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(gentle music)
- Hello everyone and welcome back to "English with Lucy."
Today I've got a disgusting video.
No, I'm joking.
I haven't got a disgusting video, hopefully.
We are going to talk about
how to express disgust in English.
Now, I had an idea for this video recently
because I was talking to a friend
and she felt like the English equivalent
for (speaks in foreign language) in Spanish,
it wasn't strong enough, it wasn't good enough.
She wanted better ways of expressing
that she hated something, that she finds it repulsive.
And it's true, I do find the Spanish phrase
for how disgusting to be much more expressive.
So today I'm going to talk to you through everything.
I'm going to talk you through the noise that we make
when we find something disgusting
in British culture and American culture,
the word that we use to say that something's really awful,
and also all of the other synonyms and other words
that can be used that are slightly less common.
And we're also going to talk about
the idioms that we can use
to say that something is disgusting,
that we really dislike something.
And I've also included a little bit of slang as well,
in case you want that, too.
So this video is perfect for improving your vocabulary,
but if you want to improve your pronunciation
and your listening skills even further,
I highly recommend the special method
of combining reading books
with listening to their audiobook counterparts on Audible.
It sounds a bit weird but let me explain
because it really does work.
Take a book that you have already read in English
or a book that you would like to read in English,
I've got loads of recommendations down below
in the description box,
and read that book whilst listening
to the audiobook version.
Reading alone will not help you with your pronunciation.
English is not a strictly phonetic language.
The way that a word is spelled
is probably not going to give you much indication
as to how it's pronounced.
If you listen to a word as you read it,
your brain will start making connections.
And the next time you see that word,
you'll know how it's pronounced.
And the next time that you hear that word,
you'll know how it's spelled or written.
It is such an effective method,
and the best part is you can get one free audiobook
as a 30-day free trial on Audible
by clicking on the link down the below
in the description box and signing up.
Then you can download one of my recommendations.
Give it a try 'cause it really does work.
Right, let's get on with the vocab lesson.
Okay, firstly, let's talk about the sound that we make
when we are disgusted.
I have noticed that different cultures
and different languages make different sounds,
so I do invite you to write the sound,
or at least attempt to write the sound
that you make in your culture when something is disgusting.
That's quite a hard challenge so, (laughs)
I don't blame you if you find it difficult.
What we say is yuck,
or eughh in British English as well,
or eughh, eughh. (laughs)
In American English,
they are also really inclined to say ew, ew,
sometimes followed by gross. (laughs)
And because we have a lot of American movies and TV shows
in the UK,
now our children are starting to say ew, gross, and gross.
In fact, I remember saying it as a child
and my mom was saying, "Don't say that, say yuck.
"You're British!"
When we in the UK see something disgusting,
we're likely to say, if we don't make the noise,
we could say, how disgusting.
But it does seem like a lot of syllables
to say something in a short space of time.
How disgusting. (laugh)
It sounds quite formal.
So we'd also say, that's horrible, or, oh that's awful.
Americans would just say, gross.
Some other vocabulary.
We have rancid.
Rancid.
Rancid is often used for mouldy food
or out-of-date milk, things like that.
Repulsive.
Repulsive.
Repugnant.
Repugnant.
So those last two, repulsive and repugnant,
are often used to describe
very unattractive, offensive things.
Gruesome.
Gruesome.
Gruesome, you'll often hear it to describe lots of blood,
maybe a murder scene or a gruesome horror movie.
Nauseating.
Nauseating.
To feel nauseous means that you want to be sick, to vomit.
You might not want to physically vomit,
but you feel the inclination to vomit.
Nauseating is the adjective to describe this.
A nauseating film, a film that made me want to be sick.
Loathsome.
To loathe something is quite an emphatic way of saying
to hate something.
So something is loathsome, it is odious.
I hate it. (laughs)
Vile and vulgar, this means very unpleasant.
It's often used to describe bad language.
If somebody is swearing a lot, you might say,
"Stop using such vile language, stop being so vulgar."
One that my grandmother loves to use is ghastly, ghastly.
This just means awful, terrible.
If somebody is wearing a terrible outfit, you might say,
"Ah she looks ghastly."
Don't ever say that to someone's face because
that's mean. (laughs)
A couple of slang words now that you can use,
and the first one is rank, rank. (laughs)
I have a feeling that this is a very British one.
I remember it becoming popular in middle school,
so 15 years ago.
If something is rank,
it's just really unpleasant and disgusting.
Ugh, your salad looks rank. (laughs)
It's very slang.
Another one is very childish, it's icky.
Ugh, that's icky, yucky, icky.
They're both very childish words.
And the last one, the last slang word is vom-worthy.
Vom is obviously short for vomit,
and worthy means is deserving of vomit, vom-worthy.
That film was vom-worthy, I just wanted to throw up.
Right, now we're going to talk
about eight idioms that express disgust.
They can also touch on fear and kind of mistrust as well.
Often those emotions are quite closely linked.
So number one is to make one's skin crawl.
To make your skin crawl.
Brr, you all know the feeling, don't you?
It's usually used to describe a person
that makes you feel disgusted, frightened, or unnerved.
For example, that PE teacher
who used to watch us get changed
really made my skin crawl. (laughs)
It's so sad that we've all had creepy teacher experiences.
I've had far too many. (laughs)
And it wasn't just to me,
it was just to all the girls in the school.
There were really some people
that shouldn't have been teaching,
but that's a story for another day.
Number two is to make one's stomach turn.
If something makes your stomach turn,
it makes you want to be sick.
It's that instant feeling where your whole stomach shifts
when you see something disgusting.
I can't eat mushrooms, they make my stomach turn.
That's totally not true, I love mushrooms.
But my brother-in-law-to-be hates mushrooms
and he would actually be sick.
They make his stomach turn.
Number three is to give someone the heebie-jeebies.
I love this.
I think it's also referred to as the creeps as well,