English Vocabulary: Talking about BUGS and INSECTS

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

bugs and insects. So in this lesson, I'm actually going to get the help of one of my oldest

friends. This is Steve the Spider. We've known each other since high school. We were on the

basketball team together, on the swimming team together. He's a heck of a chess player.

And you know what? We lost contact for a long time, but he recently found me on Facebook.

And I thought, "You know what, Steve? I'm going to do a lesson on bugs and insects.

I think it would be really cool if you helped me." So here he is helping out,

Steve the Spider.

So this is a basic lesson on some of the vocabulary nouns that we use to talk about different

bugs and insects as well as some of the actions associated with those bugs and insects.

So to begin, we have caterpillars. And we are going to focus on pronunciation a bit

on this one, too. So repeat after me, everyone. "Caterpillars." Okay. So what do caterpillars

do? Well, they make cocoons and become butterflies. So here is a picture of a butterfly. Do you

like that butterfly, Steve? Yeah? It looks very nice, right? Okay. So here's a picture

of a caterpillar. They make cocoons, which is the home of the caterpillar before it becomes

a butterfly. All right? So caterpillars make cocoons and become butterflies.

Next, we've ladybugs. Here is a picture of a ladybug. Steven has dated many ladybugs

in his life. And ladybugs have black spots. I think it's the black spots that attract

him the most. So they have black spots. Here's a ladybug

-- red ladybug with some black spots on it.

Next, we've bees. And bees can sting you. So this little sharp stinger -- it's called

a "stinger" -- can sting you. Okay? They can sting you. So you can say, "I got a bee sting",

or "I got stung by a bee. I was stung by a bee." And bees, the sound they make, obviously,

is "bzzz", so we say, "Bees buzz."

Next, we've spiders who are cousins of Steve here. Spiders make webs." Steve has made many

a web in his life, and he's going to continue making webs for the rest of his life as well.

So if you've seen Spider-Man, you're familiar with spiders, and they make webs. Okay?

Next, we've ants. The same pronunciation like your aunt, which is you know, the sister of

your father or your mother. Ants live in colonies, so large groups or colonies. And here's a

picture of ants going to their home. This is actually called an "anthill", so an "anthill".

Ants live in colonies and anthills.

Next, mosquitoes. Mosquitoes can bite you and make you itchy. So mosquitoes are the

insects that like human blood. And you can say, "I was bitten by a mosquito", or "A mosquito

bit me." You can also say, "I have a mosquito bite." So if your hand is red and you're itchy

-- "itchy" means you want to scratch. Scratch, scratch, scratch. It's because you have a

mosquito bite.

Next, fireflies. Fireflies glow -- which means they give light -- and flicker. So when you

think of "flicker", thank of lights that go on, off, on, off. Okay? So they glow -- they

give light at night -- and they flicker. So here's a picture of a firefly giving light.

And finally, we have cockroaches, which very few people like. They have some uses, but

-- cockroaches have hard shells. So you know, the back of the cockroach, the shell of the

cockroach is very hard, which makes them crunchy and hard to kill. Depends on the size of your

boot. You would never hurt a cockroach, right, Steve? No, I didn't think so.

Okay. So just to review, let's do some pronunciation of all of these insects one more time. Repeat

after me. "Caterpillar". We'll use the singular. One more time, "caterpillar, ladybug, bee,

spider, ant, mosquito, firefly, cockroach". Okay.

So if you'd like to test your understanding of this material, as always, you can check

out the quiz on www.engvid.com. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Did you subscribe to my YouTube channel, Steve? Okay. We're going to go play some basketball,

so we'll talk to you guys later. See you.