Shadowing Practice: 6 Confusing Words: fun & funny, famous & popular, surprise & shock - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Commonly confused words.
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You will, maybe, mix up words.
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These words are very close in meaning, but they're actually different.
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My name's Ronnie.
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I'm going to help you figure out some four, six words that are confusing in English,
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and you think maybe they're even the same word they are
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not the same word they are different they have different meanings don't ever get them wrong again okay
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so commonly confused words the first one is fun
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and you confuse this with funny and I say what's the difference between fun
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and funny and you say oh oh I know fun is an adjective.
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It's the police again.
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They've come to get me.
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We're having too much fun.
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And I say, well, if fun is an adjective, what kind of word is funny then?
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And you go, oh, it's an adjective too.
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So what's the difference?
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The difference is fun means you are having a great, great time doing something.
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You are having fun.
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It's great.
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Maybe you are drinking.
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Maybe you are watching English videos.
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Maybe you're studying.
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I really wouldn't think that studying would be fun, but learning on the internet is fun.
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Then we have funny.
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Funny funny means it makes you laugh.
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If something is funny, you will laugh.
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A lot of people say, I went to Disneyland and it was funny.
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Oh, why?
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What happened?
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I went on rollercoaster.
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Okay, but a roller coaster is not funny.
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If I went to an amusement park, I wouldn't look at a roller coaster and go, ah!
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What, what, what?
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Look at it, it's a roller coaster, it's funny.
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No, you would go on the roller coaster and go, woohoo, it is fun. So, difference.
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Fun means, basically, a good time, I'm having a good time,
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versus funny, it makes you laugh.
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This word looks like la -ha -ha -g, but the pronunciation is actually laugh laugh.
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Fun means it's a good time, like at a party.
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Funny means it makes you laugh.
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You can have both together.
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You can go to a party.
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The party can be super fun, and someone at the party could be funny.
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Maybe there's a clown.
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Clowns can be funny.
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Next one is surprise surprise versus shock.
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I hear a lot of people say,
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for example, I went home last night and I saw my mom and my dad naked.
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I was surprised.
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Are you having a party?
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You're getting out the camera.
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Hi, mom.
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Hi, dad.
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What's up?
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No, no, no, no. You were not surprised.
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Surprise.
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You were scarred for life.
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You were in shock or in the past tense, you were shocked.
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You weren't happy about something.
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You were shocked.
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So surprise, we always use for a positive event.
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For example, For example, if you bought a lottery ticket and you won, surprise, you have a million dollars.
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Cool, compared to shocking news.
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Let's say that you just got a phone call
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that your friend is in the hospital because they got hit by a donkey.
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Surprise, your friend got hit by a donkey.
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No. I'm shocked.
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My friend got hit by a donkey.
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Surprise is always positive.
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Shocked is always a bad thing or a negative situation.
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On to the last one.
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Famous versus...
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popular.
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These are very similar in meaning, but, again, different.
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Famous means many people know you, or know someone.
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So if you look at an example, you can take any president of the United States of America.
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I would wager a bet any president or prime minister in the world, most people would know their name.
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So, if I took the president of Canada, we don't have a president of Canada.
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If I took the prime minister of Canada, no, I don't want to take him.
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If we took the president of America, if we took George W.
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Bush, the past president of America, most people have heard of the word Bush before.
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George W.
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Bush, but many people know this name.
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Many people know the name Bush.
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Popular.
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Do you like George Bush?
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George W.
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Bush?
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I'm sorry.
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George W.
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Bush was very, very famous, but he was not popular.
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Popular means many people actually like someone.
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So, people who are popular,
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they don't have to have a lot of people that know who they are, but they have to have a couple people who actually like them.
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Another example of someone who is famous, but not popular, again, it's all about the government,
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isn't it, would be the famous but much -hated Hitler.
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Everyone knows who Hitler is.
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I hope people don't like Hitler, come on, really, this guy's terrible.
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So, Hitler is famous, but not popular.
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Maybe when you were in high school, there was the popular boy.
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Oh, you talk like this, he was so popular, okay?
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Or there was the popular girl.
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People liked the popular boy or the popular girl, but if you went to a different school and you said, hey, do you know Benny,
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the guy that talks like this?
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People go, no, I don't know Benny.
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Benny is well -liked or popular at your school, but many people don't know who he is.
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Famous, popular.
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Surprise, shock.
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Fun, funny.
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That's all for now.
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www .engvid .com.
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Do a quiz.
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Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 113 sentences and 885 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:02. The speaker talks at a steady 110 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| shock noun | /ʃɔk/ | A sudden, heavy impact. |
| roller noun | /ˈɹoʊlɚ/ | Any rotating cylindrical device that is part of a machine, especially one used to apply or reduce pressure. |
| coaster noun | /ˈkoʊ̯s.tɚ/ | A person who uses a sled or toboggan to slide down a slope covered with ice or snow; a sledder, a tobogganist. |
| versus | /ˈvɝsəs/ | Against; in opposition to. |
| donkey noun | /ˈdɑŋ.ki/ | A domestic animal, Equus asinus asinus, similar to a horse. |
| confused adjective | /kənˈfjuːzd/ | unable to think clearly or understand |
| commonly adverb | /ˈkɑmənli/ | As a rule; frequently; usually. |
| clown noun | /ˈklaʊ̯n/ | A slapstick performance artist often associated with a circus and usually characterized by bright, oversized clothing, a red nose, face paint, and a brightly… |
| confuse verb | /kənˈfjuːz/ | to puzzle, perplex, baffle, bewilder (somebody); to afflict by being complicated, contradictory, or otherwise difficult to understand |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it… |
| wage noun | /weɪd͡ʒ/ | An amount of money paid to a worker for a specified quantity of work, usually calculated on an hourly basis and expressed in an amount of money per hour. |
| naked adjective | /ˈneɪkɪd/ | Bare, not covered by clothing. |
| lottery noun | /ˈlɑtɚi/ | A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance, especially a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, the… |
| tense noun | /tɛns/ | The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists. |
| quiz noun | /kwɪz/ | A competition in the answering of questions. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. |
| mix up verb | To mix or blend thoroughly and completely. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 21 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shock /ʃɔk/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, rollercoaster /ˈɹoʊlɚˌkoʊstɚ/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like shock, roller, coaster.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | If something is funny, you will laugh |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were scarred · were shocked |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · people who actually · someone who is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | They've come · have heard |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.