Your English Five a Day #30.1

E278: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast with me, your host, Anna! Tune in to Week 30, Day 1 of Your English Five a Day where we dive into vocabulary enrichment. Join us on this journey as we explore five new words each weekday to boost your lexicon.

😂 In today's episode, we start with the adjectives "hilarious" and "vibrant". We then explore the noun phrase "the life and soul," often heard as "the life and soul of the party". Moving on to "witty," another adjective, then wrapping up the list with the phrasal verb "crack up".

🏫 Join us as we practise pronunciation and test your memory with engaging scenarios. Follow along with the heartwarming story featuring old friends Lucy, Mark, Lily, and Tom, and the antics they get up to at their school reunion.

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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 30, Day 1 of Your English Five a Day. This is a series that has been going now for 30 weeks. I cannot believe it! This is a series that aims to increase your vocabulary by focusing on just five items every day of the working week from Monday to Friday. So let's kick off this week and today's list with the adjective hilarious. Hilarious. We spell this H I L A R I O U S. Hilarious. Hilarious. If someone or something is hilarious, then it is extremely funny. Very, very amusing. For example, you might say,"The comedian's jokes were so hilarious that the entire audience were laughing uncontrollably." I think my children are sometimes hilarious. They do and say things that tickle me pink. They make me laugh so much. It's good to be hilarious. Sometimes though, as we do enjoy a bit of sarcasm, sometimes you'll hear someone use the adjective hilarious to describe someone who says something they don't really like. So they're being sarcastic, saying that's not very funny at all, going,"Oh, that's hilarious. Oh, very funny." So you have to read the tone and the situation to know if the word is being used in its genuine form. Does it genuinely mean hilarious? Or whether it's being used in a sarcastic way. But more often than not, it is used in the positive. So here is the next item on the list. Another adjective, vibrant. Vibrant. We spell this V I B R A N T. Vibrant. If something is described as vibrant, then it's full of energy or colour or life. You can describe a person as being vibrant. If they are an energetic and fun, colourful person. I like to wear vibrant clothes occasionally. So clothes that have strong patterns or colours. We all enjoy being around and in the company of vibrant people, energetic and full of life people. Here's an example sentence,"Tom was always drawn towards Melanie's vibrant personality, but it took him 2 years before he finally asked her out on a date!" Okay. Next on the list is a noun and it is life and soul. Now, this is part of a full phrase that you would sometimes hear, which is the life and soul of the party. The life and soul of the party. But sometimes you'll also hear it shortened to simply life and soul, the life and soul. We spell this L I F E, life. And soul, S O U L. So if someone is described as the life and soul of the party, then they are a funny and energetic person who is the centre of attention at social events. So it's not always at an actual party. It could be within a class, within a classroom setting. So you could say,"Oh, Sarah is always the life and soul of our class discussions." Or,"Daniel was the life and soul of our drama club." So it's just someone who's really energetic and lights up the whole thing. Here's another example,"Angie was certainly the life and soul of the party last night, she had everyone in stitches with her story about her latest holiday." So if you are in stitches, it means that you're laughing a lot, so much that it hurts your stomach. Okay, next on the list is the adjective witty. Witty. We spell this W I T T Y. Witty. Witty. Witty means very funny, but in a clever way. So you are able to use words or manipulate words in a way that makes them quite amusing. Okay. So it's not like slapstick comedy. You know, some people are funny physically. They can pretend to fall over and pull funny faces and it makes you laugh. Other people are funny with how they string together a sentence. The words that they choose, they're quite witty. Here's an example sentence,"I love how Clara always has a witty comeback for any joke or insult thrown her way." And a'comeback' is a response. So,"Clara always has a witty comeback for any joke or insult," meaning she can always respond to a joke or an insult with funny words, which makes her look very clever and witty. Okay, last on the list is the phrasal verb crack up. So to crack up or someone cracks you up. So you could say,"Oh, that cracks me up." So crack, C R A C K. Up, U P. To crack up. If something cracks you up, then it makes you laugh uncontrollably. It's like to find something hilarious, it makes you laugh. So if someone is very witty and their wit is hilarious, it might crack you up. You might say a person generally always cracks you up when you see them. Daniel is so funny, he always cracks me up. Here's another example,"I always crack up when I watch Michael McIntyre. His jokes are so true to life." Okay, so to crack up, let's now do a recap on all items from today. We started with the adjective hilarious, meaning something is extremely funny. Then we had the adjective vibrant, meaning someone or something is full of energy, colour, or life. We had the noun, the life and soul, which could be extended to the life and soul of the party, meaning a person is funny, energetic, and the centre of attention at social events. Then we had the adjective, witty, meaning someone has a clever use of words in a way that makes them funny. Then we had the phrasal verb, crack up, which is to burst into laughter. Okay, so let's now do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Hilarious. Hilarious. Vibrant. Vibrant. The life and soul. The life and soul. Witty. Witty. Crack up. Crack up. Fantastic. Alright, let me test your memory. I've just bought a skirt that is very colourful. Very colourful. What adjective could I use to describe my extremely colourful skirt? Vibrant. Yes, it's going to make up part of my costume, which I will be wearing to a party later in the week. Now, my costume is actually going to be very, very funny. It's a themed party and my costume, I hope, we'll make people laugh. What adjective could we use for this costume that I hope will be very, very funny? Hilarious. Yes, I bought this vibrant skirt that will be part of my costume for a party later in the week that I hope will be hilarious and make lots of people laugh. I always like to make sure that I'm the funniest and most energetic person at the party. What noun could I use to describe my desire to be the centre of attention? I want to be the life and soul of the party. I do often have to compete with another guest at the party who has a very clever way with words. He manages to make even the most basic of sentences sound very funny. What adjective could I use to describe this man who's very clever with his words, in a way that makes people laugh? He's witty. Yes, he's witty. And to be fair, whenever I hear him, I do end up bursting into uncontrollable laughter. What phrasal verb could I use to describe this act? This action of bursting into laughter? I crack up. Yes, he cracks me up. I crack up. It's just, it's fun. Whatever happens, I've got my vibrant skirt. My costume will be hilarious. I'll try to be the life and soul of the party, but my witty friend may also be the life and soul of the party because he cracks everybody up. Okay, let's now go to a very structured storytime. Listen out for these words once again in today's story. There were four friends, Lucy, Mark, Lily, and Tom, who had been thick as thieves since their primary school days. They were now in their 30s and still going strong. Lucy, Mark, and Lily worked as lawyers, while Tom was a successful artist. They had all gone through their own ups and downs in life, but their friendship remained unshakable. One day, they received an invitation to their primary school reunion. They were all excited to catch up with their old classmates and reminisce about their childhood memories. As they were planning for the event, they realised that Tom, the artist, was the one missing from the group chat."Has anyone heard from Tom?" asked Lily, looking at the group with concern."I haven't seen him in ages, but I'm sure he'll show up. He wouldn't miss our reunion for anything," replied Lucy, trying to calm Lily's nerves. Sure enough, a few days later, they received a call from Tom, who was bursting with excitement. He had just returned from a solo trip to India and had brought back some vibrant and colourful clothes for them to wear to the reunion. Tom was known as the life and soul of any party, and his contagious energy always lit up the room. He was the kind of person who could crack you up with his hilarious jokes and comebacks. His witty and sarcastic remarks always left everyone in fits of laughter. As the day of the reunion arrived, the four friends made their way to the venue, wearing the rather outrageous clothes gifted by Tom. As soon as they entered, they could hear the sound of laughter and chatter, and they smiled knowing it was going to be a great night. Tom's presence was felt by everyone, and he was quickly surrounded by their old classmates who couldn't wait to catch up with their colourful friend. As the night went on, Tom's hilarious antics kept everyone entertained, and his witty remarks had everyone in stitches. The four friends spent the entire evening catching up, laughing and reliving their childhood memories. And all thanks to Tom, their reunion was one they would never forget. As they said their goodbyes, they promised to keep in touch, and never let so much time pass without seeing each other again. They also made Tom promise,'no more wacky shirts!' And that brings us to the end of today's episode. If you enjoyed it, please leave a like, a rating, or a review. And until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.