Your English Five a Day #25.1

E243: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast with me, your host, Anna! Get ready for Week 25, Day 1 of Your English Five a Day, where we add five juicy pieces to your vocabulary every weekday from Monday to Friday.

⛈️ Let's dive into today's list, starting with the colourful side of the noun "spectrum". Moving on to the verb "frequent", which has a slightly different pronunciation to its adjective counterpart. Next up, we take a look at the idiom "weather the storm" and then encounter the adjective "unpredictable". And lastly, we explore the adjective "quaint".

🌈 But wait, let's put your memory to the test with a little storytime as we join lovebirds Lily and Jack in a picturesque countryside village as they dance through rainbows and wildflowers.

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Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 25, Day 1 of Your English Five a Day. This is a series that aims to make your vocabulary more healthy by adding five pieces to it every single day of the working week from Monday to Friday. So let's start today's list. We start with the noun spectrum. Spectrum. Now, if you've been a loyal listener to The English Like a Native Podcast, if you've been with us for a while, you'll say,"Anna, didn't we hear spectrum not long ago?" And you'd be right. But today, spectrum, we are looking at it from the aspect of colours. So, spectrum, we spell S P E C T R U M. Spectrum. Now, like I said, spectrum refers to colours and in particular, the range of colours. So, often we talk about the colour spectrum. When talking about rainbows, a rainbow is light being separated into a spectrum of colours. Okay, so it's just, spectrum in general refers to the range, but you'll hear it often when colour is being discussed. A range of colours, the spectrum. Here's an example,"Rainbows show us all the colours of the spectrum, I just love seeing them on a rainy day when the sun peeps through the clouds." What colour have you painted your front room? Did you look at the full spectrum of colours when choosing the colour for your living room? I certainly did. I went and did that thing where you go and look at all the cards in the DIY store and then you pick a number of cards with five or six different shades of one colour. And then you get teeny tiny little testers. And you bring them home and you put these testers on the wall in a little patch, and then stand back and look at the patch and think,"Is this the right colour for the front room?" We actually went with a very dark, kind of peacock colour, a very dark, like, greeny blue, it's like turquoise, for our front room, offset with a kind of eggshell blue. I remember painting it, and we had an electrician fitting a light at the time and he looked at it and went,"Oh, that's a bit bold, isn't it?" I think he thought we were mad, but actually it looked quite nice in the end. So, although initially we were a bit nervous, it turned out well. Okay, so that's spectrum, a range of colour. Next we have the verb frequent, frequent. We spell this F R E Q U E N T. Frequent. Frequent. Now it's very similar to the word'frequent'. When something happens often it happens frequent or frequently. So, you have the adjective'frequent' and the adverb'frequently', but as a verb, the pronunciation is different. Frequent. Frequent. Frequent. So, when you frequent something, you go somewhere often. Okay. Here's an example,"We often frequent the local sports club on weekends. The girls like playing tennis whilst I can sit and enjoy a drink in the sun!" I often frequent the squash club. So, you know, this example sentence isn't very different to my real life. I do frequent the squash club because I'm an avid squash player. What places do you frequent? Okay, moving on to the next word. Actually, this is an idiom, so it's a number of words. We have to weather the storm, to weather the storm, to weather the storm. So, we have weather, W E A T H E R, weather. Just like, you know, the stuff that rains down on us and the sun that warms us and the wind that blows us, the weather. Weather the storm. S T O R M. To weather the storm. This idiom means to endure or to overcome a difficult situation. So, imagining the storm being the difficult situation, if you can weather it, it means you can go through it. You can endure it or you can overcome it. For example, if you're going through a messy divorce and you come out of the other end with your head held high, and you're still okay, then you have weathered that storm. Or if you go through a battle with cancer and you come out the other end feeling strong and you're not broken and you feel positive about life, then you have weathered the storm. Okay. Here's another example,"The company has weathered the storm of the current recession better than most. Although car sales have gone down in recent months, we have seen our share of the market actually increase." Have you weathered any storms lately? I have to say personally, we are currently in the middle of a big storm, a life changing storm. I won't go into detail about it, but it definitely means big changes on the cards for us. And although some days are hard. We are enduring it and I think we will overcome it. I think this time next year, fingers crossed, touch wood, we will be in a much better place and I can look back at this time and say,"Oh, we did okay. We weathered that storm and we've come out on top!" Okay, so next on the list is an adjective and it is unpredictable. Unpredictable. We spell this U N P R E D I C T A B L E. Unpredictable. Unpredictable. Unpredictable. If something is described as unpredictable, then it's not able to be accurately determined or anticipated. I often play squash with inexperienced players and they are usually harder to play against than the experienced players because their shots are completely unpredictable because they themselves don't know what they're going to do. They're just running around the court and they're not really setting up and doing a good shot, you know, that would be expected from an experienced player. They're just making a mess of things. And so the ball goes all over the place. It's completely unpredictable. You can't anticipate where the ball is going to go. You have to be ready to jump into action very quickly as soon as they make contact with the ball, it's very hard to play with an unpredictable player. And in the UK we often deal with unpredictable weather. Let's have a listen to this example,"Oh, the weather in this region is very unpredictable, making it difficult to plan outdoor events." Yes, my eldest son has his birthday in September, the same as me, and we often wonder whether we should do his birthday party at home in our garden because we have quite a large garden, large enough for a handful of children. However, we can't rely upon the weather in this country, so even though September is generally a warmish month, we can't rely on, you know, a nice dry day. It's quite unpredictable. It's likely that it would be a rainy day. So, you don't want to have five-year-olds running around the house stuck indoors. That's not fun. So, normally we end up booking a venue in order to host the party for him. Okay, so moving on to our last piece for today. It is a final adjective, quaint, quaint. We spell this Q U A I N T. Quaint. Notice with that Q U, you have that K W sound. K W,/kw/. Quaint, quaint. If something is described as quaint, then it's quite charming, and usually old-fashioned, in a pleasing way. It's a positive little adjective. So it's old-fashioned, and it's charming, and it's lovely. So, a cottage, for example, in the countryside, a beautiful cottage with a thatched roof, could be described as quaint. Or you might even see an entire little town or village that's quite cute, and charming, and lovely, and very old-fashioned, and you say,"Oh, what a quaint little village this is!" Or a quaint little shop that sells handmade goods or bespoke clothing that you can get from this quaint little shop in a quaint little village. Here's another example,"The quaint streets and historic buildings of Oxford have captured the hearts of many visitors." Alright, so that brings us to the end of our list. So, let's do a quick recap. We started with spectrum, which refers to the range of colours. Then we moved on to the verb frequent, which means to go somewhere often. Frequent. We had the idiom to weather the storm, which means to overcome or go through a difficult situation. Then we had the adjective unpredictable, when you cannot accurately determine or anticipate something. And we had the adjective quaint, when something is charming and old-fashioned in a really pleasing way. Aww! Alright, let's do this now for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Spectrum. Spectrum. Frequent. Frequent. To weather the storm. To weather the storm. Unpredictable. Unpredictable. Quaint. Quaint. Very good. Okay, let me test your memory now. A few years ago, I was visiting a lovely, charming little village in Italy. It was very old-fashioned and so beautiful. The architecture, the villagers, they were so lovely. What adjective could I use to describe this charming little village? Quaint. This quaint little village was just adorable. Unfortunately, we had a real problem when we arrived. Our vehicle was not the most reliable vehicle. In fact, it would do some very unusual things, like suddenly the steering would have a mind of its own and just start pulling to the left and other times the brakes would magically start pressing themselves and it was like the vehicle was possessed. What adjective could I use to describe a vehicle that does things that cannot be anticipated? It was unpredictable. It was unpredictable, and so I started to feel very nervous about driving it. And I said to my partner,"That's it. We are going to die if we keep driving around in this vehicle, so we're going to have to stay here until we can get a replacement sent out to us." But that's okay because this is a beautiful little village. It's so quaint. I'm quite happy to be here. And then we experienced the most horrendous storm that lasted for five whole days. But on the sixth day, luckily the sun broke through the clouds and honestly, I've never seen a rainbow as beautiful as the one that was painted across the sky. There was this huge range of colour. In fact, I think it was the entire range of colour that you can imagine. What noun could I use instead of just saying this is the range of colour? It was the entire spectrum of colour. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. And luckily I had my camera to hand. So I was able to capture a picture of this beautiful rainbow and the full spectrum of colour that we were witnessing. Now, I took this photograph to the London Museum because they were looking for photographs to exhibit about beautiful natural events. And they took my photograph and exhibited it. But something that should have made me so proud actually ended up being a real problem because I was accused of creating this photograph using AI, which is ridiculous because I was there with my partner. We both witnessed this beautiful rainbow. He was there when I took the photograph. So, I had a witness. And yet the curators at the museum said,"No, no, no, this is just too beautiful. This spectrum of colour is just too vivid. It can't possibly be real. This must have been created by AI. So, you are now going to be discredited as a photographer." And it ended up being weeks and weeks of battling with the museum to get them to recognise that this was a real photograph taken by my own hand. Eventually, we overcame this difficult situation and managed to get some other local villagers from the quaint little village to also testify to the fact that this rainbow did actually appear in real life. And that I was there to take that photograph. So, what idiom would I use to describe this moment of overcoming a difficult period? I weathered the storm. Yes, I finally weathered the storm. And I made up with the owner of the museum. Which is good because I often go to the museum. What verb could I use instead of saying I often go somewhere? I frequent the museum weekly, so it's a good thing that I haven't actually fallen out long term with the owner of the museum. So, that's my story. Should I tell it again? Let me wrap it up for you. I visited a quaint little village in Italy. It was so beautiful. And because of my unpredictable vehicle scaring the life out of me, I decided to stay there for a little while, while we got a replacement vehicle. Unfortunately, there was a terrible storm, which led to a beautiful rainbow showing the full spectrum of colours. And I decided to take a photograph of it because I'm a photographer. And the photograph was so beautiful that the owner of the Museum of Photographs in London. Museum of Photographs, I'm making that up. The owner of the Museum of Photographs decided to display my photograph in an exhibit, but then there was a dispute about whether or not it was real or whether it had been made using AI. Now this was a terrible situation, but I weathered the storm and eventually they believed me, which is good because I frequent the museum, and I wanted to be on good terms with everybody there. So, that was my off-the-cuff story. But let's revisit those pieces once again in today's storytime. In a quiet village, nestled in the countryside in the 1950s, lived two young lovers, Lily and Jack. They were high school sweethearts, and their love was as pure and innocent as the summer breeze that blew through the village. On this particular day, the sun was shining brightly, but the sky was tinged with a little rain, creating a beautiful rainbow that stretched across the horizon. Lily and Jack decided to take a walk through the village, hand in hand, enjoying the warm summer air and the sights and sounds of their quaint surroundings. As they strolled, Jack couldn't help but admire the way the rainbow added a spectrum of colours to the already picturesque scenery. He turned to Lily and said,"You know, you are like a rainbow in my life, adding colour and beauty to everything." Lily blushed and smiled, feeling overwhelmed with love for Jack. They continued their walk, and as they reached the edge of the village, they came to a meadow filled with wildflowers, a place they often frequent when they want to be alone. The vibrant colours of the flowers combined with the rainbow in the sky, created a breathtaking sight. Jack took Lily's hand and led her into the meadow, and they danced among the flowers, lost in each other's love. As they danced, the rain began to fall heavier, and they laughed and twirled, not caring about getting wet. Jack pulled Lily close and whispered,"You are the sunshine in my life, even on a rainy day." And with that, they shared a passionate kiss, the raindrops falling around them like a beautiful symphony. The weather may have been unpredictable, but Lily and Jack's love was unwavering and strong, just like the colours of the rainbow that adorned the sky. As they made their way back to the village, hand in hand, Lily felt a sense of gratitude for the beautiful day and the love she shared with Jack. For her, the weather had never been more beautiful, and she knew that as long as they were together, they could weather any storm. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found today useful. I look forward to tickling your eardrums once again tomorrow. So, make sure you are following this podcast and until then, take very good care and goodbye.