Aung San Suu Kyi: 4 years in prison: News Review

Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader of Myanmar

who was removed from power,

has been told she'll go to prison for four years.

Hello, I'm Rob and this is News Review from BBC Learning English

and joining me today is Roy. Hi Roy.

Hello Rob and hello everybody.

If you would like to test yourself on the vocabulary around this story,

all you need to do is head to our website

bbclearningenglish.com to take a quiz.

But now, let's hear more about this story from this BBC News report:

So, this story is about Aung San Suu Kyi,

the former civilian leader of Myanmar.

She was removed from power and replaced by a military junta.

Now, she has been told she will go to prison for four years.

And we've got three words from the news headlines

that we can use to talk about this story, haven't we?

Yes, we have. We have: 'sentences',

'ousted' and 'incitement'.

That's 'sentences', 'ousted' and 'incitement'.

OK. Well, let's have a look at the first of those words.

Tell us about your headline please, Roy.

OK. So, my first headline comes from here at home,

at the BBC, and it reads:

'Sentences' – declares punishment for someone found guilty of a crime.

Yes. So, this word is spelt: S-E-N-T-E-N-C-E-S – 'sentences'.

And it's basically telling somebody officially their punishment

after being found guilty of a crime.

But, I thought 'sentences' were groups of words put together

with a full stop at the end. Isn't that a sentence?

Well, yeah. Yes, it is.

Speaking about language, yes,

we talk about a complete grouping of words

that usually ends in a full stop or a question mark

and it forms a statement or a question.

For example – 'My name is Roy.' – is a sentence.

'How are you?' – is also a sentence.

But obviously in the headline, we're not talking about a language point.

The word 'sentences' in the headline

is a verb and it's used to talk about delivering or declaring the punishment

for somebody who's been found guilty of a crime – very different meaning.

Ah, OK. So, it talks about a kind of legal word here;

it's a very official kind of word.

Absolutely, yes. So, for example,

in a court of law you have the process, which is called the trial,

and at the end, if the person is found guilty,

they can be 'sentenced'.

So, for example: 'Sentenced to several years in prison'.

OK. So, I say official word.

So, if at work, for example, I wasn't doing very well

and my boss wasn't very happy, could he 'sentence' me to more work?

No, no. We don't use it outside...

we don't really use it outside of a court of law, to be honest.

In that case, he may 'punish' you, or 'reprimand' you...

or 'tell you off' if you're... you know,

if he tells you you're doing something bad.

He wouldn't 'sentence' you to extra work,

or you wouldn't 'sentence' your child to extra chores because they...

they arrived home late, for example.

We wouldn't use it in that context.

It's a very official usage.

And so, we talk about 'to sentence' someone – that's the verb.

Is there, kind of, a noun form of this?

Yeah, absolutely. So, you can 'sentence' someone

or give someone 'a sentence'.

Right, a verb and a noun. OK. Thanks for that Roy.

Let's have a summary of that word:

Of course, we've talked about Myanmar in the past, here on News Review,

and we did a story about when the military took control.

Roy, how can we watch that video again?

All you need to do is click the link in the description below.

Good stuff. Yeah, click down below.

OK. Roy, let's have a look at your next headline please.

OK. So, our next headline comes from the Financial Times,

the FT, and it reads:

'Ousted' – that's expelled from a place or position.

Yes. So, this word is spelt: O-U-S-T-E-D – 'ousted'.

'Ousted' – that last sound is '-id'

and it means to remove somebody from a position or a place.

And there's a feeling of force about this removal;

there's no choice in it really.

Absolutely. That's... that's... that's right, yeah.

There is that feeling of a forceful removal

and that is key to understanding this word.

Now, when we talk about forcefully removing somebody,

it's not necessarily physical.

It can be physical, but we can also talk about it

in the idea of it being, kind of, political pressure.

So, it doesn't need to be a physical force to remove somebody

from that position of power.

And again, another formal word here –

not something we'd use in everyday conversation.

No. No, you wouldn't.

Now, going back to that idea of forceful removal,

it can be, for example, a group of people in a place –

for example, protesters –

and maybe the protest has got a little bit violent

and the... the police decide to remove them by force:

they 'oust' them from a place.

And again, that is an official usage.

They actually physically move people – try to physically move people.

This all happened, though, at a party I went to recently,

where I ate all the biscuits.

Now, people weren't very happy that I'd eaten all the biscuits of course,

but could I say they 'ousted' me out of the party

because they weren't very happy?

I mean, you could if you wanted to be really dramatic,

but we wouldn't really normally use this in this scenario, for example.

And I remember this party: we bought you specific biscuits.

Neil bought you biscuits,

but you not only ate those biscuits; you ate all of the biscuits.

You found the secret biscuits and Neil was really, really angry.

He opened the door and he 'threw you out'.

So, that's that word there.

That's the one we commonly use: 'throw somebody out'.

We don't usually 'oust' them from a party.

'Oust', as I say, is an official word,

talking about removal of protesters

or a political position – somebody from a political position.

In this case, we 'threw you out' of the party.

I'm sorry, but you shouldn't eat all the biscuits.

OK. Noted. Noted. But, just to say,

'throw out' – you didn't actually physically 'throw me out'.

I'm sure you'd have liked to have done.

You just, kind of, opened the door and said, 'Go!' – yeah?

Yeah. So, it's the same idea:

you can 'throw somebody out', like asking them to leave,

or you can physically eject them,

but we chose to do it with words – with pressure of words.

Thank you so much. OK.

Let's have a summary of that word:

Now, robots, of course, are a threat to many of our jobs.

Maybe they'd like to 'oust' the human being from a position

and we've talked about robots taking over the role of a doctor.

This is something we discussed in 6 Minute English.

How can we watch that programme again, Roy?

All you need to do is click the link in the description below.

Yeah, down below. OK.

Time now for our next headline please.

Right. So, our next headline comes from the Guardian and it reads:

That's 'incitement' – action of provoking unlawful activities.

So, this word is spelt: I-N-C-I-T-E-M-E-N-T.

In the headline, it's been used in the noun form.

The verb form of this is 'incite'

and it basically means stimulating somebody –

stimulating somebody to do something negative or bad.

And we could say it's about provocation and unlawful behaviour.

That's key here, isn't it?

Absolutely. So, let's talk about that idea of provocation or provoking somebody.

Now, 'provoking' has an idea of 'encouraging' somebody,

but 'encouraging' – we usually use that in a positive sense:

I 'encourage' you to be better.

'Provoking' somebody is about stimulating somebody

to do something negative

and that is the idea of 'incitement' or 'incite'.

It's basically 'provoking' somebody to do something bad or unlawful.

Yeah, it's like prodding them and saying:

'Go on! Yeah, go and do this. It's a bit naughty, but go and do it.'

But, of course, it's illegal and dangerous activities

we're talking about here mainly.

Yeah, we wouldn't normally use it in a...

sort of, outside of talking about illegal or unlawful behaviours.

This is something very serious.

It's something big.

So, for example, you wouldn't 'incite' a friend to do something bad;

you would maybe 'provoke' them.

So, we would normally use it in a casual sense;

it's more of a, kind of, more formal and serious sense.

And it's on a large scale as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

OK. Let's have a summary of that word:

OK. Time now to recap the vocabulary please, Roy.

OK. So, we had 'sentences' – declares punishment

for someone found guilty of a crime.

We had 'ousted' – expelled from a place or position.

And we had 'incitement' – action of provoking unlawful activities.

Thank you, Roy. There you go – three useful words from the headlines

to help you talk about this news story.

And don't forget – on our website there's a quiz

where you can test your understanding of the vocabulary:

it's there at bbclearningenglish.com.

Don't forget, by the way – we're all over social media as well.

That's the end of News Review for today.

Thank you so much for watching.

It's goodbye from me...

...and goodbye from me. Bye!