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  • Hi there. Welcome back to engVid with me, Benjamin. In today's lesson you are going

  • to learn or revise 50 fantastic words that will help bring your language to life. Yes,

  • we are going to be describing through the senses, so this will just make your language

  • and your conversation more dynamic, more interesting as your listener starts to imagine your words

  • more clearly.

  • We're going to start off with the sense of smell, sometimes called the olfactory sense.

  • How can I talk about it? You could use a phrase such as: "The smell of..." Okay? "The smell

  • of something was..." The smell was terrible, disgusting, fantastic, duh-duh-duh. "It smelt

  • of..." What did it remind you of? "It smelt of old fish", "It smelt like a kebab shop",

  • I don't know. Let's look at some adjectives that you could use connected with smell. "Acrid",

  • okay? Meaning bitter. "Had an acrid smell." Okay? So this is quite an unusual word, here.

  • Okay, think sort of lemons, things like that, but even more powerful. "A pungent smell".

  • "Pungent", probably not going to be used in a good way. A pungent smell is one that sort

  • of takes you by surprise in a quite unpleasant manner. "Foul", again, a word that is going

  • to suggest a bad smell. A foul, a disgusting smell. "A foul stench." That's another good

  • word to use. So, "a stench" is a really strong smell. "Fragrant". You can probably spot the

  • word "fragrance", so this is, you know, aftershave, perfumed, they are all fragrances. "Fragrant",

  • there, the adjective. This is more pleasant. This is a nice smell. "A fragrant smell of

  • summer flowers." Okay? It's quite innocent. "Fresh", so we're thinking straight out the

  • shower, a fresh smell. This is something that goes: "Oo, yes, I feel alive and awake." And

  • awake. "This fresh smell makes me feel like I'm walking through fields." Okay? It's one

  • that sort of wakes you up. "Musty", quite the opposite with musty. This is to do with

  • mould. So it's something that's been lying in a cupboard for a very long time, maybe

  • it's got holes in because it's been eaten by moths. Yes? A very old, musty smell. "Noxious",

  • now, this is often connected with chemicals, so it's a smell that you don't want to smell

  • because you know that maybe it's a pollutant, it's quite dangerous. "A noxious smell". "Rancid",

  • great word, "rancid", again, meaning disgusting. Horrifically awful smell. "Sharp", quite similar

  • to this word "acrid" here, a sharp smell, it's one that... It's not particularly nice,

  • but it catches you by surprise. And then a "sweet" smell is one that's nice. "Mmm, the

  • sweet smell of momma's home cooking."

  • Okay, on to sound. The clash of drums-dee-dee-dee-dee-can't stop thinking of Joseph and his... The Amazing

  • Technicoloured Dreamcoat. Technicolour Dreamcoat, so that's going to be to do with sight, isn't

  • it? More of that in a moment. Sound, how do we talk about sound? "The sound of the trumpet",

  • "It sounded like a full choir in good voice." Right. "Blare", so this is like a... Kind

  • of a wall of sound. "The blare of traffic made the man feel sad." Yeah. "The blare of

  • traffic", the blare, so as I said, like a wall of sound. "Chime", we think of bells,

  • chiming. Church bells chiming, kind of ringing. "Chirp", this is a sound that perhaps a bird

  • would make. Chirping away. "Chirp. Chirp. Chirp. Chirp". "Chuckle", this is to do with

  • laughter. "The chuckle of laughter", "The chuckle after the joke lasted a long time",

  • "He chuckled." So, there it's a noun: "a chuckle", but you can also use it as a verb: "to chuckle".

  • "Clash", we're thinking of drums, here. "The clash of the drum." Okay? We imagine that

  • hi-hat going: "Ptch". "A clash of drums", okay? But also you can use this word to mean

  • to fall out with someone, to argue. If you clash personalities it means they... You know,

  • you don't get along well with someone. "Crunch", I think of food with this word. "The crunch

  • of crisp toast", "He crunched into his breakfast cereal." Or maybe you're walking on gravel:

  • "The crunch of gravel underneath him." So it's sort of a... Imagine things sort of going

  • together. "Crunch, crunch." Okay? "Howl", maybe a dog or a wolf is going: "Owwww." Okay?

  • So it's slightly onomatopoeic; the sound and the meaning are quite close together. "Howl",

  • yup, it suggests what is happening with that word. "Rumble". Your stomach can rumble. Okay?

  • If you're really, really hungry and your tummy is empty, you can sometimes hear your tummy

  • going: "Bll-bull-bll", making weird noises. Or maybe the thunder is rumbling in the distance,

  • it's kind of a low, deep: "Rrl-rr-rrl-rrl" sound. "Sizzle", something in the frying pan:

  • "Tssss." We've got steam coming up and you can hear that sort of cooking going on, sizzling.

  • "Six sizzling sausages", more of that... Well, those kind of ideas in my vocal warmup video.

  • "Slurp", this is to do with drinking: "[Slurps]", really annoying habit, try not to do it. "[Slurps]".

  • Slurping tea. Okay?

  • On we go to taste. "The taste of India", "It tasted astonishingly good." Right. So, ten

  • more words to talk about taste. "Acidic", we can see the shorter word in there: "acid".

  • Yeah? We think of acids and alkalines. Acid, do you want to be tasting something acid?

  • It doesn't, like, sound that healthy to me. Acidic, not a very nice taste. A little bit

  • like the smell acrid, meaning bitter. "A biting taste", so we're eating perhaps, I don't know,

  • a piece of fruit, an apple, and it's got a biting taste, I meant to be biting the apple,

  • but the apple is biting me, so it's like: "Oo, this taste, it's, ah, I don't know."

  • It's got quite a strong taste if the taste is biting you. Similar spelling, but different:

  • "bitter". Okay? Again, connected with sort of lemons, acidic type things. A bitter taste.

  • Now, this has two meanings, so we've got the taste, but you can be bitter about something.

  • I'll write that. To... If you are bitter, it means you are upset, you are angry about

  • something. Okay? So obviously it's not a particularly good taste to have leaving in your mouth.

  • "Full-bodied", this is most closely associated to wine. Okay? If it's a full-bodied wine,

  • then it's got a good, complete taste. Okay? "Rank", "rank" is not a very nice word. If

  • it is a rank taste, it tastes disgusting. I'm sort of thinking of, like, dead animals

  • or something. "Sugary", you can all see the word "sugar" in there. If something is sugary

  • it tastes of sugar. "Succulent", so this is really tasty, it's got... It's got... It's

  • moist, it's... Just really enjoy eating, it's succulent, it's satisfying to eat. "A succulent

  • steak". You might be a vegetarian, but "succulent" goes well with a steak because of the repeated

  • S sound. "Tangy", a bit like bitter, but sort of a pleasant tang. A tangy taste is manageable.

  • It's... You know, it's got flavour. "A tangy lemon cheesecake" is, you know... It's not

  • plain, it's got some flavour, but in a good way. "Zesty", again, this is positive. If

  • you have a zest full of life, then you have a lot of energy. So, zesty is full of, kind

  • of, flavour, full of taste, but again I'm sort of associating it with a lemon, it's

  • that kind of fresh, biting taste. "Zingy", quite a strange word, not quite sure why I've

  • included this because it's not one often used, but similar to zesty: "A zingy taste", if

  • you just want to vary your vocabulary.

  • [Whistles]. Touch. Touch, yeah? The touch of something, the feel of something. "It felt..."

  • Okay? We're thinking what it feels like through your body. "The sensation of"... "Sensation"

  • means feeling. "The feel of..." Another ten words for you. "Damp" meaning wet. Yeah? "It

  • felt wet underfoot." Okay? It's been raining. It's damp. "Limp", the feel of his or her

  • handshake was limp, a limp handshake. Not good. "Rough", okay? It felt too rough. You've

  • got a rough handshake: "Hooyah", yeah? And your hands kind of go: "Wuh". Okay. Rough.

  • A rough... "His hand felt rough." It's kind of been weathered, he's been outside, it's

  • got, you know, a really... The opposite of smooth. "Slimy", we're thinking monsters here,

  • we're thinking goo. Slimy. A bit like jelly. "Sticky", like Sellotape, yeah? When you can't

  • get your hand off the Sellotape, it's sticky, it attaches to things. "Velvety", very smooth.

  • This is a very positive adjective. Velvet, okay? So that expensive, beautiful material.

  • If it feels velvet it's very smooth in a good way. You could also describe it in more things

  • than touch. "It has a velvety taste", or sound: "He had a velvety voice". "Smooth" most of

  • you should have come across before. "Smooth as a young person's skin", it's really...

  • You know, it feels nice, it's smooth. It's not... It's not like sandpaper, it's not rough.

  • "Frosty", so "frost" in the morning, you go outside, it's really, really cold. If something

  • feels frosty, it's very, very cold. "Feathery", we think of a feather, so if something is

  • feathery it's light and... "Light as a feather." It's feathery, it's nice and light. "Abrasive"

  • here we are going... Thinking of the rough idea again. If something is abrasive it's

  • dangerously rough. Okay? "An abrasive surface"... I'll write that for you. Abrasive surface

  • is one where, you know, if you go along like that with your hand you're going to lose your

  • skin. Okay? I've got ten more words for you. Are you ready to learn ten new words about sight?

  • Sight, okay? What we see with our eyes. This is why I've tried to use more colour to appeal

  • to how things look. "It looked beautiful", "It looked fantastic", "It looked like a beautiful

  • sunset". "All I could see was cars, fog", duh-duh-duh. Describe. "The sight of the Eiffel

  • Tower was jaw-droppingly impressive." Ten words. "Angular", so with these words I've

  • tried to express their meaning with how I've written them on the board. If something is

  • angular, then it's got sharp edges. Angular. So the shorter word would be "angle", so an

  • angle in math is, you know, measuring the angle there. It's all about funny lines and

  • shapes. Angular. "The building had an angular appearance". "Distinct", if something is distinct,

  • you recognize it, it's clear. "It had a distinct shape. The car was distinctive in its design".

  • "Blushing", if you blush then you go all red because you are embarrassed. "He looked like

  • he was blushing." Yes? Okay. "Filthy" means very dirty. "His car was filthy." Okay? It's

  • just covered in mud. "Gleaming", if something is gleaming then light is shining off it.

  • Very similar word, here: "glowing", you could say: "She was glowing with good health." It

  • means she just looks very healthy. "Grotesque" means disgusting. Okay? But it's also sort

  • of exaggerated, it's like a... Kind of a big, weird, theatrical pantomime, so it's a big

  • disgustingness. "Murky", "murky" is like something that lies down in the underworld. It's kind

  • of dark and forbidden, and not very clear. "It looked all murky." Okay? You kind of think

  • of water, the murky water. You certainly can't see your feet in murky water. "Rotund", this

  • is all one word, I just made a bit of a boo-boo there. "Rotund", if someone's quite fat, if

  • they're quite round. Okay? Can you see this word, here? Can you try and work out what

  • that says? Let's join the dots together. "T, T-ra", worked it out? "Trans", it's all one

  • word. "Translu-, translucent" means see-through.

  • Okay, so I've just presented to you 50 words to describe through your senses. If you can

  • start using these words, then people will listen to you and they will imagine what you

  • are saying much more clearly because you will put pictures, you will put sounds, you will

  • put feelings into their mind with these words. Have some fun with them. Have a go. Try them

  • out today. Why not do the quiz to make sure that you have fully learned these words, and

  • you can go out and play? Until next time, good-bye.

Hi there. Welcome back to engVid with me, Benjamin. In today's lesson you are going

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