Shadowing Practice: US Midterm Elections 🇺🇸 Learn English with the News - Learn English Speaking with Video

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On November 3rd, Americans vote in the midterm elections.

That one day decides what the next two years of American politics look like.

Today, we'll read a news article together on the midterm elections.

Welcome back to J -Forrest English.

Of course, I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

Our headline, the 2026 midterms predictions and key dates.

So here they're saying predictions, what you think might happen.

So this is the noun form predictions in the plural because they are referring to the entire category, any prediction.

You can also use this in the verb form, which is of course, predict is right here.

Predict.

So to predict is the verb.

So I would say, I predict that someone will win the election.

And then I would name a specific person.

Or I predict the Democrats or the Republicans.

I predict the election will be.

So that's how you would make a prediction.

So get comfortable with both the verb and the noun form.

Predictions and key dates.

So key means the most important in the context of the election.

And here notice it's the, the is not attached to the date.

It's attached to the word midterms, the midterms.

And you will also commonly hear it as the midterm elections.

So in that case, elections is the noun attached to the midterms describes the elections.

And there would be no S because it would function as an adjective and the S would be on elections.

But in casual conversation, it's very common just to say the midterms.

And then to be clear, the 2026 midterms.

And when you use predict as a verb for a future prediction, the verb tense will be the future simple.

You can use this in more everyday context.

I predict it will rain tomorrow.

It always rains when we go camping.

I predict it will rain tomorrow.

Don't worry about taking these notes.

I summarize everything in a free lesson PDF.

You can find the link in the description.

Now let's keep reading and learn about these predictions.

The upcoming midterm elections.

Ah, so notice we have the elections, what we discussed before, and there are two adjectives to describe it.

The midterm elections tells you more about what type of election and the upcoming.

So, you know, it is in the near future.

The upcoming midterm elections are,

because it's elections plural, they are a crucial test for US President Donald Trump.

So crucial, very common adjective.

You could also say critical.

Those are two more advanced adjectives that you can use to replace very important or important.

You can say crucial, critical.

So they are a crucial test.

Crucial.

Notice that crucial, crucial test for U .S.

President Donald Trump and the party he's dominated for the past decade.

How long is a decade?

10 years.

So for the past decade.

So you need the because it's a specific decade.

Otherwise, with the word decade, you could say a decade is 10 years.

And then that's the definition of it.

That's just any decade.

So it requires an article because it's a noun.

A decade, any decade, the decade, a specific decade. Which one?

The past decade, the past 10 years.

And that's why this is in the present perfect.

He has dominated because it started in the past and of course continues until now.

It started in the past 10 years ago and continues until now.

Now the idea continues and early data points.

So a data point just represents specific information

that they have on the predictions that they're making on the data that they've gathered from surveys or polls.

And early data points suggest it could be something of a bloodbath for the Republicans come November.

Here, a more common phrasing would just be in November.

Thank you.

November, of course, is a month and we use the preposition in plus month.

Come November simply suggests that November is in the near future.

And when November arrives, this could happen.

It's a useful expression to practice and get comfortable with.

Remember that you're just changing in November.

Now you can use it for other time references.

For example, on Monday, you could say come Monday.

My example is summer.

So in summer, you can say come summer.

So it's not only with a month.

It can be for any specific time reference.

So things could look very different come summer.

Now you can use this in the context of a family situation.

Maybe there's a new baby on the way.

So your family life will be very different come summer when summer arrives.

So it's just more emphasizing the arrival of that compared to in November or in summer on Monday.

Now let's go back and early data points suggest it, the midterm elections, could be something of a bloodbath.

Well, I think you get the idea.

A bloodbath, certainly not a positive thing.

You can think of it as a situation where there is a fight, a conflict, a battle, and one side,

whichever one, loses, severely loses.

So just think of the movie Gladiator and the two sides battle

and it's a bloodbath one of those sides is going to be defeated entirely

so that's the image you can have not a pleasant one are you enjoying this lesson

if you are then I want to tell you about the finally fluent

Academy this is my premium training program where we study native English speakers from TV movies YouTube

and the news so you can improve your listening skills of fast English, expand your vocabulary with natural expressions,

and learn advanced grammar easily.

Plus, you'll have me as your personal coach.

You can look in the description for the link to learn more, or you can go to my website and click on Finally Fluent Academy.

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Now let's continue with our lesson.

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Poll after poll released in recent days suggests the Democrats are poised to make major gains.

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Let's stop here because this is a complete idea.

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Let's go back to the beginning.

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Poll after poll, poll after poll.

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So a poll is where someone may call you

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or send you a form where you complete it

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and share your opinion or who you might be voting for, your thoughts that that's a poll, like a survey.

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Poll after poll.

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Released in recent days.

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This just tells you more information about the poll.

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So this is the subject.

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So where's the verb that goes with the subject?

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Because we have subject, verb, object.

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This tells you more information about the subject.

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So technically all of this would be the subject.

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Suggests.

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Suggests.

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Now look at the conjugation because it's third person singular.

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He, she, it suggests.

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So it, but pull after pull, it sounds like there's more than one, right?

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Because you have one pull, then another pull, then another pull, then another, then another, then another.

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That's the idea of pull after pull.

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It's a common construction and one that will help you sound quite advanced, but making sure you use a singular verb in the present simple.

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If you conjugate this in the past simple, which is possible, then it doesn't matter because it's all the same conjugation for the past.

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But for example, you could say student after student asked me to explain how to use the present perfect.

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So if I'm telling a fellow teacher about a class I had,

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student after student customer after customer client after client day after day month after month

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so very common expression notice it's singular noun the word after

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and then the exact same singular noun and then

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if you use a present simple it has to be in the singular so student after

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Your student asks me present simple singular asked me to explain how to use the present perfect, which is true.

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So here's the structure.

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I wrote it out for you.

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Just remember singular verb.

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that only matters in the present simple.

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Well, the present perfect as well has versus have because here, well, let me put this in the present perfect.

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Customer after customer has complained about the long wait.

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So if you were just using the past simple, there is no difference in verb conjugations between singular plural subject.

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But of course, in the present simple, present perfect, other conjugations past continuous there are.

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So remember that and get comfortable with this structure.

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It will certainly sound advanced.

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Poll after poll released in recent days suggests the Democrats are poised to make major gains.

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So here poised, this is a more advanced way of saying ready.

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It sounds more formal.

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I don't mean advanced in the sense

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that you should replace ready all the time because ready is the everyday way of saying it.

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Poised is the more formal way when you are in those specific situations, which are not every day.

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So keep are ready to make, are prepared to make, and just know in a situation where you want to sound more formal,

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you can use poised, are poised to make major gains among voters who only two years ago.

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So this gives you more information about those voters because it's between commas.

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You can remove all of this grammatically and you would read among voters who would have never given the party a chance.

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And you could even add only two years ago at the very end

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or even at the beginning as well if you don't want to divide your idea.

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Who would have never given the party a chance?

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Let's look at the grammar of this.

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Quite an advanced structure.

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It's not one that will be in your vocabulary every single day, but it certainly is important.

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It's a hypothetical past, which we do use in everyday speech,

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especially when telling stories or comparing our life now to our life in the past.

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So the structure is would have, and then the past participle, which is given.

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Just ignore the negative here.

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It complicates it.

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If you're more advanced, just know you can make it negative as well.

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So again, a hypothetical past.

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So put yourself in some past situation.

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Maybe it's when my kids were young, when I was a student,

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when I was 18, you can use any age, any specific situation.

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When my kids were young, I wouldn't have considered moving abroad.

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So I did turn this into the negative for you.

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I wouldn't have considered moving abroad.

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Okay.

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Is that hypothetical pass?

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So at that time in the past, this action was a no, just to be very simple.

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No to this action.

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Now you can put this clause after it as well.

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So it's flexible.

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You can also, So I wouldn't have considered moving abroad when my kids were young.

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So you can do that as well.

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So you start with the action and then you add the specific time reference.

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Now, if you're talking to someone and the context is established, you're having a conversation about when your kids were young,

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then you don't need to include that reference because the context is obvious

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And you could just use your hypothetical pass.

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But on an IELTS, make sure the context is known when you use that.

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Let's keep going.

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Large swaths of the American electorate.

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Let's pause here and review this word.

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This is a large group

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or a large section now you may be familiar with those maps of the u .s

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and they show the states and then they show colors red blue red blue

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so that that section that shows all red or all blue

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that would be a swath one section of a map

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it can be any direction of a section it doesn't have to go up and down

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Now this is an unvoiced TH, swath.

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So tongue between your teeth, push out the air.

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swaths.

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But when you have that S is obviously a very soft TH large swaths of the American electorate.

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So the electorate are people who are able to vote

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because they're of the legal age or because they meet the requirements of the American electorate appear to be souring on Trump.

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to be souring means to becoming less supportive of basically

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they they don't support him as much they don't like him as much

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they're less likely to vote for him now they use the word appear to add some uncertainty

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or some doubt appear to be souring on Trump.

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So you can sour on someone, maybe your boss, your client, your coworker, or you can also sour on something,

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maybe an activity, yoga, baseball, something you used to really enjoy, but now you just don't like it as much for whatever reason,

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who returned to power.

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So they're talking about Trump, who returned to power promising lower prices and no more foreign wars,

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but instead delivered higher prices and a war on Iran in the first two years of his second mandate.

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So second mandate, his second term, because his mandate gives him the authority to be president.

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So the terminology is also term.

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Let's keep reading.

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Oil and diesel costs have spiked.

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So if the costs are going like this, spike is a sudden and sharp increase in that price price.

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Now here have spiked the present perfect plural because it's oil and diesel.

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So they, they have spiked partly because of the war on Iran.

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Now saying partly means that that isn't the only reason.

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So if you're talking about why you decided to quit your job or why investors are souring on the company.

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You might say partly because of the CEO's behavior or partly because of their failed launch is not the only reason.

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So it suggests that there are other reasons as well.

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So it's an important word because it gives the audience a lot more information.

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I know, Oh, there's something else I need to know about partly because of the war on Iran and the ongoing

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Russia -Ukraine conflict, the latter of which.

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What is this?

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This represents a noun.

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So what is that noun?

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The latter of which.

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So the latter is, think of it as the last.

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I learned how to use this structure in university because we were forced to use more academic, formal language.

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And I always remembered it just as the last because LA.

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So it sounds like last.

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So it's the last item mentioned.

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So they mentioned two items here.

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The war on Iran, the Russia -Ukraine conflict.

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So the latter is the last item mentioned.

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The first item mentioned is the former.

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The former, the latter that brings me back to university,

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the ladder of which he promised to solve within 24 hours of taking office.

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So to take office in this context means to become president.

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So he promised to solve the ladder,

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which is the Russia -Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of becoming promise, becoming president.

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I saw the word promise becoming president, but has since.

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So since the time he took office, since the time he became president, but has since struggled to help end.

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So he has since struggled to help end the Russia -Ukraine conflict, the latter.

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Let's keep reading.

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Researchers say Trump's tariffs have only worsened affordability.

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So here, something worsens something.

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So the tariffs worsen affordability.

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The verb is worsen is conjugated in the present perfect. Have worsened.

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So this means have made affordability worse.

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So I explain that because worsened is also the same as to make worse.

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But the sentence structure is different.

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Definitely for your IELTS, use worsen.

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It sounds more advanced, but make something worse is a very common everyday structure.

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The tariffs have made affordability worse.

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Researchers say Trump's tariffs have only worsened affordability.

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Without them, so without the tariffs, them, prices might have actually fallen slightly.

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So we have might have,

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which is simply a possibility and actually is to contrast between what happened in reality.

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Prices did not fall.

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Prices increased.

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So it's that contrast between reality and what could have happened or might have happened.

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The possibility.

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Prices might have actually fallen slightly.

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So slightly, just a small amount.

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Slightly.

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Affirming what many economists long predicted.

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Ah, to predict.

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So here we have our verb form.

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Economists predicted that tariffs would increase prices.

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Now this affirms.

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So affirm means the economists were correct.

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Because you can predict something, but your prediction could be wrong, of course.

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So they're saying that affirming meaning that it's verifying that the prediction was correct.

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And notice here long came before predicted before the verb.

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It's a useful structure to know.

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It also sounds more advanced.

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The alternative would be economists predicted.

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Economists have predicted for a long time.

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I had to change it to have predicted because

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if you use for a long time it starts in the past

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and continues until now

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so I couldn't just use the past simple

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I have to use the present perfect based on adding for a long time

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but if you just add long you could add have long predicted but but you could also just say long predicted.

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Let's keep reading.

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But six analysts and party strategists told

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Reuters, so a news company, Reuters, several factors could prevent

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Democrats from turning those favorable political conditions into a landslide.

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So a landslide is when you win by a very large margin.

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So Democrats get 80 % of the votes.

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Republicans get 20%.

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That's a big margin between 80 % and 20%.

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Not a big margin would be 55 to 45, 60, 40.

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It's pretty close.

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But like this, that's a landslide.

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So a landslide.

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But here they're saying several factors could prevent.

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So they will not.

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Could, meaning it's possible.

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It's possible they will not turn those favorable conditions.

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Everything we just discussed was very negative on Trump.

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So the favorable conditions mean if it's negative on Trump, then it must be positive on Trump's opponent, the Democrats.

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But they're saying that may not happen or people may not support

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Trump, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Democrats will get a landslide.

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80 20 i'm just using that as an extreme example of a landslide even

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if the party so the democratic party ultimately makes gains in congress

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so minks gains means that they gain more seats they gain more votes

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so you get a certain number of votes you get a certain number of seats in congress

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So they could get more seats than they have now, but it could be like this,

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not like this, which is a landslide.

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Let's keep reading the 2026 midterm elections.

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Remember at the very beginning, we saw the 2026 midterms now because the word election was dropped because it's It's obvious.

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Then we take the S from elections and we add it on to midterm because midterm becomes the noun.

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But in this case, midterm functions as an adjective.

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The 2026 midterm elections will determine.

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So they will determine who holds office in the 120th

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Congress beginning in January, 2027.

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All 435 seats for voting members of the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 Senate seats.

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So there are 100 in total, but only 35 of those seats are determined in the midterms, in the midterms.

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And 35 of the 100

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Senate seats will be on ballot.

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On ballot, a ballot is the piece of paper where you check off the candidate you want to vote for,

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the person or the party that you vote for.

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That's the ballot.

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And then you put it in the container.

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Federal law stipulates.

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Let's pause here because this is a very advanced C1C2 word that you will only use in formal situations.

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It simply means state, federal law states or says, but if something stipulates something,

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it states it, it says it as an official rule or requirement.

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Now, federal law stipulates.

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It could be that your company policy stipulates

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that you wear your hair in a ponytail if you have long hair and you work with food, for example.

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So it doesn't have to be just for a federal law.

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It could be in your company or your condo corporation, any official rule or policy.

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It's that document that contains the rules.

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So our condo board, our condo document regulations stipulate or our company policy stipulates you would use the document.

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So federal law stipulates

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that the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November in

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every even numbered year is established as the day for the election.

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If you're reading this and you're thinking, what?

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Well, just know that policies,

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rules, laws, anything legal is often worded in a very difficult to read way, even for native speakers.

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So here we have the Tuesday next after the first Monday.

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So there's Monday and then the next day is Tuesday.

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So it's that Tuesday in November in every even numbered year.

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2026 is even 2027.

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Seven is odd.

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Eight is even.

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Nine is odd.

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So that's how they determine when the election will take place.

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And they being, well, that's what federal law stipulates.

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So is established that day, the Tuesday, as the day for the election.

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So as election day.

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And that's the end of the article.

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So I'll read the article from start to finish and you can focus on my pronunciation.

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The 2026 midterms, predictions and key dates.

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The upcoming midterm elections are a crucial test for U .S.

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President Donald Trump and the party he's dominated for the past decade.

358

and early data points suggest it could be something of a bloodbath for the Republicans come November.

359

Poll after poll released in recent days suggests the Democrats are poised to make major gains among voters who,

360

only two years ago, would have never given the party a chance.

361

Large swaths of the American electorate appeared to be souring on Trump, who returned to power promising lower prices and no more foreign wars,

362

but instead delivered higher prices and a war on Iran in the first two years of his second mandate.

363

Oil and diesel costs have spiked partly because of the war on Iran and the ongoing

364

Russia and Ukraine conflict, the later of which he promised to solve within 24 hours of taking office, but has since struggled to help end.

365

Researchers say Trump's tariffs have only worsened affordability.

366

Without them, prices might have actually fallen slightly, affirming what many economists long predicted.

367

But six analysts and party strategists told

368

Reuters several factors could prevent

369

Democrats from turning those favorable political conditions into a landslide, even if the party ultimately makes gains in Congress.

370

The 2026 midterm elections will determine who holds office in the 120th

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Congress beginning in January 2027.

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All 435 seats for voting members of the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100

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Senate seats will be on ballot.

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Federal law stipulates that the Tuesday next, after the first Monday in November, in every even numbered year,

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is established as the day for the election.

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Amazing job.

377

Do you want to keep learning English with the news?

378

If you do, put yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, put yes, yes, yes in the comments below.

379

And of course, make sure you like this lesson, share it with your friends, and subscribe so you're notified every time I post a new lesson.

380

And you can get this free speaking guide where I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently.

381

You can click here to download it or look for the link in the description.

382

And here's another lesson I know you'll love.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “US Midterm Elections 🇺🇸 Learn English with the News”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: election, midterm, poll. This video has 38 sentences and 3909 words to shadow. The speech runs for 31:00. The speaker talks at a steady 126 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 11 of its 38 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
poll noun	/poʊl/	A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion.
predict verb	/pɹɪˈdɪkt/	To make a prediction: to forecast, foretell, or estimate a future event on the basis of knowledge and reasoning; to prophesy a future event on the basis of…
verb noun	/vɝb/	A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being.
prediction noun	/pɹɪˈdɪkʃən/	A statement of what will happen in the future.
noun noun	/naʊn/	A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea…
crucial adjective	/ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/	Essential or decisive for determining the outcome or future of something; extremely important; vital.
singular adjective	/ˈsɪŋ.ɡjə.lɚ/	Being only one of a larger population; single, individual.
sour adjective	/ˈsaʊ.ə/	Tasting of acidity.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
partly adverb	/ˈpɑɹtli/	In part, or to some degree, but not completely.
economist noun	/iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/	An expert in economics, especially one who studies economic data and extracts higher-level information or proposes theories.
formal adjective	/ˈfɔɹməl/	In accordance with established forms.
ballot noun	/ˈbælət/	A small ball placed in a container to cast a vote; now, by extension, a piece of paper or card used for this purpose, or some other means used to signify a…
spike noun	/spaɪk/	A sort of very large nail.
electorate noun	/ɪˈlɛktəɹət/	The collective people of a country, state, or electoral district who are entitled to vote.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
check off verb	To mark items on a list (with a checkmark or by crossing them out) that have been chosen for keeping or removal or that have been dealt with (for example…
go back verb	To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
go up verb	To move upwards.
push out verb	To force (someone) to leave a group.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Are you enjoying this lesson?
Plus, you'll have me as your personal coach.
Let's stop here because this is a complete idea.
Let's go back to the beginning.
If you're reading this and you're thinking, what?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has dominated · they've gathered · has complained
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is not attached · be defeated · are poised
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	form, which is · simple, which is · perfect, which is

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 39 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, don't, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, swath /swɑθ/, bloodbath /ˈblʌdˌbæθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: prediction /pɹɪˈdɪkʃən/, crucial /ˈkɹuː.ʃəl/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, sharp /ʃɑɹp/, regulation /ˌɹɛɡjʊˈleɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: economist /iˈkɑ.nə.mɪst/, electorate /ɪˈlɛktəɹət/, hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/, favourable /ˈfeɪv(ə)ɹəbəl/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/

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 poll, predict, verb.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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You are absolutely fluent in English if you can understand these

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?