- Which test is easier/more difficult?
- For what practical purposes do people take these exams?
- What are the exams themselves like and how do they compare?

TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everyone. I'm Jade. What we're going to talk about today is comparing Cambridge exams with the IELTS exam. These are exams that you might be thinking of taking as part of your journey with learning English for various reasons. And we'll look at the different exams; we'll look at the reasons to take Cambridge exams or IELTS exams. And then, we'll generally compare what's in the two exam systems.

So the Cambridge exams, we'll be talking about these two. This one is the First Certificate of English, and that's around intermediate level. And this is a harder exam. This is an advanced level exam also from Cambridge. So there are four different levels in this Cambridge exam series. And this compares to just one IELTS test that tests the same -- a much broader span, okay? So what does that mean? If you take the IELTS test, and you're someone with an intermediate or a lower intermediate level, the test will be really hard for you because it covers such a wide level of English whereas if you take the right test for your level in the Cambridge exams, what you're doing in the test is closer to what you already know. So that's a key difference between them.

Something else to say about IELTS as well is that there are two kinds of IELTS exams. One is IELTS Academic, and that test is designed for people who want to go to university in an English-speaking country or want to do a course that's going to be in English. And the other IELTS test is IELTS General Training. And that one is different because you don't have to do some of the writing questions which are based on university things. They're not in this test. So it's just a little bit more practical.

So why take these tests in the first place? People take these tests for different reasons. One reason, as I mentioned before, is if you want to go to university in England or maybe in Australia. You will need to have a test result that shows your level of English. So in that case, what test do you take? You either need to have the IELTS Academic test or you need to do the CAE test. You can take either exam. This FCE exam is too low -- the level is too low, so it's not useful for you if you want to go to university. In the UK, IELTS is the most popular. But for American universities, a lot of people do a different test, but I'm not talking about it today, which is the TOEFL test.

Then, what if your purpose for taking one of these tests is for work? Well, it depends, really, on the job that you're doing. FCE would be okay if your purpose is work. I've known people who come to England with the purpose of learning English and to have a job here -- like a service job or work with an English family and look after their children and things like that. And I've known them to usually choose to do the First Certificate because you can go to a language school; you can learn enough English to get by and enough English for your daily life and things like that. It's useful. So you can do that in those kinds of jobs.

You could also do IELTS General. I mean, IELTS General will test you to a higher level. So it really depends on your job whether this will be useful for you. Some people like to have it on their CV and show what score of English they have. So for them, it's useful.

And some people say for professions -- for example, lawyers and doctors, things like that. They say the IELTS Academic is better for these people. From my experience of the two tests, what I would say is that IELTS Academic just has a different writing question in it, and that different writing question is academic language. It's comparing graphs and things like that. So it really depends what suits you and what you feel is necessary or needed for your job. To do IELTS Academic but not intend to go to university or be using academic English would be a bit of a waste of effort for you because you would need to learn how to write these graph questions and this kind of extra work for you, which is probably never going to be useful in your life. So yeah. Again, it depends.

Are you following the wrong pronunciation advice? Do you think that to have good English pronunciation you need to say every word per-fect-ly? Have you been told that you need to say each syllable in exactly the same way that it is written? Well, in this video I explain why what seems like logical advice is actually COMPLETELY WRONG.

The secret to getting excellent English pronunciation is to relax your tongue and to start missing syllables! That's because native speakers do not speak perfectly in natural, everyday speech. In fact, it even sounds strange to say every word perfectly.

I explain to you how we use 'elision' to make our speech more connected, flowing, and relaxed. This means that we don't say every vowel and sometimes even miss words. I also tell you about the most important sound you need to know about in English to improve your pronunciation - the schwa sound: /ə/.

TAKE THE QUIZ:
https://www.engvid.com/elision....-the-best-pronunciat

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today, is elision. And that's one of the things that makes the speech of native speakers hard to understand because we don't say every single word perfectly, like, how it is on the page. We squash words together, and we miss sounds out. So I'm showing you how we do that in today's lesson.

So you know we like tea in England, right? We like to drink tea. Well, we call it a "cuppa tea". And if I were to offer you that, I'd say, "Dju wanna cuppa tea?" "Dju wanna cuppa tea?" And we've got an example of elision in that sentence. The written sentence would be, "Do you want a cup of tea?" All the different syllables being pronounced. But colloquial, relaxed spoken English, "Dju wanna cuppa tea?" So the "of" joins the words before. So remember, it's "cup of tea", "cuppa tea." "Dju want a cuppa tea?" We join that. And that's an example of elision.

We can also elide consonants. For example, in this sentence, the reply, "I don wanna tea." Some people will not say the T at the end of a word if the next word is another consonant. So saying it properly is more effort. "I don't want a cup of tea." Or, again, there's more elision here. "I don't want a tea." The A joins "want" and becomes "wanna". "I don wanna tea." Two examples of elision there: not saying the T and A joining "want", the word before.

What about the next example here? Here, I've written it out, "I don't want a tea." What we see here is the contraction, and that is standard English. We can write that. We can write "don't" like that, "do not". "I don't want a tea." But you cannot write it exactly how it sounds. You cannot write it, "I don". You need the T there. And the difference between contractions and elision is that contractions are okay when we write them, and elision isn't -- it's not necessarily the case that we can write down an elision and it be grammatically correct English. I'll show you two examples.

"Wanna" and "gonna" are two common forms in colloquial speech. We say them all the time. "I wanna do that." "I'm gonna go there later." But we can't write them. The reason we can't write them is that they're not contractions. They're not recognized as being standard English. We can say it, but we can't write it that way. In general, we use elision in our speech because it's just easier than saying every single sound in a sentence.

Some people think that posh accents are made up of just saying every single word properly and giving it good enunciation and definition and making sure you say everything correctly. But in fact, as we'll see in a sec, posh people and posh accents also use elision in their speech. But they will have some rules that they consider wrong. So for example, "wanna" and "gonna" in some posh accents are considered sloppy or not right or not a correct way of speaking. But I think a good thing to say about that is a lot of people think and perceive that they don't use these words when in fact they do. So you could ask a posh person, "Do you ever say this?" "Oh, no. I wouldn't say that. It's not right. It's not proper English." When in fact, David Cameron would also use "wanna" and "gonna". He's the prime minister of the UK at the moment. So I'd say he's a pretty posh guy, and he's using "wanna" and "gonna". That shows me that these are quite standard forms now. Some people will judge you for it, "Oh, it's not right. You don't say it that way." And also, some people will not realize that they say it themselves. So --

So -- yeah. What to think about elision? It just shows us how when we try to speak English correctly just by reading everything properly, this is not going to help you sound like a relaxed, natural speaker of English who actually sounds good because our real speech doesn't fit the actual words on the page.y of the vowels.

http://www.engvid.com Apostrophes are confusing! These small punctuation marks - ' - are often used incorrectly. People often make apostrophe mistakes in emails, and even on the signs of shops! (You would think that someone would notice before the sign was printed and put up!) Even if you are understood, mistakes in this area make your writing look unprofessional.

I'm telling you that using apostrophes is actually easy and straightforward in most of the situations you are ever likely to use them. In this English lesson, I explain the simple and essential uses of the apostrophe to show possession. Later, I tell you the advanced uses of the apostrophe. Watch this writing lesson, and you can be sure that you're using apostrophes in the correct way. Essential viewing for any shopkeepers - BEFORE they get their signs printed!

Take a quiz on apostrophes here: http://www.engvid.com/how-to-use-apostrophes/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is how to use apostrophes. So, I know there's going to be a few native speakers watching this video. It really is time to learn how to use apostrophes correctly. It's not that hard. There are a few simple rules and we're going to talk about them today. We'll start with the easy stuff, and eventually we'll get to the more advanced rules, but you'll probably never need to use the more advanced rules. But anyway, we'll get there in the second part of the lesson.

So what I want to start with is mentioning my school name. "Haberdashers Askes Hatcham College". This is where I learnt how to use apostrophes. But at first, I cheated because I've got a really... Had a really long school name and I always remember needing to write this on exam papers. But I think when I... When I started the school, I probably didn't know how to use apostrophes so I memorized where the apostrophes went. I didn't understand why they went there, but I memorized them.

So the apostrophes were like this: "Haberdashers'" and "Aske's". I'm going to explain why. So what's "Haberdashers'"? A "haberdasher" is an old-fashioned word for somebody who makes garments, makes clothes, and all together, they were... They were together in what's called a trade guild. And this is quite an old-fashioned thing now; maybe doesn't really exist so much, but they had some charitable objectives. And so they were a group of these haberdasher people and one of them was a man called "Robert Aske," so this is somebody's name; person. And "Hatcham" is a place in London, and "College" is quite a poshy name for a school. So you put all those words together and that's my school.

But let's talk about: why these apostrophes? So, the apostrophe is outside the "s" here because we're talking about more than one haberdasher, that's the rule; more than one thing, and possession - the apostrophe goes on the outside. Why the apostrophe here? When the possession belongs... One thing belongs to one person, we put the apostrophe before the "s". So the school belongs to Aske, Mr. Aske so that's why the apostrophe is there. Maybe that's confusing. Let's break it down and look at the rules one-by-one using apostrophes.

So, number one: possession. Another meaning of possession is when... When you lose your mind, you're taken over by something. But the more... The meaning I'm talking about here is when something belongs to you; when you own something.

So here's a man, here's his car.
"The man's car is there."
This sentence means: the car belonging to the man. And to show possession, I put the apostrophe before the "s". I'm talking about just one man, so the apostrophe goes before the "s".

And same really in these other examples:
"That's George's car."
Why..? Why one here? Well, here, we're not talking about apostrophes and possessions, this is something else. That means: "That is". That means something else. This is an apostrophe with possession. His name is George, it's a car belonging to George. "That's George's car." And to show something belongs to someone, when we've got a name, we put the apostrophe after their name and then we put the "s" there.

And we don't... We can also do it with places. So we've got:
"London's best fish and chips."
The best fish and chips belonging to London, and again, we do apostrophe, "s".

So when we're talking about possession, that's quite clear. It's okay, yeah? But now we have an exception, and sometimes there's a lot of confusion about this and sometimes people get quite annoyed. But what I am going to say is that there are two... There are two ways to show possession when the name ends with an "s". So it's preference really; some people prefer this way, some people prefer this way. All you need to do is just pick one and be standard, always... If you pick one, just use that way all the time. Don't... Definitely don't do it one way in an essay and then get a bit scared and do it a different way because you'll be wrong then. You need to pick... You definitely need to pick a way.

http://www.engvid.com American English or British English? Accent and pronunciation are not the only differences! I'll show you 8 grammatical differences between these two styles of English. Once you understand the differences, you can choose which style you prefer to use. The choice you make will influence your speaking and writing. So pay close attention to this lesson, and choose the style you find most comfortable with! Do you want to speak like an American, or like a Brit? Take a quiz on this lesson here: http://www.engvid.com/american-english-british-english-8-grammar-differences

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is some grammatical differences between American English and British English because although we speak the same language and we understand each other, we actually have two varieties of English and we have different rules; we have some different grammar that comes with that.

So I think this video is interesting for you if you're learning English. And I suggest you use this video to just make sure that whichever variety you prefer that you take all the rules associated with that variety. So don't think: "Oh, I like the rule for collective nouns in American English, that's easier, I'll do that but for British English, it's easier to spell like that". Don't do that. Just keep it standard. Pick one, learn the rules, keep it standard that way. I also think this will be interesting to you if you're a native speaker, so if you're an American, you're a British person and you just want to compare just for interest's sake.

So, let's get started. Number one: collective nouns. A collective noun represents a noun standing for a collection of individuals or not necessarily individuals, but within one bigger thing. So, a good example is government. Government, do you see it as one thing making decisions as the government speaking as one voice, or do you see it as a collection of different political parties, or even different individuals within one thing - the government? In British English, we can make our collective nouns singular or plural to reflect the fact that just because one thing is a group, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're speaking with one voice or one vision. So we can say: "Tom's family is", or: "are coming to visit". In British English. It just depends. Do you have a happy family? Are you one family happy unit or are you a collection of different individuals making up that family; mom, dad, your brothers, your sisters? In which case, you can use: "are". In British English, we can say that, whereas in American English, we have to just use the singular verb. Here's an example: "The government have cut spending". Government is seen as one thing, so we use the singular verb.

Moving on now, rule number two. We have different spelling rules also. Here's one to consider: spelling for "ed" words. In American English, it's generally preferred to spell with "ed". Let me tell you a story about something on my other YouTube channel. I have a video there that generates quite a lot of negative comments sometimes because I say something about Americans and they're not very, very happy when they watch it and sometimes people get really angry. And in a comment, somebody was like: "Hey, you can't even spell! You should spell 'learned' with 'ed', not a 't'". And she was like really angry, said all this stuff in there; taking the video way too seriously. And then, it started a bit of a comment thread, and people were like: "Hey, you're embarrassing Americans - you can spell it that way" and things like this. So, that's a good example of how when you... When you're used to your variety... I'm used to British English mainly, I'll sometimes see something in the American variety that confuses me. So obviously that girl hadn't seen "learnt" spelt with a "t" before which is okay in British English.

United States or The United States? U.K. or The U.K.? Unsure of when to use a definite or an indefinite article? Watch this lesson and stop making these common mistakes in English!

For many non-native speakers of English who don't have articles in their own language, it can be really difficult to use articles correctly. Even for speakers of languages that have articles, it is difficult to get your use of articles right 100% of the time. This is because there are many exceptions and irregular grammar rules.

In this lesson, I'll teach you what these exceptions are, so you can be sure to remove these common mistakes from your English. Even if you are an advanced speaker of English, I'm sure you will discover one or two rules that you didn't know about. Watch the lesson, then take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/grammar-8-rules-the/

TRANSCRIPT

http://www.engvid.com United States or The United States? U.K. or The U.K.? Unsure of when to use a definite or an indefinite article? Watch this lesson and stop making these common mistakes in English!

For many non-native speakers of English who don't have articles in their own language, it can be really difficult to use articles correctly. Even for speakers of languages that have articles, it is difficult to get your use of articles right 100% of the time. This is because there are many exceptions and irregular grammar rules.

In this lesson, I'll teach you what these exceptions are, so you can be sure to remove these common mistakes from your English. Even if you are an advanced speaker of English, I'm sure you will discover one or two rules that you didn't know about. Watch the lesson, then take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/grammar-8-rules-the/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. In this lesson today, we're looking at the rules for articles, but more specifically, the rules where we have exceptions in using articles. So when I'm observing people's English, all the time I'm hearing the same mistakes with articles. So what you will learn to do in this lesson is how to avoid those really, really common mistakes I hear all the time.

If you're somebody who just doesn't use articles at all because in your native language, you don't have articles, I understand it can be really, really hard to start using them. But they are an important aspect of grammar, and you should be using them. So if you watch this lesson, you'll get some tips for using articles, where you need them, and where you shouldn't use them. And also, if you're someone who's getting articles right nearly all the time, I'm quite sure that you will pick up one or two rules here that you didn't know before. So let's get started.

There are eight different rules. Rule No. 1: When we're talking about countries, most countries we don't use an article. So here some sentences. "She lives in England. They live in America." We don't use articles. But if the country's considered to be a nation state, a collection of different states, or a collection of different countries in one bigger state, then we use articles. Here are examples. So "the U.S.A., the U.K., the U.A.E." -- where I spend a lot of my time -- and here are -- also, we need to mention islands. When a country is a group of islands, we always use articles. So we would say "the Virgin Islands", and we'd say "the Philippines" as well.

It's interesting that we can say, "She lives in England" because England is one country, but when talking about the same -- okay, it's not exactly the same place, the U.K., because it's -- the U.K. is more than one country. It's more than just England. But sometimes people think of it as being the same place. It's not. When we're talking about the U.K., we need an article, but just for "England", it's okay not to use an article.

Let's take a look at rule No. 2. Rule No. 2 -- this is a really subtle rule, here. And this one I always correct in sentences. When people talk about meals -- breakfast, lunch, dinner, also brunch is a meal you might not know. It's in between breakfast and lunch. -- we don't use articles. So here's a correct sentence. "I don't eat breakfast." I'm talking in general there. "I don't eat breakfast." That's okay to say. However, if I'm being specific, "We didn't like the dinner", it's okay to use an article here. You need to. So what does the sentence actually mean? Imagine that we were out last night, and we had a meal. And now, we're talking about it. "Well, the place was nice, but I didn't like the dinner." Being specific about that experience we had. If I'm talking in general, "I don't like dinner", that would just mean all the time, okay? So it's a very big difference in meaning.

Now, we'll look at rule No. 3 for jobs. Jobs take the indefinite article. That's a grammar word. And "indefinite article" means "a". We don't use "the".

http://www.engvid.com Business isn't *all* business! In reality, business and pleasure mix. Are you prepared? Learn the best phrases to make social conversation with your associates. Equally important, find out which topics to avoid! You'll also learn how to eliminate awkward silences, and how to make your clients or colleagues comfortable when speaking with them. Many business decisions and deals are made outside the office or meeting room. Whether you're going for dinner with clients, or you're on a business trip, watch this lesson to learn how to be confident in social situations! Then take the quiz here: http://www.engvid.com/business-english-mixing-business-with-pleasure/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is mixing business with pleasure. So what does this mean? This can mean when you go for a business trip, you also have a little bit of fun while you're there. But it can also mean that when you go out with your clients, it's not all talk about work, work, work, business, business, business. You also get to know each other a bit, maybe have a few glasses of wine or something like that. I don't know what you do on your business trips. But it's not just about work. So I'm going to give you some conversational tips for your next business trip where you may decide to mix business with pleasure.

So I've broken it down into different conversation topics. So we'll just go through those, and you will get some questions that you can ask to make yourself a dazzling conversationalist when you're next with your clients.

So I was thinking: When do these kinds of business meetings happen? Often, they are in restaurants. So it could be the evening. It could be a lunch meeting. So anyway, you're in a dining situation. You get in the restaurant. What do you say? You can say, "Have you been here before?" Or you might say, "What an impressive/charming/fascinating place!" This one's an exclamation. You're making an observation about the place. If it's impressive, I would imagine that it's quite a fine dining, expensive kind of place. If it's charming, it's original, and you've not really been somewhere like that before. If it's fascinating, what could that mean? Just maybe something unusual for you that you haven't experienced before.

If you're the host, and you are taking your client to that place, maybe you want to say something about the place, and the reason why you decided to have your meeting there. You could say, "This is the best seafood restaurant in town." So you're trying to impress your client and show them that you're taking them to all the best places. So you could change seafood. It could be a Chinese restaurant --you know, whatever, wherever you're going.

So imagine you are in the restaurant situation. A really common conversation for you to have is talking about food in general, your likes and dislikes, and also making comparisons between countries and cuisine styles from different countries. So here are some questions you might ask. You can say, "Do you like English food?" Well, the joke there is that people around the world say that they don't like English food and it's really bad. So I wouldn't be that hopeful for a very positive answer if you ask that question.

When you're looking at the menu, especially if the menu is in a language that you don't understand, you could say, "Could you recommend something?" Often it's quite polite -- at least in British culture -- to let the host decide what you're eating. So you might want to make that offer and say, "Can you recommend something?" You can also ask this to the waiter in the restaurant, as well, if you really don't know what to choose.

And here's another general question you could ask about food. So let's imagine your client is from a different country and you don't know much about the food culture of that country, you could say, "What do Italian people like to eat for breakfast?"

http://www.engvid.com Confused about when to use 'me', 'myself', or 'I'? Is it "my friend and me" or "my friend and I"? Let me help you!

English native speakers often make grammatical mistakes with these words, and it can be a challenge to master for non-native speakers. People are very insecure about using the structure 'my friend and me', because it is associated with being uneducated. Put an end to your confusion once and for all! Watch this lesson, and learn exactly how and when to use 'me', 'myself', and 'I' in grammatically correct sentences. Then take the quiz here: http://www.engvid.com/confusing-words-me-myself-i/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is an aspect of grammar. When is it okay to say somebody's name and then followed by "and me" or "and I" or "and myself"? This is an aspect of grammar that native speakers get confused about. But more than just confused about, they avoid -- completely avoid sentences where they might say your friend's name "and me". They completely avoid it because in British English, at least, it does have this association with being common language, not being posh language. And people avoid it because they don't want to sound common. But actually, there's a lot of misunderstanding about it. Saying "and me" is really, really judged. But if you used it in a grammatically correct way, there's absolutely nothing wrong can saying "and me". In fact, sometimes people are wrong because they try to avoid it. So what you'll learn in this lesson, if you're a native speaker, you'll not be confused anymore, but if you're learning English as well, maybe you had a confusion about it, and you didn't really understand why it's different sometimes. So you'll learn, and you won't be confused anymore.

So let's check what you already know. I've got some example sentences. Let's see if they're right. Let's see if they're wrong. "Me and Tom went skiing." How does that one sound to you? Did you think that one's right? This one is wrong. This one is wrong. We're going to look at why later. But this one is wrong.

Second one. "Amjad and me played football." How is this one? This one is wrong. Slightly better than the first because it's considered more polite to put the other person before yourself. So it's slightly better in that respect, but still wrong.

Next example. "My mum and I went for lunch." What do you think about that one? Is that one okay? This one's okay.

What about this one? "I and Janet study French." How does that one feel? Well, actually, this one just sounds wrong. It should be swapped. If we say "Janet and I', it's okay, but no one would really say it like that.

And this example -- more and more, people are saying "myself" because I think they're a bit -- I have to tell you something else. In British English, if you say "and I" all the time, it makes you sound quite grand and a little bit posh. And not everybody wants to use that language. Not everybody wants to feel like they're using elegant language. And for them, they don't like to say it. So it's being replaced a lot with "myself". Someone might say "my mum and myself". So here's an example. "Myself and Leo are going on holiday." How is this? Well, with "myself", you can put it first or you can put it second. You can change the position. It's okay. My feeling about "myself" is also that it's a little bit too formal just for everyday conversation. So I personally don't use it. I prefer the other two ways of saying it, either the name "and I" or "me", as we'll get to in a minute.

So when we come back, we're going to look at the actual grammar. Why can we say it "and I" sometimes, or why can we say "and me" sometimes?

Let's take a look at the grammatical reason why there's a difference and sometimes we say "and I", and sometimes we say "and me". Well, it all comes down to the position of the pronoun you're talking about. So if the sentence is correct, if "I" is in the subject position -- so I'm talking about grammar now. How do you know it's in the subject position? Well, you find the verb, the main verb. Here's the main verb. And if it's before the main verb, then, it's in the subject position. But if it's after the main verb, it's in the object position. So we have a name, and we have "I" -- "I" the pronoun. These are both in the subject position. So this one's correct. These are all correct here as examples, but we'll go through them all one by one.

Are you a good friend? Being a good friend means helping your friends when they are feeling down. Speaking English is actually about communicating effectively -- knowing the right thing to say at the right time. In today's lesson, I teach you the best English expressions you can use to console a friend or reassure a member of your family. I also give you my advice on what not to say, so that you don't make them feel worse! I'm particularly interested in how we use language in social situations. If you are too, check out this lesson and become a better friend! http://www.engvid.com/how-to-m....ake-someone-feel-bet

TRANSCRIPT


Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is saying the right thing when you've got a friend who's feeling down, your friend's got a problem. We're specifically talking about a friend who has lost a job, but you could use the same advice for a friend with a different problem; a friend with a breakup or some other emotional thing that's happened in their life. So the formal word for this is: "consoling", "to console" someone, but the more relaxed way could be: how to make somebody feel better about themselves or their problem.

So what should you do in this situation? Well, a lot of the time, when people have a problem, they just want to talk to someone. Maybe they're not seeking advice. So what can you do? You can ask questions. So remember we're talking about somebody who's recently lost a job or is losing a job, we can ask them questions. We can say: "What are you going to do now?" Maybe your tone of voice wouldn't be really positive like that. It would be more like: "Oh, what are you going to do now?" It would be more soft.

You could say... This is... This is an indirect question. "Have you thought about..?", "Have you thought about training again?" This is a way of... This is a suggestion. Or you could say: "Are you looking for another job?" So this way, your friend can just start talking and maybe that will help them in their difficult situation.

Because, as a friend, you need to "be supportive", helping your friend out when they need help. You could "be a shoulder to cry on", that's an idiom for somebody who just... Who just needs someone to share their feelings with. If you're a shoulder to cry on when your friend needs you, that means that you're a good friend. And here's another expression: "A friend in need is a friend indeed." And it kind of has the opposite meaning to what you'd expect. My feeling is this means that you should be the kind of... Real friends are there for you when you really need them. If you're there for people when they need you, that means that you're a friend indeed. So if you are a friend... If you are a friend indeed, then you would ask your friend some questions to help them in their difficult situation.

When your friend has a difficult situation, watch out that you don't give advice that they're not asking for because a lot of the time, people don't really want to hear your advice - that's the truth maybe. If you ask someone for advice, it's different. I've had a couple of times in my life where someone giving advice is that probably had the opposite effect from what they intended; the advice is not felt right or something I haven't liked about the advice, and then it can be... Then it can be a problem. So if you say to your friend who's just lost their job: "You should get down the job centre." The job centre is where you go if you haven't got... If you haven't got a job in England and you need some money and support from the government. If you said to your friend: "You should get down the job centre", they might not... They might not be... They might not want your advice right now.

Another way you would give your friend advice is if you said: "If I were you", "If I were you, I'd go to my boss and say: 'Look, you're not going to fire me. All right? I dare you to fire me.'" Well, your friend might be like that, but this might not be something you want to do. Giving direct advice.

What should you do if giving direct advice could be a little bit difficult, a little bit tricky? You could try making these indirect suggestions, a bit like this one. "Have you considered... Hmm, I'm sorry to hear that you lost your job. You must be feeling awful. Have you considered calling your colleagues that you used to work with to tell them that you're looking for a job now?" Or: "Have you thought about... Too bad you lost your job. Have you thought about becoming a movie star?" You could indirectly advise your friend to do that.

Are you preparing for a Skype job interview? This lesson is packed full of tips to make your interview a successful one! I share my years of experience working on Skype in order to answer all your questions, and eliminate any doubts you may have about your upcoming interview. I cover everything you need to know -- from avoiding technical issues to preparing so that you can give your best performance during the interview.
Find out:
Skype job interview best practices
Who calls whom, and when?
Best camera angle
Advice for sound issues
How to avoid any technical problems
How a Skype interview is different from a face-to-face interview

Best of luck for your Skype job interview! Wishing you success!

Take the quiz on this lesson here: http://www.engvid.com/how-to-d....o-a-job-interview-on

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is Skype job interviews. So I'm going to give you some tips and advice that I know about... I work on Skype, I'm always on Skype because that's how I teach on Skype so this is everything I know from my experience of working on Skype. And I can compare how it was at the beginning... All the time when there was like a technical problem and something went wrong, so I can share all that experience with you to make your Skype job interview go more smoothly. Not just the technical aspect, but some other things you need to consider for your Skype job interview.

So let's start with the basics of having a job interview on Skype. The reason you're probably having a job interview on Skype in the first place is possibly because you're being interviewed for a job in a different country. So when it comes to that, there's something really, really important you need to consider and that's the time zone. Okay? Because you need to make sure that you're appoint-... At the time of your appointment, you're going to be there at the right time because it's really, really important to get that first impression right by being there when you say that you're going to be there. So you can easily find out online what time zone somebody is in in a different country.

One thing I want to mention: if you're dealing with the UK, a lot of people assume that they know what time it is there. "Oh, they use GMT." Well, we do use GMT which means "Greenwich Mean Time", but the time... The time will change. In the summer, it goes forward and then we go into British Summer Time. So you need to watch out for that. Sometimes people just presume they know what time it is in the UK and actually get it wrong by one hour, so you need to check that out.

Before your call, here's some just general good practice for you. Swap your Skype IDs before because if your appointment is at 2:00pm and then you suddenly realize: "Oh, I don't have the Skype ID. I better email them." This is all time consuming stuff, it's a time consuming waste of time. Swap your Skype ID. But if this is your Skype ID, I recommend you get a different one for your Skype job interviews; it's not going to look very professional.

You will also want to confirm before your appointment whether this is going to be a webcam call. In my experience on Skype, it really depends. I often work with programmers, and software engineers, and animators and these... These generally guys, I've never actually had women doing those jobs, although I'm sure they're out there, I'm just saying I've never had a woman who does those jobs. These guys don't use webcam, they never use webcams. And I've asked them: "When you have job interviews, do you use webcams?" And they're like: "No, we don't." So it probably depends on what area you're hoping to work in. But in some industries, it's not necessarily expected to use the webcam. But a good idea will be to just confirm that before: will it be a webcam call? Because if it is a webcam call, you've got some extra considerations that you need to get right.

So let's just imagine it is a webcam call. You need to think more about not just your presentation of yourself and how your face and your hair looks, you need to consider what's behind you. Okay? Because, generally, people will take a Skype call at home. So you need to consider what's in your background. Is it your bedroom? Do you want them to see your bedroom? Or do you maybe want to go to a different part of the house where the background is more neutral and not so personal? So you definitely don't want any mess in the background or any like strange objects in the background, or whatever because people notice on Skype.

Do you want your stories to sound more interesting? In this lesson I teach you all about 'informal intensifiers'. That's the grammatical name for an adverb, such as 'very', that makes adjectives stronger, as you see in the following example:
I'm hungry. [subject] + [verb] + [adjective]
I'm very hungry. [subject] + [verb] + [intensifying adverb] + [adjective]

I'm sure you already know the meaning of 'very'. However, we use different intensifiers depending on the background/social class of the speaker, as well as the formality of the situation. This English lesson explains which intensifiers you should use in different situations.

Some adjectives, mostly swear words, also act as informal intensifiers. This means that people use them in their speech for dramatic effect. In this lesson, you learn a lot of new vocabulary to make your speech more interesting. You also find out about the most commonly used swear words in British English, so that you can be interesting in every situation!

Take the quiz on this lesson at http://www.engvid.com/make-you....rself-more-interesti

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. I'm talking about informal intensifiers today and this is a way to make a story more dramatic and it's what we use as native speakers when we're, yeah, telling a story.

So when we're telling a story, we'll put in these adverbs to add drama you could say. But we... We've got a choice of intens-... They're otherwise known as intensifiers. We've got a choice of what words we can use. Any they depend... And the words we choose depend on the context and they depend on the kind of story you want to tell. So let's...

Firstly, to describe what "posh" is. In the UK, "posh" means belonging to a higher social class. It could be a way of behaving, it could be a way of speaking. So we have that in England because of the queen and all stuff like that, and that's just the way English British society is. So posh people use different words in their speech. So in their speech, these are the preferred words for posh English. So someone might say: "When my contact lens was in my eye, it was fairly uncomfortable." Or "rather" has the same meaning. "It was my eye. I was rather upset." And they mean the same thing. They mean like: "quite".

Not used so much nowadays, but in the past, posh people liked to say: "Terribly" and "Awfully" and they didn't mean them as terrible/awful. They actually mean the opposite, they mean "very" and "good". "I went to the party and it was a terribly lovely party and there were many people there." Or you could say: "Borris is an awfully good chap." That means: "very good chap" for a posh person. Posh language is going to prefer these informal intensifiers.

Neutral English-sometimes posh people will use it too-neutral English, we would use all of these adverbs mostly. So you would be intensifying a story by saying: "I was in so much pain." And you really make the "so" long: "So much pain" when you're telling a story. Again, you can emphasize the "really". "I was really stressed." You could say that. One thing to mention about "quite" is they mean... It means the same thing as "fairly", but "fairly" is more posh and "quite" is more in the middle or whatever. And "too" means negative. So: "When my contact lens got stuck in my eye..." This sentence is not going to work. The sentence I'm thinking of, you'd say something is too expensive as in too much for a negative when you're using this adverb.

But we have even more choice for informal intensifiers. We have slang words. So I'm going to teach you some English slang that people use. "Bare" means "very" and "nough" also means "very". You couldn't... You could write the... You could write this on Facebook or in chat or something, but you couldn't write it anywhere formally. "And when my contact lens got stuck in my eye, I was bare stressed. You know that." Or: "I couldn't get it out. I was nough upset. I didn't know what to do." They mean... "Nough" I used it like "really" there. So you also have this option if you wish.

And I don't know about in your country, but English people swear quite a lot. I don't really swear, I don't really like it. But here is swear words you can use. You probably know this one, I bet you know this one. But do you know this one? "Bloody" it's not a very strong swear word anymore. At the end of my story I said: "The bloody contact lens finally came out." You call something "bloody" if it's irritating or annoying. It used to be strong, it's not so bad now. And here are two other ones. I found that people say these ones when they don't like to say this one. They sound kind of like this one and they're a little bit more polite swear words. And they sound like this: "frigging" or "flipping". "My flipping contact lens got stuck in my eye."

How to a learn a language -- stop wasting your time with methods that don't work for you! There is no best way for everyone. The best way for YOU depends on YOUR learning style! People have different learning styles. In other words, they learn in different ways. Some people like to hear information, some like to see an image or diagram, and others learn by doing.

In this video, I'll show you how you can figure out your personal learning style, and how you can use this information to your advantage in the future to learn English more effectively. Knowing your preferred learning style means you can learn more effectively. You will also see that these methods are the ones that you find most interesting.

Knowing how you learn best also means you can try new methods of learning English that you may not yet know about! I'll share with you some ideas about new methods you can try out to help you develop your English. Then you can take a quiz on my lesson here: http://www.engvid.com/whats-your-learning-style/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What I'm talking about today is the best way to teach yourself English, and that's the way that fits you, your personality, and the way your mind ticks; the way your mind works. I think that, in general, it's the best time ever to be learning English because you have so much access to English materials. So I'm not talking just about traditional ways, like books, and going to classes because now with the internet, there are just so many ways that you can learn, also with new devices. So, right now, you're learning English for free on the internet. Right? But you can also be learning English for free on Facebook or by using an app. So more than ever, there are just so many opportunities to learn, but also to connect with other people who speak English or who want to speak English. So it's great. Yeah?

Well, what would help, though, is knowing the best way to maximize what's already out there, so how you can use it more effectively. So to get there, what I want to do first is a little quiz, a quiz to find out your learning style. So let's go through the quiz and you have to decide which answer fits you best. Okay?

So when using new equipment, equipment... This could be like... Could be a new computer or a new remote control for your television, something like that. Do you..? Or something a little bit more difficult than that. Do you read the instructions first, do you ask somebody who already knows how to use it for an explanation, or do you work it out by trial and error? That means you just start using it and learn... Learn yourself. Which one fits you? So, for me, I am... I am a trial and error person. This is me, so I'm going to put a star there. Another good example of that is: have you ever bought any flat pack furniture that you need to put together for yourself? Well, you know, do you read the instructions first, do you ask somebody, or do you just start? I'm this kind of person and I can tell you that it often goes wrong because I just think: "Oh, it will be fine."

Next of all, when you're travelling and you need to find somewhere, do you use a map? "Aha, we go this way." Do you ask for directions or try to memorize them before you go? "Oh, I go there, and then I turn right, and then I go left. Aha, I see." Do you do that? Or do you get a sense of where to go by landmarks? I've lived in a couple of different cities, and this is what I always do. I live in Dubai at the moment, so kind of have a... Just a feeling of where the sea is all the time. I'm like: "The sea's over there, I'll go there." Doesn't always work, but that's how I make sense of where I am, so I'm here.

When you're cooking, what do you like to do? Are you someone who follows a recipe? "I do that, I do that, I do that." Often, people who follow a recipe do exactly the thing it says. Is that you? When you're cooking, do you ask a friend to give you their tips for cooking? "Oh, I really loved what you made there. Can you tell me how you did it?" And then you try it yourself? Or do you just make it up as you go along? "I'll put a bit of that in. I'll make it a bit spicier. Who needs a recipe?" Which one are you? I'm... It's getting a little bit repetitive here. Isn't it?

How about this one: I learn best when I'm shown what to do? So you show me what to do with your hands, I see it, and I go: "Right, I can do that now." I learn best when somebody tells me what to do, so they give you instructions, you hear it. You're like: "Aha, I know what to do now." Or do you learn best when you just have a go? You don't... You know, you can listen to them, you can see what you're supposed to do, but you really learn when you can be practical and get your hands involved. Which one are you? That's me.

Important basic English grammar lesson. When you're teaching yourself English, there are aspects of basic grammar that you don't know about or understand. This makes it sometimes difficult to understand your English lessons. That's why today I'm telling you all about "auxiliary verbs" -- also known as "helper verbs". They are extra verbs in the sentence that don't usually contribute to the main meaning of the sentence. They usually just show you what verb tense the sentence is. I explain everything you need to know about them, and how to find them in a sentence. Let's get started! Test yourself with the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/basic-en....glish-grammar-auxili

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is auxiliary verbs. You don't have to be scared of that word, "auxiliary", because it's a grammar word. Basically, what they are is they're helper verbs. They are not the most important verb in the sentence, but they're important so we know what tense it is. So the reason I made this lesson today is I found that people who taught English to themselves get to a point where some confusion comes in because if you're watching videos about learning English and things like that, sometimes, you're going to hear grammar words that you're not sure about. And then, some confusion can happen. So if the teacher says, "Find the verb in the sentence", sometimes, what happens is you just find the verb you know, but you don't realize that it's not the important verb there. So the whole idea of this lesson is to just teach you a bit of grammar so that you don't get confused in the future when you're watching videos and things like that.

So yeah. They're helper verbs. They're not the most important verb in the sentence. There can be more than one of them in a sentence and even still not being the main verb. It's important because it will help you to recognize the tense, the different tenses of English. Maybe you don't use all the tenses actively, but it's still good to be able to recognize them. And also, the most important thing about auxiliary verbs is that it's not helpful for you to directly translate these words because you'll just get a really confusing, confusing meaning. And sometimes, that's a mistake people make. So what we're going to do is go through the different auxiliary verbs in English and look at the different ways that we use them.

So the first one you might not think of as being a helping verb, but it's a good example of what I mean when you see the verb, and then you try to translate it, and it doesn't really give you a good meaning; it doesn't really explain what it means well. The best example of that is "be" in the present and past simple. "She is my boss." What does "be" mean? What does it -- what does "be" mean? I don't know. I was personally confused about that even though I didn't need to learn English. And what it's doing is being a linking verb. In grammar terms, all it's doing is joining subject to object. It doesn't carry its own meaning, you could say. So in that sense, the verb isn't that important here. It's the subject and the object that are important.

Anyway. The next examples, they start to get a little more complicated, but not too bad. Another example of "be", but this time in the continuous sentence -- in the continuous tenses. "He is sleeping." Let's have a think. What tense is that one? That one is the present continuous. And this one, "They have been talking." This one is the present perfect continuous. And what I mean by "auxiliary verb" in these is that they're not the most important verb in those examples. The most important verb is "sleeping" here. And the most important verb is "talking" here. In this example, the present perfect continuous actually has two auxiliaries because you can have more than one auxiliary verb in a sentence.

Next example. "Have" in the perfect tenses. We've got two examples here. We've got, "I've got a car" and, "They had gone home." What tenses are we talking about here? "I've got a car." That one is the present perfect. And what about this one? What's this one? This one is the past perfect. Where's the most important verb? The most important verb is "get" here. We're using it for possession. It means "to own something, to possess something" here. In the second example, the most important verb is "go". This is a past participle. It becomes "gone".

Let's move on to "do" -- our first example of "do". When we're making a negative sentence in the present simple or the past simple, in the negative form, we use "do". Let's look at the examples. "I do not like Peter." I'm sorry, Peter. "Do" shows us that we're making a negative sentence. What's the most important verb? The most important verb is "like". What about next example? "We didn't go." Again -- naughty me -- no full stop. The most important verb is "go". There's our negative, this time in a contracted form.

http://www.engvid.com Do you want to pronounce words correctly? By the end of this lesson, you will even be able to correct native speakers! I'll teach you some very commonly mispronounced English vocabulary.

You'll learn some words that English students mispronounce, other words that native speakers pronounce incorrectly, as well as some general pronunciation rules in English, so that you can speak English correctly and confidently. To keep learning English for free, subscribe to my YouTube channel, EnglishByJade! http://youtube.com/user/EnglishByJade

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everyone. I'm Jade. We're talking about commonly mispronounced words today in this pronounciation lesson. No, pronunciation lesson. So I'm going to mention words that people say in the wrong way sometimes, maybe because they're not easy to read these words or maybe because a lot of people say them wrong, therefore, you learnt to say them in a way that's wrong.

The first things we're going to look at are not words, they're letters. I'm telling you this because I've mentioned this before in videos that sometimes in Britain, you're judged. No, you're always judged by your language in Britain. So when you say these letters, some people will listen to how you say those letters and they'll judge you if you say it in the wrong way, and they're like: "Oh, you're not educated", or: "Oh, that's very common", as in not being... Having the right parents and the right kind of background.

So, the first letter, a lot of people say: "haitch", with a "ha" sound, but according to people who decide these things, you're not meant to say: "haitch", you're meant to say without it: "aitch", according to them, so there you go. And what about this letter? How do you say this letter? Do you say: "dubya"? Well, this one is meant to be: "double-u". So we're going to cross those ones out.

Moving on, some of them are tricks because the verb for this is: "pronounced." We "pronounce" words, but when we say the noun, it changes; it becomes: "pronunciation." And I've had people say things to me in my videos before: "Oh, you're saying that word wrong." Well, no, no, I know that I'm not. You're wrong. Okay? I know you're wrong. Trust me on that one. So now you know. Okay? You can do that to other people when they tell you you're wrong because it's like you've got... When someone does that, you can say: "You've got egg on your face." Okay? "You're wrong because you tried to tell me I was wrong, but in fact, you were wrong. Now you've got egg on your face." So anyway, "pronunciation."

This one, it's a hard word to spell. So I can hear creative... This is... Wouldn't be a native speaker on this one. Creative interpretations of this word, let's say that, usually like: "ton-gu" or something. Sounds like a game that you can play, but "ton-gu" is not right. It's: "tongue", that's a bit weird, I'm not going to do that in my video.

Looking at this word now: "height". I think this one breaks our expectations, you could say, because the other words related to it: "width", "length", have the "th" sound. "Width", "length". This one, not spelt the same way, doesn't have the same sound. So it should be: "height", "height", not: "heigth", a lot of people say: "heigth". Wrong. Right: "height" with a "t". So it's the exception, it doesn't... Doesn't go with "width" or "length". Are there any others? "Depth", "depth", oh, that's hard for me to say. "Depth", too hard for me to say.

Looking at the next word now, a non... A non-native mistake: "suit", "suit". Some people say: "suite", "suite", all kinds of wrong pronunciations for that one. Thing to remember there is it's the long "u" sound, "oo", "suit", "suit".

http://www.engvid.com In today's lesson, I'll share some insults and other fun sayings that children use. You can use this British slang to irritate or annoy someone in a childish way. If you are in school in an English-speaking country, you may hear these insults. So you'll learn what they mean, and how to respond to them! I'm not teaching you these expressions so that you can insult people, but so that you can understand more about English culture, and perhaps even imagine what it would be like to to go to school in England. You can also use these expressions to joke around with your friends. When used correctly, they can be quite funny! Do you know any other childish sayings that I didn't mention in the lesson? Share them with me in a comment! http://www.engvid.com/british-slang-insults-childish-sayings

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade, and what I'm telling you today is expressions and sayings and, in sorts, words that kids use in British English, or at least they did when I was a kid. So I'm just telling you some of the things that I remember. The thing about kids, as I'm sure you know, they can be quite mean, can't they? In a funny way, but they can also be quite mean. So let me tell you some of the things that we used to say to each other when I was at school.

So if you want to insult someone in the playground, you could call somebody a "soap dodger". "What's a 'soap dodger'", I hear you ask. A "soap dodger" is someone who doesn't wash, who's a dirty, unclean person. If you "dodge" something, it means you, like, you run away from it -- run away from it. So a "soap dodger" runs away from being clean and washing.

"Minger." "Minger" is actually a new word. I don't think we had this when I was at school, but it's "childish". It means "ugly person". Like, "Ew, you minger." This one is really bad, actually. I don't agree with this one. Sometimes, people say "ginger minger". And "ginger" is someone with red hair. That's really mean about people with ginger hair.

"Div" means "stupid person". "Oh, shut up, you div." "Go away, you div."

"Weirdo" -- "strange person". "I'm not talking to you. You're a weirdo. No. Go away." Kids like to say "go away" a lot, so I'll be repeating that frequently throughout this lesson.

This will tell you something about British culture, I think, because it's an insult for you to study and try to do your best, basically. So somebody at school who actually cares and does their work, well, that person is called a "try hard", and that's seen as a bad thing to be called a "try hard". Probably -- maybe in your country, that's a good thing. "You try hard. Well done! In Britain, it's like -- nah. It's seen as a good thing to be good without trying -- to be kind of lazy. But for some reason, working hard is not a good thing.

And this did apply to me when I was at school, but I wear contact lenses now. I was a "four-eyes", a "four-eyes" person. I wore glasses. But actually, when I was at school, I don't remember anybody ever calling me "four-eyes", so I was okay. I survived.

A couple of other mean things kids say now. Now might be called -- you might call someone a "loser" if they're the kind of person you wouldn't want to be friends with. Like, they don't do anything good. They're, like, uncool. It's really sad to say it. They're a pathetic person. That's so mean and horrible, but that's what kids say.

You might also be a loner -- someone with no friends. Then, you're called a "loner". That doesn't feel very good if you're at school either.

Also, we use this adjective, "sad". Someone's "sad" if they're just, like, not cool, and they're always, like, saying the wrong things, wearing the wrong things. You can say that person's "sad".

What do you do if somebody calls you a "ginger minger div"? Well, you can come back at them with this. You can say, "I'm rubber, and you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you." And that way, like, their words can't hurt you. And then, they'll just be really embarrassed. They'll be shamed with your come back here.

Let's have a look at more general childish expressions now. Moving on a little bit from the insults. Staying there, but slowly moving away from it. Kids are fond of saying this, "Your mum!" It just doesn't -- you can say it to anything. Somebody insults you; you can say, "Your mum!" Or you don't think they're funny or whatever, or you disagree with them; you can say, "Your mum!"

Or if you don't want to listen to someone -- you don't want to listen to their insults, you can say, "Shut your gob/shut your trap/shut your cakehole." They're all the same thing. So that's your -- that could be your "gob"; that could be your "trap"; or it could be your "cakehole". In goes the cake because you've got a big mouth.

Kids are really fond of telling other people to go away as I mentioned before, so here are two ways to do it. You can tell them to "get lost". "I'm not listening to you anymore. Get lost."

What are causative verbs? In this grammar lesson, I will tell you all you need to know about using causative verbs. We use these verbs when there is a power relationship involved in what is happening. For example, when you tell someone to do something, you can use this structure: "I told Tom to wash the dishes." But did you know it means something different if you say "I had Tom wash the dishes." or "I made Tom wash the dishes."? Find out what the causative verbs in English are, and how you can use them in your speech and writing. Using causative verbs correctly shows a real command of the language! https://www.engvid.com/how-to-....show-authority-causa

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is causative verbs. And this is a different structure we use in sentences when it's important to show authority and important to show someone who's deciding an action. So how I'm going to introduce these verbs to you is to show you some example sentences first. Some are in the causative structure; some are not in the causative structure. So let's have a look.

Sentence No. 1, "John cleans the windows for me." That's the structure you already know. What's important in this sentence is the subject, John. He's the man cleaning the windows. Okay. You know that. It's easy.

Sentence 2, "I have John clean the windows for me." This is the introduction to the causative structure. We've got causative have. What's different about this sentence? "John" is now in the object position, and "I" is in the subject position. So what's different about this is -- we still know that John is cleaning the windows, but what's different is you are becoming important because you have the authority to make that happen. So it gives us a little bit more information about what's important here.

Let's have a look at No. 3. "I have the windows cleaned." What's missing in this sentence is we don't know who's doing the cleaning anymore. It's not important because we don't have John's name here. So something is missing in this one. No. 4, "I get John to clean the windows." This structure is causative get, and we can use it in the same way as causative have -- the same way as this. And again, it's like an order or a task John is given to do, and you have the authority to make that happen.

No. 5, "I make John clean the windows." Then you really -- you're not being very nice to him. You're forcing him. And poor John has no choice. You've got to be his boss, maybe his wife. I don't know, but you're not being very nice to him.

And let's have a look at No. 6. This is causative let. And we use this for permission. "I let John clean the windows for me." What does that mean? He's begging you. He's saying, "Please. Can I come and clean your windows?" So you can see they have different meanings here. But what we're going to do in the next part of the lesson is look at the structure you need to use to build that kind of sentence.

But before we get there, when can you use causative structures? Well, you need to have some kind of authority relationship. So you need, like, a boss and an employee or a teacher and a pupil, okay? Or you need a parent and a child. Otherwise, the causative structure's just not going to work. You can't say to your colleague, "I make my colleague bring me tea." You probably can't say that unless you bully your colleague. It's not going to work.

So let's start by looking at the structure now. Causative have and get are the same structure for this meaning. So you choose "have" or "get" and then your object and then a past participle. And what's useful to remember about this? Wherever you have a job done in your house -- you have something fixed or your car fixed or something redesigned or something changed in your house -- you use this causative structure. So here are some examples. "She had the kitchen redecorated." "I'm getting the car fixed." So you can use it in the different tenses as well.

Let's have a look at the other causative structures that you need to know. So we've got causative get. And this is a different meaning, this one. We use this one when you want to persuade someone or -- no, when you have persuaded someone to do something. So for example, "I got Tom to lend me some money." He didn't want to lend you some money, but you spoke to him nicely; you did some sweet talk, and you got him to lend you some money. So that means persuaded him to do something for you.

Are you thinking of taking the CAE exam? I'll tell you everything you need to know about the exam to decide if it is for you. Did you know that many people can take the CAE instead of the IELTS? If you have decided to take the CAE, I'll give you details on all the different parts of this Cambridge exam, and also tell you about the 2015 changes. Here are some of the questions that I cover in this video:

- What is the exam for?
- Who takes the exam?
- How hard is the test?
- How long is the exam?
- What are the different sections of the test?
- What are the different test questions like?
- How is the test changing?

Did you understand the lesson? Take the quiz on it here: https://www.engvid.com/cambridge-english-exam/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is the CAE test. This is a Cambridge exam, and it tests the advanced level of English. So, we're going to generally look at the parts of the test, and then in the next part of the video, we'll look at the test in more detail, so you'll know exactly what to expect if you're going to take this exam.

So, who takes this test? This is a test that people choose to take because they want to go to university in an English-speaking country, or you want to do a course in English at a university. You might also be taking this because you need it as part of your visa requirements. Or you might be doing it because you just want to take the test. Not so many people do that, but I've met some.

What's in the test? There are five parts at the moment; a reading part, a writing part, a listening part, a speaking part, and also this use of English, which is a vocabulary and grammar combined test that's seeing where you are with that. Importantly, though, in 2015, the reading test and the use of English will be together in one part. So, that means there'll just be four... There'll be four parts 2015 onwards.

This... I should also say about this test that it's a Secure English Language Test. That means that you do it in a test center and you have to prove your identity. It's a formal test, and it's one of the reasons why this test is well-respected, and you can use it to enter university and things like that, because the results that you get are trusted.

You can do this test on paper or computer; you have a choice. And it tests from... At the lower end, you could be intermediate, and the top end proficiency which is very, very, very, very high. So, that's a broad survey of what's in the test. Now we're going to look at the parts in more detail.

So, we have... Let's start with the reading test. The reading test is one hour and 15 minutes. There are four parts. This will be 20% of your overall mark, and you'll be expected to read 3,000 words. What kinds of text will you be reading? Well, you'll be reading newspapers, fiction, non-fiction, and promotional copy. So it could be a variety of texts that you might just encounter in life in an English-speaking country.

The skills that it's looking for is... It will be looking for your ability to read for gist, which is like the general meaning, but also detail. These are different reading skills. When you're reading for detail, you'll have to find a specific part of the text and read very closely for your answer, whereas gist relates to the general meaning.

And when you're answering the questions, sometimes it will be multiple choice. So, you know, A), B), C), and sometimes you'll need to fill in a gap. So, you need to go back to the test... To the text, read closely, and find your answer so you can fill in the gap.

It's also testing you on your ability to interpret tone in a text. So, perhaps not just the literal words written there on the page, but when we understand tone, we get an extra sense of what it really means. And also opinion, so you're reading something, and then you're making... When you're reading it for opinion, you get a sense of what is actually meant, and you'll need to express what is meant through opinion, through people's opinion. And you'll be expected to understand the main ideas of the text as well. When we come back, we're going to look at the other parts of the test in closer detail.

Let's have a look at the writing part of the exam in closer detail-this is a magnifying glass-and the use of English part of the exam. So, the writing part of the test is two questions. It's going to be 20% of your overall mark. And it's one hour, 30 minutes. Now, what you need to do in the writing test is... Question one is compulsory, that means you have to answer it; you don't have a choice. In this question, first of all, you need to read an extract, so there'll be a short text, up to 150 words, that you need to read before you write your own answer.

Talking about an article in English can be scary! That is why many people stay quiet, and do not share their opinions. However, talking about texts you have read in English doesn't have to give you anxiety -- in this video, you will learn key phrases and expressions you can use to talk about the texts you have read. These phrases are suitable for academic, business, and social contexts when discussing texts such as reports and academic papers. Take a quiz on what you've learned here: http://www.engvid.com/how-to-t....alk-about-an-article

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is phrases you can use when you need to talk about an article, a report, or maybe it could be a book or something like that in a university context, but maybe also as well in a meeting you might need to say something about some literature you were supposed to read before that meeting. So, by watching today's lesson, I'll give you some phrases that you can build up and make some sentences where you can sound very informed, and very opinionated, and say all the right things in a business or academic context.

So, let's take a look at these different phrases and sentences we can use. You can make direct statements of opinion about the article or what you've read. And to do that, you can use "I". So you can say: "I thought". If we're talking about an article, you can say: "I thought the article was thorough". "Thorough" means that something takes a look at all the important things, all the necessary things that it should cover for that kind of topic. Nothing is left out if it's thorough.

If we're talking about the introduction, that means the beginning, the beginning part of the article, perhaps you've got something interesting to say about the beginning. "The introduction was insightful." If it's insightful, you learnt something. "Yes, it was insightful. It was... It was... You know, I approve of it. It was insightful."

Perhaps the rest of the article isn't very good, but you've got something good to say about the introduction. Another variation of: "I thought", or: "I think", you could use it present tense as well, is: "In my opinion". "In my opinion, because I know about these things, the case studies were too short." A case study is where you get an example. Or you could say it's like a story of someone who's been through a particular situation, and usually case studies are put together to show how a business or organization helps somebody or solves a problem. So, you'll often encounter case studies in the world of work. They're meant to be persuasive, and they're meant to move you to action or make you want to do something, or prove to you how something works or how something doesn't work.

So, you could say: "The case studies were too short." We use "too" for a negative opinion. So this wasn't good about the case studies. We could use any other adjective. We could say: "too long". We can build the sentence like that.

Next, you could use the same building block there: "The case studies were fairly persuasive." Here, we're using adverb, and then adjective. "Fairly" means quite, but "fairly" is the more formal version. And it's a word that feels more academic, and it feels more like you're giving a serious opinion if you say "fairly". "It was fairly persuasive." So they were good, but you know, maybe they could have been better. Here, you're softening your praise. If you're saying: "The case studies were persuasive", that's stronger. That's like you approve of them more. But if you put "fairly" there, little bit less than without "fairly."

Again, we're still talking about "in my opinion". "In my opinion, the findings". "Findings" is another word for "conclusion". "The findings were inconclusive." If something is inconclusive, you're not quite sure if the thing has been proven. It's undecided. We're not quite sure of the result or the outcome. Maybe more research needs to be done. If it's inconclusive, we need to wait and see.

Moving on now, this is another way to give your opinion. You can say: "As I see it", you're using yourself, and your knowledge, and your way of viewing the world. You can look at it like that to pass your opinions and your knowledge to others. "The recommendations are unworkable." So, many reports will make recommendations. So, they'll analyze a situation. At the end, they'll say: "We think this needs to happen." Those are the recommendations. The recommendations are made by experts, experts who researched and made a report. You, on the other hand, may think that their recommendations are unworkable; they simply won't work. They're not as good as my recommendations on my report. They're unworkable. They would not work in real life.

And you could say, as well: "As I see it, the report is first-rate." That's quite a formal way of saying excellent. It can't be better. It's excellent research and very well done, it's first-rate.

Welcome to Covent Garden, London. I’m going to show you around and tell you what I know about this famous neighbourhood. Covent Garden is a popular place for tourists to visit in London, so I thought you’d like to see it. Native Londoners (like me) also go to Covent Garden just to walk around and to soak up the atmosphere.

Join me as we learn about how this area was in the old days. I will tell you a little bit about the history of London -- how Covent Garden once used to be a very poor area and was considered to be a slum. You can now see how different it is -- there are many theatres and expensive shops. I wonder what it would have been like to be a flower seller in Victorian London.

I had fun making this video for you -- hope you enjoy it!

Take the quiz here: http://www.engvid.com/welcome-....to-london-covent-gar

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. In today's video, we're going for a walk around Covent Garden in London. It's one of London's famous areas, and it's known for entertainment and performers. So as we walk around, I'm going to tell you some of the things that I know about this area. Are you ready? Let's go.

That's a cool shop!

So here we are in Covent Garden. This area's really famous for theaters and street performers. And even though there are modern shops all around us and cafes, whenever I come here, I really get a sense of the old London, the London of 100 years ago or 150 years ago. At that time, too, there would have been street performers. And they would have sold roses and sung songs, songs like this, "Who will buy my sweet red roses? Such a sight you never did see." That song is from a musical called "Oliver". And that was written by Charles Dickens. So yeah. When I come to Covent Garden, I get a sense of all the history of London. Let's take a look at some of the performers.

I don't know about you, but I think I've seen enough street performers now to last me a while. So I've taken you to a different part of Covent Garden because right behind me is a house where the great author Charles Dickens used to live. And do you know anything about Charles Dickens? Because he's one of our most famous writers. And he wrote at a time where London was pretty much poverty, disease, and misery for most Londoners. So we're really lucky to have the very different London that you see today. But I want to show you a part of Covent Garden so you can really imagine that time of Charles Dickens.

Shoe distraction!

Here we are at Seven Dials. It's a part of Covent Garden where there's a roundabout and seven streets coming off the roundabout. This place, in Victorian London, was a very different place. It was London's poorest slum. So it was one of London's worst areas. At that time, in a single house, as many as seven families lived. There was no electricity. There was no running water. So you can imagine it was a very dirty place. Also, there would have been a lot of crime around here because the families were very poor. These days, we see something really different. We see expensive boutiques. We see nice cafes. But at that time, the shops were called "rag and bone shops", and that means they didn't sell new things; they sold really, really old clothing that was almost falling apart, very, very old boots. So there was nothing new because this was a really poor area then.

Because London is so old, we have secret alleyways like this. This is called "Neal's Yard", and it's actually one of my favorite places in Covent Garden because just down there, there are some cafes and really nice juice bars and things like that. But can you imagine how scary it would have been in Victorian times when all the people around here were a bit poor and a bit dodgy? But we're quite safe now. What I'm going to do now is get warm in one of those nice cafes there. And what you can do now is go and do the quiz for today's video on the EngVid website. If you enjoyed this tour around Covent Garden, thumbs up. And don't forget to subscribe. And I'd just like to say thanks for watching. See you later.

8 common English grammar mistakes that native speakers make! Do you realize that not everyone in North America or the UK speaks perfect English? In fact, the majority of people do not follow all the grammar rules that you learn on engVid or in textbooks.

It is sometimes confusing for learners of English when they hear their native speaker friends making these mistakes. These mistakes are also often heard in movies. There is a big cultural divide between people who speak correct English and people who speak with mistakes. The ability to speak English in the grammatically standard way will often determine whether you have access to a professional-level job. This is especially true if you’re a non-native speaker of English, so I strongly suggest you follow the standard rules of English grammar. In this video, I cover mistakes you'll hear in the UK, but many of these mistakes are also made by Americans. After the lesson, make sure to test yourself with my quiz! http://www.engvid.com/native-s....peaker-grammar-mista

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. Today we're talking about common mistakes that native speakers make. And I use the word "mistakes" -- I use that word, "mistakes", for you. I don't actually listen to people and say, "You're wrong! You're wrong!" because a lot of the time, it's about variety of English and accent as well. Whether they use this grammar is incorrect grammar in terms of standard English. But people use it, and people say it. So that's why I'm telling you about it.

Also, I've got so much respect for people who come and learn English, but like, you could say, like, on the street, you know? They're not taking classes. They're learning from the people they're around. Sometimes, the people you're around speak in the way where there are these mistakes. So that's the kind of thing that you acquire. Nothing wrong with that because people speak like that. But maybe you get to a point where you've seen something in a book where grammar is explained, but it's not what you hear people using. And when that happens, there's sometimes quite a lot of confusion. So I'm pointing out these mistakes to you so that you can observe them yourself, and then, you can decide, "Well, I like saying it that way" or, "I don't want to say it that way." "That's the way everyone I know speaks, so I'm going to speak like that" or, "I'm going to choose not to." So -- yeah. Let's take a little look.

So something you'll hear a lot in many different accents in English -- British English -- is using "was" for all past subjects. So you learn in your grammar books that you say, "I was, you were, we" -- I need to think about this -- "we were, they were, blah, blah, blah, he, she, it -- was." But a lot of people just say "was" all the time when they're talking about the past. They say, "We was going there" or, "they was joking." It's not standard English, but you will hear it a lot.

So we are, in standard English, expected to use "were" in our sentences, not to use "was" all the time.

Moving on. No. 2, substituting the past participle where the past simple is needed. Okay. So these are example sentences that you will hear which are considered incorrect in terms of standard English. "I done it. Did you do your homework? I done it." "Where's the vodka? He drunk it." "Where's the dog?" No. Not, "Where's the dog." "Where are the kids? They run over the road." Okay? You'll hear those. But these sentences should either be past simple here because we're talking about completed, finished, past events, or they should be present perfect sentences. So they're using the past participle, which relates to the present perfect as in an action that happened in the past still with an impact now, but it's confused because it's used without an auxiliary verb. So let's compare to the correct standard English version. "Where's your homework? I did it." " Where's the vodka? He drank it." The past simple form of the verb "drink" is "drank". I'll write that one down because it's a confusing one. So it's "drink, drank, drunk". And -- yeah. "Where are the kids? They ran over the road." This one is confusing as well, "run, ran, run". And let's look at it in the present perfect form. "Where's your homework? I've done it." "Where's the vodka? He's drunk it." And, "Where are the kids? They've run over the road." They're still there. They haven't come back yet.

In this lesson, you'll learn different ways to write easy but effective introductions to your essays. You don’t need to be imaginative with your introduction -- all you need to do is follow the structure I give you. For most people, the hardest part of writing an essay is beginning. Stop being nervous and get a high score in your English exam by learning my simple structure for a good introduction. As a bonus, you'll also learn some useful phrases you can memorise and use in your IELTS and CAE essays.

Take the quiz here: http://www.engvid.com/how-to-w....rite-ielts-essay-int
And find more IELTS resources at http://www.goodluckielts.com/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello everyone, I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is writing introductions. And I'm going to give you three ways that you can write introductions, and you can use any of these three ways to answer an IELTS exam for the discursive essay or discursive essay questions in the CAE exam.

So let's take a look at the kind of question I'm talking about. I'll read the question to you first of all.
"In Britain, elderly people may go to live in a home with other old people where nurses look after them. Sometimes the government has to pay for this care. Who do you think should pay for this care?"
And then in the IELTS question it would say: "Give reasons and support your answer with your own opinions."

So this is a discursive essay. And if you look at it, there are two... There are two sides in the question. The first side is the government paying for the care. And the other... The other side is implied, doesn't... Doesn't tell us who the other side is. But if the government's not paying, it's implying that it's the... The children of the elderly people. So: "children of elderly people." So, in all these discursive essays, there's going to be some kind of opposition; one side and a different side. So now we found the two sides, the two ways of looking at this question.

And what we're going to look at now is the first way that you can answer this question in an introduction. Because what happens is when you get there and you're writing an exam, many people just get stuck and they don't know what to write for the introduction; they don't know how to begin. And, of course, you can waste time if you don't know what to say. So what some people do is basically just rewrite the question and just maybe change a couple of words, but it's not really an introduction if you do that.

So let's look at rhetorical questions. You can use a rhetorical question to write an introduction. What's a "rhetorical question"? I think I just made a rhetorical question. It's when you... When you speak directly to the reader, asking a question, but of course the reader's not going to be able to answer you, so you answer the reader in the course of your argument. So it's taking the question and making your own question out of it, essentially. So, an easy way to do it is by using: "should" to form your question. So remember we've got two sides, we've got an opposition. We've got government paying for the care and we've got the children of elderly people paying for the... For the care.

So here we go, here's the first example:
"Should the government or family pay for the care of elderly people?"
So, in my answer, I've called them "family" here, it's a little bit... It's a little bit more direct and succinct, rather than saying: "children of elderly people". So there's one example.

"Should the government be responsible for providing care for elderly people?"
I forgot my question mark there. You don't need to write your rhetorical question with "should". You could use other question structures. For example: "Is it the responsibility of government to pay for the care of elderly people?" You don't have to use "should", but I find "should" is an easy... Easy way to generate your question. But then, you know, that's not the whole introduction; you need to say something else.

What do you say then? Well, you follow with the context. So, what's the context of this? Well, it's telling us what happens in Britain, elderly people go to homes and the government pays or sometimes the family pay, but maybe there's a different context in other countries. For example: the country you're from. Again, it's implying that, that it's not the same system everywhere in the world. So you could... You could bring this context into the next sentence in your introduction.

So here is some sentences you can use for writing about the context. And I haven't... I haven't finished the sentences, I'll just improvise some endings. For example:
"This question" - talking about the rhetorical question - "generates a lot of debate because..." and now I'm going to improvise. "This question generates a lot of debate because the care for elderly people is very, very" - not very, very - "is very expensive."

Take your English to the next level by learning eight pronunciation tips that will help you sound like a native speaker. These tips apply to a British English accent or a neutral English accent. In this lesson, you will learn about -ed and -ing word endings, the difference in pronunciation between the north and south of England, the schwa sound, the pronunciation of the R sound in English, the tricky "th" sound, and more. Whether you want to perfect your pronunciation or learn about different accents, this video is for you. After watching, complete the quiz to test your understanding. https://www.engvid.com/8-tips-....for-british-english-

Want to train your British accent? Get my free British accent training pack: https://jadejoddle.com/coaching-tools/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is some pronunciation tips for British English. Some of them are tips; some of them are observations that you might be interested to know. We've got eight of them, so let's get started.

Pronunciation of-ed word endings. This is not specifically a British English issue. If your preference -- I don't know why I can't speak suddenly in an English pronunciation video, but that's how it is. If your preference is American English, this also applies to American English. So what I hear a lot at, sort of, around intermediate level -- sometimes upper intermediate level if you haven't had someone to correct you -- -ed word endings sound like this. I can't even do it because it's so unnatural for me. "Excite-ed shout-ed, remind-ed." It's so unnatural for me. But in fact, it's not like that. It doesn't sound like an -ed. It might sound like an /id/; it might sound like a /t/; or it might sound like a /d/. So I've got some examples here. This word, even though it's spelled -ed, makes an /id/ sound. It becomes "excited". "I'm really excited." "Shouted." "He shouted at me." "Reminded." "I reminded you to do your homework; didn't I?" And -- yeah.

So now, we can talk about the ones that finish with a t sound. "Finished. Dripped. Laughed." They don't have the-ed sound. So that's an important thing to know about pronunciation. Even if it's spelled-ed, it doesn't mean it sounds like that. And what about the ones that end with a d sound, a "duh" sound. "Remembered." "I remembered what you said to me." "Called." "I called you. Didn't you hear your phone?" "Imagined." "I imagined a better future for everyone." So with those, it's a D sound. How do you know for each one? Go with what feels most natural when you're saying the word. The main thing is don't force the -ed sound at the end of the word because it's that that gives you an unnatural rhythm when you're speaking English.

So moving on to -- this one's an observation, really. British English pronunciation. We have so many different accents in England. But one of the biggest divisions in our accents is -- it's between the north of the country and the south, and it's our pronunciation of these words: "bath" and "laugh", as I say them. I say them in the southern pronunciation. But if I were from the north -- if I were from the north of the country, I'd say "bath" and "laugh" because they have a different accent up there. Well, they've got loads of different accents, but they don't speak in the same way as me. So let's break it down into the actual sound. So if you're from the North, you say, "a". But we, in the South, say "au". So you say "bath", we say "bauth". And you say "laf"; we say "laugh". And you can also hear it in these two words. It doesn't have to be the first or only a vowel in the word. In the southern pronunciation, this is "commaund". But in the northern pronunciation, it's "command". And the southern pronunciation of this word is "caust". The northern pronunciation is "cast". The cast of Brookside came to London." "Brookside" was an old soap that's not on TV anymore, and it was people from Liverpool. And I was just doing the accent. Probably that's really irrelevant to you. You will never see that show, but anyway. You know, now.

Next tip. I don't hear this that often, but when I do, it sounds really, really, really wrong. And I think this tip generally -- generally a good example of how -- just because we write something one way doesn't mean we say it that way. So in English -- American English, too -- W sounding words are the same as the "wh" sound in words for spelling. It actually sounds the same. So we've got two words here, "wine" and "whine". One is spelled with WH, and one is just spelled with I. "Whine" is a kind of moan or a kind of cry. Sometimes, young children whine. Sometimes, women who are upset about something are said to be "whiny".

When writing essays, it is very important to stay on topic. In the IELTS and CAE writing exams, you will lose valuable marks if you don’t answer the question. So it’s really important to make sure your writing stays on track. In this lesson, you will learn a structure for writing paragraphs that will help you with the content and flow of your essay. You will also learn about the dos and don'ts of these exams. After watching the video, take the quiz and see if you are ready for your test! http://www.engvid.com/ielts-wr....iting-effective-para
For more a complete, free guide to the IELTS, go to: http://www.GoodLuckIELTS.com/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is writing paragraphs. And I'm going to give you a structure you can use in the IELTS writing paper, in the discursive essay section. And you can also use what I'm teaching you today in the CAE exam, but also more generally in discursive essays because people who don't have much experience writing essays or plus writing essays in English can often lose control of the essay because they're not really writing with a structure in mind. And when that happens, you just start talking about something else that's not even related to the question. So you don't actually get very good marks when you write an essay that's not about the question. Did you know that? Well, anyway, it happens sometimes.

So this structure is very fixed, and it's repetitive. So you would follow the structure in your first paragraph. And then, you'd do three or four similar ones. It's fixed for a reason, to keep your essay under control, to keep you answering the question.


So let's have a look at a typical IELTS kind of question. "These days, many students decide to attend university in a foreign country. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of attending university in a foreign country."

So first, what we need to do is we need to make a little plan. And I know the advantages and disadvantages based on my personal experience because I was lucky enough to study in a foreign country when I was a student. Yeah. I spent a year in Amsterdam. So what were the pros? Make friends from other countries. "Make friends -- other countries." I'm not going to -- actually, I'm just going to write a shortened version because it doesn't fit here. Make friends from other countries. Learn a language. What else? Challenge yourself. What else? Travel. Also, sometimes, expense might be a factor. Now, university is really, really expensive in the UK, so it may be an advantage to go study in a different country where it's a bit cheaper. So potentially, it could be cost.

What are the disadvantages, then? You might get homesick. You might miss your parents, or you might miss your dog or something. You get homesick. You know, it might actually be more expensive for you. If you go to -- if you move to a country where university is really expensive. So it could be expensive. Maybe learning a language is a disadvantage for some people because your grades might not be as good. So we could put in the language barrier.

So this is the really quick plan for when you're writing a discursive essay like this. It really helps, especially if it's about advantages and disadvantages. You've got them all down here. So when you're writing the essay, you can just take any one of those. It's not important to have, like, highly original ideas. You don't have to think of something really amazing. It's just an IELTS essay or similar.

So here's the basic plan, and here is the simple structure to follow. We're going to use a set phrase. Then, we're going to elaborate on that. That means say it a little bit more. Then, we're going to do a sentence with "however" where we show a complicating factor or something is that, maybe, shows that what we're talking about we're not so clear about. And then, as an optional sentence, you can share your experience. And this can be altogether one paragraph. You finish that. Then, you do the same thing, but you pick a different point, either an advantage or a disadvantage.

So let's have a look at the set phrases. You can just learn these set phrases to use in your essays. "One of the reasons" -- well, obviously, it won't be about studying abroad. You just change it to fit your question. "One of the reasons to study abroad..." "The main advantage of studying abroad..." "A good reason to study in a foreign country is..." So we just take one of the pros because these are all positive statements. "One of the reasons to study abroad is so you can make friends with people from other countries." "The main advantage of studying abroad is to challenge yourself." "A good reason to study in a foreign country is to learn a foreign language." Okay? Then, you've got the first part of your introduction written.

In this lesson, you will be introduced to English street slang, an informal kind of vocabulary that is common among young people in the UK. This kind of speech can often be overheard in conversations on the streets of London, on public transit, and in movies. These words and expressions are not appropriate to use in polite conversation, but they are fun to learn and useful to know in order to understand popular culture. In this video, you will learn the meaning of "pattymouth", "sket", "blud", "wagan", and many more. Do you know any street slang words that I don't mention? Watch this video, and comment below!

Take the quiz at http://ww.engvid.com/british-street-slang/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. My name is Jade, yeah? And today, I'm going to tell you about the real London accent. Yeah? Because that's where I'm from. And, like, we don't talk, like, how you learn it in your textbooks. You know what I'm saying? We talk like we're from the street. We talk in a different way. So what I'm telling you today is some words that, like, people like me speak with.

So we're going to look at this accent. Sometimes, I'm going to speak in my normal accent, but I'm going to do this accent a lot here because this is what I'm talking about. So this accent, sometimes, like, those clever people, yeah? They call it "Multicultural London English". What does that mean? It basically means -- this accent that I'm using, it's not like the cockney accent. You've probably heard about the cockney accent. And that's supposed to be the accent that working class people in London speak with. Everyone's supposed to be a cockney. But the truth is, like, no one -- not that many people talk in a, like, speak that cockney anymore. 'Cause this accent, Multicultural London English, is, like, a lot more normal now. People speak like this.

Some people, you know -- some rude people, they're calling it "Jafaican". And they're calling it "Jafaican" because they're saying that, like, we're trying to sound like from Jamaica. But I grew up in London. Do you know what I'm saying? I ain't been to Jamaica.

So for some people, what they hear in that accent is, like, "Oh, you're West Indian" or, "You're trying to sound like you're West Indian even if you're a white person. You're trying to sound like you're from Jamaica." But actually, it's -- black people have this accent. White people have this accent. It's just a really common accent in London now.

Who speaks with this accent? Here are some people. Ali G -- actually, he doesn't really speak with this accent because Ali G is not a real person. Plus, Ali G is a character, and that stuff is about ten years old now. And maybe when it was even first made, he doesn't really speak in this accent. It's just an exaggerated version. If you don't know who Ali G is or any of these other people, you can search for them on YouTube and listen to them.

These are the people -- they're music people in the UK. We've got Dizee Rascal, Wiley, and N-Dubz. And if you search for N-Dubz and try to listen to him, you probably won't understand very much, I'm thinking.

So now, I'm going to introduce you to some of the, like, words that we use when we speak in English, yeah? So that you know what we saying when you come to London. When you come to my endz, you can say all the right things, yeah? So let's have a look at some verbs. In your textbooks, you're told to ask for something. In this accent, you "axe" for something. "Axe dem blud." That means, "Ask them for something." "Buss" -- to "buss" something means to wear something. So, "You're bussing sick creps. Do you know what I'm saying?" "Creps" are trainers or shoes or sneakers. "You're wearing very nice trainers." "You're bussing sick creps. Do you get me?"

"Cotch" means to relax somewhere. "Come we go cotch." "Let's go relax somewhere."

"Fix up" -- I've got a sad story about this one that's true. When I was in secondary school, there was this girl in my secondary school, and she was a bully. And I remember I was cuing up for my lunch, and she just came behind me, hit me on the head, and she's, like, "Go fix your hair." And I was, like, "What's wrong with my hair? I'm really sorry." And I felt really bad. So if somebody says "fix up something", it's like, "You're looking really bad." "Nah. You ain't good, you know?" So in Dizee Rascal's song, which is quite famous, he says, "Fix up. Look sharp." And that means, like, "Try and wear something good when you go out into the world." So moving on from the verbs.

Nouns, essential nouns in this vocabulary. You know the word "house", right? Well, the other word you can use for it is "yard". "Come to my yard, yeah? I'll meet you later." "Fam", "blud", and "yout" are all words that could be used for "friend". "Yout" would be, like, a young friend. "He's just a yout. Leave him. He ain't worth it. Do you know what I mean? Leave him."

In this grammar lesson, you will learn more about transitive verbs related to communication. Transitive verbs are verbs that use the preposition "to" after the verb. For example, "talk to", "speak to", and "reply to" are all frequently-used transitive verbs. But how do you know when to use "to" and when not to use it? Why is it that you can say "I talked to you", but you can't say, "I phoned to you"? Watch this video to find out, and stop making this very common mistake. Then take the quiz! http://www.engvid.com/grammar-to-transitive-verbs/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're looking at today is "verb" + "to". These are... You could call them a group of verbs, and they always need to have "to" after them, plus they always need to have an object. And the reason they need to have an object is because they're transitive verbs. And that's a grammar word that means: this verb needs to have an object, otherwise it's incorrect and it's not good English.

So we're looking at some of the verbs that I come across a lot that people get wrong. So they're using... They're not using a "to" when they use that verb, and we're looking at that. So, let's start and check how much you actually know with a couple of sentences.

So, our first sentence: "He phoned to me." What do you think about that one? Is that right? Is that one wrong? Well, "phone" is not in this group of verbs. It's not a transitive verb. We don't need "to" with that one. Now it's correct. "He phoned me."

What about this one? "I need to speak to him." How is that one? Is that one good English? "I need to speak..." This one... This bit's okay. This is not "verb" + "to" here. This is just the infinitive. When we have one verb, and then we're following it with another verb in the present simple, that's why that "to" is there. That's not what we're talking about. But after "speak", is it right here? Yes. In this example it's right. But I'm a very naughty person, because I didn't put a full stop there. There should be a full stop there.

And let's look at this example: "Who am I speaking to?" Or sometimes: "Whom am I speaking to?" What about this one? Is this one correct? Yeah, they're both correct. In speech, you'll probably hear: "Who am I speaking to?" But formally, it would be: "Whom" with an "m" written out, or sometimes said in speech that way.

So now, let's look at examples of "verb" + "to". These are all verbs that you should be using with "to" after them. And what I usually observe is people using these verbs, but without the "to", and it doesn't sound right then. So let's look at some example sentences.

"Speak to": "I don't speak to Sarah." And notice how the "to" doesn't sound like "to" anymore. "I don't speak to Sarah." It just becomes a schwa. We don't... We don't say it like the individual word itself.

Next example. "Talk to": "Talk to them for me." Don't know what accent that was; it just kind of came out. Yeah, we talk to someone, we need an object.

"Listen to", this is very good advice for all people: "You should listen to me." It'd be worth it. Trust me. Here's a gap. Nothing to learn here.

But now we've got "reply to": "I'm sure he'll reply to us." I almost put: "I'm sure he'll reply to me", and then it felt a bit personal, so I put "us" there.

Next example, "write to", you always write to someone, but what I commonly hear people not using "to" with this one. "I'll write to them a.s.a.p." Clever points for you if you know what that means. That means "as soon as possible".

And "belong to": "Excuse me, does this belong to you?" You don't want to have someone come up to you and ask you that at the train station. You get in trouble in England for that.

When we come back, we're going to look at some more examples of "verb" + "to".

Let's take a look at common errors with "verb" + "to". So with these... These verbs here, even though they feel like or seem like they're similar to the verbs that we looked at before because they're to do with communication, these ones don't take "to". So sometimes I'm observing mistakes with these verbs, and that's what I want you to know.

So in our example sentences, these are all wrong. We need to make changes.

"I phone to him." No "to". We don't need "to".

"She called to me." No "to". You're starting to get it now - no "to".

"We emailed to them." No "to".

"They won't answer to us." Again, no "to".

"Will you ask to Sarah?" Again, no "to". We don't need "to" with these verbs.

http://www.engvid.com Do you sound like a robot when you speak? You can transform your speech from boring to fascinating by using good English rhythm. In this lesson, you will learn many ways to make your speech more captivating for your audience by adjusting your speech rhythm, which includes syllable stress, word stress, and vocabulary choice. You will also learn how you can use poetry to improve the rhythm of your everyday speech and be interesting in any situation!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I am Jade. Today we are talking about the rhythm of English. And that's not my normal voice. I'm showing you that because rhythm is really important when you're speaking a different language, and every language has its own rhythm. So, I thought today, I'll tell you a little bit about the rhythm of English. What does English actually sound like if we break it down?

It's really important to improve the rhythm of your English speech, because we try to avoid what's called monotone. Monotone voices are... Well, it's a big subject, but one thing about monotone voices is they don't go up or down, and they're not very expressive. So we try to avoid that, and we can see that actually in English poetry. And I think in... I think poetry in general is one way that you can develop your rhythm in English, because poetry is written in a way that calls attention to rhythm of English.

So here's a little bit of a famous poem in English. Don't worry if you don't know what the words mean, because it's quite an interesting poem in that the words are invented words for this poem. Like it's... They're not real things, but when we hear it, we get a sense of what it means. But in terms of rhythm, it's interesting because so much of English poetry is written in what's called iambs, which is basically an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable. So I'll write that down for you. Iamb, stressed followed by... Ohp, wrong way around. Unstressed followed by a stressed syllable and repeated like that.

And you've heard of Shakespeare, right? You have heard of Shakespeare, that famous poet? Well, he wrote in iambic pentameter, which means five of those repeated. So, one, two, three, four, five. Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter. Not continuously always through everything he ever wrote, but if there was ever an important character in one of his plays, that was in iambic pentameter.

This poem is not in iambic pentameter, because we don't have five. I'll show you. So, when we read the poem... Well, when I read the poem, I want you just to listen to the rhythm, and then I'll talk a little bit about it because it's one thing for me to tell you the rhythm of English is iambs; unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed, but what does that actually mean? So, here we go, I'll read it to you.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch.
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious bandersnatch!"

So, poetry is more rhythmic and elegant than just our normal speech, but our normal speech likes this unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed rhythm, so there is similarity.

So let's find where the stresses are here, so that when I read it again, you can follow it. So, because it's unstressed, stressed, here is the first stressed. And, did you notice when I read it, it was "behware", not "be-ware"? It's "behware". Our connecting words are not so important. You can see here, unstressed words: articles, "the", "a", they're not so important so we don't stress them. We can stress them but that's a different point. Names, usually stressed. We had an unstressed there, so we're going to stressed again. Unstressed, secondary stress.

We have one... Oo, it's not... You cannot see what I'm doing here. I'm going to put it down a little bit for you. Stressed, unstressed, secondary stress. There's always one main stress in a word, but if there's an extra stress, it's not as... Not as much as the first. Unstressed, "my" is a pronoun. Pronouns: "he", "she", "it", "my", "his", unstressed. Noun, stress again. And this is going to repeat throughout the poem, so I'm just going to go a little bit quickly this... A little bit more quickly this time. Unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed. Again, we've got "beware", unstressed, stressed, unstressed, name. And the last line, again, unstress, stress, unstress, and the word "bandersnatch" has two stresses, but the first... The main stress is on the first syllable.

Moving to or living in the UK? Looking to apply for work? You will need to prepare your British English CV. A CV is also known as a resume. Did you know that in the UK, we have our own way of making CVs that is different from what is commonly done in other European countries? A British CV is closer in format and structure to an American CV. In this lesson, you will learn what to include and what not to include in your curriculum vitae. Also, I will teach you some impressive vocabulary and phrases for your CV that will help you land that interview and achieve your goals. It's not easy to find employment, but with the right skills, you have a better chance of getting the job you want!

Take a quiz on this lesson here: http://www.engvid.com/job-skills-uk-cv/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is your British English CV. Maybe you want to put together your first British English CV to apply for jobs in the UK. So in this video, I'm going to tell you what's standard, and I'll tell you a little bit about it, so that you can create your first or an improved British English CV.

So what we're going to talk about first is the format of your CV. Because we... There's not like one CV that's... Everybody does. There are conventions, there are set ways of doing it, but within that, there is some leeway; you can do different things. And this is important when we think about format, because it really depends what experience you have, which format you're going to choose, because you want to use your CV to sell yourself.

So if you've got a lot of experience behind you, then you want to do a chronological CV, with your most recent job and then going backwards. We usually have the most detail... Or no, we do. We have the most detail for the most recent or current job, and then after that, the previous job, some detail as well. But generally after that, we don't really say much about the jobs that far in the past. And that's the key difference that I've seen on many CVs when I'm looking at CVs from people from Italy or Spain or wherever. They usually have a lot of detail for past jobs that were quite a long time ago, whereas we don't really say so much about things that were in the past, especially if they were more than two years ago. Yeah.

What if you don't really have much experience, well what do you do then? Well, you put your education in the first position. So, you would want to put your education first. In the experience CV, the education isn't the most important thing; that can go at the end or on the second page.

And what if you're a freelance worker or a temporary worker? So, you've got lots of little jobs, what do you do then? Well, you choose a format where you're grouping your experience in most important projects that you did. It's not really about the time that you worked on something; it's about the skills that you acquired. So in this kind of CV, you really need to express all your skills, not how long it was, how long you were there, and this kind of thing like in a normal job.

What not to include, then, on your British English CV? I think there's a difference between what's the law about what not to include and what's the actual practice. Because by law, we're not meant to put our date of births or photographs on CVs. But, it's, it does happen for certain kinds of jobs. Let's take this example: you move to London, and you're trying to get a job in London, and you want to do a waitressing job or a bar job, or something like that. If you go into independent places, independent places and maybe not like... Maybe they don't really know about the law, and actually they do want to know how old you are. So, in... I'm not telling you to do it, I'm just saying that it happens that some people choose to put this information on their CVs.

I, this is a just a personal thing of mine: on a CV, I just find it completely pointless that somebody puts headings like "email" and then puts an email address after it with a name in it, because it's obviously your email. It's like a word that we don't need. We don't need to see that on the CV. Same with "mobile". We know what a mobile number looks like. So pointless headings I don't like, and also, I don't like the title at the top, when somebody writes "CV" or "Curriculum Vitae" which is a Latin word, because we obviously know it's a CV. So, I'm against pointless extra words on CVs.

Studying for the IELTS test? Learn the top tips and strategies to get a high score in the IELTS listening section. I've helped hundreds of students pass their IELTS exam and I know where students lose marks. I'm going to share my experience and let you know how you can dramatically increase your score on this test. By using these IELTS tricks you will see an immediate improvement on your IELTS practice tests.

You need to do the IELTS listening test for the Academic IELTS and the General IELTS. I want you to be confident when you go to the IELTS test center to do the exam. So watch this lesson and get some free tips that will help you get the score you need!

Want more videos to help you improve you IELTS score? Check out EngVid's many other IELTS lessons at: http://www.engvid.com/english-exams/ielts/
and for more tips on the IELTS, go to http://www.goodluckielts.com/

Test yourself with the quiz: http://www.engvid.com/ielts-li....stening-how-to-get-a

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. In this lesson, I've put together all the tips I have for IELTS listening, so if you're preparing to take the test, you've got all my tips to help you do your best in the listening exam.

So, it's 40 marks, and it's around 30 minutes long, so how can you make the most of your listening exam? Well, it's true what they say: practice really does make perfect. So you should aim to do as many practice tests of the listening section as you absolutely can. It will really, really help you.

There's a book that I recommend, it's the Cambridge Series for IELTS, we've got some practice tests. There are other parts in that book, not just for listening, but the listening materials are good, so I've used those many times. And you don't get that many listening tests in the book, but what you can do is do the tests, and then take a break for, you know, two weeks or three weeks or whatever, and you'll forget, and then you can do it again. So, that's really important, because I'll tell you that as a native speaker, yeah, plus someone with a university degree, but I'll do... I'll do an IELTS listening test after a long break, and I'll not get a lot of the answers right. Okay? So what that tells me is that doing IELTS, and the listening part is just another example, it's as much about learning how to pass a test and learning an exam technique, basically. Because if a native speaker isn't going to get it all right, it shows you that you need to train yourself to be able to do this listening test. So, anyway, if I do a couple of those tests, then I'm getting them all right.

So what I'm telling you, just from my experience is: the more you practice those tests, you really will become better and better at doing those tests. Even if right now you think that your English is, like, really good and you're going to get a really high score in the IELTS listening because you're good at listening, it may be true that you are a really good speaker of English and you understand a lot, but if you haven't practiced any of the IELTS tests, you might not get a good score, because you haven't learned the exam technique, and you're not familiar with those tests. So rule number one: Practice makes perfect.

Also in these tests, you really need to spell carefully, because if you make a spelling mistake, you don't get the mark. So, try your best to spell things correctly. And especially in questions where they are spelling something to you, make sure you don't lose an easy point for writing down the wrong letter.

Which brings us to this one: Learn the pronunciation of letters. So, just do a little bit of revision, go back over how to say the letters in British English, because the IELTS test is mainly in British accent. So make sure you know how we say our letters here. But it would also be quite handy for you to practice the letters in American English and Australian English, because these will also be covered in the... In the test. You'll get these different accents. So there's a tip for you.

Going back to this one: when you're doing the test, in between the different parts of the exam (there are four parts), you get a little bit of reading time. When you get this reading time, what you should be doing is reading the questions that you're about to answer. Not checking the answers that you wrote before. See, a lot of people will just be looking back at what they've already done, but when they do that, they're not preparing for the next questions. So you really need to make the most of that time, and make sure that you've read what's coming. And that will help you, because these listening exams, they're in chronological order, it means it starts at the top of the page, the first answer's somewhere at the top of the page, and then it goes down. It's not like you have to be looking all over the paper for the answers, basically.

All my best advice on what to say at your job interview. I will tell you how to answer the most common job interview questions. I’ll give you the grammatical structures to use when answering questions about your work experience, and also share with you vocabulary and phrases that will impress your interviewer.

I recommend you prepare for your job interview by learning phrases you can repeat in your interview and also by practising your answers to these common questions. Get a friend to ask you the questions and make sure that you answer them in English! You can follow my advice about how to answer job interview questions whether you are looking for a job in an English-speaking country or you are being interviewed in English for a job in your home country. Good luck with your interview – I wish you success! If you want more help, watch my video on how to write your CV. Remember: there is no 'try'!

Once you've finished the lesson, take the quiz here: http:/www.engvid.com/what-to-say-at-your-job-interview

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is job interview English. So, in this lesson, I'm going to give you some phrases that you can use in a job interview, and I'll also be giving you... We'll also be looking at what grammar you should be using to answer common job interview questions. So I'm going to break it down so you know what to expect when you have that job interview in English, maybe for the first time, or maybe you've already had a couple of interviews in English but you just want to improve your performance.

So let's start by talking about before the interview. So when you get there, there's always, like, that bit of small talk. Maybe you find it awkward, maybe you're a pro at small talk, but I thought I'd just give you some phrases so that you've got something to say, at least. So, when you get there, it's polite to say something like: "Thanks for inviting me to interview." If you feel like initiating small talk, you could say something like: "Is the position based in this office?" or "building", wherever you are. You might also want to say: "Oh, how many people work here?" Just sort of general things, nothing personal going on there.

Or you might make an observation about what you see about the building or the workplace. You could say: "The offices are impressive." Now, clearly, if the building isn't very nice, and there isn't anything remarkable about it, then I probably wouldn't say something like this. It's better to make no observation than say one that's not true, or one that sounds a bit strange because the place is a real dump. You don't want to say it's great in your phrase. But maybe the area's nice, so then you could say: "What a great location!" This is an exclamation. You say it with some kind of enthusiasm. Or you might say, as you're walking to the interview room: "Ah, I see you have an open plan office." That means where everybody works together in the same room. Or you might say: "I see you have a staff canteen." That's where you get your food. Okay? So, all suggestions for general small talk.

The interviewer may, however, initiate small talk with you, in which case, general things they like to talk about in England... Our... Our favourite topics of small talk are the weather, so you could say something like: "It's chilly today." That means it's a bit cold. Or mild. "Mild" is... "Mild" is when the weather is better than you would expect for that time of year. So if it's winter and it's mild, it's not as cold as you would expect it to be. Yep. So we love to talk about the weather, you know that about British people.

Did you also know we like to talk about the traffic or the tube delays and things like that? So, perhaps they'll say: "How was the traffic? How was your journey here?" You can tell them about your journey. Say: -"Oh, it wasn't bad." -"How was your journey?" -"Not bad." That means it was okay. Or you could say: "It didn't take me too long." It didn't take me too long. Now, just a tip: You don't want to say: "It was a nightmare; it took me hours", because they'll probably want to employ someone who can get to the job easily.

Do you have a hard time learning English? Follow the advice in this video to completely change the way you study English!

The biggest problem most English learners face is staying motivated. You can learn English for free online, but it is often hard to find the time and energy to keep learning when there is so much to do at work, at home, or at school. Even if you really want to learn English because you know that it is important for your life, you may find yourself being lazy and doing other things, such as watching television when you could be studying. Does this description of a frustrated and unmotivated English learner sound like you? In today's lesson you'll learn what YOU can do to stop YOUR English-learning headaches and frustrations!

At the end of the video, be sure to leave a comment to let me know what you thought of this lesson, and whether it was helpful for you! Then test your understanding with the quiz at: http://www.engvid.com/learn-en....glish-the-20-minute-

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, guys. Do you notice something different about today? Hmm. Where's the board gone? Today's lesson is a bit different. It's just me giving you some advice about learning English. And this video is for you, in particular, if you are a learning English quitter.

Who is a learning English quitter? A learning English quitter is somebody who works really, really hard studying: "Learn English, learn English, learn English", for two days, four days, one day, and then quits. Does nothing, does nothing for weeks. And then the same thing: Works really, really hard: "Learn English, learn English, learn English", for three days, and then quits. "I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow." And the other thing that a learning English quitter does is feel bad all the time about not learning enough English. "I'm so stupid. I should be learning more English." But you're not, are you? You're watching TV, you're having a beer. You're not learning English at all, are you? So, this video is for you if you're a learning English quitter. And trust me on this one: It is a life changer, total game changer.

What you need to begin, starting today, is what I call the 20-minute English discipline. 20-minute English discipline, and you do this every single day of your life. And what it means is for 20 minutes a day, every single day, you study English in a serious way. Okay? A serious way. An active way. You do it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday; every day. You do it on your birthday, you do it when your cousin's getting married. You do it every day, it doesn't matter. No excuses, you do it. So, when your cousin comes to you and says: "Hey, let's go and have a beer", you say: "That's a great idea. I'm going to come with you in nine minutes when I've finished my studies. I'll be with you in a minute." So don't let other people put you off doing your daily... Daily discipline of study. 20 minutes every day.

Plus, this is what happens: When you start doing the 20-minute discipline, you realize: "Oh, 20 minutes isn't that long. I haven't... I haven't finished everything I wanted to finish. I'm going to study some more." Nun-uh, nun-uh, nun-uh. It's just 20 minutes every day. When you get to 20 minutes, you stop. It's not: "I'll do 25 minutes today." It's not: "I'll do 40 minutes today, and not do anything tomorrow." It's not that. It's 20 minutes every day, and then you stop. That's all you need to do.

The problem when you do 40 minutes one day, one hour another day, nothing the next day is that you lose... You don't build up the strength and the habit of making studying and studying English, in particular, part of your everyday life, so that's why for most people it doesn't work to do a lot on one day and nothing on the other.

Do you want to tell interesting stories? Telling an engaging story is a social skill that anyone can learn. I'll give you some phrases you can memorise and use to tell better stories in English.

Stories are important to help us understand ourselves and the world around us. One way to view our identities is as a collection of stories. In this video, I break the art of storytelling down into different topics that people tell stories about most often. I'll share some of my personal stories from my own life to give you examples of how to tell a good story in English.

Most people have a set of stories that they like to tell. For me personally, there are some stories that I have told people hundreds of times! I suggest you practice your most common stories in English because you will definitely use them in a social situations with English speakers. Having your story prepared in English will mean that you can tell it much better, and that your audience will enjoy it more by laughing in the right place, or by feeling the emotion you want them to feel, such as surprise or sadness.

How well did you understand the lesson? Take the quiz to find out: http://www.engvid.com/how-to-t....ell-a-story-like-a-n

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What I'm telling you today is how to make your storytelling in English a little bit more like a native speaker, more colloquial, more relaxed in your storytelling, because storytelling is a conversation skill that you really need to learn if you're speaking English, because when we tell stories, we share part of our character and our personality with other people, so it's just something we do in conversation.

So, I broke it down into the different kinds of stories people tell, and some of the phrases you can use for storytelling in English, stories about your life, so you can get to know people a bit better, basically. So, what I want to start with is: When you learn in your books, it says something like... Or to say what somebody says, you use the verb "said": "he said", "she said", "they said", blah, blah. Well, actually, in colloquial storytelling in England, we use different verbs. We don't really use "said", necessarily. We can say: "I was like: 'Blah, blah, blah.'" So you're telling your story, and you want to say somebody said something, it's: "I was like", saying something now. Not saying "said".

We've got this one: "I turned to him and said: 'What are you talking about? I'm not having it. Get away.' So he turned to me, and he was like: 'No. Shut up. Go away.'" We use "turned to", even if someone's not turning, we use "turned to". It's just what we use in our storytelling. It means then one person said, then another... And then another person said.

We also use the verb "go" to mean speak. "He goes to me". I don't know why all the people in my stories have got a problem, but anyway. "He goes to me: 'You're an idiot. Get away.'" That means he said to me I'm an idiot. So you could bring in these different verbs to make your storytelling more colloquial. But let's have a look at some different kinds of story...

People often try to tell funny stories, and if you're consciously trying to tell a funny story, like I'm going to do now, it might not work. But I'll tell you a little... Little something about when I was at... When I was at school. I'll tell you about my poor physics teacher, Mr. Cat. And if I ever met Mr. Cat again, I would apologize deeply for the torment that we gave this poor physics teacher. His... His name was Mr. Cat, so that didn't really help him that whenever he came into the room in my girls' school, there were lots of girls, someone would go: "Meow." And quite quietly at first, but then somebody else would be like: "Meow!" and it would get a little bit out of hand. And before we knew it, someone... Someone was cracking up, couldn't start laugh... Couldn't stop laughing. Someone would burst out laughing, and poor Mr. Cat, he didn't know what to do.

And then the other thing we used to do with him, because it was a science lab, we had... We had sinks on the tables with these taps, and somebody discovered that you can turn the taps around, so we all decided that when he was... We had this experiment, and we all decided that when... For this experiment, we'd all turn the taps around at the same time, but he didn't know about it. So when he was like: "And now I want you to start with your experiment", we all turned the taps on at the same time and water was going all over the... All over the classroom. So, of course, by then, we're crying with laughter, and poor Mr. Cat's probably crying real tears. So if you're watching this, Mr. Cat, I am really sorry. But teenagers are cruel, what can I say?

Do you get nervous in social situations? In this lesson, I'll teach you expressions you can use to master small talk and have meaningful conversations while presenting a professional image. While you can use these expressions in many business and academic situations, this lesson is focused on starting conversations when you are at a conference. I share many good small talk topics that are appropriate in this context. You will learn how to talk about what you have learned at the conference and how to express your opinion about the experience, including the conference venue and speakers. This is a great lesson to watch to prepare yourself for attending a work- or school-related conference. My goal in this lesson is to help you feel confident and make the right impressions with the people you meet. For more practice, take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/business....-meeting-conference- . Good luck!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is conference talk. So, we've got "Conference Small Talk", and also more generally about talking about the thing that you're there for. The reason I made this lesson is because, hopefully, I want you to learn how to avoid that awkward moment when you're like standing outside a conference room or somewhere, or maybe it's a break, you could be by yourself, and you're just standing there, like: "What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to say something? Am I supposed to talk to someone?" And maybe you start to pretend that you're busy, get your phone out or something. So, anyway, this will save you in your awkward moment situation.

So, the small talk part, that's where I'm imagining you're... You're waiting for something to happen. You're waiting for the next talk, or there's a break, or there's some kind of interlude where you're not doing something. Here are some conversational starters that you could... That you could have. You could say to someone: "Are you presenting a paper here?" That would be like an academic kind of conference. Or you could say: "Are you a speaker here?" If they look like they are.

Or you could be more general. You could say: "Is this your first time in __________?" Blah, blah, blah place? A lot of the time these kind of conference events, people come... Come there from all... You know, all different places, so it could be any place, really. Couldn't it? But let's say it's in Amsterdam. "Is this your first time in Amsterdam?" And then you can generally talk about Amsterdam, and how lovely it is, and how nice it is to ride bicycles all the time.

Perhaps you kind of know each other; you've met before. In which case, you can ask them how they're getting on with their work. So: "getting on"-I'm going to use a pen again-means progressing... Is the formal verb for "get on". "How are you getting on with your research?" Or: "How are you getting on with your project?" Or: "How are you getting on at work?" You've met before, but this could get your... Your... This could help you catch up with each other.

What if you want to...? Want to be friends and you want to make friends at the conference? What can you say? You can say: "So, are you attending the welcome drinks tonight?" Because you want them to say: "Sure I am. Let's go together." You want them to say something like that, maybe.

Or if you're not sure yet if you want to hang out later, you could say: "Where are you based?" So, the place where you're based means the place where you... Where you work. So, I'm based in Dubai at the moment. So, you know, this one I'm thinking it's more like if you're all part of the same bigger company, but you have different offices in different places. Perhaps you just want to know where they're based.

Moving on from general small talk, because not everybody likes to do small talk, we've got some talk about the talk, now. So: "What did you think of the last talk?" And I've got some suggestions for you to sound very clever and informed, like this guy. So you could say: "Yes, I thought it... It raised some interesting questions." What that means is it was a kind of talk that made you think and consider new things, and you know, got some... Got some ideas, and some brain connections flowing, there.

Or perhaps you could say: "Well, it provoked a fierce debate." A fierce debate would be when people are very much disagreeing with each other about what was said, and there's not much agreement about it. Whereas: "It generated a lively discussion", doesn't have the opposition or against each other feeling of a fierce debate. A lively discussion is like in... On the enjoyable side of things, talking about things, and, you know, sharing different opinions, but not so much in confrontation.

Or you might say, as you're a clever person: "It challenged the status quo." The status quo is the established way of doing things. So, this paper may have been so, so evolutionary that it challenges the status quo.

Imagine if you could learn a language without doing any studying. What if instead of studying grammar, reading in the foreign language, learning vocabulary, and doing speaking practice, all you had to do was listen to what was happening around you and watch movies? Wouldn't it be great if you could naturally absorb the language and start speaking yourself? This is a popular language learning method across the world, but in this video I answer the question of whether learning a language this way will actually work for you.

For example, many people try to learn English through listening using the following methods:

- Watching TV in a English with the subtitles on in your native language
- Listening to talk radio in English in the background while doing something else
- Being around foreign friends when you yourself do not speak the language

Babies learn to speak their first words by listening, but will it work for you? Check out this video to hear my opinion on learning a language through listening. I've tried it, and I'll share my personal experiences with you!

http://www.engvid.com/can-you-....learn-a-language-jus

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, guys. Welcome to engVid. Today's lesson is a little bit different, it's me talking about: Is it possible for you to learn a language just by listening? This is something that I think many of us would love, love, love, love to be true. I can just learn a language by listening, I don't have to really do anything if I just spend enough time listening, then, you know, I'll be able to speak; I'll have learned the language.

So, some ways we might do this are... Could be watching... Watching TV in that language you're trying to learn and just think: "Well, I'm... I'm learning. I'm learning stuff just by watching." Another way is you move to a different country, and you spend time around native speaker friends, and you don't understand anything, but you're like: "Well, I'm learning. The more time I spend doing this, I'll get to a point where I can just speak the language."

And that is a situation that I, myself, have been in many times in my life. If you put all the time together, I would say I probably wasted a couple of years of my life, taking that approach, just thinking you learn by listening. Now, don't get me wrong, you do learn how to understand what people are talking about if you take that approach. You know, you're the only one who doesn't speak the same language that everybody else speaks, you're the only one who doesn't speak it, after a while you do kind of understand what people are talking about, so you can often guess from the situation. But that doesn't mean the same thing as being able to put a sentence together, and join in in the conversation in that language. Because although you kind of understand what people are saying, you just haven't developed the skill of moving your tongue and saying the words of the other language. So I would say taking that approach is a very, very frustrating, and slow, and ineffective way to learn any language. And that's based from my personal experience.

If the language that you're hoping, trying, wishing to learn is very close to your language, then of course, you will understand much, much more of what is being said, and you'll be able to guess many of the words. But if the language is completely different to your native language, it's a really ineffective way to expect to learn a language, because there's just not a lot you can guess. The words are very different, the grammar structure is very different.

And have you ever been in that situation when you're the only one who doesn't understand anything? Well, I've been in that situation many times, and I don't know if this happens to all people, but this happens to me. After a while, you stop listening. And, at least I do, and I start thinking about my own things in my head. So you're there, but you're not even listening. And you have to ask yourself: Is this the same thing that's also happening if you're watching a movie that's spoken in a language that you don't understand? Are you actually listening to the words, or are you just reading subtitles in your own language that you understand? So that's an important part of it as well. Is that time you are listening to the language you want to learn, are you using that time with your ears, really awake and switched on to what people are saying? Because I think most of the time, when you don't actually know that language, you're not fully listening because you don't understand anything. You're really concentrating on something you don't understand, it's a very hard thing to do for more than a couple of minutes.

The conclusion of an essay is where you must make your final argument clear. Many students struggle to write their conclusion because they don't know what to say other than just repeating their previous arguments. If you are taking the IELTS, TOEFL, or CAE English language tests, you need to learn how to write a good conclusion to get a high score.

The process of writing a conclusion for an essay is a lot simpler if you follow a structure in your writing. Following a structure of what to write means that you can write your essay answers as quickly as possible, without running out of time to answer the question. Remember, the IELTS and CAE exams are to test your knowledge of English -- not the quality or originality of your ideas. For this reason, it's best just to follow an easy structure that you can use any time, which you can replicate without making grammatical mistakes.

In this lesson, I explain different conclusion structures you can use in your IELTS writing exam. Practise the structure you like best, and memorise a few phrases. After watching, you will be ready to write a good essay conclusion in your exam. Good luck!

Test your understanding with the quiz: http://www.engvid.com/how-to-w....rite-a-perfect-ielts

More IELTS videos:
http://www.engvid.com/english-exams/ielts/

More IELTS tips and practice:
http://www.goodluckielts.com

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is writing a conclusion for an IELTS exam or a CAE exam, so I'm going to give you two ways to write conclusions so that when you get to the end, you don't just sort of put a full stop that doesn't really say anything extra, that doesn't feel like a conclusion. Because when you write a conclusion, a good conclusion has a different tone, there's something that feels finished about it. And more generally, your conclusion should be your last chance to impress, to show that examiner all that English that you know and how fluent you are when you're writing in English, and you should leave the reader with an additional thought in the end, ideally, when you're writing a conclusion. So let's look at a typical IELTS kind of question.

"Some people think that parents should teach their children to be good members of society. However, others believe school is the best place to learn this." And then the IELTS question would say: "Share your experience, and give reasons for your answers." So let's imagine that you've already written your essay. So, how do you begin your conclusion? The... The first way I'm going to tell you, I'm going to call it the "As I have discussed" conclusion, and there are three parts to writing this conclusion. And I'm giving you the structure so that you can see how you can put a conclusion together just by putting different pieces in there. And now, this is... This is great for an IELTS essay. It's not a super imaginative kind of conclusion that would be great at university, but for IELTS, it's... It's good for IELTS.

So, here are the three parts for this conclusion: "As I have discussed"; then: "However" sentence with "I" or, you know, using your subjectivity, basically; and then making a moral or social observation in the first conditional. So let's have a look. So, "As I have discussed", what we're doing is we're just taking that phrase, basically, and this shows the tone... This establishes the tone of conclusion: "As I have discussed". You're basically saying: "Well, I already told you all of this, but now I'm summarizing."

"As I have discussed, there are advantages and disadvantages to the question." I've shown both sides of the argument. You could just learn that, you could learn that whole phrase to begin a conclusion. What do you follow it with? You follow it with a "However" sentence. So, there may be advantages and disadvantages, but there's a catch. "However, I think parents should be responsible for teaching children to be good members of society." So this is you saying: "Yeah, I see both sides. This is good about it, that's good about the other side. But, you know, for me and in my opinion", because now we're using your subjectivity by saying: "I think", you can... You can finally make your position clear, make your position known. Maybe in the rest of the essay, this is discursive... This is a discursive essay. You've been showing both sides of the argument. But if you write your essay in a way where you don't use: "I think", "I believe" in the rest of the essay before, it can be quite powerful just to use "I think" once at the end in your conclusion.

So, again: "However, I think parents should be responsible for teaching children to be good members of society." That bit's done. What do we do next? Well, sometimes people like to end essays by giving a grand statement about morals and the world, so you can also do this in your IELTS exam. And this is what I'm talking about when I say: "Make a moral or social observation".

In this lesson, I will teach you verbs, expressions, and idioms you can use to bring out your unique personality and communication style. For example, there is a lot more you can say other than "I think that..." Using other expressions such as "it looks as if", "it sounds like", "I sense that", or "I feel that" makes your language richer and helps you build relationships with others. Watch this video to discover more about your own personal style and how you can express yourself more like a native speaker. This video goes into the theory of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). If you want to go even further with the idea of representational systems within NLP, you can then use your knowledge of language and behaviour to build stronger relationships and to influence people. For example, if you observe that your friend is a strongly visual person, you can adapt your language and the expressions you use to be more visual. This will help the two of you connect and interact better. Test your knowledge afterwards by doing the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/expressi....ons-idioms-that-expr

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is language of the senses, and I made this lesson because I noticed that when you're using your language prospects and things about... Things like that, to give... To express an opinion, it's always taught, like, you say: "I think", "I think this because", or "I think that because". When I realized that, in reality, we use... Our language is much broader, and we use a lot of different phrases to express an opinion, basically; and I also realized that a lot of the language we use is based on our senses. So, I'm going to share those phrases with you today, and that will make your language and... When you're speaking English, it will make your language much more rich and more expressive, basically.

And it also relates to NLP, which is a way of thinking about the communication between us. What is successful communication? How can we be more successful as communicators? And I don't want to go too much into it, except I'm going to look at the ideas... The idea of communication styles. And according to NLP, each of us has a preferred communication style, and it's based on our strongest sense, you could say, and that means the way we interpret the world.

So, everybody has a way of interpreting the world, and we do that through our senses. So, if you are somebody who's a strongly visual person, and that's your strongest sense, your language will use lots of language that's visual, and we'll look at that. We'll give... I'll give you some examples in a minute.

You might be an auditory person, this means that your strongest sense is your... What... What comes to your ears, in which case, your language will be using terms that evoke a sense of hearing and what you hear. You may also be a kinesthetic person. This means that you interpret the world through your sense of touch and your feelings. I am a kinesthetic person. If you listen to me speaking normally in my life with my friends and everything, my language is always: "I feel", "I feel that because", where, really, I mean the same as: "I think", but the term I use to express what I mean is "I feel". So maybe you're like me, or you might be an auditory digital person. This is the kind of person... I didn't know what symbol to write, here. This is a kind of person who interprets the world in a logical way, according to systems and things like that, so I put a little mathematical symbol there. I didn't know what else to put.

So, what we'll do now is we'll look at some different phrases people may use to give an opinion. So, remember we can use all these phrases as an alternative just to: "I think", which is not very imaginative language, not very expressive either.

So, what if you say: "It looks as if..." We can use this phrase to give an indirect opinion. So, let's imagine a situation. I'm going to use the same situation for all these. Our friend, Tom, he was going to have a party, he's invited a few people, but he hasn't really planned anything, and it's got close to the time of the party and now he's having second thoughts because he hasn't organi-... He hasn't organized anything, and maybe this party's not going to happen. So, I can say: "It looks as if Tom's going to cancel his party." And I can say that, rather than: "I think Tom's going to cancel his party." It's an indirect way of giving an opinion.

The same situation: "It sounds like Tom's going to cancel his party." Now, I notice, when I'm... When I'm just speaking naturally in lessons to people, sometimes... Or even friends, people I meet. Sometimes they get really confused by "sounds like". If you haven't encountered it before, you might not realize it means the same as "think" or maybe more like "seem", "It seems like".

If you are shy or nervous when speaking English with native speakers, I have some advice for you.

Learners of English often become shy or hesitant to speak around native speakers because they are afraid of making mistakes. In this video, I share tips with you to boost your confidence when speaking English with native speakers. I will explain why native speakers don’t care about your mistakes as much as you think they do, and give you my suggestions that will help you feel confident speaking English – regardless of your level. Nobody has ever learned a language without making mistakes, and no one expects you to!

This video is full of advice to help you feel CONFIDENT when speaking in English, so watch it and then go out and DO IT!

Make sure you understand the lesson! Take the quiz at http://www.engvid.com/do-you-h....ate-speaking-english

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, guys. Welcome to engVid. Is it a lot harder for you to speak English around native speakers than it is to speak English with other learners or people from other countries who are speaking English as a second language? So, do you forget your words, do you lose all your confidence when you're speaking to someone from England, for example? If your answer is yes, then I have some advice for you so that you can speak with more confidence around native speakers.

I think the most important point, where I want to start, is that: Don't look at the native speaker as if they're up here, and better than you in any way, because sadly, that is why a lot of people get awkward and stop talking around native speakers because they think: "The native speaker's English is just so good, I'm going to sound like an idiot next to them." And that's why they close down and go quiet. So, the next time you're around a native speaker, speak to the native speaker on a level with them. It means: "You're here, I'm here, I'm not looking up at you, you're not looking down at me", and that is a really important step to bringing that confidence to you when you're speaking around the native speaker.

The next important point is: Some people are confident speaking English around other learners or other non-native speakers because they think: "When I'm speaking to this person, they don't know if I'm making mistakes, so I can just say this, say that, say this, and it doesn't matter if... In fact, it doesn't matter if I make mistakes because the other person doesn't know; therefore, I feel relaxed." But the problem when you speak to a native speaker, then, is that: "Oh no, they are going to know all the mistakes that I'm making. They're going to notice that I'm saying it wrong. It's... I... I don't want to speak because they're going to think that my English is so bad." Well, it is... It is true that a native speaker, if they're analyzing your language and watching your language and if they care about your language, they can notice: You made a mistake there, you made a mistake there, you made a mistake there. But the reality of communication is that most people are not thinking about that kind of stuff when they talk to you; they are communicating in the moment, they're thinking about themselves, what they're going to say. They're not watching you and your language closely. The native speaker just doesn't care about your language that much. The native speaker doesn't care about your mistakes as much as you think about your mistakes and worry about your mistakes.

Speaking as a native speaker, now, as a native speaker teacher, when I'm talking to someone, I have to switch on and concentrate if I want to listen for people's mistakes. It takes effort and it takes energy. And if I'm concentrating on listening to the words to find mistakes, it means that I'm not really in the middle of a conversation with that person. Instead, I'm just listening to: Are they making mistakes? So in my normal communication, my normal social communication with people, of course I'm not listening closely for mistakes, because I'm having a conversation. It's so far away from my mind and it's not important to me at all. So I hope, as an example, that gives you some confidence to think that: "Oh yeah, maybe native speakers don't care about my mistakes that much."

Which brings me to the next point, which is: Even if you are making mistakes, is it really that important? So instead of having this way of looking at yourself when you make a mistake: "Oh, it's terrible, it's really bad. I have to... I have to learn more. I have to avoid it." Try instead to develop and grow in yourself the ability to make those mistakes with what I would call vulnerability.

Did you know that many words in English originally come from the Greek language? In fact, if you can identify the Greek keywords within an English word, you can often understand its meaning even if it is a word you have never encountered before! In this lesson, I will show you how to break down the meaning of a Greek word in English by learning keyword prefixes and suffixes.
Take a quiz on this lesson: http://www.engvid.com/how-to-u....nderstand-new-englis

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. Today we're talking about Greek words in English, and I'm not teaching you these words because they'll be the most useful words for you, and I'm not teaching you these words so you can go around sounding really clever using long words when you're speaking English. The reason is to show you a little bit about how the English language has evolved, and also so that when you do encounter a long word, you can use what I'm teaching you today to break it down, and maybe you'll recognize parts of this word and that will help you understand.

So, let's have a look at some Greek words in English. So, most of the time, when we find a Greek word in English, it's academic language, it represents a concept or idea, and there'll be quite a lot of medical language as well. So, looking at medical words for the mind and body. The Greeks from a long time ago, they were very knowledgeable about medicine and things like that, so we took a lot of words from their language. We didn't have idea... We didn't have words for these things, because it was not knowledge known here, so the concepts came from Greece, and with that, the language came from Greece.

So, when we find a word with "dermo" or "derma" in it, we need to think of this part of the word as a building block, and you put different building blocks together, and that can help you understand the whole meaning of the word; otherwise known as a root. So, that means skin. And when we get this end part of the world... Word, which sounds like "ology", that means study of the subject. So, skin, study of the skin. You put it together, and that gives you the full meaning. So, if you have a problem with... With your skin and you need to go to the hospital, you would go to the "dermatology department", and the doctor would be a "dermatologist"; a special doctor who knows about skin problems. A different skin problem is "dermatitis", and the "titis" part means inflammation, it means... Could be... Could be swollen skin, or it could be inside your body. If it's a problem with your bones, you get a disease called "arthritis" that older people get, usually, and it's quite painful and difficult to move their fingers, and things like that. So, these are examples of medical words. You can sometimes get a sense of what one part means, and maybe guess the other.

Similarly, when we get words with "hemo" or "hema", this is related to blood. "Hemoglobin" is a part of what makes up our blood. "Hematoma" is the medical word for bruise. You know when you hit yourself and skin goes purple? If it's a... If it's a big bruise, then it's a hematoma. And a "hemorrhage" is a medical problem where... Where blood is suddenly, like, leaking out where it's not meant to be inside your body, and you can be in very big, big, big trouble if you get a hemorrhage. Sometimes people get a brain hemorrhage, and maybe they die from that. So, "hemo" or "hema" means blood.

What about "psycho" or "psych"? What does this mean? Well, this is to do with the mind, and I think these words have... These words are interesting because we can see how they're related. So, we have "psychic", that's the power of being able to read somebody's mind; one mind to another mind. "Psycho" means, like, crazy. And "psychiatrist" means doctor of the mind. So, whenever you see a word with this, you know it's to do with the mind basically. That's a useful one, I think; you can find that in a lot of words.

Then, let's have a look at words with "mania". You'll find words with "mania" at the end. "Mania" means to be mad or addicted to something, so here are two... Here are two words. "Cleptomania" means somebody addicted to stealing things; thief. They can't help themselves, but steal things. And "nymphomania" means somebody addicted to sex, somebody who can't help themselves from having sex. But that we've got many, many words with this "mania" on the end, so if you see that, you can... You ca get a sense, again, of what it actually means.

And we've got words here, "anthrop" and that means human, related to human things. "Anthropology", do you remember what this part means? The study of. The study of humans. So, "an anthropologist" is somebody who studies the way people live in society and culture in the worlds. And "anthropomorphic", you might use this if you're a kind of literature student or something. This is a word for when we make things that aren't humans... We talk about things that aren't humans as if they were.

Learn about the London street accent! English slang is often very different from grammatically correct English. The London street accent is no exception. This variety of English is called "Multicultural London English" by academics and "Jafaican" by people who dislike the accent. In this video, I explain some of the grammatical features of this way of speaking English and share with you some phrases and expressions. You may not wish to speak this way yourself because it is grammatically incorrect. However, if you visit London, you may encounter people who speak this way or overhear their conversations. It is interesting to compare textbook standard English to the English actually spoken in the real world by Londoners themselves, so watch this lesson to learn all about it!

TAKE THE QUIZ: http://www.engvid.com/english-....slang-how-to-talk-li

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is the London accent, and it's called "Multicultural London English" by linguists, but I'm going to call it "Real London English". It's the accent that a lot of people speak... Speak, like, if you come to London and you're just walking around the street, you're going to hear this accent a lot. Yeah? And I made a different video about this accent, all the words that you can use to sound like this, all the slang and stuff. I made... That's a different video. But in this video I'm going to talk about the grammar, because you know what? A lot of people when they hear this kind of accent, they say: "Oh, that's... That's lazy speech or they're not speaking correctly." But actually this is a variety of English. It does has its own rules of pronunciation and grammar. It's not like people just make it up themselves and they're all just sounding a bit wrong. You know, it's a... It's a style of English, like you've probably heard of RP is a particular style, a posh style of English, this also has rules. So I'm going to tell you some of those rules.

What I'll mention first is it's a London accent, but the London accent you've probably heard of is Cockney English, and I would say that not so many people speak with a Cockney accent anymore if they're... If they're a youngish person, they don't really speak with a Cockney accent. It's kind of dying or is dead. And this accent has replaced it. But what we see in this accent is a lot of similar details that we have in the Cockney accent, so I'm going to tell you all about those similarities.

First I just want to talk generally about the qualities of this accent. What do you actually hear from this accent? So, the pace of the accent is quite slow, you don't really rush what you're saying. Although, if it's in a hip hop track or a grime track and you're listening to music, it can be really, really fast as well. But in general, the pace is slow. If you can, you got to make your voice lower. You got to speak from not high in your throat. You got to low... You got to lower what you're saying, speak from your lungs, speak low. Keep it deep. Also, I'm going to say it's sharply iambic, that means you go up, down, up, down. When you're speaking it's like there's different steps in what you're saying; stress, unstress, stress, unstress, stress, unstress. And I think that altogether it gives this a musical... A musical quality on my ears, anyway, as a native speaker. It's not... It's not a very harsh-sounding accent. It's... Cockney on the... Cockney, on the other... On the other hand is a lot sharper and like spoken higher in the throat. Yeah? And it might be the kind of accent that gets on your nerves. No offence, Cockneys, I'm just making a comparison between the music of the two... Of the two varieties.

So, bearing this in mind, what are the actual rules of speaking like this? So, a "t" sound becomes a "d" sound at the beginning of words. So, instead of saying: "that" with a "t" at the end, it's: "dat"; "there", "dere"; "them", "dem"; "then", "den". Also, these words here, I'll say them in proper English: "something", "nothing", "anything". Compare these to Cockney English: "somefink", "nuffink", "anyfink" because in Cockney English you change the "ing" to a "k", and you change the "th" to an "f", so in Cockney English it's like that. "Somefink", "nuffink". But in this accent we're putting a glottal stop in the middle of the word, so instead of saying: "something", "su-in", "nu-in", "anytin". So, it's quite different to Cockney English in this respect, saying those words.

But it's the same as Cockney English in that for both varieties, both these different accents we do something called "h" dropping, we don't say the "h" all the time at the beginning of words. So, for example, the word "have" becomes "ave". "Ave you seen dat? Ave you seen dat?" That was the word "that". "Have you seen that?" Not grammatically-sounded English, but something that could be said in this variety.

Learn the most popular slang used in England! I'll teach you the definitions of these words and how you can use them to sound posh, middle class, or childish! We'll be looking at: "sorted", a trendy word that is often used in advertising; "innit", a very common word that you can use in informal conversations; and "dab", which is most often used by children and usually includes a bit of a dance. You won't learn this slang vocabulary in grammar books, so watch this video, then do the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/3-popul....ar-slang-words-in-br

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. In this lesson we're going to talk about three slang words that I hear around in London all the time. I'm sitting on a bus, someone uses this word; walking down the street in the supermarket, hear these words. These words are just, like, following me around or something because I'm hearing them way too often. So these must be the most well-used, most fashionable slang words at this time. Okay?

Let's start with number one: "Sorted". "Sorted" is a word from the 1990s, and it seemed to die for a while and nobody was using it, but now everyone's like: "Sorted. Sorted." You use "sorted" when you have just finished or agreed to something, and now it's done, so you say: "Sorted". "Sorted" as in done or fixed. So someone could say to you: "Have you got...? Have you got the food ready for the dinner party this evening?" You go: "Sorted. Sorted." And people do that kind of enthusiastic movement, like... Or like little proud eye: "Sorted. Sorted." And I always think it looks a bit lame when people say: "Sorted", or I think they're trying to look cool when they say it. But it seems to be... It seems to be said a lot at the moment, it's used in a lot of advertisements. See it, watch it. Sorted. So it must be... Must be really hip and trendy now. When... In my... In my ears this is, like, someone who's trying to hold on really hard to the 1990s and they still think it's cool to say, in my mind. Maybe I missed out on why this is so cool. And I also think it's quite yuppie, kind of yuppie kind of... Yuppie kind of word, so you've got a bit of money. Maybe you're not that cool, but you'd like to think you are and you... Or maybe you've got enough money to buy cool things and go to cool places, but you're still not really that cool. You might be the kind of person who says: "Sorted. Sorted." Okay.

Let's move on to the next word which is a classic, an absolute classic, but one that endures is: "Innit". "Do you get what I'm saying, mate? You're having a laugh, aren't ya? You better take that back to your shop. Innit"? "Innit" means "isn't it", but it gets put on the end of when you say something to show that you're finished speaking, but also to emphasize what you said before. It means: "Isn't it". I did a shouting example then, but I can say... If I want you... It's a question type, so I can say: "Oh, the weather's terrible today. Innit?", "The weather's really bad today. Isn't it?" You can put... You can put it at the end of any statement to either emphasize or make someone agree with you. So whereas "sorted" was the... Let's say more upper-class word, "innit" is the more working-class word. And if you wanted... If maybe if you are a bit posh and you didn't want everybody to know, you might use the word "innit" sometimes just so you can, like, look like you're cool with the kids.

Next example, really hot right now is: "Dab!" Just dabbing. You say "dab" if you do something that you think is really cool and you were successful at it. So, let's say I thought it was really cool to flip this pen and catch it... I didn't ca-... I can't dab. Right? I'm going to try it again. I've got more pens. Right? As long as I catch... Dab, dab. Dab. I'm dabbing. Okay? So that's what "dab" is. It translates as awesome or really cool, like: "Oh, unbelievable". Like: "Everybody cheer. Dab! Dab!" That's "dab". Dab's really hot right now. "Dab" is said by 12-year-olds and under. They can be of any... Any class. So let's just put "kids" here.

They are the three hottest slang words of today in London. Thanks for watching. See you again soon. Bye.

In this video, you'll learn about English manners. I'll tell you what we in England consider polite and impolite, and then go into detail about how we eat at the table, make and cancel plans, visit friends, and so much more. Some of these cultural aspects of living in England are different even from other English-speaking countries like the USA! Knowing these rules can help you make friends, get jobs, and even get into a romantic relationship. This video is especially important if you're living or travelling in England -- you could offend someone without even knowing it! Watch the video and leave your shoes ON!
TAKE THE QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/english-culture-manners/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at manners in England. Here are the things that are considered polite, and the things that are not considered polite. So this is a talk about the culture, things that people do here in England, and the things that traditionally have been the most acceptable behaviour.

Let's start with the things that are very important. So, I'm sure you already know this one: English people and queuing. "Queuing" is when you stand in a line when you don't... When you want something. You don't just, like, run up there to the front or push. You queue in a line. So, we queue up at the bank, for example, or we queue up when we want to get on a bus and there's some other people already there. Now, of course, in London because there are so many people and also not everyone is English so they have their manners from where they came from, you won't always see people queuing to get on the bus or on the tube, but you do generally still see people queuing up in a shop when they need to buy something.

Next we have: It's very important to bring a bottle, and that means when you go to somebody's dinner party you take a bottle of wine when you go to the meal there. If you don't want to bring a bottle of wine, you can bring dessert or you can bring some flowers or some chocolates, but the general phrase and the general idea of it is bringing a bottle, as in a bottle of wine.

Next we have RSVP. This is a term that comes from French: "R�pondez s'il vous plait", and this is a much more formal invitation that you get. If you're going to something, a special event like somebody's wedding... Because weddings are really expensive and they have to be organized so long in advance, people having the wedding really want to know if you're coming. So when you RSVP to the invitation it means you're definitely going, you will be there. So once you've RSVP'd, it's very, very impolite not to go. You must go if you RSVP.

Next, I think that in England it's very important to be on time. We do tend to be punctual people, attend... Attend meetings at the right time, turn up to our jobs at the right time, or meet friends at the right time, most of us. Of course, there are those people who are always late for everything, but most people in general do things on time or even, like me, I always end up being 10 minutes early. I just can't help that. So I waste a lot of time being too early.

Now let's look at table manners. Some of the things in the table manners' section are changing as people become more relaxed about eating and eating out. But these were all... These are all manners that people follow in more formal situations. Perhaps at home or with your very close friends it would be different. Now, I don't mean it's different for this first one. I'm not saying it's ever acceptable anywhere to slurp, burp-I can't do a burp noise. Anyway, you know what a burp is-and fart. Fart is noise from the other end. These things are never acceptable at the dinner table. Mm-mm, mm-mm. So, no eating noises or doing that when you eat. It's not acceptable.

Elbows on the table, in a formal situation you're not going to do that, but relaxed with friends a lot of people do put their elbows on the table these days, not such a big deal.

Drinking before... Just drinking your drink before somebody said: "Cheers" is considered impolite, but it's also a sign of being familiar with people. If you're familiar with them you don't have to go: "Oh, cheers for this drink and opportunity to drink with you." So it depends who it is.

Using a mobile in the restaurant or when you're eating socially with people is considered rude, so to be like: "Oh, hold on. Let me just take this call. I'm so important, I've got to, you know, talk business", or something is considered rude, or to be like all the time texting on your phone. Of course it happens, and young people and teenagers are definitely going to do it more than older people, but on the whole it's considered impolite.

Have you ever wondered why we have so many words for the same thing in English? It's because we used to speak Anglo-Saxon until the French king William the Conqueror invaded us and brought the French language with him. French never became the language of the peasants and ordinary people; it was only spoken in the court of the king and among the powerful. For this reason, French words in English are more formal than their Anglo-Saxon synonyms. In this lesson, we will look at some English history, and I will give you examples of formal and informal words and where they came from. I am fascinated by the evolution of the English language -- how it has developed, changed, and adapted over time. Perhaps English is the world’s number one language for international communication because it always adapts, incorporating new words from different cultures and bringing these into the English language itself.

Striking the right register -- knowing the right word to use in the right situation -- is incredibly important in English. English learners often use vocabulary that is more formal than a native speaker would use, so watch the lesson to learn how to correct this, so you can sound more natural when speaking English. https://www.engvid.com/formal-....informal-vocabulary-

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is a little bit of a history lesson of the English language. We're going to talk about why English has so many synonyms, why we don't just have one word to things, sometimes there's more than one word for it. I'm also going to talk about informal language and formal language, why there's always so much of a choice in English. And the reason is because we always have this split in English between words that come from an Anglo Saxon origin and words that come from a French origin, and it's said that about 30... 30% of words actually have a... Can't speak today. Have a French origin and we still use those words today. And generally, the ones that come from French, they have a more formal quality to them, and the ones that come from Anglo Saxon are more neutral and they're the ones that native speakers use all time when they're speaking just among each other.

But first I'm going to recite a little bit of a poem for you because this poem comes from Middle English, and the English that you'll hear is really different to the English that I'm speaking now. It will be like I'm speaking a different language, but what you will hear is the blend between Anglo Saxon words and French words. Okay? So let's see if I remember it.

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour.

And I could continue, but I won't. And that comes from a really famous poem in English taken from The Canterbury Tales, and it's the first part of The Canterbury Tales called the general prologue. And it's in Middle English, the time when the peasants spoke Anglo Saxon English-peasants are the poor people-and all the rulers spoke French. And the reason that happened is because in 1066 there was a big battle when a French king of a part of France called Normandy came and defeated the English king at that time, and then he became king of England. So when he became king of England, he brought all his people over and the language of power in England at that time became French. So everybody who was in a position of power spoke French. So in the course the... Every decision-maker in England spoke French. Meanwhile, all the peasants just carried on speaking Anglo Saxon like they did before, and the words that they used and the language they spoke came from Germany and Norway. They were different tribes and before they came over to England. So there were two different languages going on. Plus it was only much later that the two... The two languages blended to become one language that we speak now that we have both, have both Anglo Saxon words and French words in our language.

What else is important to say about it? I know there's something I've missed. Hopefully I'll remember what I missed. Oh yes. And because the kings and the ruling people spoke in French and the peasants spoke in Anglo Saxon, I feel like that distinction is still there. So when we're not trying to be formal or official or anything, we use words of Anglo Saxon origin. Only when we're trying to express ourselves in a very elegant way or an official way do we use the French origin words. So even though our language has become one thing, we're still keeping this idea in our language that the French words are sort of higher.

In this grammar lesson, you will learn exactly when to use the indefinite articles "a" and "an" in an English sentence. Using these articles correctly will dramatically improve your English because they are so frequently used. Many English learners make mistakes because indefinite articles don't exist in many languages like Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, and Polish. But even if your language doesn't have them, don't worry. I'll explain the clear rules for when you must use indefinite articles. You'll also see examples of how indefinite articles are used in common speech, so you get a feel for what is right. Let's get started, so you can master this important part of English grammar!

TAKE THE QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/when-to....-use-indefinite-arti

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at when to us "a" or "an". In these sentences if we remove "a" sometimes the sentence is grammatically incorrect or it sounds wrong, or sometimes the sentence is still correct but it changes the meaning. So this lesson is about when we need to use "a" or "an" in the sentence instead of "the" or not having it all so that we get the correct meaning. Let's start with... These are different grammar rules for when to use "a" or "an".

Let's start with when something is unspecified or known. Here are some examples, when I say: "He has a cat.", or I say: "I'm going to buy a tent.", or I say: "Do you want a beer?" these are all examples of something unspecified. I know he has a cat, but I don't know this cat personally, so I just say: "a cat". When I say: "He has the cat", I mean that one and you know the one I'm talking about. He has the cat. When I say: "I'm going to buy the tent", the meaning is different because that sentence, "the tent", "I'm going to buy the tent" is as if I've already decided it and talked about, and chosen the tent before. Not a tent. I'll go to the shop, I'll look at them, I'll buy that one. So this one is unspecified and this one is known. For anybody who doesn't know what the word "tent" is, we use a tent when we go camping and we sleep outside. We zip open the tent, we sleep inside there. And the last example, again: "Do you want a beer?" I mean a beer in general, one of these here, here you go. When I say: "Do you want the beer?" there's only one beer there, last one.

Moving on, one of something. "I'll have a glass of red wine." That means one. Perhaps you'd say that when you're ordering at a bar: "I'll have a glass of red wine, please." Number two here: "He has a daughter." Means the same as he has one daughter. And the next example: "I've got two apples and an orange." In this sentence we have the number two for two apples, but we only mean one orange, so we say "an orange". I can also say: "I've got two apples and one orange", but this sentence makes sense as well. If you're wondering: "Why is it 'an' here and not 'a'", go and check out Gill's lesson on when to use "a" or "an". So pause this video and come back after.

Moving on, looking at jobs now, we say: "She's a teacher.", "Mr. Smith is a police officer.", and we say: "Rachel is a nurse." These sentences are wrong if I remove the "a". "She's teacher", wrong. "Mr. Smith is police officer", wrong. And: "Rachel is nurse", wrong. Depends on your native language, but if you don't use articles... For example, in the Polish language or Arabic, many people speaking English, especially at intermediate level do not use "a" in their sentences. So it's a very common mistake to say something like: "She's teacher." And see if you can hear me saying "a", because if you're not used to those articles you might not even hear it. So listen carefully again this time: "She's a teacher." "a" becomes "e": "She's e teacher.", "Mr. Smith is a police officer.", "e". "Rachel is a nurse." So I say it really quickly. So you might not hear it so easily when I'm saying it, but if you don't say it... If you say: "Rachel is nurse", I can hear that every time, so remember that.

Number four, religions or ideologies. We say: "He's a Christian.", "They are Hindus." A quick note here about these capital letters: Because these religions are names, we use a capital letter there. "Karl Marx was a communist.", and "Margaret Thatcher was a conservative."

Moving on to number five which is social movements or trends. When we're describing that someone belongs to a group in this way or follows a particular trend, that's when we use "a". "He's a biker." means the same thing as: "He's a Hell's Angel." These are the people that ride the Harley Davidson motorbikes, they wear all leather clothes, beards, and bandanas, and ride around on their bikes in a motorcycle gang. We don't say: "He's the biker", or: "He's the Hell's Angel", because that changes the meaning of the sentence. If I say: "He's the biker", it would be in a situation where somebody said: "Where's the biker? Where is he here?" And I say: "He's the biker."

What is passive-aggressive language? In this lesson I talk you through examples of passive-aggressive communication, which happens when a person is angry but their anger is not directly expressed. You’ve probably experienced a situation in which someone tells you that everything is fine, even though that person is actually angry: this is an example of passive aggression. I'm not recommending that you communicate passive-aggressively! This lesson is designed for you to learn the different forms of passive-aggressive communication and typical phrases people use, so that you can improve your own communication and express your needs more directly. It will also help you to recognize when someone's confusing behaviour towards you is being driven by passive aggression.

TAKE THE QUIZ ON THIS LESSON: https://www.engvid.com/passive....-aggressive-language

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. In this lesson we're going to talk about passive aggression or being passive aggressive. A passive-aggressive person finds it really hard to say what they really want and what they really need, and sometimes they feel like they can't directly be angry. So their words come out as if their words mean: "That's fine", or "That's okay", or "I'm feeling good", but actually the real meaning of what they're saying is opposite. The words, if we just listen to the words, they're not showing that the person's angry, but the true meaning of what they're trying to say shows that they're not happy about something. And if you wondered why I'm wearing this cape today it's because it protects me from passive-aggressive comments in my videos.

So let's have a look at the different kinds of passive aggression. This will help you to get more of an idea what it is. We've got overt passive aggression and covert passive aggression. When something's overt, it's obvious, it's more obvious, we can see it; and when something is covert it's like hidden.

So let's start with overt passive aggression, the more obvious kinds. Someone... Someone's not happy with you, they can give you the "silent treatment", that's when they're just like: "Umph." They won't talk to you, they're sort of ignoring you, and they want you to know that you're really pissed off with them, you're really angry with them, and you're so angry you can't talk. So it might be for a few hours, it might be for a few weeks. Sometimes married couples don't speak to each other for weeks if they do this silent treatment thing. When you give someone the "cold shoulder" that's when you're around that person, but you make no effort to be warm to them, to be nice to them. It's a bit like just... It's a big like ignoring them or just showing that: "Oh, I don't... I don't... I don't want to know you. I just don't want to know you." And a very clear, direct way of giving someone the cold shoulder would be if somebody said: "Hi" or maybe wanted to shake your hand, and it would be so direct if you just didn't shake their hand or you're like: "Hi", that sometimes happens.

Now let's look at covert passive aggression. This is when it's less obvious and sometimes you have to really think about it: "What is this person doing? Am I...? Am I mad? Am I making this up? Is it true?" Okay, so now I admit that I have been once very skilled in the arts of passive aggression myself, and one of my jobs when I was 17 years old, I worked in a fake Italian restaurant, and I hated this job. And one of the ways I showed how much I hated it was my job was making... Making desserts and serving the drinks, and one of the ways I showed I hated this job was to put the desserts on the plate in a way where they looked as bad as they possibly could, but only just passing. So the... So the waiters would still take them out, or the manager of the restaurant would come and look at it and think: "This looks... This looks bad", and he would be a bit annoyed with me, but he would still take it because there's more things to do. So in my little teenager head, every time I made those desserts look bad, I was like: "Haha, hahahaha. Ha, I hate this job." Right.

Moving on to "procrastination", that means taking a really long time before you actually do something or get it done. So, have you ever been in a situation where you ask someone to do something for you and they keep saying: "Yeah, in a minute, yeah, it's just coming, I'm just about to do it", and it still doesn't happen; you have to ask them about 10 times? That can be a form of covert passive aggression. Not every time, obviously. It just... It depends if someone is always doing it.

"Constantly late" is another one. Sometimes if people just don't really care that much, they'll be late and late and late, and also sometimes they're late because they... They just find it really hard to say: "I don't want to meet you at that time that we arranged." They find it really hard to say: "I'd rather meet at 7."

England is often called a nation of tea drinkers… Fancy a cuppa? In this English culture lesson, I’m going to teach you about drinking tea in England. We’ll explore the long history of drinking tea in England going back to the eighteenth century when tea was an upper class drink. I’ll also teach you the difference between ‘posh tea’ and ‘builder’s tea’, which has to do with the different preferences for drinking tea that correspond to the different social classes in England. And finally, I’ll teach you some expressions and sentences related to drinking tea so that you know exactly what to say the next time an English person asks you whether you’d ‘like a cuppa’.

TAKE THE QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/drinking-tea-in-england/

MORE VIDEOS ABOUT ENGLISH CULTURE:

English Culture: Manners & How to be polite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hV7lJyC3Eg

3 popular slang words in British English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0JUlo0ETZY

Welcome to London - Tour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpnDAGVEeZg

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson I'm going to talk to you about drinking tea in England. You probably know that we drink a lot of tea over here in England, and we have been drinking tea for a really, really long time. Tea started to come here in the 18th century, and that was the time when the British were exploring the world and trading, and bringing back... Bringing back the things that they found in other countries and selling them to people in England. So tea was once an upper-class drink, and you had to have a lot of money if you wanted to drink tea. And back then there was a place for you to keep your tea, it was called a tea caddy, a box, and often they had locks on them because tea was so expensive back then. Obviously it's a very different story now. It's not like that about tea. And back then when... In these older times when the upper-class people were drinking tea, one of the ways for you to display your wealth, and status, and how much money you had was by investing money in your tea sets, lovely... Lovely little cups that you can drink your tea from, you drink it very, very slowly and drink your tea like this, and pour from the teapot ever so slowly. That's how they... Tea was a whole social event back in the 18th century, and it was a way for women to get together with their friends in the afternoon and spend time talking, so tea was a... Tea was a big change in the upper-class culture back then, and ever since those times we've been drinking tea, but now everybody drinks tea in England. Well, maybe not everybody because it could be the case that the... The golden years of tea drinking in England are over. The years that tea was the most part of English culture, because now lots more people drink coffee. And even when I was younger, like 20 years ago, not so many people drank coffee. And if you go around in London now you'll see lots and lots of coffee shops everywhere. People do still drink tea, but it seems to be changing that they drink tea at home or they drink tea at work, but when they're out walking around or they stop to get a hot drink somewhere, then they drink coffee. So times are changing in England, but yet it's still very useful for us to know about the language of drinking tea, and something about the culture of it.

English tea is also an experience that people coming to England like to have as a tourist experience, so they might want to go out for afternoon tea, which means to go to a lovely hotel somewhere and have tea. You know, like the old times when they use the teapot and you drink it all slowly like this, you can still drink like that today in the lovely hotels that we've got in London. They're very posh. Very posh, expensive hotels. You can still drink tea that way and it is a really nice experience that I recommend to anyone if they're coming to England or specifically London on a holiday and you'd like to do something a bit different.

Okay, so let's start by talking about posh tea. What is it exactly? Now, I know the English are famous in many countries for ruining their tea, and drinking it in the worst way possible because in many countries they cannot imagine that people would drink tea with milk in it. To them it's a disgusting idea. Why would you do that? Well, that's the way most people drink their tea in England even today. Except if you are very, very posh and you have a very, very, very expensive tea, then it's probably the case that you don't drink it with milk. So, instead of having milk tea or milky tea, you drink your tea black just with the tea leaves, no milk, or you would drink that tea with a slice of lemon. And if you drink it this way without the milk, some people would say you get more of the true flavour of the tea and you're not spoiling it with the milk taste.

Speed up your English by learning relaxed pronunciation. I will teach you how to say questions with ‘do’ and ‘did’ in a natural, flowing way. The secret to speaking fast is that there are no clear word boundaries. Whole syllables may be missed completely ("elision"), individual sounds may change ("assimilation"), or completely new sounds may appear ("intrusion"). No matter whether you are a beginner or an advanced speaker of English, I’ll break down the pronunciation for you in the clearest possible way. I’ll also teach you a little IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet), so that you can be sure that you are saying each question phrase perfectly. Learn to say all the question phrases in this lesson and you will speak fast -- like a native speaker of English. If you want to improve your accent and speaking ability in English further, take my accent course!

LEARN MORE ABOUT MY ACCENT COURSE: https://www.engvid.com/out/jadeaccentcourse

TRANSCRIPT

Hi everyone. I'm English Jade and I teach English over here at EngVid. But did you also know that I'm an accent and clear speech teacher? And I have a really important question for you: I want to know if your accent is your weakness. If it is, be sure to watch until the end of todays lesson because that's when I'm going to tell you all about my accent training course, Clear Accent, which teaches you how to speak in a really clear and natural way. But first of all, we've got to do today's lesson, so let's get started.

Hi, everyone. In this lesson I'm going to teach you how you can speed up your English times five, and I'm also going to teach Ratty, here, Ratty the kangaroo how he can speak much faster because since... Since he's moved over from Australia he's realized that he speaks too slowly, so that's why we're doing this lesson today. You'll get some tips to speed up your English.

All right, so we've got some question phrases in this column, and here we've got what those question phrases sound like when native speakers are talking in a relaxed way, and here in this column we've got the IPA transcription. Don't be afraid of this. Ratty... Ratty doesn't know how to read this, so I'm going to explain it as I go, but this column here is important because this tells us exactly the way to say it, whereas using just the English letters I can't write down the exact thing that I'm saying because we don't have letters for all the sounds. So we'll use the two columns, and together we'll speed up your English times five. Does that sound good? Ratty says it sounds good.

Okay, let's start with: "How's it going? How's it going?" If I want to say it really slowly, which I don't, I would say: "How is it going?" Take me all day to say that. But when a native speaker says it, it's: -"How-zit goin? How-zit goin? How-zit goin? How-zit goin? How-zit goin?" -"It's going good." -"How-zit goin?" If we look at the transcription here: "How-zit", "How is it" becomes two sounds: "How's it going?" If we look here, where's the "g"? It's not: "How's it going?" because it takes me more time and care to say the "g". When I'm just speaking in a relaxed way, I say: "How's it goin?" And also to notice here is that the "s": "How's" becomes a "z". "How-zit goin? How-zit goin?" And where the "s" would be here at the end of: "How's", it joins the next syllable, it joins "it", "zit": "How-zit goin? How-zit goin?" Does that sound good? He says it's good. He's a little bit faster.

Let's look at the next example: -"How's your mum? How's your mum? How is your mum? How's your mum?" -"She's good, she's in Australia. She's having a good time there." -"How's your mum? Howz yuh-mum? Howz yuh-mum?" So what changes in this sentence? "How is your mum?" First thing that stands out is "your" becomes "yuh": "yuh mum". "How is yuh mum? Howz yuh-mum?" We've got a similar thing happening here with the "s" becomes a "z": "Howz", "Howz". "Howz yuh-mum?"

Next example: "How's Tom? How's Tom?" "z" instead of "s": "Howz Tom?" And this symbol here is the "?" symbol. It looks like a backwards "a", and I should point out this symbol as well. We've seen it in the previous examples. This is: "?", "owl", "owl", "owl". "Howz Tom?" ? is a diphthong. A diphthong means when two vowel sounds blend one into the other, so this symbol here isn't two separate sounds. It's one sound changing into another quickly: "Howz Tom?" Okay, I need to move you to my other arm. Is that all right? Said: "It's good."

Next: "How do you get there? How do you get there?" If I'm speaking really slowly... Really, really slowly like Ratty speaks: "How do you get there?" Ain't got time to listen to that. -"How-jew get there? How-jew get there? How-jew get there?" -"By plane?" -"How-jew get there?"

What is Bonfire Night in England? Who was Guy Fawkes and why do people wear his mask? In this English culture and history lesson I talk about the traditions of Guy Fawkes night and tell you the story of the Gunpowder Plot, which happened on November 5th 1605. Find out why Guy Fawkes wanted to blow up The Houses of Parliament and what happened to him when the plot was discovered. Find out also about how he was gruesomely tortured in The Tower of London for his attempt to kill King James I. I'll show you how we celebrate Bonfire Night in England today, and how these celebrations have changed even within my own lifetime. And finally, Guy Fawkes himself will perform V’s introductory speech from V for Vendetta.
https://www.engvid.com/guy-fawkes-bonfire-night/

Watch more of my videos about England:

Walk with me in London's Covent Garden:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpnDAGVEeZg

Learn about the London Street Accent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbCiNdAAUM4

TRANSCRIPT

Good day to you, students. In this lesson I'm going to talk to you about Bonfire Night and a man who once lived, called Guido Fawkes. We start with a story from a long time ago, in the year 1533, the king of England was King Henry VIII. And what King Henry did was he established the Church of England, and he split away from the Church of Rome and created a new religion called Protestantism. Then, in the long history that passed by, there were troubles between Catholics who wanted their religion to stay the same, and Protestants in the long history of England. Sometimes Catholicism was a religion of England, and other times Protestantism was the religion of England. So there were many troubles at that time.

We move forward to the year 1605, a different king, a different time. King James I was the king of England. Now, something terrible happened to King James I, and this is where our story gets really exciting. It was the 5th of November, in the year of 1605. It should have been just any other day in the parliament, the Houses of Parliament in London. But this was not just any day in the Houses of Parliament, for this was the day there was a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder. Pew. But, actually, it did not happen.

Why did somebody want to blow up the Houses of Parliament? There was a man, called Guy Fawkes or Guido Fawkes, as he was also known, and he wanted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and he wanted to kill King James I. And the reason for this terrible act to want to kill the king was because Guy Fawkes was a Catholic, and James I, as the king of England at that time, was a Protestant king. And Guy Fawkes, he wanted more rights for Catholics, so he believed in what he was doing, he thought if he blows up the Houses of Parliament, pew: "I shall get everything that I want and life in England should be good for Catholics."

But no, it did not work out that way. It did not happen because an anonymous letter was sent to one of the fine gentlemen who usually sits in the Houses of Parliament who was supposed to be there on that day, the great Lord Monteagle. And he received this letter, and can you imagine his surprise when he opened this letter and it said: "Do not go to the Houses of Parliament on the 5th of November because something might happen. Do not go." Now, of course, Mr. Lord Monteagle thought: "Well, this is... This is strange to receive such a letter. What might happen if I go to the Houses of Parliament on this day?" So he raised the alarm, and they went to search the Houses of Parliament, and that's where they discovered the 36 barrels of gunpowder, but just in time. It did not blow up.

So, who...? Who was behind this, this treasonous act, who was it? Who wanted to blow up the king and the Houses of Parliament? Why, it was me, it was me, it was Guy Fawkes. So, what did they do when they caught poor me, Guy Fawkes? Well, it was terrible, more terrible than you could ever imagine. First, they took me to the Tower of London, the terrible Tower of London and there they tortured me, like torture you have never heard so terrible before. More painful than you can ever imagine. They put me on the rack and they stretched out my arms and my legs until I was screaming and crying in pain for them to stop. They stretched my body so long, it was going on forever. I thought I would die, die of the agony. And they told me: "Confess to your... Confess to your terrible crimes. Confess. We will stop torturing you, we will stop stretching your limbs. All you must do is sign this confession. Sign, and we will stop torturing you." So I did what I could. My hands were like jelly, I couldn't hold the pen. I did what I could to sign my name and they did stop torturing me, but that was not the end.

Learn new vocabulary about beauty and fashion. Just like fashion trends, the words we use in English to talk about makeup, clothing, hair, and style, change quickly. The words that are used today are not the same as five years ago. There is a whole world of beauty vloggers and fashion hauls on YouTube. If you’re into fashion, you’ll want to look en point when wearing items from your most recent haul. If makeup is your thing, you’ll be wearing a red lip or using a palette to get a smoky eye. You’ll be sporting balayage or ombre hair (don’t worry -- I’ll teach you how to pronounce those new French-origin words too!). Watch and never forget the boyfriends of Instagram. Then take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/english....-slang-15-trendy-fas

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at trendy fashion words. These are words that I'm hearing used a lot now around our times, so let's have a look through the words and learn them one-by-one so we can sound really cool and fashionable.

Let's start with: "en pointe". If something is en pointe, it means perfect, it looks so good. What you're wearing today, that dress, your dress is en pointe. It's so fashionable, it's so, so hot right now. Very similar meaning to something being "on-trend". If we think about the word "trendy", it means fashionable. But to say something is trendy isn't fashionable enough anymore, we have to change it and say: "on-trend". We could also change it and say: "bang-on-trend". If it's bang-on-trend, it's even more now, happening right this minute.

Next, if we're talking about makeup... When I was younger we used to talk about wearing lipstick or wearing red lipstick, or a pink lipstick, but now instead of saying the word "lipstick", it's described as: "I'm wearing a red lip today." And the same thing, instead of saying: "eye shadow", "Oh, I bought this eye shadow. It's blue. Look at it on my eyes", you don't say that because it doesn't... Doesn't sound... Doesn't sound fashionable enough, it doesn't sound like you know about makeup. So, what people who know about makeup say is they say: "Oh, today I'm wearing a smokey eye." I'm not wearing a smokey eye, I haven't got anything on, but a smokey eye is when the eye shadow looks grey or dark, and it's most often worn at night when you're going out. You get your eye shadow these days in "palettes". And instead of wearing just one eye shadow, like, wearing a pink eye shadow, the eye shadow palette comes with about... Well, as many as you want I suppose, but from 4 to 12 eye shadows, and what they do is they put on the different eye shadows from the palette. So, they will talk about creating the smokey eye from palette number three, or whatever.

Next is a makeup term that's been around for a few years. This makeup term came from when the Kardashians got famous because the kind of makeup Kim Kardashian would use was a kind of makeup that shades her face to give it a certain... To make it look like there's more shadow on the face and a more dramatic kind of foundation, which is done with different brushes. It's a kind of makeup technique called "contouring". Apparently it comes... Apparently it's a makeup technique that's been around for ages, but before, drag queens used to use it, men who... Men who were still men, but dressed up as women mostly for performance and being in shows and things like that. So it originally comes from there. And I did experiment with contouring. I once watched a few too many YouTube videos, and it all went terribly wrong, so moving on from contouring.

Next we have "drugstore makeup". In England we don't have drugstores, we have pharmacies where you go and buy your medicine, and you can buy toiletries, but we don't have drugstores. We have chains of drugstores, for example, Boots or Superdrug, and you can go in there and buy makeup, but we never call those places drugstores. Yet, when people talk about makeup now, the younger generation, they will... They will talk about buying drugstore makeup, which means the kind of makeup that only... Only costs you a few pounds to buy, it's not the really, really expensive makeup, and you can... You can buy it easily, close... Close... Close where you live. So, drugstore makeup is the kind of makeup you can do that doesn't cost you so much money as the really expensive brands. So that's an American term, but it's being used a lot here now in England.

The next... The next two terms are about hair. These are newer fashionable techniques for dying your hair, and the two words come from French. In the English pronunciation we'd say: "balayage".

Do you want to learn English online? Are you looking for an English teacher who will tutor you on Skype or some other video chat? In this video, I'll give you my top tips about taking private or group English lessons online. How do you find the right tutor for you? How many hours a week should you take? What should you talk about? What about IELTS preparation? I answer these questions and more in this video. I taught privately online for many years, so I know what I'm talking about!

Next, watch my video on how to do a Skype interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu_mQsWJA_Q

If you want to chat with native speaker English teachers from your phone or browser, try Cambly. If you go through this link, you will get 15 minutes free:
https://www.engvid.com/out/cambly


Take a quiz on this video here: https://www.engvid.com/how-to-....find-the-online-engl

TRANSCRIPT: Hey, guys. Here are my best tips for finding a really good language teacher who will work with you on Skype in one-to-one appointments, private lessons, so that you can learn a new language.

What is the reason that you want to have lessons? Because the kind of teacher you look for will be different, depending on the reason. So, first of all, if you want a conversational teacher because you're going on holiday soon to England and you want to get ready, or you want to wake up your tongue and remember all the English you know, then pick a teacher that you've got good rapport with, so that when you talk to each other on Skype you don't feel really awkward and sort of run out of things to say, and go silent and all those kinds of things. You want to be doing your lessons with a teacher you are happy and comfortable to talk to, especially in a conversational class. Another thing that can help those kind of appointments for conversational practice is for you to prepare before the kind of things that you would like to use the time speaking about. So if you've got a few ideas before the lesson with the teacher, it should mean that you won't run out of things to say or it won't get a bit boring.

Now, if your reason for the Skype appointments is because you are taking an exam, for example, IELTS, then you want to pick a teacher who actually knows about that exam, because not all teachers have experience with it. So be sure to check the reviews. And if you're using a website, read carefully your teacher's introduction about themselves so that you know: "Can this teacher actually speak...? Actually teach the exam class I'm looking for?" And don't waste your money on a teacher who's like: "Oh yeah, I don't know about it, but yeah, I'm sure I can do it. I'm sure I can get you ready for your exam." Just be confident that your teacher that you meet on Skype really knows how to do the best for you and help you prepare for your exam.

So another thing that you should think about is: How often do you want to meet this teacher? Because consider that it's just going to be the two of you talking over Skype, and sometimes you'll be using PDFs and other things to look at on the screen, but it's just going to be the two of you. So, if you do many, many, many, many hours together, it can be quite intense because you're seeing this teacher so often and spending so much time just together. For a lot of people meeting no more than three times a week, three hours is more than enough to be constantly meeting the same teacher. If you really need to have lots and lots and lots of hours because perhaps now your level's not very high, have a think about whether you should try group online classes. It's a completely different style of teaching, but they can be really good for learning vocabulary, covering basics. If you're quite lazy just to learn something on your own, then doing the group class can be a good way to just get those hours in basically. And then when your level is a lot better, then maybe then you can look into some one-to-one appointments or if you want to work on your accent, you can do so then.

So, thank you so much for watching guys. I hope this is going to help you next time you're looking for... Next time or the first time you're looking for a Skype teacher online. Before you go, make sure that you check out our quiz on this lesson. And thanks a lot. See ya later. Bye-bye.

The key to improving your English pronunciation is vowel pronunciation. In this pronunciation lesson, you'll learn the vowels of English through the IPA -- the International Phonetic Alphabet. I will teach you four of the vowel sounds in English: /ɪ/ as in ship, /I:/ as in sheep, /ʊ/ as in cook, and /u:/ as in blue. We will compare and contrast these vowel phonemes in different practical exercises so that you can hear and remember them. This lesson is both for beginners who are completely new to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as well as for advanced learners who could benefit from some revision of the English vowel sounds to improve their clarity and accent.

If you're ready to learn all the sounds of English and take your accent to the next level, take my Clear Speech course:
https://www.engvid.com/out/jadeaccentcourse

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. A quick message before we get started on today's lesson. When you're speaking English, are you constantly getting misunderstood? Are people asking you to repeat yourself a lot? Or perhaps are they looking at you with a confused face, perhaps pretending they know what you're saying when really they don't understand? If your answer is yes and you're at that stage where you already know English and you can communicate, the problem is nobody else understands you, then I really want you to watch until the end of this lesson because I'm going to tell you about my Clear Accent Training Course. So, stay watching until the end of the lesson, and I'll tell you how you can speak clearly and get over that stage of being misunderstood and all the frustrations that come with it.

Hi, everyone. In this lesson I'm going to teach you four English vowels, and I'm going to teach you those vowels in IPA. I'll teach you those symbols. When I was learning IPA it took me the longest time to remember the sounds and to associate them with the symbols. It actually took years; a really long time. So I'm not sure... I'm not sure if I was really slow to learn this or it's... For some people it's easier than others, but anyway, this lesson comes from what helps me to learn, which is when I practiced rather than just try to memorize, it's when I get to experience the different sounds and that way it sticks in my memory and that way I know. And another thing is we're only looking at four sounds because we don't want: "Ah! Ah!" overwhelm, confusion. And we're looking at four sounds because these four sounds are related, and when we learn them we learn them in comparison to the other sounds.

So here they are: "I:", "I", "?", "U:". So you can do this along with me while you're watching the video. "I:", "I", "?", "U:". Here's a drawing of a tongue. What happens when we make these four sounds is that our tongue moves in position... The tongue height changes in position and moves backwards from one sound to the other. Now, you might need to practice this many times and get used to the feeling of... See if you can put your awareness and your concentration on the shape of your tongue, and feel it as it moves back through the sounds. "I:", "I", "?", "U:". Do that enough times so that you can feel your tongue moving, and that's how you know they're related. We can also go backwards the other way, we can go: "U:", "?", "I", "I:". That's harder for me; I had to think about it. Let's look now at the lip shapes when we make these sounds. For I:, I've got an English mouth so I don't actually move that much, but when I make these sounds I go from the widest lips position to the most rounded lips position. "I:", "I", "?", "U:". So, "U:" you can see is more rounded, and I start in the widest position: "I:". Depending on who's teaching you, who you're looking at, depending on how wide their lips are, how big their mouth is, it's easier to see. But I've got a small English mouth, so you can't really see it that well on me. So, practice that, going backwards and forwards. Look in a mirror as well, and that way you can see how your lip shape changes when you make the sounds.

Okay, here we have two columns, these are called minimal pairs. This is for "I:", this is for "I". The words are the same, except the vowel has changed. We have: "beet", "I:", "I:", and then we have: "bit". So the only difference is the vowel. "Beet", "bit". And the same through the rest of the list. "Sheep", "ship"; "deep", "dip"; "feet", "fit"; "cheap", "chip"; "piece", "piss"; "he'll", "hill". When we do the minimal pairs, we get to feel in our mouths and also we get to contrast the two sounds. It's helpful when we're learning IPA. But the problem is not all the sounds have pairs of words for us to repeat and to memorize.

Let's look at this column now. In this column we're comparing the sounds for "?" and "U:". […]

Are you confident and dazzling like a dragon or innocent and humble like a sheep? Loyal as a dog or two-faced like a snake? In Chinese astrology, the years are represented by animals, and each animal has its own positive and negative qualities. Even if you don't care about astrology, it's a great way to learn a lot of vocabulary for describing different types of people. In this video, I'll teach you 48 adjectives using Chinese astrology! Many of these adjectives are quite advanced. 2018 is the Chinese Year of the Dog. Learn the good and bad characteristics associated with the dog, as well as eleven other animals in this video: ox, dragon, sheep, tiger, rabbit, snake, horse, monkey, rooster, boar, and rat. Do you know the animal that represents the year you were born in the Chinese horoscope? I’ll also tell you what animal I am represented by in the Chinese horoscope and tell you my thoughts about it.

Take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/48-adje....ctives-chinese-astro

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In today's lesson we're going to look at Chinese astrology, and I'm going to teach you adjectives that you can use to describe a personality. Now, to do this lesson, you don't have to believe in astrology and you don't have to be that much interested in astrology either. If you do like astrology like I do, then it's even better because you'll learn something about astrology and also some really useful vocabulary for you to use. The way this lesson is organized is that the animals in Chinese astrology are like the signs in Western astrology, and people have different animals to represent them. So, in Chinese astrology, what they do is put the animals into different groups, and there are five groups. We start here with the earth signs, then the wood signs, the fire signs, and later we have the water signs, and the metal signs. And what you can do now is check: Which animal represents you in Chinese astrology? So you just check the year that you were born, and that will show you what animal describes your personality.

First of all, we'll start with the ox. The ox is my sign in Chinese astrology. And we don't have any oxes here in England, but the closest thing to an ox would be, like, a big cow or a bull, but we don't have them over here. So, what would describe the ox's personality is to say somebody who is reliable, hardworking, strong, and stubborn. If you think about a... If you... If you imagine the picture of an ox in your head, they have a big, strong body, so they're physically strong, they're reliable, you can trust them to do the work that you need them to do. Even if an ox is tired in the field from working, the ox is so strong that it will continue working. And an ox is also stubborn. It will not... If it's decided what it wants to do, it will not change its mind. And one of my mom's dogs is very, very stubborn for a dog. If I take him for a walk, he decides where he wants to go, and he always want to go to the same park so he can play with his ball. If I try to take him somewhere else, he just stands there and he's so heavy to move, he won't move. He's really, really stubborn. He wants to go to the park, and that's it. He'll just stand like that until I take him to the park.

Next animal is the dragon. The dragon is... Well, it's not a real animal, or is it? I don't know. It's not a real animal, but it's confident, imaginative, dazzling, and fiery. So, dragon personalities, dragon people have so much charisma and energy in their personality. Other people look at the dragon as someone that's amazing and unusual in lots of ways. And I heard once, but I don't know if it's true-let me know if it is true in the comments-that in China the years that are the dragon years, many parents want to have a child born in a dragon year, so I heard that there are small baby booms every dragon year. Let me know if you know if that's true. So, a confident person is the opposite of shy, they know what they want, they can go for what they want. An imaginative person, they have many ideas and they think of things first before other people. They're dazzling. Usually we say lights are dazzling when they... They're bright, but they move a bit in your eye, we say: "Oh, it's dazzling", and the dragon dazzles us because it's so amazing. And also the dragon is fiery. Obviously a dragon can breathe fire on us, and in that way the dragon is fiery, but people who are fiery, they have quite a strong temper. You don't want to... You don't want that dragon to be angry with you because you might get scared.

Next we have the sheep. People who are born in the Year of the Sheep, we could call them innocent, patient, humble, and conformist people. So, if you think in your head, imagine... Imagine a scene with some sheep in the countryside on the farm with the shepherd, their lives are very innocent in the field. […]

‘Alright’ is a simple word with lots of different meanings. We use it in so many ways! I will teach you ten different ways that native English speakers use this word in different situations by varying the tone of voice in speech. I’ll also teach you how Cockneys (Londoners) use this word as a greeting and the unexpected way of replying to it as if you’re a local. Also... what's the difference between ‘alright’ and 'all right'? I'll teach you that too, so you won't have any more confusion. Alright?

Test your understanding of this lesson with the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/10-ways....-to-use-alright-all-

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In today's lesson I'm going to show you ten ways to use the word "alright". Let's begin with some grammar, because there are difference between British English and American English in whether you're writing the word "alright". So, in American English, their preference is to write "all right" as two words. That's considered more grammatically correct. In British English, it depends. Some people say it should always be written as two words, and some people it's now acceptable to write "alright" as one word. Personally, I generally write the word as one word. I write it like this. And that is because I consider it quite an informal expression, and most of the time I use it, it feels to me that it has an informal register. But if you wanted to be really, really certain that you weren't making a grammatical mistake, if you're writing something formal, then you can spell it two words in British English.

Okay, let's move now to examples of when we use this word: "alright". What's important to know about this word is it has different meanings, depending on how... On the tone that we use when we say it. Let's start with here. Number one, when we want to reassure someone we can say: "Everything's going to be alright. Don't worry, everything's going to be alright." That's also a song. Do you know it? "Everything's Gonna Be Alright." Sorry about my singing, but Bob Marley told us first that everything's going to be alright.

Number two we can use the word "alright" to check: Is something satisfactory? That means: Is it okay? I want to check that the thing I want to do is okay. I can say: "Does this soup taste all right? I want you to tell me. Is it delicious? Does the soup taste all right?" Perhaps I'm going out for the evening, I'm not sure what to wear, so I try on my dress and I ask you: "Is my dress alright? Do you think it's alright for the party?"

Number three, we say the word "all right" when we're asking people about their health. Perhaps they've not been well lately, so we can say: "Are you all right?" We can also say that... if this would normally happen if you're walking in the street and somebody falls over, maybe they slip because the pavement's wet or they have a bicycle accident, you can say to them: "Are you all right? Are you all right?" And when we say it fast, then it all blends into one: "Are you all right? Are you all right?"

Next we have permission. If you want to sit down somewhere and you're not sure if somebody's already sitting there, you can politely say: "Is it alright if I sit here? Is it alright?" And they will say: "Yeah, sure. Sit down."

My next examples are mainly British English examples, and these are informal expressions, things we would say when we're just chatting in conversation. So, here I have spelt "alright" as one word every time. In my previous examples I spelt it two ways to show: Yes, this is possible, and this is also possible; depends on your preference. So, number five, in British English in London specifically, but many other areas, especially in the south of England, we can use "alright" as a greeting, so instead of saying: "Hello. How are you?" we just say to each other: "Alright?" And then they say: "Alright." We don't really put a lot of enthusiasm in it. -"Alright?" -"Alright." So the first "alright" sounds like more of a question. "Alright?" And it depends, the other one sometimes doesn't sound like a question. "Alright. Alright." But they might do the question-sounding one back as well. -"Alright?" -"Alright?" It depends. Then you can also add "mate" or "love"; very, very informal and very familiar kind of language to use. A lot of people don't like to be called "mate" or "love" if they don't actually know you. Some people think it's impolite. So you could say: "Alright, mate?" Or you could say: "Alright, love?"

Next we've got when you say yes to something but you don't really mean it, you would rather say no, but you don't feel it's possible. So imagine your mom says to you: "Go and tidy your room", or: "Can you tidy your room today?" You'd say: "Alright." Or you'd say: "Alright." You're saying yes, you'd rather not do it today, but you don't have a choice. So it's not like: "Yes!" It's not enthusiastic. […]

Top o’ the morning to ya! In this lesson, I’m going to teach you common Irish vocabulary and expressions. This includes words for the family, insults, drinking expressions, and more. The Irish words in this lesson are part of the Irish English dialect. Many of them are not part of standard English. I am NOT Irish. I am English. This video is for people learning English, to give them an introduction to the Irish English accent and dialect. Please forgive me for my attempt at the Irish accent!

Take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/learn-i....rish-slang-vocabular

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, there. Welcome to the lesson. Today's lesson is an Irish lesson and we're going to learn to speak like Irish people. We're going to learn some expressions that they use over in Ireland and also some slang. And sometimes I'm going to speak like an Irish... Irish clover, not like a real Irish person, but how the clovers over speak there over in Ireland. Okay? So, when you want to begin a conversation, you could say: "What's the craic? What's the craic?" That means: "What's going on?" or "What's the gossip?" A similar phrase is: "What's the sto-...? What's the story? What's the story?" That means: "Hello." You can just... Instead of saying: "How are you?" you just go up to them and say: "What's the story?" it means, like that.

Next, our exclamations. Irish is a very... Irish... The character of Irish people, there's so much humour in it that there are so many exclamations that sound very Irish that you can... That you can use. Some of them are clich�s, and I don't think Irish people say them all the time. For example: "Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Bejesus! Oh, bejesus!" We can say that if we're surprised, or we want to emphasize something. But this is an Irish ism, it doesn't mean they say it all the time, and the same with: "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!" If we say that, this is like a stereotypical Irish phrase. And maybe the case... Maybe the whole section here is stereotypical phrases that really brings out the Irish character.

"Away wit ya! Away with ya! Go away with ya!" That means go... It actually means: "Go away. Go away, you", but we would use that if you... It would be used if you don't believe something. If you don't... If you don't believe what the Irish clover is saying, you can say: "Away with ya! Away with ya!" And if you wanted... If you thought somebody had done something that was offensive or they acted a bit rude or something, you could say: "Oh, the cheek of it! The absolute cheek of it!" That's to show that you're mildly offended about something.

Now, this is a Irish phrase that, unlike the other ones isn't stereotypical. This is one that's apparently used now. So it's newer... It's like how the language is evolving and it's a newer kind of expression. If you don't believe what somebody is saying, you think they're being, you know, they're sort of having a joke with you, you don't quite believe them 100% and you may also use this expression if you want the other person to laugh, you can say: "Get out of that garden! Get outta that garden!" And it's just a way of saying... It's a very similar meaning to: "Away with ya!" but a different phrase.

Now we've got more phrases, here. For example, if you say: "Fair play to ya. Fair play to ya. Fair play to ya", that means: "Well done." If you think somebody did some... Perhaps something good happened to someone in their life, maybe they got a new job, you could say: "Fair play to ya", it means: "Well done."

Irish people are famous for saying: "That's grand. Oh, that's grand." And it means... Well, as an English person if you look at the phrase, you'd think "grand" means something really good, like, brilliant or fantastic, but actually in the Irish use it just means "fine". It's not, like, the most emphatic, enthusiastic. It just means fine. So, if you think something's find or good, you can say: "That's grand. Aye, that's grand."

Here's a figure of speech. Whereas over in England people will often say at the end of a sentence: "Do you know what I mean? Do you know what I mean?" in Ireland, they add "like" on the end, so they say: "Do you know what I mean, like? Do you know what I mean, like?" The Irish clover says something, and wants you to agree, will say: "Do you know what I mean, like?"

The next, many Irish people are known for having the "gift of the gab". Oh, let's say in terms of the whole world's people, the Irish... The Irish people are known for having the gift of the gab, and that means that they're very good at speaking, very charming when they're speaking. And often when somebody has the gift of the gab then you always want to believe them as well. So, Irish clovers have the gift of the gab, you see? They do. […]

Learn 35 useful conversational phrases for making friends or asking someone out on a date. Meeting new people can be awkward, especially if you don’t know the language perfectly. In this lesson, I will teach you what to say when you first meet someone new at a class or activity, what to say when you meet someone by chance, and what to say when you want to get to know someone better and to deepen your relationship. Learn these phrases and you will improve your conversational ability in friendship and dating situations.

In this English vocabulary lesson, I will teach you words that are being used a lot right now, and that have to do with current issues in society and politics. You may have heard these words already, but what exactly do terms like "millennial", "trigger warning", and "fake news" mean? Whatever your politics, this lesson will give you a perspective on the social trends and political change that is going on in our age.

Test your vocabulary with the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/16-new-....social-political-int

Next, watch my video on French words that we use in English!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQStFX6SUXs&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7&index=11

Or you can watch my vocabulary lesson on current fashion vocabulary and slang:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnIwr2vkb94&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7&index=5

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at new words for our times. These words reflect social movements or new things happening in politics. We're going to start with "millennial". "A millennial" is a person who's between the age of a teenager now and their late 20s. Thankfully I just escaped being a millennial, because millennials are whiny and they are... They're just so weak, and they're like little special snowflakes, very delicate. And millennials are just... They've been so protected all their lives that when it comes to it in the real world they are... They like whine and they shout, and they cry, but they don't do a lot. No offence to any millennials watching. [Laughs].

Next word is related to the millennials. The millennials need "safe spaces", because this world out there is... It's so... It's so mean and people say such horrible things that they need to be protected inside their safe spaces. And so, the idea of a safe space would be somewhere on a college campus where you know you can go and be safe, and you don't have to be scared or upset by any of the mean things that old white men and politicians say. Anything that offends you in the safe space, it's all very relaxed there. You can... Maybe you'll manage to, you know, do a bit of studying in that safe space, nobody can get to you.

The next word is also related to the millennials in the safe space, they go here because there nothing bad will ever happen to them, but when they go out into the big wide world: "Oh no! Oh no!" They need "trigger warnings". "Trigger warnings" is... You give a trigger warning when something you're going to say could upset someone, it could be offensive to them, and it could create a trauma or a kind of flashback to them, and because they are so weak they can't hear this thing and they need a trigger warning to keep them safe. When someone is triggered, then they're triggered by something they don't want to hear, and sometimes they might scream, like: "No! No! I can't take it! No!" That's when they're triggered. So, because they have such big emotional responses to things they don't like, that's why they need the safe spaces. And I think actually, come to think about it, maybe the safe spaces are a good idea because they could just go in the safe space, and we wouldn't be in there, so they could do all that alone in the safe space.

The next word is "social justice warrior", "SJW", also to do with the millennials. One of the things associated with them is that they protest a lot, they're vocal, they like to take a stand against the things they don't like, which they typically do online, they talk about things online or perhaps they go on protesting and things like that. "A social justice warrior" is someone whose main reason to protest is things to do with race issues or gender issues, and they... Or they think that... Or feminist issues. They think that... For whatever group they belong to, they think that life isn't fair for them, so that's the reason they protest. They're warriors, they're fighters, they're warriors.

Next we've got "gender non-binary". A person who calls themselves gender... Say: "Oh, I'm gender non-binary", what that means is: "I'm not a man. I'm not a woman. I'm something in between those genders that hasn't... It can't be... Can't be specified as this or that. It's my own identity which is gender non-binary." Not the traditional man, not the traditional woman, but something in between.

Next word is a word that's used as an insult or a term of offence to people, is "libtard". The "tard" part reminds us of the word "retard" which means disabled person, and the "lib" part comes from "liberal". When you put it together: "libtard" means somebody who's so liberal in their politics or their ideas or their vision and their view of the world, they've actually become retarded and disabled because of it; used as an insult.

The next two terms we have to look at together. We've got "globalism" versus "populism". "Populism" in politics is movements like Brexit in the UK, and the election of Donald Trump in the USA. […]

'FROM' is such a small, common word in English, but it has so many different uses! In this lesson, I explain 10 different uses of ‘from’. This English lesson will be especially useful to beginners and intermediate-level students, who tend to get prepositions mixed up. I’ll give you plenty of examples showing exactly when ‘from’ should be used. We’ll also look at more advanced uses of ‘from’ as part of expressions such as ‘from dusk till dawn.’ And finally, I’ll mention some examples from popular culture in which ‘from’ appears in the titles of films and songs. There’s also a slightly rude example of when you should be careful about using ‘from’ if you don’t want someone to get the wrong idea!

TAKE THE QUIZ: https://www.engvid.com/10-ways....-to-use-from-in-engl

NEXT, watch my lesson on 10 ways to use ALRIGHT & ALL RIGHT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5AEtg6pm6o&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7&index=1

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're looking at uses of "from". "From" is a really common word in English, you see it all the time, but do you know when to use it? We use "from" as a preposition, and we also use "from" in phrasal verbs, so let's look at all the different situations where we use "from".

We'll start with a phrasal verb, which is: "come from". Somebody asks a question to you: "Where do you come from?" That means: "Where were you...? Where were you born and where did you live when you were younger?" So, I come from London. Where do you come from? "Where do aliens come from?" Aliens are the ones with the big eyes and sometimes they're green, or sometimes they're reptiles. "Where do aliens come from?" Aliens come from outer space, out there where the UFOs live.

Timespan. "Timespan" means between this time and this time. "Yoga is from 7 to 9am in the pagoda." Yoga pagoda, it rhymes. A "pagoda" is a kind of... A kind of... Imagine the kind of building where some Hippies would go and do some yoga, with a pointy roof, and maybe made from wood or something like that. That's a pagoda, anyway. "The wedding season is from May until September." This means that between May and September that's when most of the weddings happen. We're really busy with weddings between May and September. So, the wedding season is from May until September.

Now we're using timespan for an historical event, something that happened a long time before, something that happened in history, something that we know as a fact. "World War I was from 1914 to 1918." And: "Queen Elizabeth 1st", let me say that one again. "Queen Elizabeth 1st reigned from 1558 to 1603". "Reigned" is a word... "To reign" is the word we use to say a queen or a king was in power for that time. So we could say: "Queen Elizabeth 1st was in power from 1558 to 1603", but "reigned" is a specific word that means that.

Now we have "made from". This one is also a phrasal verb. When something is made... We use "made from" to say how we get a thing. So, my jumper is made from wool, and wool comes from sheep. Here's some other things: "Plastic is made from oil." You take oil, you do something to it, after you get plastic. "Paper is made from wood." Wood is the first thing you have, and you do something to it in the factory, and after you get paper.

Now let's look at distance. We use "from" as a preposition to talk about the distance to a place. "We are 10 minutes from the lake." Here's the lake, we are 10 minutes over here. A lake, if you don't know it, is a natural, large area of water. It's bigger than a pond. A pond... A pond... A pond you would never swim in, and a pond is usually what you see in a person's garden if they have a nice garden. But a lake is much too big for most people to have in their gardens. Maybe if you were Queen Elizabeth 1st, you would have a lake in your garden, but not many other people.

"The moon is 385,000"-zero, zero, zero-"kilometres from the Earth". Here's the Earth, let's get in our rocket and go 385,000 kilometres, if we survive, we make it to the moon. And the last example here: "How far away is Tom's house from Steve's?" What that sentence means is: How far away is Tom's house from Steve's house? But we don't need to repeat the word "house". So, we could answer the question: "Tom's house is 10 miles from Steve's house." Coming up: More examples of "from".

Now we have the origin of something when we're using "from" as a preposition. "Origin" is a more formal way of saying where something begins, where something starts. So: "I have a letter from the bank." Here's my letter, coming from the postman, he puts it in my letterbox, here's my letter from the bank. "I have a present from my Mum." Oh, thank you for my present. What a lovely... What a lovely scarf you gave me. And: "I got a call from Tom", as in phone call. Now, a phone call isn't a real object, like a scarf or a letter that we receive, but we can use "from" in this case. […]

Learn how to pronounce the names of the top 10 biggest cities in Britain. Avoid the embarrassment of saying the name of a famous place incorrectly -- listen and learn how a person from London says the names of these places. I will also teach you and use some IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), so that you can get the exact pronunciation. I’ll teach you how to pronounce London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford, Glasgow, Southampton, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield. No more mistakes!

Test yourself with the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/pronunc....iation-top-10-britis

Next, watch Benjamin's video all about the "RP accent" in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcIX-U5w5Ws&index=2&list=PLs_glF4TIn5YtEqu0I-8URDr8GT0JyYnI

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at the pronunciation of the ten biggest cities in England. The data comes from the World Urban Areas Report, and this report looks at the size of cities' population according to their urban area, so that's the dense part of the city where most people live. So, if you're looking at this list and you disagree: "Oh, that city is bigger than this city", it's because there's different ways to make the list, depending on the data that you look at. But I thought this way of listing the cities made the most sense so that you don't have a very, very wide city with countryside in it counted as in the top ten.

So, let's begin at number one: "London", which is the capital city of England, and which is where I'm from. We pronounce as: "Lundan". The second syllable has a schwa, so we say: "Lundan", not: "LondOn", as a lot of people say and a lot of tourists say when they come. They say: "I'm going to LOndOn", whereas we say: "Lundan".

Number two: "Manchester". "Manchester", the second syllable is an "i", sometimes people say : "e". "Manchester", "Manchester", but "Manchister" is the most common pronunciation for people who actually live there. And Manchester is most famous, in my mind, for the band Oasis, and they said things, like: "Mad For It", and they had a song which was called: "You got to roll with it, you got to take your time", sorry.

Number three: "Birmingham" is the way I would pronounce it if I imagined I was from there, but how I would say it in my normal accent is: "Birmingum", "Birmingum". The... It's not "HAm". Americans might say: "BirmingHAM", "I'm going to BirmingHAM", whereas locals and other English people are going to say: "Birmingum", "Birmingum".

Number four is: "Leeds". Leeds and Bradford are counted as one city in this list, although if you ask the people of Leeds and the people of Bradford whether they think of it as the same city, they'll say no. So, that's why they're written separately on the list. We have Leeds and we have Bradford. Bradford, Bradford.

Number five is: "Glasgow". Oh, they're not all in England, I've just realized because we've got Glasgow on the list, Scotland is obviously included also. How we pronounce: "Glasgow", we can say: "Glasgow", that's the pronunciation that someone in the southeast of England would use: "Glasgow", because we make the long A sound: "ah", whereas people from the northern areas of England and also the people in Glasgow itself would say: "Glasgo", "Glasgo".

Next one, number six: "Southampton", "Southampton". This one we have the H in the pronunciation, but it's not a very... we... we don't hear it that much. It blends into the A, and sometimes when you hear people say this town, it might sound like there's no H sound there at all, it might be more like: "South... Southampton", "Southampton". Whereas other people you find, they may say it more like two separate words in a way, if they say: "South... South Hampton", "South Hampton". But in my opinion, that's not the most natural pronunciation of that city, and most people would say it like: "Southampton", "Southampton".

Next one is: Portsmouth, "Portsmuth". "Portsmuth". "Portsmuth" is the place where the British Navy is based. It's... obviously it's by the sea, the Navy is based there, and I did some English teaching in an English summer school there in Portsmouth. And what I noticed when I was there was that so many people in that town had tattoos. And if you think about it... Well, now... nowadays, so many people have tattoos, but tattoos used to be associated with the people who had been in the Navy and who'd gone to sea and done all that kind of thing, so that's... When I think of Portsmouth, I always think of tattoo shops and seeing loads of people with tattoos.

Next we have: "Liverpool", "Liverpool". If you meet someone from Liverpool, the "pool" can have quite a high pitch and can sound quite long. When I say that town, the "pool" part doesn't sound as long. "Liverpool", "Liverpool", "Liverpool". […]

Toxic language is a way of communicating that harms other people. The lesson is based on the work of Marshall Rosenberg, who educated people to express their needs in a compassionate way in order to avoid ‘violent communication’. I will teach you common examples of violent communication, such as threatening, blaming, labelling, diagnosing, and guilt tripping. Many of us often do some or all of these to others without realising. By learning to avoid violent communication, we are able to express our personal needs more effectively and our relationships with others can improve.

Next, watch my video about passive aggressive language -- it's also important:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbWOh5xjgg8&index=9&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7

You can take a quiz on this lesson here: https://www.engvid.com/toxic-l....anguage-violent-comm

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In today's lesson we're going to look at the language of toxic people and the things that they say. This is the kind of language we use when... Perhaps we don't realize it, but by saying these things we can start arguments, and we can say these things and people will become angry with us. Another way of explaining toxic language is to say: "Violent communication". I've shortened the word "communication", there. This was an area of study, you could say, by a man called Marshall Rosenberg. So if you're interested in the things I'm talking about in this lesson, you can go search for the area of violent communication, and you can learn more about it, because the whole philosophy, I suppose, is how we can change the language that we use so that we can have more healthy communication with other people, and that way we don't have so many arguments and we have a more peaceful life at home.

So I've got different kinds of violent communication, and I'm going to go through them one by one, explaining as I go. First I'll just read you the list of the different kinds of violent communication. Blaming others, threats, shoulds, labelling, black-and-white thinking, guilt-tripping, diagnosing, emasculation, and uncalled-for advice.

I'll start with blaming. "Blaming" is when in your life you do not take any responsibility for your problems. Everything that happens to you is always somebody else's fault. So, a person who blames other people would say something like: "You make me so angry." To use the verb "make", and to say: "You make me" is not taking responsibility for ourselves being angry. Another way we could say the... Say a similar thing is to say: "I am angry." But instead, we blame it all on that person. It's not the thing that happened, it's because of you. Next we've got: "It's all your fault." Imagine something goes wrong, there's been a personal crisis going on in your family or something, and your dad says to you: "It's all your fault. Absolutely everything that went wrong here is because of you." All the blame goes on to you." Obviously it's not a very nice thing to experience. We know that in life things are rarely all just caused by one person, especially in a family, there's... The way a family operates is: "You did this and I did this", so we can see it's more complicated in most situations than all being one person's fault. So this expression, saying that to someone is usually an exaggeration as well, because if somebody says that, in most cases, it's not true. It's not all their fault, maybe some of it was. Next we've got: "You're driving me crazy." This is something that perhaps a mother would say if she has some young children, maybe she has a 2-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a 5-year-old and they're all making lots of noise when they're playing, she can say: "Shut up! You're driving me crazy!" And, again, she's not taking responsibility for her own stress and her own feelings of craziness; she's blaming it on them. They are doing the action to her. They are driving her crazy.

Let's look at threats now. A "threat" is when you let someone know if they do that something bad will happen, or you will make something bad happen, or there will be a bad consequence if they do that thing. And the reason you give a threat is you want to stop that person doing it. So here's an example: "If you don't get out of bed now, we're going without you." I imagine this situation, a teenage boy who doesn't want to wake up. It's Saturday morning, 11 o'clock, he's happy to sleep in til 1pm, maybe 2pm, and his parents want him to get up so he can go and see the grandparents with them. They might try and threaten him by saying: "If you don't get out of bed now, we're going without you." In the situation I described, maybe he wouldn't care... Maybe the teenage boy wouldn't care that much about that particular threat, it depends. Next example: "If you don't eat your vegetables, you can't have dessert." […]

Everything you need to know about shopping in England, both in supermarkets and on the high street. In this video, you will learn the difference between the main English stores and supermarkets so that when you’re next in the UK you will know the best place to do your shopping at the best price for your budget. I’ll also teach you specific vocabulary related to doing your shopping for everyday items in supermarkets and at the corner shop. I have so much to tell you about shopping in England, which may be different to the stores you have or the way of shopping in your home country. That's why I have included plenty of my personal observations about going shopping in my country. This video will be useful to tourists to the UK as well as to people who have moved here or who are planning to move here in the future.

Take the quiz about shopping in England at https://www.engvid.com/shopping-in-england/

Next, watch these other videos about life in England!
1. Learn how to say the top 10 British cities correctly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXkFM3TC108&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7&index=3
2. English Culture: Manners & How to be polite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hV7lJyC3Eg&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7&index=19

#shopping
#LearnEnglish
#engvid

Fighting language: I will teach you slang and British English phrases that people use when arguing or fighting with each other. Most of the examples in this lesson are the kind of English spoken by working class people that you may hear for example on a television talk show. You may also hear some of these phrases in films that feature Cockney gangster characters. Many of these expressions might not make sense to you if you don't already know the meaning, so it's useful to learn the expressions and their meaning. This video will even be useful to North American English speakers who want to understand British shows and writing better. Now go watch the video... you're doing my head in!

Take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/10-thin....gs-people-in-england

Watch these videos next:
1. Passive-Aggressive Language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbWOh5xjgg8&index=16&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7

2. Learn 35 English phrases for making friends & asking someone out on a date: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgyXVELJ7Mc&index=6&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7

#relationships
#LearnEnglish
#engvid

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at things that people say when they're arguing; expressions that actually don't mean a lot; they just show that we're annoyed with someone - and these are all British English phrases; and specifically, I would say I've heard many Londoners say. So, this is the kind of... When things get heated and you're having a big fight, we might hear these expressions.

Let's start with: "Having a laugh". So, if you're having an argument with someone, you'd say this when you're in a situation, like an employee shows up for work two hours late. Let's say you work in a really busy store; or even better, you work in a pub. And you can't go home until the other person comes, and you don't hear from them; they don't call or anything. You don't know if they're coming or not coming. Then two hours later, in they come and you say: "You're having a laugh!" That means: "Where have you been? Are you joking? I've been waiting here and waiting to go, and now you just come in." And it has one... One cross, there, because depending on how I say it with the tone, that shows how strong it is. With... "A laugh" is like a joke; it's not as strong as these other examples, which mean something similar.

So, in the next example, here: "You're taking the piss! You are taking the piss!" If I say that to you, you've done something really awful. Let's say, for some stupid reason, I let you borrow my car for the weekend. You were going... You were going somewhere with your girlfriend; you're my friend - I let you borrow my car. But you didn't bring the car back nicely - oh, no. When you brought the car back, the tire was flat; it was all dirty - you don't know where they've taken your car to; and worst of all, inside the car there's all these empty condom wrappers and all this empty alcohol in the back. You just... "What have you done? You took my car and you do this to me. You are taking the piss!"

Next we've got: "Taking liberties". So, let me think of an example for this one. This could be, like, you've got a YouTube channel and some other teacher comes along and just starts... Just starts copying you, basically. Then: "You are taking liberties! You know you are taking liberties by doing that. You are. You're copying. You're taking liberties."

Next one: "You're doing my head in! Can you just stop? Can...? Can you just stop? Stop talking on and on; you're doing my head in." When someone is "doing your head in", it's too much noise; it's too much speaking; they're going on and on and on; you don't want to listen; you feel stressed. "You're doing my head in!" Just: "I'm feeling emotional now; you're doing my head in."

Next is: "You're out of order! You're out of order!" Someone would say: "You're out of order" when they would... Oh, yeah. You're having a... This is when things get serious, right? Perhaps you're out in a pub. Things are getting really heated, and it looks like a fight's... Maybe a fight's going to start, and someone pushes you. They actually push you or they get in your face, and they're like... They're like this in your face. You then say: "You're out of order! You pushed me. You got in my face. You're out of order!" So, "out of order"... When something's in order, it's tidy and good and nice, and the way it should be. When something's out of order, it's gone way too far; it's way too far.

Okay, so now we can take: "Taking the piss" and "Taking liberties" and put them into nouns. So, we can call people: "piss-takers". "You're a piss-taker. You're an absolute piss-taker." If someone's a piss-taker, they're always taking liberties, pushing a bit, asking for a bit too much, not doing exactly what they say they're going to do; this person, you don't want to deal with them because everything they do is not what they say. […]

Learn the English vowels:
https://www.engvid.com/out/jadeaccentcourse

I will teach you four phonemes from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). You will learn /e/ as in pet, schwa /ə/ as in to (unstressed), /ɜː/ as in bird, and /ɔː/ as in court. This lesson is for beginners who are unfamiliar with IPA (the individual sounds of English). Learn the IPA vowel symbols to greatly improve your pronunciation. This lesson is also for more advanced students who are already familiar with the sounds of English and their IPA phonetic symbols, and who wish to refresh their knowledge as a result of doing some practical pronunciation practice. Do these exercises for some time and you WILL hear a difference.

Take the quiz on this lesson at https://www.engvid.com/improve....-your-accent-ipa-vow

Join my Clear Accent course to improve your accent step-by-step: https://www.engvid.com/out/jadeaccentcourse

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson I’m going to teach you four English vowels. Here are the vowels: “e”, “ɜ:”, “ə”, “ɔ:”. The reason to learn these four English vowels in IPA is that these are the actual sounds in English words; and if you know IPA, when you’re learning words, you can get the right pronunciation. The thing about it is these symbols are hard to learn. I know it took me a really, really long time to learn, and that’s because I learn sounds in a practical way. So, me just trying to memorize these sounds didn’t work for me, but doing practical exercises like this was how, after a lot… not… no. It took me a long, long, long time before I did practical exercises to remember these sounds. So I wish I did something like this at the beginning. So aren’t you lucky? Because I’m going to teach you the shortcut to remembering these vowels.

What’s… What we should know about these vowels is that they are grouped together, because they are central vowels. The position that our tongue takes when we make these four vowels is central – it’s not high; it’s not low. And the difference between them is we move from a more forward position with our tongue to a more backward position.
Now, another thing is that ɜ: and ə (schwa), the position is actually the same in the mouth; nothing changes, except the ɜ: sound is stressed and we can hear it very clearly and notice it; whereas the schwa sound: “uh”, “uh”, it’s hard to say by itself because it’s an unstressed sound, but we do it in exactly the same position. We don’t have to move our tongue for that one; it’s just a difference in the power of the sound.

Let’s look at the lip position now. We start with the lips lightly spread. Okay? It’s not as much as “e” which is spread as wide as possible. “E” is not on here. It’s not as wide as “e”; it’s lightly spread: “e”, so a little bit less. “e”. And then the next two are the same position. This I would just call spread, so a little bit wider. “ɜ:”, “ə”, “ɔ:”. You can see the big difference between here, when I go to “ɔ:”. “ɜ:”, “ɔ:”. So, when I get to “ɔ:”, my lips are in the most rounded position.

All right, let’s look at some contrasting words now so that we can get more used to these vowels in words. We’ll read like this, starting with: “pet” for “e”; “bird” for “ɜ:”. The way I always remember this symbol is to imagine a bird, flying, and that’s the most perfect word for me to remember that sound. Imagine a bird: “bird”. “Red”, “wa-…” This is “word”, “word”. “Word”. “Red”, “word”; “ten”, “murder”; “head”, “burden”; “said”, “curse”; “many”, “burn”.

Now, what can be confusing about this is when we look at the spellings of these words and we think: “What’s going on here?” because if I say… If I say: “head”, and that’s the vowel, “e”, why is it spelt with an “a” in there? That’s just confusing, right? Well, that’s English spelling, unfortunately. Trying to learn too many spelling rules for the IPA isn’t that helpful. It’s helpful sometimes, but it only takes you so far. We can see a pattern in here, though. The “ɜ:” sound is often spelt with “r”. Often “ur” in a lot of words; “murder”, “burden”, “curse”, “burn”.

Now let’s look at schwa. When I write schwa, I can write: “uh”. That’s the closest I can get to pronouncing schwa as an unstressed sound. Usually it’s resting in the middle of other sounds. And the way I remember it myself is that in English, a dog goes: “Woof. Woof, woof.” But in Turkish, a dog goes, like: “Uh, uh. Uh, uh.” That’s their sound for “woof”. But, basically, it’s a schwa sound. So it helps me; I don’t know if it helps you. But we’re going to go side to side, here. Schwa: “uh”, “aw”. “Uh”, “paw”; “problem”, “more”; “freedom”, “boring”; “album”, “sword”; “again”, “sure”; “parrot”, “lord”. Okay?

What’s hard about schwa is that in these words we’ve got two syllables, so we have to… Which ones got the schwa in it? I don’t know which ones got the schwa in it. I’ve underlined where the schwa is in the word. And the annoying thing about schwa as well is that it sounds slightly different, depending on… […]

Do you sound weak? In this video, I give you examples of unconfident speaking styles. These are expressions people use when lacking in confidence about themselves and their opinions. We will be looking at indirect language: speaking with disclaimers, evading opinions, making oneself small, being doubtful of oneself, and being afraid to speak one’s mind. While it is sometimes necessary to communicate in an indirect way for the sake of politeness, it’s important to know how to speak in a more confident way too. When you communicate in a confident way, you are able to lead other people and to make a good impression. Learn about unconfident speaking styles in order to stop sounding weak!

Next, watch my video about TOXIC LANGUAGE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruLxkg2Jgys&t=0s&index=5&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7

TRANSCRIPT

i, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at ways our language shows that we're not very confident people, and it shows that we're afraid to give our opinions in case we upset someone or they get angry at us, or we offend them because we have a different opinion. And without realizing it, many of us soften and change our language, and use particular phrases so that we seem to agree with more people and we say everything politely. In some situations, this is a good thing because this means using our words with tact; using our words in a way that respects other people, but sometimes if we use this language all the time, it's because that shows us as being weak people who can't give an opinion about anything, and who are afraid to speak their minds. So we're going to look at examples of the kind of language where we... We lack confidence. And we'll go through some examples, starting with speaking with disclaimers. When you speak with disclaimers; before you get to what you really want to say, you go around it slowly first because you're scared to upset someone or disagree with them.

So we'll start here. Let's imagine the situation: You want to give your opinion about your friend's shoes. She's decided to wear green shoes, and you just don't think they look good with that outfit she's wearing - that pink dress; it doesn't look the best thing you've ever seen but you want to show that, unlike your friend, you disagree that it's a good thing, you could say: "This is just my opinion but I don't think those green shoes look the best with that pink dress." And when I say it like that, it's a sensitive way to disagree. And for an issue about shoes, it's not a big deal; it's not going to make you sound really weak. So it depends on the situation that you're talking about.

The next situation, here: "You might disagree but..." Imagine there's an issue where you think one thing and someone else you know thinks something else; you have opposite opinions. An example could be: You think it's unhealthy for children to eat chocolate every day, and you don't think they should. And, in fact, you've got a son and you don't want him to eat chocolate every day, but the son's grandma might disagree and think it's good for children to eat chocolate all the time. You could say: "You might disagree but I don't think kids should eat chocolate all the time, every day; it's unhealthy for them."

Moving on: "I'm not a professional but..." And: "I'm no expert but..." We can use these phrases when we're in a situation where it looks like... It seems like the other person there has got more experience than us. Perhaps it's... They've got a proper job, and perhaps we're just an intern. So we want to say something, but we're also thinking: "Oh, I could be wrong", before I say that. So, here's an example: I'm wearing a microphone, here. Let's imagine this wasn't on the right way, and I'm the intern and I realize that, I could say something like: "I'm no... I'm no expert but shouldn't the microphone be the other way around?"

Or the same situation: "I'm not sure if this is always the case, though in my experience, those microphones usually go that way around." And the reason we would say... In this situation I gave then, the reason I would say that very carefully is because in that situation there might be a reason that we don't have a lot of authority there. We might really know everything; we might really know our stuff, but because we don't officially work there or we're not an important person, we have to use our words in more careful ways. And also, we might be afraid about being wrong, so we don't want to say the wrong thing.

Here's some other examples: "It might just be me but..." We can say this if we happen to disagree with the other... With the other people around us. We could also say: "Perhaps I misunderstood", and: "Forgive me if I'm wrong but..." All these examples we could use in a situation similar to the microphone example where we... Where we... We think something different, but we're not 100% certain. […]

Meditation? Yoga? Mindfulness? Healing? Psychonauts?! In the UK, US, and Canada, fewer and fewer people strictly follow traditional religions. Instead, many people choose individual elements and activities that they believe in and practice themselves. Together, we can group these together very broadly as “spiritual”. If you visit or live in an English-speaking country, you may be surprised to see how many classes, workshops, and groups exist for spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation, reiki, astrology, tantra, hypnosis, psychedelic exploration, and more. In this vocabulary and culture lesson, I will explain common spiritual vocabulary and also introduce you to the way many people in English-speaking countries today think and speak about their spiritual life and journey.

NEXT, watch this video to learn useful English vocabulary to describe people using Chinese Astrology! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2IWhm7L-Rg

[No official transcript for this lesson, everyone!]

The United Kingdom, Great Britain, England, or the British Isles: Which one should you use, and what’s the difference between them? And how do Ireland, Scotland, and Wales relate to all of this? It really is confusing, but in this video I will explain exactly what each name refers to, and what belongs where, so you’ll have no more confusion! We’ll also talk about the relationship of Northern Ireland to the UK, as well as the Crown dependencies – the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey. I’ll also touch upon identity issues such as the proportion of people who feel ‘British’ as opposed to just ‘English’, ‘Welsh’, ‘Scottish’, or ‘Irish’. This one is a really huge lesson, full of facts and interesting trivia about the differences between the countries that make up the United Kingdom. If you learn everything in this lesson and take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/uk-gb-b....ritish-isles-termino you will truly be an expert on the geography and people of the UK!

NEXT, watch some of my other videos about life and customs in England and the UK:
1. DRINKING TEA IN ENGLAND: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcNAxWlFE_g&index=18&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7

2. SHOPPING IN ENGLAND: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF_U1LW8ap8&index=4&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7

3. 3 POPULAR SLANG WORDS IN BRITISH ENGLISH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0JUlo0ETZY&index=23&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7

4. THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSDoxNzFMZw

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're going to look at the geography of the United Kingdom and we're also going to look at some culture related to all the different terms we use to describe Great Britain, England... All these different words, when do we use them? So we're going to break it down and look at that.

Let's start with the name. The official name is United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but often we just say "UK" because it's such a long country name, so we just say UK. I drew a map. My map is not to scale. And I tried my best, but it was hard to do it with the pens on the board, so we're going to show you a correct map. We've got England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. And the dotted line shows where Northern Ireland ends. This part is part of the United Kingdom; this part is not. More on that later.

So, the UK is a sovereign state or we could say a sovereign country. This means that they make all their own laws, and they govern themselves. So, the UK is a sovereign state or a sovereign country. But the reason that's confusing is that we... When we're talking or when we're describing a place in the world, we talk about Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland as being countries. So, you think: "Is...? If the UK is a country, are Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland also a country?" Well, they are, but they don't make their own laws. So, we have a word for it and we can call them "constituent countries". We can say England is a constituent country of the United Kingdom. We can say Scotland is a constituent country of the United Kingdom, etc. Okay.

Now it gets more confusing because when we're talking about the UK, we can say it's made up of those countries - Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We can also say it's made up of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is this land mass, this island shape, here; and Northern Ireland is part of the land mass, the island of Ireland. So, if we put this bit and this bit together, we get the United Kingdom.

Great Britain has three constituent countries. Remember, this is Great Britain, Scotland, England, and Wales make up Great Britain. Britain... Now we're getting smaller. This is Britain, England, and Wales. So, I can say: "I'm from Britain", because I'm from... I was born about here in London, so I can say: "I'm from Britain".

Now, we have another term called "The British Isles". The British Isles is a geographic term, so we use it to describe a place on the map. And the British Isles would include everything we see here. Actually, perhaps except these islands. These islands are called Jersey and Guernsey, and they're closer to France. But the British Isles could describe everything here in a geographic sense. And I wasn't able to draw all the islands, but there's actually over 6,000 islands up in Scotland, some down here as well. So, many, many islands.

But the trouble with that term, to say the British Isles is that some people in Ireland don't like that term to describe... To include them because it makes it sound like Ireland, it's British, even though Ireland is independent. Ireland is a sovereign country by itself. So some people object to calling this the British Isles.

If you do object to calling it the British Isles, you can say the North Atlantic-I can never say this word-Archipelago. Archipelago. And this means, like, collection of islands. And the place in the world is in the North Atlantic. Right. […]

Ask questions quickly like a native speaker by learning natural pronunciation. When native speakers of English speak fast, the clear boundaries between words disappear and this is what gives the impression of talking fast. In reality, native speakers are not talking faster than normal -- it’s just that the sounds in their pronunciation flow together in the most smooth and efficient way. For this natural, flowing effect to happen in pronunciation there are three important changes in pronunciation that may occur. The first change is that whole sounds in the sentence may disappear completely (“elision”). The second change in pronunciation is that for the sounds to flow more smoothly, individual sounds may shift to a different sound (“assimilation”). And finally, new sounds that are not in the individual words themselves may appear when the sentence is spoken quickly (“intrusion”). No need to worry if that makes learning natural pronunciation seem very complicated; I break everything down for you in this lesson. All you need to do is follow the lesson and repeat after me. I’ll also teach you some IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet) so that you can recognise the individual sounds of English more easily. For a lot more information on sounding like a native speaker and improving your accent, take my accent course: https://www.engvid.com/out/jadeaccentcourse

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we’re going to learn how to speak fast like a native speaker. When you’re learning English and you hear native speakers, why is it that they sound so fast and it’s hard for them to understand? Are they really talking like: “Blub-blub-blub-blub-blub-blub-blub”, or is it something that they’re doing when they pronounce sentences that makes it seem fast, but it’s not really? Let’s look at some example sentences, and I’ll teach you how to speak fast like a native English speaker.
All my question phrases are questions with “Do” or “Did”, and this is them written out in the full sentence, then I have in this column what the sentence sounds like. If we don’t know how to read IPA transcription, here, this is very useful for us. But the problem, when we write out the pronunciation in this way, is we don’t have letters for all the sounds. We don’t have letters from the English alphabet for all the sounds in English, so it’s helpful, but we can still sound slightly wrong if this is all we know about the pronunciation. That’s why I’m going to teach you little bits that we need to know from here, so that you get the correct pronunciation. And this is what, altogether, will help you speak fast like a native speaker.
So, let’s start here, question phrase: “Do you like it?” That’s really slow. If you’re a beginner in English, you can understand it. “Do you like it?” But this is not how native speakers actually speak. It sounds something like: “D-you lie-kit? D-you lie-kit?” What happens is the “Do” and “you” join: “D-you”, “Do you”, and the “like” and the “it” change. The “k” goes to the second… The “k” joins “it”. “D-you lie-kit? D-you lie-kit?” And we can see this also in the IPA transcription. “Ii: kIt”, “də.ju: Ii: kIt”.
What’s also happening, here, in the IPA transcription, if you look here, this is “də. ju”, “də. ju”. This is schwa. “də. ju”. When I write it here, we don’t have any letter in English that can… In the English alphabet that can represent schwa, so that’s why I just put the “d” consonant: “D-you”, “D-you”, “D-you”.
Another… Now, you have to listen really, really, really carefully to hear the difference. “Do you like it?” can also sound like: “Jew lie-kit? Jew lie-kit?” I’m going to say the first one, then the second one: “D-you lie-kit? D-you lie-kit? Jew lie-kit?” You have to listen really, really carefully. So, I suggest you watch this video a few times so that you can start to hear the difference between very similar pronunciations. Here’s the transcription: “dʒU: li: kIt”. The same thing is happening, here, in the two examples: “li: kIt”, but the first part is different. “də.ju”, “dʒU”, “də.ju:”, “dʒU”. “dʒU: li: kIt”.
Let’s look at the next example: “Did you see that?” That’s how a beginner would say it. “Did you see that?” What does it sound like? “Did-yah see that? Did-yah see that?” Am I speaking fast now—“Did-yah see that?”—or am I just joining up the words so that they flow? “Did-yah see that?” If we look at the IPA transcription: “you” becomes “jə”. Although it’s… It looks like the letter “j”, this is the sound for “yah”, together with the schwa. “jə”. “did.jə si: đaet”. Don’t be scared by this; we don’t use this IPA symbol that often, and this is the word “that”. “did.jə si: đaet”. “Did-yah see that?”
Can you hear the difference between the first example and the second example? “Di-jah see that? Di-jah see that?”, “Did-yah see that?”, “Di-jah see that?”, “Did-yah see that?”, “Di-jah see that?” “di.dʒə si: đaet”. “jə”, “dʒə”, “jə”, “dʒə”. “Di-jah see that?”, “Did-yah see that?”, “Di-jah see that?”

Are you a cat lover like me? In this lesson

‘By’ is such a small word, but it’s not simple! In this lesson, I’ll show you many different ways to use ‘by’ as a preposition. I will teach you through specific examples and situations so that it’s not just theoretical. For advanced English learners, I’ll also teach you prepositional phrases with ‘by’, such as ‘by appointment only’. Using these prepositional phrases is a great way to elevate your English to a more sophisticated level. Practice what you've learned with the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/preposi....tions-16-ways-to-use

WATCH NEXT:
10 ways to use 'FROM' in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLXULxzSbtc

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson we're looking at how to use the preposition "by". "By" is such a common word; we use it all the time, but because of that, it can be confusing. "Am I using the right preposition?" So, in this lesson I'm going to go over lots of examples of when you should use "by", give you the rules of grammar; and also towards the end of the lesson, teach you new uses of "by" that you might not know yet because they're advanced.

Okay, let's start with communication. Here's an example sentence: "You can enter the competition by text message, by post, by letter, or by email." These days it's not so common to enter a competition by post, but when I was younger watching children's television, that was often one of the main ways to enter the competition.

Okay, moving on to transport now. "P" stands for "preposition". This shows us that in this example of grammar, "by" is being used as a preposition. "She's coming to London by car, by plane, by taxi, or by train." When we're talking about transport, the mode of transport, how we go somewhere - we use "by" as the preposition.

Three: Error. "Error" means this is wrong; a mistake. "I'm sorry. I did it by mistake.", "I did it by accident. Oops. I did it by accident. I'm sorry." These are the only two examples you need to remember for error.

Next one is luck. "We met each other by chance." I didn't plan to meet you today. I'm walking down the street: "Oh, there you are!" In that situation, I met you by chance. This means same thing as "by coincidence". "We met each other by coincidence." Also similar to the meaning of "fate". This was meant to be, in a way. You walk down the... well, not... coincidence... when people talk about coincidence, they mean: "This is just random it... this happened", whereas if they talk about fate, it's like: "It was planned to be by the gods" or something like that.

Next use of "by" is for next to. And when we use "by" in these sentences, we mean: "This thing is positioned next to the other thing." Used as a preposition: "The cat is by the window." Here's the cat-"meow"-here's the window. The cat is by the window. Another example: "Your boots are by the stairs." Here are the stairs going up, here are your boots. "Your boots are by the stairs." And lastly, here: "My keys are by the door. My keys are by the door." More examples coming up.

Next we have using "by" when we want to say who did something. These example sentences, here, are all examples of the passive voice. That's a grammar term. If after I've explained this, you want to know more, pause the video and go and... go and check out Adam's lesson on this. Let's look at these sentences: "'Sunflowers' was painted by Van Gogh". "Sunflowers" is a painting. Van Gogh, the artist, painted it. We can take this sentence, and swap it, and say: "Van Gogh painted 'Sunflowers'." But in this sentence, which is the passive voice, the thing that comes first in the sentence is the obje-... Is the object. "Sunflowers", the painting comes first, rather than the artist. And the reason we do passive voice sentences is because this is more formal writing, or we might see it written in an essay or something like that.

Next example is: "I was invited by Mr. Smith." Mr... I'll change it around: "Mr. Smith invited me" would be the other way to say this. Next example: "My computer was repaired by the IT Department." I can change that one around and say: "The IT Department repaired my computer." So, in all of these sentences, to form the passive voice we use the preposition "by" in the example sentences.

Next let's look at using "by" as a preposition when we're talking about how to pay for something. We can say: "by cash, by credit card, by PayPal". "You can pay for your computer by cash or by credit card in this store."

Next... next we have how something is sold. Let's look at the examples. So, did you know that in England: "Eggs are sold by the dozen"? You get 12. A "dozen" means 12 eggs. "By the dozen". Fabric - material that's in our... makes our clothes and furniture, like sofas: "Fabric is sold by the metre." You go in the shop, and the fabric is all on those rolls, and they say: "How many metres do you want?" Fabric is sold by the metre. […]

In this lesson I’ll teach you FAST native speaker pronunciation. We’ll look at how when native speakers are relaxed and talking fast, individual sounds in a sentence may change completely. This happens because our tongues naturally want to say everything the laziest way possible! I’ll give you plenty of examples of the sounds in words changing when spoken quickly and I’ll also teach you some IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). We’ll also practice speaking with the right intonation when asking questions, as this is really important not only to convey the right meaning, but also to get the correct rhythm in your speech. In under 15 minutes, you will be able to start sounding more like a native English speaker.

Do you want to clearer speech? Learn more about my CLEAR ACCENT course at https://www.engvid.com/out/jadeaccentcourse

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson I'm going to teach you how to speak like a native speaker. When native speakers are speaking, everything flows so it sounds like it's really, really fast and it's hard to understand; but in this lesson I'm going to show you how native speakers connect their words, and for that reason when they speak it sounds really fast. So, based on this lesson, you'll be able to speak faster like a native speaker, but also understand native speakers better when they're just speaking in a relaxed way.

Let me explain the columns I've got here. Here we have the question phrases, and here this is written in sentences that you can understand, normal English sentences - this is what we write, but this column is what we say. This is the difference between the sounds that we make in the sentences and what we write. And this column here is the best we can get to and the closest we can get to describing the sounds, still using the English alphabet, but we could only get so close to it because the English alphabet doesn't have letters for every sound in English when we're speaking, so that's why we have this column which is IPA transcription. Now, this might be completely new to you and you won't understand the symbols here. It can be hard to learn at first, but I'm going to point out the most important things you need to know here. And as you learn this, slowly, slowly, this is a way for you to understand the exact pronunciation of words, but also when words are together in a sentence.

Let's have a look at the first example. The question phrase is: "When's he coming? When's he coming?" Now, if I'm saying that slowly, perhaps as a beginner, I would say: "When is he coming?"; "When's he coming?" is when I speed it up. So, look here at "sounds like": "Wen-zi kumin? Wen-zi kumin?" What's...? What's changed about the question? Well, the first thing to notice is that the "g" is gone: "kumin, kumin". That happens a lot in words that end in "ing", like: "going", "coming". We don't say the "g" when we're speaking in a really relaxed, informal way at all times, in all... In all situations. So, "coming" becomes "kumin", and there's another change. "When's he...? When is he" changes to: "Wen-zi, wen-zi. Wen-zi kumin?" Why does this change? Where has the letter "h" gone? Well, it becomes silent: "Wen-zi kumin?" And the "s" changes to a "z" sound. "Wen-zi kumin?"

Next example: "When did you meet?" Beginner: "When did you meet?" but that doesn't sound very natural, so instead we say: "Wen-jew meet? Wen-jew meet?" What's changed here is where... Where's the "d" for "did" gone? "Wen-jew meet?" This happens because the sounds blend into one another. If we go back here as well: "When did you meet?" - four sounds, four syllables; but here: "Wen-jew meet?" - only three syllables. "Wen-jew meet?" "e", "e", this is long "i" sound - "e" in "meet". "Wen-jew meet?"

There's another way we can say this: "Wen di-jah meet? Wen di-jah meet?" Let's compare. Listen closely because it's a small difference. "Wen-jew meet? Wen di-jah meet? Wen di-jah meet?" Just depends on the speaker and whether they're feeling very relaxed, how informal the situation is what pronunciation they would use. "Wen di-jah meet? Wen di-jah meet?" This is the schwa. "Wen di-jah meet?"

Next example: "When do you go home? When do you go home?" I'm speaking slowly like a robot, so let's speed it up: "Wen-jew go home? Wen-jew go home? What time? Wen-jew go home? Wen-jew go home?" Dipthong, "o", "home", "o", home". "Wen-jew go home?" I can say that one in a different way: "Wen-juh go home? Wen-juh go home?" Let's look at the IPA. "When..." Oh, there's a mistake here; I've written: "Wen-ya go home". That's an easy mistake to make. So let's... Let's change this. "Wen-juh? Wen-juh go home?" Why did I make that mistake there? Because when I've written it how to say it, I'm using the letter "j". "Wen-juh", so I can read that - that's easy, but in IPA the "j" is a different sound; it's "yuh", not "juh"; it's "yuh", so it's an easy mistake to make and a common mistake to make, something you have to learn. "Wen-juh go home?" […]

Learn 11 slang words and phrases that are popular NOW. The slang in today’s video is used especially by men...men talking about their bodies, men talking about other men, and men talking about women! Learn what it means when a guy is “making gains” or “smashing it”. Is that guy full-natty, or is he 'roided up? - Man, that chick at the bar was hot AF! - Yeah, but she was dumb A all F! I’m looking for the full package... Watch this lesson to learn what all of this slang means, and how you can use it. You'll see and hear these slang terms a lot on YouTube and all over the internet. Do you even lift bro? Take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/learn-e....nglish-slang-guy-tal

WATCH NEXT:
3 popular slang words in British English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0JUlo0ETZY

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. In this lesson we're talking guy talk - things that guys say in the gym, or about each other, or about women.

And we'll start with: "_______ as fuck". "As fuck" is used for emphasis when you really mean something, so you could see... You could be talking about this woman, and you could say... or girl, you could say: "She was ugly as fuck. She was... she was so ugly." But if you wanted to say it... If she was extra ugly, you've never seen anything as ugly as that in your life, you could say: "She's ugly as all fuck." Then you really mean it. That's extra, extra "as fuck".

Now we've got: "smashing it". When... this is more of a British English expression. "Smashing" used to mean... It still does, but it's not really used. Used to mean really good if something is smashing, but it's not used in that way now. It's changed in slang to be: "smashing it". When you're smashing it, you're doing it really well; you're doing it so well. So, if you were at the gym and you were... You were lifting, like, more than you normally lift, you could say... You could say: "I was... I smashed it at the gym today." Or you could say: "He's smashing it" - he's having such a... Such a good workout, whatever. When you really approve when they're doing something really well: "smashing it".

Next we have: "making gains". "Making gains" means when you go to the gym and you want to put on muscle, and you want to do bodybuilding because you want to get bigger, you want to get ripped - you want to get ripped as fuck. So, you go to the gym and you do all the stuff they do. You're trying to... You want to "make gains"; get bigger. You want to make gains. This is, like... It's something you're doing as in a sport, but also with the intention to get bigger and put on the muscle.

Next we've got: "full natty". If you're full natty, you're... You're... You're someone who works out; you're a man who works out who's fully natural, and that means you don't take steroids to, like, get bigger and bigger and bigger. You have got your muscle the hard way, without any help from steroids. So, people talk about other... Men talk about other men, or men talk about bodybuilders on YouTube, or athletes, and things like that, and they'll say: "Do you think he's full natty?" That means: Do you think he's natural? Or they say: "He's... He's not fully... He's not fully... He's not full natty." That means that he takes steroids.

If he takes steroids, then you're "roided up". Steroid; you're roided up. So, if you think about a... you want to go to a club - who's standing there at the door when you want to get in? This big guy like this - he's roided up and you have to show him your ID before you can get in the club.

If he's roided up, it's quite possible that he's also got "bitch tits". As he's put on all... He's made gains and he's got really... he's got really muscley, but he's also grown some boobies. That's because the steroids have the impact on him of making bitch tits. You can, by the way, also get bitch tits from eating foods with lots of estrogens in them, so eating lots and lots of chicken has been known... chicken breast has been known to give a man bitch tits.

Next we've got: "to have swag". If somebody has swag, then it's like they carry themselves... They carry themselves really... Well, they have confidence, they dress well. "Swag" comes from... In British English, comes from "swagger". Someone with swagger - it means the same thing; walking with confidence, looking good. But now the more modern slang version is "having swag".

Now, this expression to say: "Have... have swag. Oh. Oh, you've got swag; he's got swag", some... I think it's been overused a lot by the younger... The younger generation, younger... younger than I am. Anyway, because I've... I've never actually said this myself; I've heard it. Because it's been overused so much and some people don't... I guess they find this term annoying or whatever, it's become a meme, like something people say when they hear it: "Secretly We Are Gay". Okay? […]

Want to understand English people and their culture better? In this listening and culture lesson, I’ll talk you through some of the things you might not already know about life in England. For example, I’ll explain to you why some English people wear paper red flowers in the month of November. I’ll explain some of the things you may have observed, but don’t quite understand if you are new to English culture – such as some of the weird adverts you may have seen on television with talking meerkats in them. There are lots of topics to cover in this lesson: holidays, life events, the big brother state, culture, and more. Join me and learn more about life in England, while improving your listening comprehension at the same time. See how well you understood the lesson by taking the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/34-thin....gs-you-dont-know-abo

Like this lesson? We have so many videos about English life and culture. Check them out now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fVRZhHam98&list=PLs_glF4TIn5YtEqu0I-8URDr8GT0JyYnI

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson I've got many, many things about English culture that you may have seen but you don't understand, so I'm going to break them down and summarise these things that, if you're not from here, from an outsider's perspective might be: "Oh, that's different" - something you don't understand yet. All of these topics could in themselves be English lessons on their own, so if you're particularly interested in a topic, what you could do is go and research it for yourself after this lesson.

So let's start with... This lesson is broken down into topics, the groups, the different things about English culture. We'll start with charity. In England you may see people walking around wearing red poppies. "Poppy" is like a red flower - it's made from paper, and you see this around the time of November because on November the 11th there is a special day to commemorate-which means, like, remember-the people that died fighting in World War I, and all the wars after that. So this is a charity event to raise money for the survivors of those wars, and to remember the horrors of war. So people walk around with the poppies on, and on television if you're watching around that time of year, in particularly... In particular on the BBC, people will be wearing their red poppies. So, if you didn't know what the red poppy was about, that's what it's for.

Next we have charity fun runs. A lot of people are very into running and saving money for charity at the same time. So, sometimes they wear a fancy dress costume; sometimes they run in a costume which is really, really hard to wear or heavy or difficult in some way. So, the people that go in these races, before they all race, they'll go around asking everyone you know: "Can you sponsor me? Can you give me some money for my run?"

Next we've got Red Nose Day. Red Nose Day is a charity television event where on the BBC they raise money for the charities they support. Some of there... Some of them are in the UK, and some of them are global charities. And their theme... the thing they mainly are famous for is getting people to wear red noses on that day when it happens. And now you'll more likely see in particular chain shops, big shops that have a partnership with Red Nose Day, you'll see you can buy t-shirts of Red Nose Day. So, when you buy something in that shop, money goes to Red Nose Day. They get all famous people involved doing silly things, and it's just one day on television where they try to have fun and raise money for their charities.

It's quite similar to Children in Need in terms of... This is another charity event. In terms of how they do it - get the celebrities in, make some comedy with the celebrities. But Children in Need is raising money for children's charities; and instead of the Red Nose Day thing, they have Pudsey Bear and that's their mascot; their... The thing that represents them is their bear, and they... People also watching at home can raise money themselves with their friends and families, and people at school perhaps by baking cakes, having a clothes... An old clothing sale, something like that. People will get involved with these events and give their money to charity.

The next topic I want to look at is advertising. When you go to a different country and you watch the television and you see the adverts, some of the adverts stick in your mind and you think: "That's weird" or "What's that about?" So, here are a few of those kinds of adverts. We have number five, which is: "Compare the Meerkat". "Compare the Meerkat" has been... They've been doing it... I don't... I'm just going to guess, here, maybe 10 years. It's an insurance company, and at some point they decided to use meerkat animals to sell their insurance, and it was really popular and everybody loved it, and thought it was cute and funny. And now it's kind of confusing that they are still an insurance company […]

In this video, I will teach you to identify whether you have a dominant or submissive style of speaking English. I’ll also teach you how to adapt your speaking style if you wish to be either more assertive (dominant) or obliging (submissive) in the future. If you have a dominant style of speaking English, you are someone who takes control of a situation and who isn’t afraid to ask directly for the things you want. On the other hand, a person who uses submissive language has difficulty putting themselves first in any life situation. If you are someone who speaks English in a submissive way, you may find it difficult to achieve your goals in life, although on the positive side, you may speak in a polite and courteous manner. Can you recognize submissive language? Take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/submissive-language/

Continue to change your behaviour and life by understanding and changing the way you speak by watching these videos next:

1. STOP SOUNDING WEAK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdS8-qF2lQQ

2. Toxic Language & Violent Communication: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruLxkg2Jgys

3. Passive-Aggressive Language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbWOh5xjgg8

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, everyone. In today's lesson we're looking at submissive language. "Submissive language" is when you speak in a way that makes you really, really small and not important, and the person to whom you're speaking is all so special and so amazing, and much more important than you.

An example of a character who uses submissive language is Dobby the House-Elf. Dobby the House-Elf is in all the Harry Potter films. Here is one of Dobby's quotes, and this is from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. "Dobby is a free house-elf and he can obey anyone he likes, and Dobby will do whatever Harry Potter wants him to do!"

So, what's interesting about this quote in terms of submissive language is: "Dobby is a free house-elf", and the thing about the house-elves in Harry Potter is they are like the slaves of some of the wizards; the bad kind of wizards in Harry Potter have house-elves as slaves and they do everything for them. But Dobby is a house-elf who won his... Who considers himself to be free; but yet, if we look at his language, he says: "He can obey anyone". When you obey someone, it means you do what they tell you. So, he's free; but yet, he obeys anyone. So it's a... It's a contradiction.

"And Dobby will do whatever Harry Potter wants him to do". So, although he's a free house-elf now, I guess Dobby hasn't changed that much because he's happy to do whatever Harry Potter wants him to do, because Dobby is very grateful to Harry Potter and he respects him very much, so we see it in the language that he uses.

So, most of us, we aren't going to use submissive language in such an obvious way like Dobby the House-Elf, but there might be signs of it in our speech, and that's what we're going to look at in this lesson. I'm going to give lots of examples where, without realizing it, we might speak a little bit like Dobby the House-Elf.

Okay, first, before we get there, I want to talk about what this kind of language shows about us as a person. Some of it's good, and in some situations we might look at it as... We might see it as a negative thing in some situations. It might be good for us sometimes, but if we use it too much and we make ourselves small in that situation, maybe it's not helpful for us.

So, first of all, when we talk in this way, sometimes it has the appearance of being very polite language. And that's good in a way-isn't it?-because it seems that we have good manners, and we are... We are a charming person because we're being very polite. But then if we go too polite, sometimes it doesn't seem that genuine or authentic, perhaps. So, when we use this kind of language as well, it shows that we're considerate people; we're people that think about the needs of others first. The people we like especially, we make them very, very important and we care about what they think. So, this shows that we think of other people and not just of ourselves. This kind of language also shows that we're conscientious people. It means that we... We have a... We care what other people think of us, and we want other people to think that we're kind of people, and good people, and helpful people.

And then the next thing this kind of language shows about us is low status. That's another way of saying: "Oh, I'm... I'm not very important; you're more important than I am." Or: "You're more important than I will ever be." So it's not very helpful to use that kind of speech in many life situations, for example, in many jobs; but then on the other hand, in some jobs if you have a big boss, your big boss is probably really happy if you make yourself small and look up to them. So it really depends on... On the job that you do. […]

‘That’ is one of the most common words in English. You already know this word, but you probably don’t know its wide variety of uses. In this lesson, I will teach you eight different uses of ‘that’. We’ll look at grammar as well as common expressions THAT you can use start using in your English conversations. You can test your understanding with the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/the-mos....t-common-words-in-en

Next, watch my lesson on how to use transitive verbs in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tZT8vcNljs

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. In this lesson I'm going to tell you everything you need to know about "that". "That" is one of the most common words in English. Let's have a look at how we can use it in conversation and in writing.

First use is something close or distant. When something is close, we can say... "This" is a pointing word; it means close to me. "This man", "this room", "this pen". "This pen is close to me." But when something is further away, I can show that in language by saying: "That woman", "that house", "that pencil". "This pen; that pencil" - more far away.

We can also use "that" when we want to reduce the length of a sentence. Because "that" is a pointing word, we can take a longer sentence, such as: "The song that is playing sounds great", and instead we can just say: "That's a great song." In a sentence like this, "that" means the song that's playing now. You already know about it, so I don't need to say those extra words. I can make it shorter: "That's a great song."

Another example: "What's that thing in your hand?" I can simply say: "What's that?" If I'm looking at it, my eyes will show what I'm talking about: "What's that?" Another example: "The outfit that you're wearing looks great." You're dressed up, you're wearing something nice. I don't need to say all those words; I can simply say: "That looks great. That looks really great."

The next use of "that" is to intensify something; make it more strong. I can say... An example... An example situation: "Trust me. It's that bad", and I use my tone of voice to add the intensity on "that", and also a bit on "bad". "Trust me. It's that bad." Another example: "I'm not joking. His cat really is that fat." And when we use "that" with our tone, it's something that native speakers would do to emphasize something. When we're making a joke perhaps or we're exaggerating something in a story, we'll say "that" with a lot of emphasis.

Next use of "that" is the difference between writing and conversation. In conversation we don't always say the word "that"; whereas in more formal writing, we often will write "that" in a sentence. "I thought that it was a mistake." That's what I'd write. "I thought that it was a mistake", but perhaps I'd just say: "I thought it was a mistake." I could... I could also say, if I wanted: "I thought that it was a mistake." It's not right, it's not wrong; it depends on the speaker. But typically, if we do something in writing, that's because it's considered more formal, or more standard English, or more proper English.

Another example: "They said that the package has not arrived." Perhaps I would write that sentence: "They said that the package has not arrived", whereas I would say: "They said the package has not arrived." Another example: "You promised that you would be home by 9." A written example, maybe we'd see that in a novel. Maybe not actually because this seems like spoken... Spoken dialogue. We could simply say... We could simply say, instead: "You promised you would be home by 9."

Now let's look at example number five of when to use "that". We can use "that" in situations to comment and share our feelings about something that's happened. First example: "That's insane!" If I use that tone, I'm surprised. This could be you tell me that you've won 20 million pounds on the lottery - I'm so shocked about that, I say: "That's insane!" But equally, I can use this expression when I'm really shocked that something happened, and I think that it's crazy and insane. Let's say you knew about a criminal incident that happened - a crazy guy came and smashed up your friend's car. Maybe a jealous boyfriend or something like that - he smashed up the car, but when the police came, in the end they didn't charge him for anything. So, nothing happened to this guy who smashed the car. When you hear about it, you can say: "That's insane!" because you think it's a bad thing that happened. It depends on your tone.

The next ones: "That's a pity", "That's too bad", and "That's a shame" all mean a similar thing, which is that something unfortunate has happened to you, you've been disappointed. This could be you had a job, you loved the job, you thought it was going really, really well and then two weeks after you've been doing this job the boss suddenly comes to you and says: "Sorry, but we can't keep you on", so you lose your job. […]

Saying “NO!” is a very simple way to refuse. However, native speakers of English say “no” in many different ways which you might not know yet. It’s important for you to learn all the ways in which we can say “no” in order to prevent misunderstandings. You should also learn to use these because in some situations, you need to use stronger language. I will teach you 25 ways to refuse in a strong and direct way. Depending on where you come from, this may not be usual in your home country or culture. But in English-speaking countries, being direct is very often the most appropriate behavior. You will learn expressions such as “No way, Jose”, “under no circumstance”, “out of the question”, “no chance”, “fat chance”, “not gonna happen”, and many more. By the end of this lesson, you will be able to say the simple and common word “no” with more variety than ever before. Take the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/25-ways-to-say-no-strongly

Next, watch my video on how to stop sounding weak:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdS8-qF2lQQ&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7&index=11

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. This lesson is about strong ways to say NO. Lots of people are scared of that word, of saying no, so they want to know: "How can I say it politely? Or how can I not offend someone when I say: 'no'?" And this lesson is not about that; this lesson is how to say "no" when you really mean it, because sometimes we do need to say "no". It's an important word, and we need to say it so that people respect us when we say "no". So, I've got some different examples of situations where we might say "no", and different examples of language we can use.

So, the first example here is a situation where somebody asks for your number, and I'm imagining a situation where you don't want to give your number to that person, they're hassling you, you're not attracted to them, you don't like them, you definitely don't want to give them your number - here are some things people say.

First, a very common response is: "Sorry, I've got a boyfriend." And people might say that because they think: "If I say I've got a boyfriend, then that's why I can't give you my number. I would if I could, but I've already got a boyfriend, so that's why I can't give it to you." But in my opinion, this is not... this is not a strong enough no, so I'm going to cross that one out. Whether it's true or not, you've got a boyfriend or you haven't got a boyfriend, if you don't want to give that person your number, use something a bit stronger and don't worry about hurting their feelings in this situation, if they're hassling you.

So, you could be more blunt. "Blunt" is another way of saying more direct. You can say: "I'm not interested." Or you could say: "Not gonna happen. No. Not gonna happen." This is... This is not standard English; this is slang - the way we would actually say it. We wouldn't say: "Not going to happen", because it's not as... It's not as fierce, so we shorten it to say: "Not gonna happen."

Or you could say: "Not in a million years." This is so impossible and so unlikely for you to ask for my number, the only thing I can say is: "Not in a million years." You can keep asking me again, and again, and again for a million years, and the answer is going to be: "No".

You could say: "No chance. No chance", and that means: You have no chance with me; no chance. No chance.

If the... If the person who wants your number is coming on really strong, like they won't go away; a lot of hassle, you can then say: "How many times do I have to tell you?!" You're getting more serious, you're saying it more like you mean it now, because you want this person to leave you alone.

A similar... A similar kind of strength of "no" for that situation is to say: "What part of 'no' don't you understand? I've said 'no' to you already; this is the final straw. You're really getting on my nerves now. What part of 'no' don't you understand?" This makes you... This is like suggesting the other person is a bit stupid as well. "Don't you understand 'no'?"

And the last two, imagine if that person is really hassling you: "Leave me alone!" or "Go away!" Now, it is a little bit hard in the sense that when we... When we do get more direct and aggressive, we have to be careful in a sense as well, because with some people this will... This will work when you shout at them, like: "Leave me alone! Go away!" If you're... If the way you say it is so strong and there's a lot of power in your words, it can scare a lot of people off; they go. But some people react to aggression and the way you... The way you say things. So, if you shouted at them: "Leave me alone!" they might be like: "What's your problem?" or something like that, so you always have to judge in the situation: Is it safe to use aggression with this person? It's safe to say: "No", but you have to decide how strong you can be. […]

In this English lesson, I go over some of the ways in which real native speakers of English say hello and goodbye. When people ask "How are you?", they don't really want to know how you are! They are just saying hello. There are many other ways to say hello and goodbye in different situations, and in this video, I'll teach them to you!

Разговорный английский ­ Здороваемся и прощаемся, формально и неформально

Instructions on how to understand what you read in English. We call this Reading Comprehension.

http://www.engVid.com/ This English lesson teaches you how to use 'a', 'an', and 'the' correctly. Many English students make mistakes with these simple words (articles), so make sure you learn how to use them correctly.

http://www.engVid.com/ There are many idioms and expressions in English that make use of the word 'hold'. In this lesson, I explain several of them.

http://www.engVid.com/ What's the difference between 'must' and 'have to'? In this short English lesson, I explain.

http://www.engVid.com/ I hear a lot of students making mistakes with these four simple words: 'say', 'tell', 'hear', and 'listen'. In this lesson, I explain how to use them correctly.

http://www.engVid.com/ In this English lesson, I explain what phrasal verbs are, and give some examples of phrasal verbs with the word 'up'.

http://www.engVid.com/ This lesson is a little bit different. I'll tell you how you can get the most from your English classes by studying more effectively.

http://www.engVid.com/ Do you know how to properly use the words IF, WILL, WOULD, and WERE in English? Most of my students just treat all of these words the same way, and don't use them properly... until they take my class. Now that class is made available to you. If you watch it, you will learn.

http://www.engVid.com/ There are a lot of idioms in English that use the word 'bird'. That's pretty strange, right? Well, some of these idioms are my favourites in English, and in this lesson, I'll teach them to you.

http://www.engVid.com/ This lesson is the first in a three-part series designed to give students more natural-sounding English pronunciation, by correcting three common mistakes. This lesson focuses on the correct usage of the 'S' sound.

There are a lot of funny phrasal verbs in English that use the word 'pull'. In this lesson, I go over some of them.

http://www.engVid.com/ This lesson is the second of a three-part series designed to give students more natural sounding English pronunciation, by correcting three common mistakes. This lesson focuses on understanding the T and D sounds.

This lesson will help clear up the confusion when using 's' for singular pronouns ending in 's' or with the 'z' sound. There was some confusion about this topic on the earlier pronunciation lesson I did.

http://www.engVid.com/ Let Christian Bale teach you English! Learn the gentle art of sarcasm! Learn how to strongly tell someone you are disappointed! You'll also learn how a professional gives an insult. Be easily understood when you let someone know they are doing a bad job... and so much more! This lesson is not for those with heart problems or young children. Enjoy!

http://www.engVid.com/ Not for children or those offended by foul language. Some English teachers use Obama's speeches to teach the language. I choose instead to use the words of Christian Bale to teach you some of the very best English slang! 100% real life.