Learn English Vocabulary Daily #13.1 - British English Podcast

Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast.

My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 13, Day 1 of Your English Five a Day.

This is a series that aims to increase your active vocabulary by deep

diving into five pieces every day of the week, from Monday to Friday.

Today, we're going to start with a noun that I'm sure you already know, but

really think about pronunciation here.

We have the word fear, fear.

We often talk about having a fear of something, a fear of.

Now fear is spelled F E A R, and we have this lovely diphthong sound, /ɪə/, /ɪə/.

Fear.

So, if you're not familiar with this word, fear describes an unpleasant emotion or

thought that you have when you're afraid, when you're frightened or worried that

something dangerous is happening or about to happen or something painful.

For example, people have a fear of needles.

They're scared to have an injection because they think it will hurt.

So, they have this worry, this fear of pain, when it comes to needles.

I used to have a fear of needles.

I also had an irrational fear, which I have spoken about once or twice before,

but if you haven't heard about this, I used to have an irrational fear, which

is a fear that doesn't really make sense.

I have an irrational fear of of wet tea bags.

Which is a little bit crazy.

But it all stemmed from this disgusting dream that I had.

And I, I'm doubting, hesitating now if I should even share this with you,

because you might be eating breakfast.

Anyway it was a dream that just made me feel quite disgusted

because of wet tea bags.

So, when I saw wet tea bags after this dream, I had this physical

reaction of feeling quite sick and nauseous and I couldn't.

My mouth would start watering and everything.

I couldn't look at or touch wet tea bags.

I'm over it now.

I'm past it now.

I've dealt with it.

But for a while it was, it was problematic because, you know, I'm

British and I drink lots of tea.

So, anyway, do you have any fears?

Irrational or rational fears?

Here's an example sentence.

"I have always had a fear of snakes, though I did once have a huge

Boa Constrictor around my neck.

Oh, my heart was racing!"

Okay, so next on our list is an adjective and it is afraid,

afraid, to be afraid of something.

So, this is spelled A F R A I D, afraid, afraid.

I am afraid.

So, this is a feeling of fear.

So, there's that feeling of being worried or frightened, and you're

worried or frightened about a possible bad thing happening.

I am afraid of losing my children when I go out in a busy crowd, especially

if I'm in a city like London.

I get very nervous.

I am afraid that I might lose my child and not be able to find my

child, and that would be horrendous.

So, I have a fear of losing my children.

When I'm out in a crowd, I feel afraid.

I have this ongoing worry, and if I turn around and for a second I

can't see my child, I really start to feel this growing fear inside me.

I become very afraid.

So, I feel that fear.

Here's an example sentence.

"You should never be afraid to speak the truth, honesty is always the best policy."

And that is really a very good example sentence.

Honesty is the best policy, but there are times when you feel

afraid to tell someone the truth.

I remember I drove my partner's car off the driveway and we had some builders

at the time doing some work on the garden, helping to build the studio

and they left a huge bag of gravel.

It was a huge bag.

It was like, you know, up to my waist.

It was very high and wide.

And it was right on the edge of the driveway, as I was backing out the car,

it was right there, kind of in the way.

I didn't have much room to manoeuvre, so, I tried my best, but I couldn't really

see the bag because of where it was positioned, so, I was kind of guessing,

and I misjudged it, and I scraped the side of the car along the side of this

bag, and because it had gravel in it, gravel is, is like lots of little stones,

it scratched the paintwork so badly.

Like hundreds of tiny little scratches.

It was just such a mess.

And when I got out and saw it, I just panicked.

And I thought,

"Oh my goodness me, what am I going to do?"

I felt afraid.

I was afraid to tell my partner.

I knew I had to, but I was afraid about how he would react.

So, let's carry on with our next one.

This is another noun and it is phobia, phobia.

Now we spell this P H O B I A.

Phobia.

Often PH represents an F sound.

So, a phobia, this is like a type of anxiety.

A phobia is much more of a big issue though.

I might feel fear when I'm in a dangerous situation, but if I have a

phobia, then I'm extremely fearful.

I'm very afraid about something in particular.

So, I might have a phobia of spiders, and that's usually referred to

as arachnophobia, arachnophobia.

So, 'phobia' is the fear of, and 'arachna' represents spider, or arachnids.

So, a phobia is a fear of something.

Some people have a phobia of going outside.

Some people have a phobia of large crowds of people.

Some people have a phobia of being left alone.

I had that irrational fear.

I had a phobia of wet tea bags.

What else do people, oh, a phobia of heights, a fear of

heights is a very common one.

So, it tends to be quite debilitating, a phobia.

It's a quite an extreme anxiety.

Okay.

Here's an example sentence.

"Adrian refused to have the vaccination because he has a phobia of needles."

Okay.

Moving on, we have an adverb and it is cautiously.

Cautiously.

We spell this C A U T I O U S L Y.

Cautiously.

Cautiously.

Now, if you do something cautiously, then you do it in a careful and

thought-about way to avoid risks.

So, you really think about what you're doing.

Often when we're doing things like walking down the path, we're not

thinking about the movements and the act of walking, because we're

on autopilot, we're just doing it.

We've done it so many times before that our brain has a different

process, one that saves energy.

It's not problem solving.

So, you're just walking.

However, if you step out one morning and it's icy because it's been

really cold, then you're going to walk in a very different way.

Your brain can't go into default autopilot mode and just walk.

You have to take very careful steps and slow down and try and keep yourself

steady on the unsteady surface.

Not an unsteady surface, is it a slippery surface, on the slippery

surface because you don't want to fall.

So, you have to walk cautiously down the path.

Okay.

Here's an example sentence.

"This path looks a bit rocky, as it's so dark, make sure you

walk cautiously along the edge."

And the last one on our list today is a phrasal verb and

it is freak out, freak out.

This is spelled F R E A K; out, O U T.

Freak out.

Freak out.

Now, to freak out is to become extremely emotional, either in

a negative or a positive way.

So, for example, if I surprise you with the most amazing gift that

you could ever possibly wish for.

And it's such a huge surprise.

At that moment when the reveal happens, you will probably react in a very

emotional way — excited, very happy.

So, you're probably going to be jumping around and screaming and

just hugging people and being like, "Ahh I can't believe it, ahh!"

that is called freaking out.

But freak out can also be used for negative situations.

So, if I'm in that circumstance where I don't know where my children are,

I'm in a very busy place, I turn around, and I can't see my kids.

I very quickly start to freak out.

And I will, you know, if I'm in the supermarket, I'll happily walk

away from my shopping trolley.

I'll start running around shouting the name of my lost child and panicking

and approaching strangers and asking for help, getting very distraught.

Maybe I would start crying if, you know, it goes on for too long.

I would be freaking out.

I would be filled with all these negative emotions.

Okay, so here's an example sentence.

"Don't freak out, but...

I just won 3.5 million on the lottery!

I still can't quite believe it."

Alright, so that's our five for today.

Let's do a quick recap.

We had the noun fear, which is the unpleasant emotion you have when

you're worried that something dangerous or bad or painful will happen.

We had the adjective afraid, the feeling of fear, the feeling of worry.

Then we had another noun, phobia, phobia, very similar to fear, but it's much more

of a disorder and it's much more extreme, a fear of something in particular.

Then we had the adverb cautiously to do something in a very careful and

thought about way to avoid any risks.

And finally, the phrasal verb freak out, freak out when you become extremely

emotional in a positive or negative way.

So, let's try this for pronunciation now.

Please repeat after me.

Fear.

Fear.

Afraid.

Afraid.

Phobia.

Phobia.

Cautiously.

Cautiously.

Freak out.

Freak out.

Fantastic.

Okay, now I'm going to just quiz you a little bit.

If I have a deep concern and worry about spiders, that's the one thing

that just makes me go crazy with fear.

What noun would I use to describe that particular type of anxiety?

A phobia, a phobia.

And the feeling that I get when I'm feeling worried could be

described as what adjective?

Afraid, to feel afraid.

And if I need to do something in a very careful way, I need to

really think about it to avoid risks, which adverb would I use?

I would do it...

cautiously.

Cautiously.

And if I tell you some bad news and you react in a really highly

emotional way, then I could say that you are, what phrasal verb?

Freaking out.

Freaking out.

And finally, the noun that we use to describe that unpleasant emotion

that we feel when we are afraid is...

fear.

Fear.

Okay, now let's bring everything together in a little story.

I once knew someone with a phobia.

Yeah, my friend's son, Callum.

He was a brave boy - well, I mean, he was 13 so a brave teen - and

had never encountered anything that sent shivers down his spine, until

one day when he laid eyes upon a spider for the very first time.

A huge one.

His heart raced, and his palms turned clammy with fear.

He realised he had a phobia, a deep-rooted fear of those eight-legged creatures.

At first, Callum was unable to move, he was paralysed with fear.

But something inside him kept saying,

"Don't let fear control you!"

So, cautiously, he inched closer, his heart beating so fast that he felt like

it was trying to jump out of his chest.

The spider seemed just as afraid as he was, crawling away as

if it sensed Callum's terror.

Callum was determined not to let this tiny, hairy creature control him.

So, taking a deep breath, in one quick sweeping motion he picked the creepy

crawly up and held it in his hands.

For a moment, he thought he was going to completely freak out, or worse, that

he might faint or vomit, but neither of those things happened and as the seconds

passed, the pounding in his chest eased off, and he finally plucked up the courage

to peek a little closer at the spider.

He reminded himself that spiders were more afraid of him than he was of them.

Over time, he overcame his fear and even came to admire spiders,

thinking how clever it was that such a small, scary creature could

create intricate webs of such beauty.

The experience made Callum realise that allowing fear to dictate

his actions was no way to live.

And from that day forward, the only thing he was afraid of was fear itself.

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

I do hope you found it useful.

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Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.