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This page has the online practice materials for:
LearnEnglish Elementary Podcast Magazine No. 07
Section 8 - Tom the Teacher
You can listen online or download the podcast at Podcast 07 Home
You can also get print versions of the practice materials below in our Podcast 07 Support Pack (pdf file - 372 KB)
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Section 8 is Tom the Teacher. These are more traditional exercises. They look at being accurate in English, and often use the type of exercises you may find in English tests and exams.
Practice materials - Exercise 1
Match the first and last parts of sentences to practise the words 'look' and 'sound'
Practice materials - Exercise 2
Complete the sentences with different forms of 'look' and 'sound'
Practice materials - Exercise 3
Practise 'false friends' by choosing the correct word
Tapescript
Tom: Hi, my name’s Tom. At the end of every podcast, I talk about some of the language that you heard, and some ways to help you learn English. Today I want to look at some verbs that we use to describe things – or to describe the idea that we have about them. Listen to Emily and Carolina talking. Remember, Carolina is ill. What phrase does Emily use to describe her?
Emily: Hi. What are you doing here? I thought you had a seminar at 10 o’clock.
Carolina: I did, but I’m not feeling very well. (she sneezes)
Emily: Bless you! You sound terrible.
Tom: Emily says “You sound terrible!” We use the verb ‘sound’ when we are talking about something we can hear. Emily can hear that Carolina is ill from her voice, and also from her sneezes. So she uses ‘sound’. If your friend tells you all about her new boyfriend, but you haven’t met him yet, you can say “He sounds nice.” You have the idea that he is nice from what she has said about him, from what you’ve heard. So you can use ‘sound’. Now listen to Emily again. How does she describe Carolina this time?
Emily: And you can go to the chemist’s and get yourself something to take. Then come back here and go to bed. You look awful. Have some hot lemon and honey – that’s what my mother always gives me.
Tom: This time Emily says “You look awful”. This time, she can see that Carolina is ill - it isn’t just her voice now. Her eyes are probably red, and she might be very pale. So this time Emily says “You look awful”. If your friend shows you a photograph of her new boyfriend, and you haven’t met him yet, you can say “He looks nice”. You have the idea that he is nice from the photo – from what you can see. So you can use ‘look’. A lot of languages use words that translate as ‘seem’ or ‘appear’ in all of these situations, so using ‘look’ and ‘sound’ might be a bit strange for you. Try to notice people using ‘look’ and ‘sound’ in the English that you read and hear, and try to use those phrases yourself.
Now I want to talk about something that’s very important when you learn a new language. Do you remember Carolina’s problem with the word ‘constipated’?
Emily: Constipated? Why did you tell him you were constipated?
Carolina: Well, because I am. (she sneezes) See, I can’t stop sneezing.
Emily: You don’t sneeze when you’re constipated. Constipated means that you can’t go to the toilet, you know, you’re blocked ….. , you know, you try and try but you can’t …. well you know.
Carolina: Oh no! I was thinking in Spanish! In Spanish we say I’m constipada! (she sneezes)
Tom: This is a very common problem. It depends what language you speak, but sometimes there are words in your language that are very similar to a word in English. And very often they have the same meaning too. For example, ‘arriver’ in French is similar to ‘arrive’ in English, and the meaning is the same. These words can help you a lot.
But be careful! As we just heard with Carolina, sometimes the words don’t have the same meaning at all! The word ‘constipada’ in Spanish looks and sounds the same as the English word ‘constipated’. But the meaning is completely different. We call these words ‘false friends’. They look or sound the same as a word in another language – so you think they are ‘friends’ - but they don’t have the same meaning. The German word for ‘poison’ sounds the same as the English word ‘gift’ – which means ‘a present’. In Finnish, the word for ‘cat’ can sound like the English word ‘kiss’. False friends can be very dangerous!
When you hear a word in English that sounds or looks the same as a word in your language, the first thing to do is notice the context – the situation where you heard or saw the word, what the people were talking about. This will help you to understand the meaning of the word. Then, if you’re still not sure, check the word in your English learners’ dictionary. And finally, if it is a false friend, then make a note of it on a special page in your vocabulary notebook and make a really special effort to learn it – and remember it. It isn’t easy - even people who speak English very well still make mistakes with false friends – just like Carolina did – when they’re tired or not concentrating.
Now let’s look at a useful phrase that we use in English when we want to ask a personal question. Listen to Carolina and the chemist. What phrase does he use when he asks her a personal question?
Chemist: Vitamin C will help. Here you are. Take one of these three times a day. And drink plenty of water. Where are you from, if you don’t mind me asking?
Carolina: Venezuela. I’ve only been here a few weeks.
Tom: He says “Where are you from, if you don’t mind me asking?” Of course, in a different situation, with your new classmates for example, “Where are you from?” isn’t a very personal question, but the chemist doesn’t know Carolina, and in this situation – Carolina is buying some medicine for her cold – Carolina might be offended – she might think the question isn’t appropriate. So he adds “if you don’t mind me asking”. This makes the question more polite. If you want to ask someone a question but you aren’t sure if it’s polite to ask, then use “if you don’t mind me asking”.
Just before I go, let me give you a phrase from the podcast that you can use. Listen to what we say in English when someone sneezes – atchoo!.
Emily: Hi. What are you doing here? I thought you had a seminar at 10 o’clock.
Carolina: I did, but I’m not feeling very well. (she sneezes)
Emily: Bless you! You sound terrible. You’d better go to bed. Did you tell your professor that you were ill?
Tom: Yes, we say “Bless you!”. Some learners think that we say “God bless you” – well maybe that was the original phrase that people used a long time ago, but nowadays it’s just “Bless you!”. Use it the next time someone sneezes near you!
OK. That’s all from me today. I’ll talk to you all again on the next podcast. Remember you can send your questions to me at learnenglishpodcast@britishcouncil.org. I’ll be happy to answer your questions! Or write to me about any interesting language that you noticed. In a moment you’ll hear the address for the website where you can read everything you’ve heard in this podcast. So bye for now! See you next time.
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