Learn about the alliteration of English words
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Ryan: Ryan here! Why Are Your Friends Asking You in English What to Wear This Weekend? In this lesson, you will learn how to urge a friend. |
| Chihiro: This conversation takes place at the office. |
| Ryan: The conversation is between Drew and Teddy. |
| Chihiro: They’ll be speaking casually. |
| Ryan: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Teddy: Hey Drew, work keeping you pretty busy? |
| Drew: Definitely, I’ve had a hectic week, settling into my new place, figuring out the ropes of the new project… I’m feeling a so stressed! |
| Teddy: Well. since you’re a bit more settled in now, do you want to go out this Friday? |
| Drew: Well, I was actually going to clean the house a bit. |
| Teddy: Well, you have all weekend to do that! |
| Drew: Yeah, you’re right. I need to unwind too. What do you have in mind? |
| Teddy: Well, I met these two ladies through a friend the other day, and they’ve agreed to go on a double date! What do you say? We could just all have a light dinner, go dancing a bit, you know, have a little fun! |
| Drew: A double date? That’s old. |
| Teddy: Come on! The more the merrier right? |
| Drew: Yeah, okay fine. It could be fun I suppose. What are their names? Are they pretty? |
| Teddy: Well, we both know that your taste in women and my taste in women are like polar opposites. Thelma and Louise are their names. |
| Drew: I just hope that's not code for diva and drama. |
| Teddy: Well, we’ll find out on Friday! So, pick you up at nine-thirty p.m.? |
| Drew: No, meet you at the restaurant. I prefer to drive myself. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Teddy: Hey Drew, work keeping you pretty busy? |
| Drew: Definitely, I’ve had a hectic week, settling into my new place, figuring out the ropes of the new project… I’m feeling a so stressed! |
| Teddy: Well. since you’re a bit more settled in now, do you want to go out this Friday? |
| Drew: Well, I was actually going to clean the house a bit. |
| Teddy: Well, you have all weekend to do that! |
| Drew: Yeah, you’re right. I need to unwind too. What do you have in mind? |
| Teddy: Well, I met these two ladies through a friend the other day, and they’ve agreed to go on a double date! What do you say? We could just all have a light dinner, go dancing a bit, you know, have a little fun! |
| Drew: A double date? That’s old. |
| Teddy: Come on! The more the merrier right? |
| Drew: Yeah, okay fine. It could be fun I suppose. What are their names? Are they pretty? |
| Teddy: Well, we both know that your taste in women and my taste in women are like polar opposites. Thelma and Louise are their names. |
| Drew: I just hope that's not code for diva and drama. |
| Teddy: Well, we’ll find out on Friday! So, pick you up at nine-thirty p.m.? |
| Drew: No, meet you at the restaurant. I prefer to drive myself. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Chihiro: So Ryan, did you have a good weekend? |
| Ryan: Yeah, it was alright. Yourself? |
| Chihiro: Good as usual, I guess, always wishing that there was one more day I could take! |
| Ryan: Now this may be true for many listeners, but Fridays and Saturdays are the two nights of the week when people go out a lot in the US. For many people, the weekend is a time to relax and do some social activities, and those two nights are popular to spend with friends. |
| Chihiro: Social life is considered very important to have, therefore, if you're new to the States and you make new friends, one of the first things they may ask you is to join their weekend nights to have fun and to get to know you a bit more. |
| Ryan: Right, this could include perhaps going to a bar or going out dancing. |
| Chihiro: Of course we can't say that's always the case, but those are very popular activities. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Ryan: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| : The first word we shall see is: |
| Chihiro: definitely [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: absolutely, surely, will certainly happen or is certainly true |
| Chihiro: definitely [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: definitely [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Chihiro: hectic [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: extremely busy |
| Chihiro: hectic [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: hectic [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Chihiro: to settle [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: to become more comfortable, to become orderly |
| Chihiro: to settle [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: to settle [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Chihiro: bit [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: small amount of something |
| Chihiro: bit [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: bit [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Chihiro: double [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: having two parts |
| Chihiro: double [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: double [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Chihiro: date [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: romantic activity with a person, person to do romantic activities with |
| Chihiro: date [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: date [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Chihiro: merry [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: happy and jolly |
| Chihiro: merry [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: merry [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Chihiro: to suppose [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: to think or consider something as true |
| Chihiro: to suppose [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: to suppose [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Chihiro: code [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: combination of numbers or letters or symbols that is needed to access a certain thing |
| Chihiro: code [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: code [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Chihiro: to prefer [natural native speed] |
| Ryan: to like something more than something else |
| Chihiro: to prefer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Chihiro: to prefer [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Ryan: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the phrases from this lesson. |
| Chihiro: The first phrase is, |
| Ryan: "the ropes." |
| Chihiro: This is used in a common idiom such as "figuring out the ropes" or "learning the ropes." This means to understand how to do something new, like a job or an activity. Drew had to learn some new work routines, therefore he was "figuring out the ropes." |
| Ryan: The next phrase we'll look at is, |
| Chihiro: "I need to unwind" |
| Ryan: Unwind is another word for de-stress, therefore this phrase means to de-stress or relax. Imagine the loosening of something that is wound tight, that's the idea of a person unwinding. |
| Chihiro: And we have one more for you today. The third phrase we'll look at today is, |
| Ryan: “Polar opposites.” |
| Chihiro: This expression is used to mean that two things are very different. Since "polar" refers to the North Pole and South Pole, the phrase emphasizes how different two things are. |
Lesson focus |
| Ryan: The focus of this lesson is alliteration. |
| Chihiro: Since this is our last lesson, we thought we'd do something a little different for our last grammar point. |
| Ryan: And that would be alliteration. Now, what is alliteration, Chihiro? |
| Chihiro: Alliteration is when two or more words that are near one another start with the same sound. |
| Ryan: This type of writing or speech is common when you want to create a catchy effect. You see it in poetry. advertisements, movie titles, newspaper headlines, and many other places. |
| Chihiro: People sometimes use it in speech because they utter a common phrase that is an alliteration, or because perhaps they're saying a joke. |
| Ryan: In the dialog, the two guys mention, |
| Chihiro: “Double date”. |
| Ryan: This is a common expression to mean that two pairs are going on a date together. They also use this phrase, |
| Chihiro: “The more the merrier” |
| Ryan: This means that the more people there are, the happier and more cheerful it is. |
| Chihiro: And one last one, |
| Ryan: “Diva and drama.” |
| Chihiro: This is a joke made by Drew commenting on the possible personalities of the two women they are going to meet. A diva is a famous and successful woman who is fashionable and attractive, but is also known for her overly outgoing attitude. Drama is also an adjective used to describe somebody who is overly emotional and over exaggerates a situation. |
| Ryan: As you can see in the dialogue, there are many cases in which alliteration can be used in regular speech. |
| Chihiro: Here are some common expressions that use alliteration that can be used in regular speech. They might even be easier to remember because of the repeating sounds. |
| Ryan: “Busy as a bee” - means being very busy |
| Chihiro: “Good as gold” - means very good |
| Ryan: “Tit for tat” - means something bad that you do comes back to you. |
| Chihiro: “Rags to riches” - means going from being poor to wealthy |
| Ryan: As we said, alliteration can also be found in many other places. Take for example the self help group |
| Chihiro: Alcoholics Anonymous. AA. Easy to remember. |
| Ryan: And if you know the famous soft drink Coca-Cola, well there's the 'k' sound twice. |
| Chihiro: How about that big mouse that makes children happy, Mickey Mouse. Double M. |
| Ryan: You can also find a lot of alliteration in tongue twisters. This is part of the challenge of tongue twisters, because sometimes it's difficult to repeat the same sound so many times. Here is an example of a well known tongue twister. |
| Chihiro: “ Betty Botter bought a bit of butter The butter Betty Botter bought was a bit bitter And made her batter bitter. But a bit of better butter makes better batter. So Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter Making Betty Botter's bitter batter better.” Your turn, Chihiro. |
| Chihiro: You know what, Ryan? You said it so well so let's keep it at that. Listeners, follow along with the lesson notes, try to say that tongue twister fluently! |
| Ryan: Good luck with that, and remember also to listen out for alliteration, you'll hear it from time to time! |
Outro |
| Ryan: That just about does it for today. Bye for now! |
| Chihiro: See you all soon! |
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