Shadowing Practice: Improve Your English Listening with Comprehensible Input | Things That Annoy Me! - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello friends.
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Today we are going to learn English with comprehensible input.
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Now if you don't know, if you don't already know, comprehensible input is where a native speaker, a native speaker like me,
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English is my native language, a native speaker speaks slowly and uses photos,
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videos, drawings so that you can understand what I am saying.
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So today we are going to have fun.
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We're going to have fun and learn English.
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And I am going to tell to tell you three things.
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Three things that are very, very annoying.
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They are annoying.
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Okay?
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What does annoying mean?
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Well, Mosquitoes are annoying.
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Ow!
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Get out of here! So annoying.
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Mosquitoes are annoying.
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When you are on an airplane and there is a baby crying, that's annoying.
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Waaaaaah!
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Shut up that baby!
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Shut that baby up!
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It's annoying me!
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Okay, that's a little mean.
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But babies crying on airplanes, that's annoying.
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So, today I'm going to tell you three things, three weird things that I find really, really annoying.
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Well, before I tell you the three super annoying things, let me tell you, my name is Kyle.
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And here on my channel, Pensando Inglés, for over four years,
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I have been making content like this to help English learners like you to learn and understand my native language.
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So if you need more content like this in your life,
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give the video a like and subscribe because I bring you new content like this every week.
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And on my channel, there are already hundreds, hundreds of videos with hours and hours of comprehensible English.
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So, subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.
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Alright, let's talk about some annoying things.
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So, first we will talk about something that annoys me and maybe you never, never thought about it.
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It's a weird thing.
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And, in fact, I just thought about it yesterday when I saw my wife.
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I saw my wife doing this.
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Let me show you what my wife did yesterday that annoyed me so much.
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Okay guys, now maybe you could not tell in
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that video what the annoying thing is but let me show you
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and explain it to you it really annoys me
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when people put on their shoes like this they smash the back down I'll try
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and find you a picture a better picture they smash the back down
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and just stick their foot on like that because they are too lazy.
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Too lazy to put their shoe on the right way.
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They're too lazy to put their shoe on the right way
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so they just take their big stinky foot and smash and smash it down.
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They smash it down.
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I don't like that.
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I think that that is annoying and I'll share a little story that really annoyed me when I was a teenager.
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When I was a teenager I saved up my money by doing jobs like cutting grass and things like that.
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I saved up my money and I bought some nice shoes.
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Some Michael Jordan shoes like this.
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I bought some Michael Jordan shoes like that
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and my dad he took his big stinky foot and he smashed the back of and used my shoes.
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He did not ask me, hey Kyle can I use your shoes?
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No, he just took his big stinky foot and smashed the back of my Michael Jordan shoes.
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How disrespectful and how annoying.
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Okay, the next, the next thing that really annoys me, the next dumb thing that really annoys me,
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people who do not close close their mouths.
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People who walk around or they just sit down and keep their mouths like this. That annoys me.
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I think that that is so annoying.
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And when I see it, it makes me furious, angry.
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It makes me mad.
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And in the video that I made about great insults in English, You might call these people mouth breathers.
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Wow, guys, a bird just flew right by my head.
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I hope that was caught on camera.
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That was pretty cool.
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Mouth breathers. So annoying.
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And, guys, this is a weird one.
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And what made me think about this is that I saw an advertisement on TV.
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Okay?
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An advertisement.
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You know what an advertisement is.
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It's a commercial, it's a small little video of a company trying to sell you something.
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But there was a comedian, A comedian.
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Now guys I use the
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air quotes to say comedian because to me this person is not funny at all
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and I really kind of want to punch this guy.
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Punch him.
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I don't know why.
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Do you guys ever see somebody famous and just want to punch them?
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All right guys tell me in the comments who is the one famous person that you would like to punch.
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Please tell me guys.
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I can't wait to read your comments.
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So anyway, the famous person that I would punch is this guy.
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This guy's name is Pete Davidson.
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He's a comedian, but he's not funny at all.
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Maybe you're a Pete Davidson fan.
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I don't know, but something about this guy annoys me so much.
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So really, he could be somebody on my list of things that annoy me.
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This guy That annoys me.
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But what he was doing in the commercial was leaving his mouth open when he wasn't talking.
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And it annoys me so much for some weird reason like, close your mouth.
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Why is your mouth open?
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Imagine I'm sitting here telling you guys about English,
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but every time that I stop talking I just leave my mouth open like this.
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You guys would be giving me comments like, close your mouth, that's annoying.
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So that's what he was doing in the commercial.
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He was talking for a minute and then leaving his mouth open and it annoyed me so much.
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And it reminded me why I don't like to watch TV.
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Anyway, that's my second really annoying thing.
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When people don't close their mouths when they're not talking.
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That's annoying.
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Okay guys, now for the third and last.
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Third and last thing that really annoys me.
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And guys, I saved this one for last because I think that it is the worst.
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It is the worst one.
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Well, maybe.
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Pete Davidson with his open mouth is pretty bad too.
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So, what is the third thing that really annoys me?
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Well, it is when middle-aged men, middle-aged men, sneeze.
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Achoo!
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Achoo!
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Okay, hold on, guys.
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Let me explain.
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Let me explain a couple of things first, okay?
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First, what does middle-aged mean?
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Middle-aged is somebody that is in between 40 and 60 years old.
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Okay?
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In between 40 and 60 years old, we call middle-aged.
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All right?
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Now, let me talk about the sneezing part.
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There's a lot of reasons people might sneeze, right?
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Maybe they're sick.
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Oh, I don't feel good.
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I'm sick.
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I have a cold.
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Okay?
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When you're sick, sometimes you sneeze.
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Maybe they are allergic to cats like I am.
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I'm allergic to cats.
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If I touch a cat and then touch my face, I will start to achoo, achoo, achoo.
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I'll start to sneeze.
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Okay, so sneezing is not annoying.
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It's natural.
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It's part of life.
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Everybody sneezes.
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But middle-aged men, men between the age of 40 and 60, when they sneeze, it makes me mad, guys.
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It makes me mad, okay?
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A normal person sneezes.
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When I sneeze or you sneeze, it's like this.
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Achoo!
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Achoo!
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Oh, sorry, guys.
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Achoo!
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Right?
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It sounds like that.
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Now, guys, there's some older men, middle-aged men between 40 and 60 years old that I work with.
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And when these guys sneeze, it's like this.
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Why?
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Why?
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There is no reason to sneeze like this.
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Guys, I promise they do it like that.
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It's almost like their wives, their wives do not give them any attention at home.
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So now they want to come to work and get attention or something.
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I don't know.
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But that's how they sneeze.
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And that makes me almost as mad as Pete Davidson's face does.
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Okay?
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An old man sneezing like this is almost as bad as Pete Davidson's face that I want to punch.
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Okay?
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So, guys, if you sneeze like a middle-aged man, please calm down, okay?
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Please don't do that anymore because it is so annoying.
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And if you are a middle-aged man and you sneeze like that, tell me in the comments below why.
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Why do you do that?
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I am 33 years old.
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So in seven years, seven years, I will be 40 and I will be middle-aged.
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I really hope that on my 40th birthday I don't start to sneeze like this.
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Achoo!
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I really hope not.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Improve Your English Listening with Comprehensible Input”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: annoying, sneeze, mouth, annoy, aged. This video has 170 sentences and 1458 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:23. The speaker talks at a steady 128 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| annoy verb | /əˈnoɪ̯/ | To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds. |
| sneeze verb | /sniːz/ | To expel air as a reflex induced by an irritation in the nose. |
| achoo | /əˈt͡ʃuː/ | The sound of a sneeze. |
| shoe noun | /ˈʃu/ | A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of… |
| smash verb | /smæʃ/ | To break (something brittle) violently. |
| punch noun | /pʌnt͡ʃ/ | A hit or strike with one's fist. |
| comedian noun | /kəˈmiː.di.ən/ | An entertainer who performs in a humorous manner, especially by telling jokes. |
| comprehensible adjective | /kɒmpɹəˈhɛnsɪbəl/ | Able to be comprehended. |
| stinky adjective | /ˈstɪŋki/ | Having a strong, unpleasant smell; stinking. |
| advertisement noun | /ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/ | A commercial solicitation designed to sell some commodity, service or similar. |
| lazy adjective | /ˈleɪ̯zi(ː)/ | Unwilling to do work or make an effort; disinclined to exertion. |
| breather noun | /ˈbɹiː.ðə(ɹ)/ | Something or someone that breathes. |
| allergic adjective | /əˈlɝ.d͡ʒɪk/ | Of or pertaining to allergy. |
| airplane noun | /ˈɛɹˌpleɪ̯n/ | A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings: a fixed-wing aircraft with at least one engine or electric motor. |
| subscribe verb | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| back down verb | To take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously had, or has planned to have. | |
| save up verb | To accumulate money, especially for a specific, planned expenditure. | |
| calm down verb | To become less excited, intense, or angry. | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| shut up | /ʃʌt ʌp/ | Stop talking (usually in the form of making annoying, irrelevant, or false comments, during a period of peace and quiet, or when one is not allowed to talk)… |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. | |
| walk around verb | To walk with no planned destination; to meander. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Alright, let's talk about some annoying things.
- I can't wait to read your comments.
- Why is your mouth open?
- Anyway, that's my second really annoying thing.
- Why do you do that?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who do · People who walk |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | was doing · was talking |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might call · might sneeze |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the worst |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 27 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, I'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shoe /ˈʃu/, smash /smæʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: comedian /kəˈmiː.di.ən/, comprehensible /kɒmpɹəˈhɛnsɪbəl/, advertisement /ˈædvɚˌtaɪzmənt/, disrespectful /dɪs.ɹɪˈspɛkt.fəl/
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 annoy, sneeze, achoo.
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.