Episode 0039

And we're bringing you another great elementary lesson for all those elementary learners.

In today's lesson, we've got some excellent language that will help you to describe someone's appearance.

It's something that everyone has learned before in school, describing people.

Yeah.

So, we're going to review that and give you some better phrases.

Real English phrases.

Okay, great. So, let's listen to our dialogue for the first time, and then we'll come back and talk about it.

Hold on a sec, his name is David?

Yeah.

All right, so interesting dialogue, small world.

It is a small world. I don't know how I would feel about dating my friend's brother.

Really?

No, I wouldn't feel good about it.

Why?

Well, because if you break up with the brother, then like that means you'll have to end the friendship with your best friend.

Maybe. Girls are more complicated with that. We guys, we we're not that complicated.

Dangerous.

Well, um, you know what? Let's look at the language before this gets too far.

All right, let's take a look at language takeaway.

On language takeaway today, we're bringing you three words.

The first one is heard.

Heard. Heard.

Heard.

So you guys know this word. Past tense of here, right?

Right.

But the way it's used is quite interesting.

Mhm.

Let's listen to a couple of examples of how it's used.

Example one.

I heard you're dating a new guy.

Example two.

Julie told me she heard that you're pregnant.

Example three.

What? You got fired? I heard that you quit.

So when you say for example, oh, I heard you were pregnant.

Oh, this is like telling someone that you found some information about them, but you're not sure if it's true or if it's false.

Exactly. Okay.

Our next word, fill me in.

Fill me in.

Fill me in.

Fill me in.

So when you tell someone to fill you in, you're saying, tell me about it. Tell me the details.

You're saying, tell me about it.

Uh-huh.

I could say, I'm sorry I was late for the meeting. Can you fill me in on what happened?

Exactly, or I could say, I missed the first five minutes of the movie. Fill me in.

Exactly. Okay, great word.

And our last phrase today, career path.

Career path.

Career path.

Career path.

So, what's a career path?

I guess this is the plan for your job over several, like, 10 or 20 years.

Right. All the different jobs and things you do during your career.

Yeah. That's your career path.

So, in this case, um, David has a really good career path because he's going to be a really rich and powerful investment banker.

Yes. Mhm.

So, career path.

Very good. So, now let's listen to our dialogue again and pay special attention to the language used to describe David, because when we come back, we're going to talk about this.

Hold on a sec. His name is David?

Yeah.

So we found some really great words and phrases used to describe someone.

Exactly. There's a lot of language in here talking about the way someone looks. So let's listen again as Irene describes David.

Okay, so let's break this down. The first thing she says is, he's really good-looking.

Good-looking.

Good-looking.

Good-looking.

So good-looking is the equivalent of handsome.

Or pretty.

Pretty. Yeah, good-looking.

But I think good-looking sounds a lot more natural than handsome.

Yeah, you wouldn't really use handsome.

Like I would never say that.

Even though it's correct, it just good-looking sounds much more natural.

I guess for me, like, whenever someone says handsome, it sounds like an older person saying that.

Yeah, it sounds old-fashioned. Like my grandma would say. Oh, he's a handsome young man.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Okay. Now let's look at the next thing she said.

He's quite tall.

Quite tall.

Quite tall.

Quite tall.

So we know quite means very.

Yeah. And tall, we know.

Right. So you can describe a person in different ways.

Yeah. He's quite tall. He's kind of tall. He's sort of tall. He's a bit short. He's a he's not that short. Yeah.

Okay.

So these are great words we can use to describe someone's height.

Okay. Then she talked about his exact height.

Yes.

Right.

She said he was 6'1".

6'1". Around 6'1".

Mhm.

This is interesting because in the United States and Canada, you give a person's height using feet and inches.

That's right.

Right? So...

So we don't we don't talk about meters and centimeters.

Right. So 6'1" would be 6 feet, 1 inch.

Exactly.

But in other countries you would talk about centimeters or meters, so 6'1" is like 6'1" is about 180.

Yeah, about that.

So, this is an interesting difference between...

Like English-speaking countries and European countries.

Right. Okay, so the next time you give your, uh, your height to someone, make sure you do it in feet more or less.

It sounds a lot more natural. And actually, if you say to somebody in Canada, for example, I'm 175 centimeters, they wouldn't they wouldn't know really how tall that was.

How tall that is. Yeah.

Okay.

Now, the next part is really, really useful.

She said he's in his early 30s.

In his early 30s.

His early 30s.

Early 30s.

So this is a way of describing someone's age without actually giving the exact number.

Exactly.

So, for example, early 30s.

So like 32, 33.

Mid-30s.

Like 34, 35, 36.

Oh, 36. And then late 30s would be...

38, 39.

And you could do the same thing for...

Like 40s. 40s, 50s, 60s. 20s. Yeah.

20s, right? Starting at 20s. You wouldn't do that. You wouldn't do this before your 20s.

I don't think it's really common to talk about your teens.

Right, you wouldn't say like his mid-teens or early teens.

Yeah. Sounds a bit weird.

Mhm. Okay, great language used to describe people.

But one more word.

Right.

He's hot.

He's hot, or he sounds hot.

Yeah. He's hot.

Yeah.

So, this is another sort of informal way of describing someone who's really good-looking.

Good-looking. Really sexy.

Right. It could be girl or boy.

She's hot.

He's hot. But but it is informal.

It is really informal. Maybe even a little bit offensive. You wouldn't go up to a girl and say, wow, you're hot.

No, it's a little bit too impolite.

Right. You would say, wow, you're really pretty or you're gorgeous, but you wouldn't say, wow...

No, you would never say that to somebody.

Right. That's something you would comment with your friends.

Okay, so we've looked at some really good language for describing people. Now we could listen to our dialogue a third time and I'm sure you will understand everything.

Hold on a sec, his name is David?

Yeah.

Okay, so we looked at really useful language for describing people, and we want you to describe your girlfriend, boyfriend, or even yourself.

Or even yourself.

What do you look like? How tall are you? How old are you?

How old are you?

Yeah. And try and use the language from today's lesson.

Right. So come to Englishpod.com and leave your questions and comments on our website.

And your descriptions.

And your descriptions. And uh, we'll definitely be there to answer any doubts as well.

Yes.

The English Pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Get the information from someone.

Hear.

Exciting piece of information.

Juicy detail.

Give me more information.

Fill me in.

Handsome.

Good-looking.

Attractive.

Hot.

A planned logical progression of jobs within a profession throughout working life.

Career path.

Let's try that faster.

Handsome.

Good-looking.

Attractive.

Hot.

Handsome.

Good-looking.

Get the information from someone.

Here.

Exciting piece of information.

Juicy detail.

Get the information from someone.

Here.

Give me more information.

Fill me in.

Get the information from someone.

Here.

A planned logical progression of jobs within a profession throughout working life.

Career path.

Exciting piece of information.

Juicy detail.

A planned logical progression of jobs within a profession throughout working life.

Career path.

Handsome.

Good-looking.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.