Learn English with STAR WARS!

[Lightsaber noises]

It's time to use the force and learn some English.

[Star Wars music].

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on

learning English with Star Wars. So, I am very excited

because Star Wars, episode seven, The Force Awakens,

is set to come out in theatres all across the world. Maybe it's already out at the time

that you're watching this. If you're watching this years from now, maybe Star Wars episode

seven is out, episode eight is out, episode nine is out, and we say that they're awesome,

maybe they're terrible. Who knows?

Anyway, what I thought that I would do in preparation for the movie is go back, watch

the original, and teach you guys some English. Those of you who don't know, Star Wars is

a very famous space fantasy film.

"A-ahem." Yes, Emperor Palpatine?

"I thought Star Wars was science-fiction."

Well, Emperor Palpatine, that is a common opinion and a common misconception.

You see, science-fiction means that it takes the technology, pushes it into the future

to its most extreme. Now, Star Wars is closer to, like, Lord of the Rings, or, you know,

a fantasy where there are creatures that simply can't exist.

"Oh. Hmm. Carry on."

Okay, so now that that's clear, what I'm going to do is tell you about the story and the

characters of the original Star Wars, and I'm going to go through the movie, from beginning

to end, and talk about some of the key dialogue, key vocabulary with you guys. And at the end

of this, don't forget to check out the quiz. Hopefully, you'll have learned something.

So, let's get on with it and learn English with Star Wars.

Okay, so the story of the original Star Wars.

In the beginning, there is an evil galactic empire that is spreading across the galaxy.

What they're doing, what evil things they are accomplishing, we don't really know.

They don't say, we just know they're bad.

There's a small rebel group that is fighting back, and they're trying to take down this evil

empire, and this rebel group has recently stolen some plans for a powerful weapon.

Now, this weapon is being designed by the empire, and they call it the Death Star.

And now, the Death Star is this big, round, globe ball battle station in the movie, and the rebels

need to destroy it. They figure that if they have the plans, maybe they can find a weakness

in the Death Star and destroy it. Will they destroy it? Wait. You'll find out later.

And, again, at the beginning of the movie, the empire is chasing a small rebel ship, because

they think this ship has the plans, and they're trying to get them back.

So, that is the beginning of the movie.

Now let's look at some of the characters. We have Luke Skywalker.

Luke is a farm boy

from the planet Tatooine, and he's the main hero, here. He's the one who's going to learn

how to use the force and save the day.

We have Princess Leia. She is there at the beginning

of the movie on the small rebel ship, and what she's going to do is give instructions

to R2D2, the little robot, to find Obi-Wan Kenobi.

So, Princess Leia.

We have Han Solo and Chewbacca.

Han Solo is the pilot of the Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca or Chewy is the

guy who just sounds like this: [Roaring noise].

He doesn't actually say anything, but somehow,

Han Solo can understand him, based on a roar.

It was the '70s, you know, people believed these things.

C3PO and R2D2... C3PO and R2D2, they kind of just carry us through the whole movie.

They're always present, they're two robots, two droids. C3PO is called a protocol droid,

whatever that means. And again, R2D2, another person, like Chewbacca, doesn't speak English,

just speaks in: [Bleeping noise], in little bleeps and bloops. Okay?

Darth Vader, everyone knows Darth Vader.

"Alex."

Yes, Emperor?

"I know Darth Vader."

I know you know Darth Vader.

Let me continue.

And we have Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a wise, old Jedi who teaches

Luke all about the force, and he's also enemies with Darth Vader. They have a lightsaber battle

at one point in the movie.

"A-ahem."

Yes, Emperor Palpatine?

"Where am I in this?"

You're not in this movie.

"Oh, that's right. I'm in the second one."

Yeah, you're in the second one.

Okay, now that we know the story, now that we know some of the characters,

let's go and look at the dialogue.

So, at the beginning of the movie, C3PO, R2D2,

they're running around the rebel ship, and C3PO says:

"This is madness! We're doomed!"

So: "This is madness!" Not: "This is Sparta!"

"This is madness" means, like, this is crazy, this is insane. I don't understand what's

happening. "We are doomed" means that we have no chance, we're dead. Okay?

So if you have a difficult test coming up, you could say:

"I'm doomed. I'm dead. I'm done." Okay?

Next, yes, yes, yes, yes. Then Vader comes on to the rebel ship, and he starts asking

questions. He starts pushing people around, he picks up one guy, he throws him against

the wall, and he asks:

"Where are those transmissions you intercepted?"

So, again, some of this vocabulary, you know, they are in space,

there are spaceships communicating with each other.

"Transmissions" are just communications that you intercepted. When you intercept something,

it means that you catch it before it gets to where it needs to go.

For example, the most common interception I think of is in football.

If a quarterback throws the ball and another player from another team catches it

before the intended receiver, the person

who is supposed to get the football, he intercepts the football. So, Vader is saying:

"We know that you got some of our messages.

We know you know that we're making a weapon, and I want those plans. Give them back."

All right, Vader then instructs his team, his commander, he says:

"Tear this ship apart until you've found those plans."

So, "to tear something apart", think of "tear", it means

[tearing noises],

to rip. Okay? So, "to tear apart" means destroy everything. Take... Doesn't

matter what you do, just destroy everything until you have found those plans. And then

he speaks to Princess Leia, and Princess Leia, she plays like she's stupid. She's like:

"I don't know what you're talking about. Plans? What plans? I am, you know, just a diplomat,

a politician. We're going to Alderaan, which is my home planet, and you know, I would...

I don't know what you're talking about."

So, Vader says:

"Leia, I know, I know. You are part of the rebel alliance, and a traitor."

So, "a traitor" is a person who does not do,

you know, what you want them to do, who does not follow, who is not loyal to a specific

cause. So, in, you know, the world of Star Wars, in this galaxy, Vader is expecting that

everyone follows the empire, listens to the empire. If you do something that is against

the empire, you are a traitor. Okay? In any country. You know, if you do something against

your country to betray them, you are a traitor. So, let's continue to the next scene.

So, Princess Leia actually lied to Darth Vader. What she did was put a copy of the plans into

R2D2, and she said, you know:

"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

So what happens on the rebel ship is R2D2 and C3PO

go inside and escape pod, and they get blasted off to

the desert planet of Tatooine. Now, C3PO, he's not happy, you know, he doesn't like

adventure, and now he is very angry at R2D2. R2D2 is set. He really wants to get these

plans to Obi-Wan Kenobi so that Obi-Wan can help Princess Leia

to defeat, you know, the evil empire.

So, they get to the planet, C3PO complains, he complains a lot. He says:

"I've got to rest before I fall apart."

He's a robot. Why do robots need to rest? Who knows?

"Before I fall apart. My joints are almost frozen."

Before I fall apart, "to fall apart" is to,

again, think of [breaking noises]

parts just falling off completely. So, a car can fall

apart. Something mechanical can fall apart. You can also say that you are falling apart

if, you know, your energy is not the same as it was before.

"My joints are almost frozen."

So, your joints are these parts of your body that connect, for example, your... One part

of your arm to the other part of your arm. Okay? So, if he says:

"My joints are almost frozen", this means

I can't move because my joints, these parts are almost frozen. Okay?

And he tells R2D2, because R2D2 wants to go in one direction in the desert, and C3PO wants

to go in another direction. He says:

"I've just about had enough of you."

So, if you say: "I have had enough", this means I have no more patience for you, I have no more tolerance

for you. I'm done. Okay? So, leave me alone. And he said to R2D2:

"Don't let me catch you following me."

So if you catch someone doing something, this means you see them doing something

they are not supposed to do. So, C3PO starts walking, looks behind him, he says:

"Don't let me catch you following me." All right?

And then C3PO starts talking to himself, he says:

"That malfunctioning little twerp."

If something malfunctions or is malfunctioning, this means it is not working properly. So

you could say, you know: "My laptop is malfunctioning.

My phone is malfunctioning." Anything, basically

mechanical could malfunction, means not work properly, or "break down" if you want to use

the phrasal verb. And "a little twerp", not a very common word in this century, but a

twerp, think of like a jerk, someone who is not nice.

"A-ahem."

Yes, Emperor Palpatine?

"I think you're a little twerp."

Thank you for that opinion. All right, let's continue.

So, eventually, C3PO and R2D2 get caught by these funny little people called Jawas, who

don't really speak English very well, and the Jawas sell C3PO, sell R2D2 to Uncle Owen

and Aunt Beru who are Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle. Finally, we meet Luke Skywalker.

And, you know, Luke is told to clean up the droids. He says he doesn't want to, because

he was going to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters.

And C3PO, R2D2, they're

with Luke, he's cleaning them up, and the message, you know, comes up. Luke sees Princess

Leia, and C3PO tells Luke eventually that, you know, R2D2 kept babbling on about his

mission. So, "to babble on" means to talk without stopping. If you're babbling, you're

[babbling noises],

not making a lot of sense, sometimes, but just speaking, speaking, speaking,

speaking, speaking. There's actually one of the first famous translation sites on the

internet was called BabbleFish.com, and again, BabbleFish.com means you could trade, you

know, one language and translate it to another language by putting any word you want in English,

and you could see it in French, or in Polish, or in German, whatever. Okay, and C3PO then

mentions that, you know:

"We will have no more of this Obi-Wan Kenobi gibberish."

talking to R2D2. Now, again, "gibberish" is language that does not make sense. So, if you say that

something is gibberish, it means that you do not understand. Like, if I just say:

Cat go down... That actually makes sense, cat go down, but any combination... I'm just too

trained to say words and sentences that make sense; I can't speak gibberish. But if you

say something that makes no sense, and you're like:

"What's...? I don't understand what you're saying",

you say: "That's gibberish." You know? Like, computer language could be

gibberish to someone who is not a computer programmer. So, that's gibberish to me,

I don't understand it. Okay?

And eventually what happens is Luke meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he trains him a little

bit, tells him about the force. And Luke says:

"What is the force?"

And Obi-Wan Kenobi says:

"Now, the force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living

things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together."

Yes, I have memorized that line since I was like 16 years old.

So... Because I wanted to know what the force was.

So, again, here we have three important words that I'm going to focus on.

"It surrounds us",

so if something surrounds you, it means it covers you on all sides. So, for example,

if there is a criminal and he's inside a house and the police want to catch the criminal,

they will surround the house or surround the building. So, Obi-Wan says:

"The force surrounds us. It's all around us."

Penetrates us, so to go inside of us, essentially, it breaks

through our skin, gets inside our souls and our hearts. Okay? And binds the galaxy together,

so when you think of the word "bind", think of something coming together. A police officer

will bind the hands of a criminal, or you can bind someone to something. So to tie together

tightly, tie together closely. So the empire kills Luke's uncle and aunt. They are dead,

just like very, very dead. All right?

And what ends up happening is Luke decides... Now, he wants to be a Jedi like his father

before him. And then we jump up to space and we have Tarkin who is kind of like Vader's

boss, it seems in a way, they have a strange relationship, and they're arguing around a

table about the force, about the plans, about Princess Leia because they have captured her

and they're trying to get information from her, and everyone's arguing. And Tarkin says:

"This bickering is pointless."

So, "bickering" means... It's very small arguing. Arguing

that is not important. So, if you bicker, you argue back and forth. Stop bickering,

stop arguing, stop fighting with your words. Okay? Something is pointless means it is not

useful. It is useless, it has no point. You will accomplish nothing by continuing.

And then Leia comes into the room, she sees Tarkin, and for some reason she starts speaking

in a British accent despite the fact that she was English before, like North-American

English, and she says:

"Tarkin, I recognized your foul stench when I got on board." So

"fowl" means terrible, awful, kind of discussing. And "a stench" is a terrible, terrible smell.

Okay? So you can say:

"Oh, this stench is so strong. This stench is so powerful. It is a terrible, terrible smell."

So, again, foul, bad, terrible, awful. Stench, a bad

smell. It's kind of like saying bad, bad. Bad smell. Okay?

And now that Luke has decided that he wants to be a Jedi, Obi-Wan starts training him.

And they end up at a spaceport, they meet Han Solo, they meet Chewbacca, they get a

ship, and they start travelling, you know, to Alderaan, because that's where the Princess'

home is. They've seen the message from the Princess, and now they're going to travel

there. And Obi-Wan starts training Luke, and Luke has the lightsaber. He's going back and

forth, and he keeps getting hit by these lasers from this little machine. And Obi-Wan says:

"Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them."

Okay? So, your eyes can deceive you. "To deceive"

means to trick or to fool. Okay?

So, we got Luke

[lightsaber noises]

with his lightsaber, and he puts a blast shield over

his face so he can't see, and this little machine is shooting at him, and he's going

[lightsaber noises],

and he keeps getting hit. And then Obi-Wan gives him this amazing advice:

"Don't trust your eyes, Luke. Don't trust them. Use the force."

And he's able to block some of the shots.

[Lightsaber noises].

Let's continue.

So the empire blows up Alderaan, they destroy Leia's home planet. And remember everyone

on the Millennium Falcon was on their way to this planet. Eventually, they all end up

on the Death Star. The Death Star is the big battle station that was being talked about

at the start of the movie. And Han Solo, he has a problem with Obi-Wan Kenobi, he starts

calling people foolish and fools, and Obi-Wan Kenobi says a very wise proverb, he says:

"Who's the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?"

So this basically means:

Who is a bigger idiot? Who is more foolish:

the fool, the stupid person, or the fool who

follows him, the stupid person who listens to the stupid person? I've never said the

word "stupid" in such a short amount of time so many times. All right.

Now, Han Solo, to him, money is the most important thing. He has been, you know, just travelling

along with Luke and R2D2 and C3PO, thinking he's going to get a lot of money for this

trip. And he wants out. He wants to stop. And then Luke says:

"There's a Princess, here, and if you were to rescue her, the reward,

the money you would get, would be more wealth than you can imagine."

So, here, Luke is using the second conditional. Right? You have your

"if" clause: If you were to rescue her, the reward would be more wealth than you can imagine.

Look at that. English from a grammar book in a movie. It's wonderful. All right.

So, eventually, Luke, everybody, they find Princess Leia, and Luke goes inside, you know,

dressed up as a Storm Trooper,

one of the guards of the empire. And Leia looks at him and says:

"Aren't you a little short to be a Storm Trooper?" She's using a negative question.

So, when do we use negative questions? We use negative questions when we expect the

answer to be yes, and basically, you know, we're just clarifying with the person. Leia's

trying to be funny, said:

"Aren't you a little short to be a Storm Trooper?"

And then Luke takes off the helmet, says:

"I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you!"

And then they make their daring escape.

And eventually, we come to the big battle between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi on

the Death Star. So, Luke, Leia, Han, everybody now is trying to escape the Death Star. And

Obi-Wan is fighting against Darth Vader. And Obi-Wan Kenobi is having a conversation, because

you know, they are teacher and student from the past. Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi says:

-"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

"A-ahem."

Yeah, Emperor Palpatine?

"Like, how did Obi-Wan become more powerful?

Like, didn't he just, like, sit on a log in the second movie, and just like talk to Luke?

And, like, did he actually do anything? Did he become more powerful?"

Well, that's actually a very good point, and the movie doesn't really answer that and the series doesn't answer

that, so good point, Emperor Palpatine.

All right, so Obi-Wan uses the second conditional, again:

"If you strike me down", if you do this... Okay?

"If you do this, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

I shall", and again, "shall" is a more formal way of saying "will". "I will become more

powerful than you can possibly imagine." And this is... I apologize, the first conditional,

not the second conditional. So:

"If you strike me down", "now", we're using a present verb,

if you do it now, "I shall become more powerful than you can imagine." So, to strike someone

down essentially means to kill them. All right?

And Vader says:

"Your powers are weak, old man. You should not have come back."

Now, here, I want to direct your attention to Darth Vader giving some past advice. All right?

So Darth Vader, he's a smart guy, he says:

"You should not have come back."

So, remember,

when you want to give advice in the past because, you know, Obi-Wan did come back, but Vader says:

"Not a good idea. You should have stayed where you are. You should not have come back."

"Should", plus "not", plus "have", plus the past participle: "You should not have come back."

All right? Let's continue.

I know, man, I was there. It was a great party. It was a great party. I got to get back to

this, okay? So, what happens? Oh, yeah. Vader kills Obi-Wan, and Luke sees this, and then

Luke, Leia, Han, and not Obi-Wan because he's dead, R2D2, C3PO, Chewy, they all escape the

Death Star. Now, the empire puts a tracking device on the Millennium Falcon, on their

ship, so they can follow them to the rebel base. Now, Luke, he just saw Obi-Wan Kenobi,

the man he loves and respects, even though he's known him for maybe just one day, two

days at this point, he's very sad because he watched him get killed. And he's very depressed,

you know, he's just sitting there, looking at his fingers, at his thumbs.

Leia is trying to comfort him. And Leia says:

"Luke, there wasn't anything you could have done."

So, Leia, again, talking about past possibility, she's saying:

"You could not have done anything. There was not anything you could have done."

So, past possibility,

you know, "could have", "might have", "may have", "must have". Here, she's saying:

"You could not. You did not have the ability to do anything to save Ben." All right.

So, they're escaping. And before they get back to their rebel base, they start getting

attacked by the empire, by the TIE fighters, who are trying to catch them and shoot at

them. And Han and Luke start

[shooting noises]

firing lasers in all directions, and Luke

hits a TIE fighter, and he says: "I got one!"

And Han says: "Great, kid! Don't get cocky!"

"Cocky" is a great word. "Cocky" means overconfident or a little bit arrogant.

So, you know, Han just wants Luke to know that, you know:

"Don't get cocky. Don't become overconfident. It's just one guy."

Never mind Luke just killed somebody, and he seems pretty cool with it,

so I don't know.

Then, they get back to the rebel ship and Han says:

"Guys, I am done. Give me my money. I am leaving."

And then Leia says, very disappointedly because, you know, maybe she likes Han, maybe

she doesn't, I don't know at this point. She says:

"Han, if money is all that you want, then that's what you'll receive."

We're going back to the first conditional again, here.

Right? So: "If money is all that you love", not "what you want": "what you love" in the

present simple, "then that's what you will receive" in the future. Okay?

So, now, things are getting really exciting. We are at the rebel base, everyone is there,

the empire is following them and is about to, you know, destroy the rebel base, and

we're about ready to get on with the final attack. So, let's do it. Are you ready, Jabba?

I don't blame you, Jabba, I would not have known that was Leia either. It was a good

costume. All right, so I'm going to get back to this again.

So, everyone is back at the rebel base. They are now planning for the final attack on the

Death Star. There's an old guy whose name we never learn, and he's giving instructions

to Luke and to all the other pilots about this run that they are going to do on the

Death Star, and this attack that they are going to engage in something. So, the old

guy gives the plan, and he says:

"A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station."

So they have the plans that were inside R2D2, and they have found

this one weak point in the Death Star, in the battle station. And the old guy says, you know:

"If you hit the small little hole, and it will go inside, and it will start a

chain reaction that should destroy the station."

"Precise" means exact. Okay? So, a precise

hit, a precise answer, a precise calculation or estimate. And "should destroy the station",

"a chain reaction". When you think of a chain reaction, think of the game dominoes. When

you push one domino, it hits the other domino, which hits the other domino, which hits the

other domino. So, this is a chain reaction where one action causes a whole other string,

a chain of actions. Okay?

And then, you know, they start the attack, they're going up against the Death Star. Luke

is inside his X-wing, and he destroys it, he destroys the Death Star. Han says:

"Great shot, kid! That was one in a million!"

So, the expression "one in a million" means something

that is rare, something that does not happen all the time.

"A-ahem."

Yeah, Emperor Palpatine?

"Didn't you think that Vader's TIE fighter was pretty cool?"

Yeah, it was pretty cool. It was a little bit different.

"Yeah, that... That was my idea."

Oh, really? I didn't know that.

"Yeah. Anyway, you... You can continue. I

just... I really wanted to mention that.

I'm very, very, very, very proud of that little TIE fighter."

All right, cool.

So, you know, Luke destroys the Death Star, and he hears Obi-Wan's voice in his head one

more time, telling him:

"The force will be with you, always."

So, Ben is using a promise.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is promising Luke that the force will be with you, always. Like saying:

I will always love you, or I will always be there. All right?

Whew. And that's the end of the movie, guys. I mean, I think we learned a lot today. Hopefully

when you watch this movie again, you'll keep a lot of this stuff in mind. It will make

a lot more sense to you. And really, if you enjoyed this video, like it, comment on it,

subscribe to the channel, check me out on Facebook and Twitter.

If you want to support engVid, you can always donate to the site.

And, if you want to check out, you know, maybe

the original Star Wars radio drama,

you can actually get a free download from Audible.com

by also clicking on the link, which is attached to this video.

Till next time, thanks for clicking.

And the force will be with you, always.

[Star Wars music].