Shadowing Practice: berry spring date night glam | get ready with me - Learn English Speaking with Video
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 104 sentences and 1302 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:00. The speaker talks at a natural 163 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| powder noun | /ˈpaʊ.dɚ/ | The fine particles which are the result of reducing a dry substance by pounding, grinding, or triturating, or the result of decay; dust. |
| blend verb | /blɛnd/ | To mingle; to mix; to unite intimately; to pass or shade insensibly into each other. |
| blush noun | /ˈblʌʃ/ | An act of blushing; a pink or red glow on the face caused by embarrassment, shame, shyness, love, etc. |
| brush noun | /bɹʌʃ/ | An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including… |
| bronze noun | /bɹɑnz/ | A naturally occurring or man-made alloy of copper, usually in combination with tin, but also with one or more other metals. |
| lip noun | /lɪp/ | Either of the two fleshy protrusions around the opening of the mouth. |
| slight adjective | /slaɪt/ | Minor; small in amount |
| berry noun | /ˈbɛɹi/ | A small succulent fruit, of any one of many varieties. |
| beautifully adverb | /ˈbju.tɪ.fə.li/ | In a beautiful manner. |
| glow verb | /ɡloʊ/ | To emit heat and light without a flame. |
| flush verb | /ˈflʌʃ/ | To cleanse by flooding with generous quantities of a fluid. |
| tutorial noun | /ˌtjuːˈtɔːɹɪəl/ | A self-paced learning exercise; a lesson prepared so that a student can learn at their own speed or convenience. |
| tone noun | /ˈtəʊn/ | A specific pitch. |
| finger noun | /ˈfɪŋɡɚ/ | A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other… |
| naturally adverb | /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/ | In a natural manner. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go in with verb | To commit to something with; to partner with. | |
| go over verb | To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| brush up verb | To paint, or make clean or bright with a brush. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| go under verb | To descend into a body of water; to founder. | |
| warm up verb | /ˌwɔː(ɹ)m ˈʌp/ | To become warmer. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 49 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, gonna, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: blush /ˈblʌʃ/, brush /bɹʌʃ/, flush /ˈflʌʃ/, sharp /ʃɑɹp/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/
- Long words — get the stress right: beautifully /ˈbju.tɪ.fə.li/, naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, consistently /kənˈsɪstəntli/, integrity /ɪnˈtɛɡɹəti/, peripheral /pəˈɹɪf(ə)ɹ(ə)l/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like powder, blend, blush.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have been gravitating · have been going · I've just been loving |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | skin, which is · Those who know |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the slightest · the prettiest · the babiest |
| Present continuous am/is/are + -ing — something happening right now or around now | I'm not using · I'm using · I'm keeping |
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.




























