Learn English Vocabulary Daily #19.3 — British English Podcast

Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast.

My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 19, Day 3 of Your English 5 a Day.

This is a series that aims to expand your active vocabulary by

deep-diving into 5 pieces every day of the week from Monday to Friday.

And we start today's list with an adjective and it is overwhelming.

Overwhelming.

This is probably one word that I use on a daily basis.

Overwhelming.

We spell this O V E R W H E L M I N G.

Overwhelming.

If something is described as being overwhelming, then it's overpowering.

It's very strong and it makes it difficult for you to fight against.

So, for example, if you find your emotions to be overwhelming,

then you can't fight them back.

So, your overwhelming sense of dread stops you from focusing or functioning because

you're just feeling all this dread.

Sometimes I have occasionally an overwhelming anxiety.

I just wake up feeling anxious.

Normally because I'm stressed or I haven't eaten or slept well, and so,

I have overwhelming anxiety and I can't function very well because the

anxiety is getting the better of me.

It's overpowering me.

It's very strong.

Sometimes, even though I try not to eat after 6:00, 6:30 in the evening,

sometimes I have an overwhelming desire to eat just before going to bed.

I just feel so hungry.

And the hunger is overwhelming, so I'm like, I've got to go to the kitchen.

I've got to raid the kitchen and eat right now.

Here's an example sentence,

"I had an overwhelming feeling of love when my daughter was born, it was

like nothing I've ever felt before."

Okay, next on the list is an adverb, and it is randomly, randomly.

Randomly is spelt R A N D O M L Y, randomly.

If something is done randomly, then it is done in an unexpected way or without

any reason or necessarily any cause.

Here's a good example.

The other day I put my phone down on a shelf at the foot of my bed

and I got into bed to go to sleep.

And in the middle of the night, I was woken up by my phone randomly flying

off the shelf and landing on the floor.

There was no cause or no apparent cause.

There was no reason for my phone to have suddenly launched itself off the shelf.

I was quite spooked by it, actually.

I was thinking,

"Oh no, there's a poltergeist in here.

There's a ghost!"

So, it's having a go at me.

Something is going on.

There was no reason that I could find for this phone to throw itself on the floor.

Anyway, that was a random thing that happened.

It happened so randomly.

Sometimes people approach you randomly and just start talking to you in the streets.

That can be a little bit unnerving, can't it?

Someone just comes over and says,

"Hey, how are you doing?"

"Uhh, good, thanks.

How are you?"

Or sometimes you just randomly start thinking about something

or someone for no reason.

They just pop into your head.

Weird.

Anyway, here's the example sentence,

I thought my presentation was going down well until the audience randomly started

shouting at me to get off the stage."

Next on the list is a noun and it is plight, plight.

We spell this P L I G H T.

Plight, plight.

Plight describes a serious, difficult, or sad position to be in.

So we often talk about someone's plight, their unfortunate and unpleasant situation

that they're having to deal with.

Here's an example sentence,

"Because he was homeless and had no money, Bryan's plight

was a sad and shameful one."

Okay, moving on to an idiom that I think every English learner is introduced to

at some point or another, and I just felt it needed to be on the Five a Day.

Just so that we continue to spread this idiom around the

world so that it never dies.

And maybe we'll bring it back into conversational English once again.

It is the idiom, raining cats and dogs.

Something that is often taught, hardly ever spoken.

Sometimes it appears in poetry and creative literature, but rarely have

I seen it, or heard it rather, spoken.

It's a funny one.

It's such a well-known phrase, such a well-known phrase and so underutilised.

So, let's start using it again.

Let's make it a mission to bring raining cats and dogs back

into conversational English.

I am going to start using it.

There we go.

That's my mission.

So, this idiom means that it's raining very heavily.

It's raining cats and dogs.

Here's an example sentence,

"There's no way I'm going out on my bike today, it's raining

cats and dogs out there!"

Okay, on to our last word for today, this is an adjective

and it is estranged, estranged.

We spell this E S T R A N G E D, estranged.

If you are described as being estranged, then you're no longer

in contact with someone anymore.

So, if you have an estranged wife, or an estranged brother, then you're

not in contact with them anymore.

And it's usually because of a difficult situation.

Maybe you had a fallout or something bad happened between

you and you no longer talk.

Okay.

I don't think I have any, um, no, I don't have anyone estranged in my life,

not family members or close friends.

Just losing touch with someone is something that naturally happens when

you don't see each other for a while and there's no cause for you to come together.

But being estranged from someone is when the relationship is difficult

or there's been an argument.

Here's an example sentence,

"My husband was estranged from his father for nearly 15 years, until I

brought them back together in 2007.

What a tearful reunion that was."

Alright, so let's recap.

We started with the adjective overwhelming, when usually an emotion is

so powerful you can't fight against it.

Then we had an adverb randomly, when something happens in a very

unexpected way, like my phone throwing itself off the shelf, randomly.

We had the noun, plight, plight, describing a serious, difficult,

or sad position to be in, your plight, your difficult situation.

Then we talked about the idiom, raining cats and dogs, a very well-known phrase

that means that it's raining heavily.

That we are going to all make an effort to bring into common

spoken English once again.

And we finished with the adjective estranged when someone has lost

contact with someone else due to an argument or a difficult situation.

So, let's do this now for pronunciation.

Please repeat after me.

Overwhelming.

Overwhelming.

Randomly.

Randomly.

Plight.

Plight.

Raining cats and dogs.

Raining cats and dogs.

Estranged.

Estranged.

Fantastic.

How would I describe a man who has had an argument with his son and has not

spoken to him for a very, very long time?

Estranged.

Yes, he's an estranged father.

How would you describe very heavy rain, using an idiom?

It's raining cats and dogs, of course.

Now, I need to talk about this very difficult position that I find myself in.

This is my what?

What noun would I use to describe a sad, difficult, or serious position to be in?

My plight.

Of course, this is my plight.

And if I'm feeling tearful, and the tears are getting stronger and stronger,

the sadness is building inside me, the emotion is overpowering, what adjective

could I use to describe this overpowering emotion that I can't fight back against?

Overwhelming, of course.

And then, if I start laughing in a really unexpected way, for no reason.

What adverb would you describe my laughing with?

I was laughing randomly, wasn't I?

Very odd.

Very odd.

Okay, I hope you did well on that little quiz.

Don't worry if you didn't.

Listen out for those words and phrases once again as we bring

them together in a little story.

The Life of Kevin Newman.

Diary Entry 246.

There I was, sitting on a bench at Ludlow train station.

Nervous and fidgety, constantly glancing at my watch.

The sound of a train approaching made me take a deep breath.

Today is a day that I never thought would come.

My lifelong plight would finally be over.

I was adopted at birth and never knew anything about my birth parents, apart

from the fact my mother was forced to give me up as she was only 16 and

her father threatened to have nothing more to do with her if she kept me.

It was a constant ache in my heart, not knowing where I

came from or who I looked like.

But today, after 43 years of being estranged, everything was about to change.

I've spent years searching, making endless phone calls, posting adverts

in papers and on social media.

Then, one day last week, as I was watching my youngest boy play hockey,

it started raining cats and dogs so I took shelter under the clubhouse canopy.

I was cheering my son on, who was just about to score when a guy randomly walked

up to me and asked if I was Kevin Newman.

We got chatting and it turns out this guy, had seen one of my adverts

in a local Norfolk newspaper.

Sam's mother had worked at the hospital where I was born, and she had

attended my mother during childbirth.

I couldn't believe my ears.

The game ended, we won, and Sam went back home to Norfolk.

He promised to make a few inquiries, so we exchanged numbers.

Fast forward three weeks, and these people whom I've never met before, are here!

It's surreal, seeing them for the first time.

They look like strangers, yet somehow familiar.

I can see glimpses of myself in their faces.

I can't even begin to describe the overwhelming emotions I feel right now.

Excitement, nervousness, fear, and hope, all mixed together.

I never thought I would have this chance, to get to know the woman who gave

birth to me, the man I hope I can now call father, to spend time with them.

It's a privilege that not many people in my situation get.

I'm grateful for this opportunity and I'm determined to make the most of it.

And that brings us to the end of today's episode.

I do hope you found it helpful.

Until tomorrow, take very good care of yourselves and goodbye.