Learn English Vocabulary Daily #21.3 — British English Podcast

Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast.

My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 21, Day 3 of Your English Five a Day.

The series that aims to increase your active vocabulary by exploring

five pieces every day of the working week, from Monday through to Friday.

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Now, today's list starts with an adjective, and it is practical.

Practical.

We spell this P R A C T I C A L.

Practical.

Practical.

Now practical can mean a number of things, but here think of it as meaning suitable.

So, it is perfect for a certain situation in which it's being used.

For example if I am going to eat spaghetti, a knife is not going to be

suitable therefore, it's not practical.

So, trying to eat spaghetti with a knife doesn't work.

A knife is not practical for eating spaghetti with.

If I want to go out on a long walk on a rainy afternoon, then

I will need a practical coat.

I will need a coat that is practical for that situation.

Does it suit the situation?

What kind of coat would I need?

Hmm, how about a fur coat?

Not that I am a fan of fur, maybe a faux fur coat?

Well, a faux fur coat is not going to be suitable for a rainy

day, so, it's not practical.

A raincoat would be practical because it would be suitable.

It would suit the situation.

It would match the situation.

Here's another example sentence,

"A short dress and high heels is not really a practical outfit to wear when

it's raining outside and you've got a 20-minute walk to the club, is it?"

Next on the list is again practical, but this time used to mean effective.

Now this would usually be used when talking about a person or ideas.

So, are these going to solve a problem?

So, for example, my partner is a very practical person.

He's very good at solving problems.

I might have ideas that are not practical, ideas that just don't work for the

situation, but my partner is very good at thinking about the whole story, the

whole scenario, looking at our resources, looking at the time that we have and

the skills that we have and coming up with the best solution for the problem.

He's very practical.

Are you a practical person?

Here's another example,

"You're full of great ideas, but they're all far too elaborate

and not very practical."

So, ideas can be practical or not very practical and people can be

practical or not very practical.

So, think of this as meaning effective, effective.

Do they produce a productive solution to a problem?

Next on the list is the idiom back-burner.

Often we say to put something on a back-burner.

We spell this B A C K.

Hyphen.

B U R N E R.

Back-burner.

Now if something is on a back-burner then it has been delayed because it's

not as important as other things perhaps.

It can be dealt with at a later date.

Technically, the burner refers to, I believe, the hobs on a cooker.

You normally have four hobs or cooking points on your hob.

Two at the front and two at the back.

The ones that are more important are going to be at the front.

They're the ones that you're stirring and adding to and zhuzhing.

But the ones on the back you've just left to simmer or to

cool or to deal with later.

They are on the back-burner.

Here's an example sentence,

"We're going to have to put our wedding plans on the back-burner for

now, we need to deal with my health issues before I walk down the aisle".

What have you put on a back-burner recently?

I have a thousand things on my back-burner.

My back-burner must have, I don't know, a hundred hobs because I have

so many projects and unfinished tasks that just sit in the back of

my mind on a back-burner to be dealt with at a later stage, if ever.

Next on the list is the verb wield.

Wield.

We spell this W I E L D.

Wield.

Wield.

To wield something is to have power or to hold power over others.

You'll often actually hear it being used with the word power.

He wields all the power.

He wields influence is another word you might hear with wield, to

wield power or to wield influence.

It can also be used when talking about literally holding a

weapon, she wields her sword.

And it's the same sort of thing; she has power over her sword.

She has power over people.

She has power over their opinions and over how a company works.

She wields her power.

It's to use, to have and to use your power.

Okay, here's an example sentence,

"Jason wields enormous power over his teammates, he's definitely the best

coach we've had in the past few seasons."

Do you wield any power in your circle of friends or within your professional life?

Next on the list is a phrasal verb, and it is locked into something.

We spell this L O C K E D, locked.

Into, I N T O.

Locked into something.

If you are locked into something, this means you are committed to it

or you're not able to escape it, to get out of it or to get away from it.

Here's an example sentence,

"I can't believe I'm locked into this contract with the electricity

supplier, they raised their prices by 50% but I can't leave

them until the end of the year!"

We often have that problem, don't we?

We get locked into contracts that we don't want to be in.

You could also get locked into an argument with somebody, locked into a disagreement.

You could literally get locked into a house.

Like, you know, sometimes happens with these weird and

wonderful locking mechanisms.

I got locked out of my house recently rather than getting locked into.

I lock the cat into the house.

But yes, we're using it metaphorically here to get locked into meaning

to be committed, unable to escape or feeling obliged to complete.

Okay, so that's our five for today.

Let's recap.

We started with the adjective practical, meaning suitable for a situation in

which it's being used, often practical being used to describe an object.

It's suitable.

Then we looked at practical in a different way, meaning effective,

often used with ideas or people suggesting that they are able to

solve problems in a productive way.

Then we had the idiom back-burner, to put something on a back-burner,

meaning to delay it because it's not as important as other things.

Then we had the verb wield, to wield, meaning to hold or have a lot of power

over other people, or in some cases over a weapon, to be able to use it skilfully.

And we finished with the phrasal verb locked into something.

To lock into something like a contract or a commitment, meaning you're committed,

you're obliged to be involved, and you're not able to easily get out of it.

Okay, let's now do this for pronunciation purposes.

Please repeat after me.

Practical.

Practical.

Back-burner.

Back-burner.

Wield.

Wield.

Locked into.

Locked into.

Very good.

Okay.

So, I am going to delay a very important product launch in my

business because there are problems.

So, there are more important things to deal with right now, so,

we'll delay it for a few months.

What idiom could you use to describe delaying this project?

Put it on a back-burner.

Absolutely.

We're going to put this project or this product launch on a back-burner for now,

or on the back-burner, you also might say.

We're going to put it on the back-burner because it's not very important right now.

It needs dealing with before we complete it.

And I have to be able to provide a productive solution to all

of our problems in the company.

I am the person who does find the solutions quite easily to our problems.

You could describe me as being very what?

Practical.

I'm a very practical person.

I provide productive solutions to our problems.

Absolutely.

And I also can convince the head honcho, the top man, the big boss of the company

to go along with whatever I deem to be necessary, whatever I think is the most

practical thing to do, and I can convince him because I have and hold a lot of

power over him, a lot of influence.

What verb could you use instead of saying I have a lot of power over him.

I wield, yes, I wield a lot of power over the top man in the company.

The problem is someone in the company points out to me that we are actually

committed to delivering this product launch by the end of the month, and

that has to happen because it's there in the contract that we have with

our manufacturers and the people who are going to distribute our product.

So, this is a commitment that we can't get out of.

What phrasal verb would you use to suggest that we're committed in a

way that we can't easily escape from?

We're locked in.

So, unfortunately, although I felt like it was a practical solution

to put this product launch on the back-burner and I wield enough power

with the manager to have that agreed, unfortunately, I discover that I'm

locked into a contract with the distributors and the manufacturers.

So, we have to go ahead.

So, I hang my head in shame and say, yes, I overlooked

that one very important detail.

I was wrong.

And so, now I need to sit down and have a cup of tea.

However, all the cups are dirty.

I need some sort of vessel to hold my tea and I need it now because

I need tea very, very badly.

I need something that's going to be suitable to hold the tea.

What adjective could we use instead of suitable?

Practical again.

Yes!

We need a practical vessel to hold my tea.

And then someone brings over an empty jam jar and says,

"Will this do, governor?"

And I say,

"Yes.

That is a very practical little jar that will hold my tea.

Thank you very much."

Okay.

Well, that was a silly little journey, wasn't it?

I hope that you found that useful.

Let's now bring everything together in a very dramatic and fantasy-based story.

With the winds howling like the cries of lost souls, Elizabeth was

locked into a dance with destiny.

Her adversary, cloaked in the shadows, wielded power that could bend the

will of the strongest warriors.

Elizabeth, however, was not just any warrior.

Armed with a practical blade, forged from the rarest metal known to man,

and imbued with ancient magic, she was a force to be reckoned with.

The blade, light in her grasp yet lethal in its purpose, was

more than just a weapon; it was an extension of her very soul.

Tonight, it would either herald her victory or sing the lament of her demise.

Time, once her ally, now pressed against her with the weight of a thousand years.

The ancient prophecy, long put on the back-burner by those who feared its

truth, now unfolded before her eyes.

The moment to act was upon her, yet doubt crept into her heart.

Was she truly the chosen one, destined to bring balance to

the forces of light and dark?

Or was she merely a pawn in a game far beyond her understanding?

As the final hour approached, the practical strategies she had

meticulously planned crumbled under the unpredictability of her foe.

The battle, steeped in magic and mystery, demanded more than mere tactics; it

required a sacrifice of blood and spirit.

Elizabeth, understanding the gravity of her task, steadied her nerves.

With a defiant cry, she charged, her blade cutting through the

darkness like a beacon of hope.

The clash of steel and sorcery echoed through the night, a

symphony of chaos and determination.

Elizabeth, with every fibre of her being, fought, not just for her own survival

but for the very soul of the world.

As the final blow was struck, a silence fell over the battlefield,

the epic struggle was over...

but had Elizabeth triumphed over evil?

We will never know.

And that wraps up today's episode.

I do hope, as always, that you found it useful.

Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.