Learn English with a POEM (Advanced American English Lesson 🇺🇲)

In this lesson, we're going to  review the pronunciation poem,  

but we're going to look only at the  vocabulary and the meaning of the words.

So if you haven't already watched  my review on the pronunciation poem,  

make sure you stop this video  and watch the other video.

Because in that other video  I explain the pronunciation,  

I explain each word, and we  review the poem in detail.

In this lesson, we're only focusing on the  vocabulary, the grammar, the expressions.

We're not talking about pronunciation.

Welcome back to JForrest

English, Of course.

I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

The pronunciation poem.

I take it you already know right here.

This is a really great expression.

I take it you already know the  expression is I take it, I take it.

And then you need a clause.

A clause is just a subject, verb, and  then maybe an object if necessary.

So the clause is.

You already know.

This alone is a complete sentence.

You already know.

I take it, you already know.

I take it.

In this case means, I assume.

I assume you already know.

So for example, let's say you see your coworker  and she or he looks really really happy.

You could say, oh you look happy.

I take it you heard about the bonuses.

Now this is the reason why  your coworker is really happy.

And by using I take it  you're saying, oh, I assume.

I assume you heard about the bonuses and  this is the reason why you're really happy.

Now you could use this with a negative emotion.

You look sad.

I take it you heard about the layoffs,  which means you might lose your job.

So you can use this in any with any  emotion and it means the same as I  

assume you can also use this in  a more everyday social situation.

For example, I take it they're going to the party.

I assume they're going to the party.

So remember this is our clause.

The clause doesn't have to be with a you,  

but generally the subject is I I don't hear  this very much with we take it, she takes it.

So for now I would recommend  using it with I take it.

I assume that let's continue.

I take it you already know of  tough and bow and cough and dough.

OK, tough.

This is another way of  saying difficult, difficult.

We also use it as an adjective to describe  someone who is very physically strong.

She's really tough.

He's really tough, which means like  physically they can handle themselves in,  

in situations where they need to  handle themselves physically now.

So you might use it more in  a sports context where it's  

important for an athlete to be tough,  like another way of saying strong.

But in a more everyday you and  I usage, it means difficult.

Oh, that exam was really tough.

That exam was difficult.

Now remember, this poem is  specific for pronunciation,  

so they're choosing words to show  you how pronunciation changes.

This word.

I had no idea what it was and I had  to look it up in the dictionary.

The pronunciation is Bao.

Let me write that bow, which is the  same as this motion what I'm doing.

Let's say you're you're meeting  the queen or the king or royalty.

You would bow when you lower  your head and your upper body.

I can't do it fully because of the  microphone here, but you get it.

You bow or before you pray you would  bow your head to pray in some cultures.

So that's bow.

Now what is?

That's the pronunciation.

But what is this?

It's a large branch of a tree and bow.

I had no idea.

A large branch of a tree.

I have never said the word bow in  my life, nor do I think you will.

So just ignore this.

But I did teach you what bow means.

Cough dough is a mixture of flour,  

eggs, water that is used to make  bread, pasta, many other things.

So it's the mixture before it becomes the  bread or the pasta you have the dough.

So those are the ingredients combined together.

But they're not cooked yet.

They're the raw ingredients.

Let's continue.

Others may stumble.

Now when you stumble, let's say you're walking  and then you maybe move in a weird way,  

or there's an uneven surface and you trip a  little but you don't fall, but you almost fall.

You call that a stumble?

So whoa, but you don't fall.

So to walk in an awkward way and  you almost fall, but you don't fall.

Now we also use this with languages when you  make a mistake, especially with speaking.

Oh, I always stumble on my words.

So just like you're walking  and whoa, you almost fall,  

you're speaking and you you can't think  of a word you say, the wrong word.

You mispronounce a word you can say.

I stumbled on my words.

I hope I don't stumble on my  words during the presentation.

I wrote that there for you.

Others may stumble, but not you.

And honestly, if you're speaking during  a presentation and you do stumble,  

don't worry, You just need to move on.

OK, let's continue on hiccup.

Hiccup.

Let me read these first on hiccup.

Thorough laugh and through.

OK, so remember, these were for pronunciation.

I'm sure you know what they mean,  but do you know what hiccup means?

Just remember, in American  English this is spelled hiccup,  

which is a lot easier to  guess the pronunciation of it.

So when you hiccup, you make a noise  in your throat, but it's unintentional,  

which means you don't want to make it.

And often the noise will happen every 10 seconds,  

20 seconds, every 30 seconds for a period  of time, maybe 10 minutes or 5 minutes.

This is a hiccup.

That's the hiccups.

So we say, oh, I have the hiccups.

I have the hiccups.

I actually get the hiccups quite frequently.

I have the hiccups.

I'm going to use the American spelling.

I have the hiccups now.

I don't know in your culture,  actually, this is an interesting point.

In your culture, do they have  a a remedy for the hiccups?

A way to get rid of the hiccups?

So, oh, I have the hiccups.

What would your friend or family member  or coworker tell you to get rid of them?

In North America, at least  generally, we say drink some water.

Oh, I have the hiccups.

Drink some water.

That will get rid of them.

But we have this other remedy where when someone  has the hiccups, you're supposed to scare them.

And then they're supposed  to get rid of the hiccups.

Likely because when you're scared, you  take in a really, really big breath.

And that probably big breath of air helps to  clear your throat and get rid of the hiccups.

So if you have the hiccups in North  America, someone might try to scare you.

Does that exist in your culture?

OK, so on hiccup, thorough,  thorough means completely.

So you could say I I had a  thorough conversation with my boss.

So you had a complete  conversation, a full a detailed.

You discussed absolutely  everything you needed to discuss.

We had a thorough conversation,  discussion, meeting.

Now this is commonly used in the adverb form,  

so you could say we discussed  the issue thoroughly, thoroughly.

You could also add it here  because adverbs are flexible.

We thoroughly discussed the issue.

To be honest, you can remember it  here because it's always easier  

to remember that adverb verb, and  that's correct most of the time.

So let me change the placement for you.

We thoroughly discussed the issue.

We had a thorough conversation.

So this is an ad, adjective adjective  because it modifies the noun.

Conversation is the noun,  and then we have the adverb.

It is more commonly used as an adverb than  an adjective, but obviously it's possible.

And remember, this is specific for pronunciation.

Let's continue.

I'll highlight these for  you and then we'll continue.

And don't worry about taking  all of these notes because I  

summarize everything in a free lesson PDF.

So you can look for the link in the  description to download the PDF.

Let's continue.

And cork and work and card and ward.

OK, cork, this is a cork.

It is the top of a wine bottle, so  this is the top of a wine bottle.

I have a lot of these in my house  because my cats love playing with these.

I throw them and they go crazy  for them and they don't play with  

any of the expensive toys I've bought for them.

They play with a cork that I got for free,  so this is a cork and work and card and ward.

A ward is an area of a hospital or a  prison, likely other things as well,  

but these are the two that I'm familiar with.

For example, there's a children's ward in a  hospital, so an area of the hospital that's  

only for children during the pandemic and  likely still today there's a COVID ward.

There's an area of the hospital  specific for people who have COVID,  

and honestly I don't know what the  different areas of a prison are.

I don't know much about prisons.

However, this is interesting.

I just thought of it because the the the  person in charge of a prison is called  

the warden, the warden, and that's  probably where that word came from.

Ward warden.

I never thought about that because like I said,  I don't think about prisons too frequently.

But Warden Ward, the warden, is the  person in charge of the entire prison.

Or like the CEO of the prison.

OK, let's continue and font  and front and word and sword.

I don't think there's anything  you wouldn't know here.

Well done.

And now, if you wish.

Perhaps, perhaps is another word for  maybe they mean exactly the same thing.

Perhaps the only difference is maybe.

The only difference is is that  perhaps is a little more formal.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's  the formal version of maybe,  

but it just sounds slightly more  formal and maybe just sounds everyday.

Maybe does not sound slang or informal at all,  

but when you see them side by side,  it sounds slightly more formal.

Otherwise it's the same meaning.

Perhaps I'll go to the the party.

Maybe I'll go to the party to learn  of less familiar traps, a trap.

This is a useful expression because it represents  a a difficult situation without an escape.

An escape meaning you can't get  out of that difficult situation.

For example, when I was a kid, I would  often complain to my dad that I was bored.

I'm bored.

I have nothing to do because I wanted him to  entertain me or suggest a way to entertain myself.

But every time I said that I'm  bored, I have nothing to do.

He would always say, well I  have some chores for you to do.

You can clean the floors, you can  vacuum, you can prepare dinner and  

he would always give me something  obviously a kid does not want to do.

This is when I was 13 years old.

And of course I don't want to do chores.

So that's the difficult situation, having  to do chores, cleaning the bathroom,  

the kitchen, and there's no escape.

How can I escape it?

I just told my dad I have nothing to do,  so I can't say, oh actually I have homework  

because I just told him I don't have anything  to do so I have no reason not to do the chore.

So after I can say, oh, I can't  believe I fell for that trap.

Now to fall for it means that you  weren't expecting it to happen.

So this could happen in a situation at work where  maybe you're telling you your Co worker says, oh,  

do you have any plans after work  on Thursday and you say, Oh no,  

just going home, just gonna  watch a movie, nothing to do.

And then your Co worker could say,  

Oh well I really could use your  help on finishing the report.

And since you don't have anything  to do, why don't you help me?

And then you could say I can't  believe I fell for that trap.

So it's a fun expression that you can use.

OK, let's continue.

Beware of heard a dreadful word that  looks like beard and sounds like birds.

So of course a beard is the hair on a man's face.

Well, not all over his face, just  in a concentrated area of his chin.

That would be the beard that looks like  beard and sounds like bird and dad.

It said like bed not bead.

OK, a bead.

This is used to make a lot of jewelry.

You could use it to make a  pillow or or other items as well.

But the individual balls and you can put them  

through a string and you can form a  necklace or you can form a bracelet.

Those would be beads.

It's way easier to explain with  a picture, so here are pictures.

This is an individual bead and then  you use many beads to make a necklace,  

make a bracelet, or make some other art and craft.

Generally used to make jewelry.

But like I said, you could make  a pillow entirely out of beads.

Actually, I believe there are some beads on  the very colorful flower pillow behind me.

I believe there's some beads as well.

So that's a bead.

I'm sure you own some beaded  jewelry or beaded items.

I think every single person has  something made out of beads,  

or has made something out of  beads at one point in their life.

For goodness sakes, don't call it deed.

This is an expression.

Maybe you've heard it for Goodness sake is  used to express either a positive emotion  

or a negative emotion, but it is more used in  in negative emotions, frustration, annoyance.

Let's say you're with a friend,  a coworker, husband, wife,  

family member, and you're at a a store  that sells jewelry all made out of beads.

And the person you're with is taking a  really long time to pick out a necklace.

And after 20-30 minutes, you say for  goodness sake, just pick a necklace.

So you're using that to show your frustration,  your annoyance with the situation.

Now in the poem it has it in the plural form,  

which I do hear, but just know that it  is more common in the singular form.

And technically there is a possessive in the  writing because the sake belongs to goodness.

So technically there's a possessive here,  

but you wouldn't hear that in pronunciation,  and generally it's in the singular form.

For goodness sake, just pick a necklace.

For goodness sakes, don't call it deed.

Let's talk about deed.

Because you may have heard of a  good deed, you should do good deeds.

A deed is simply an intentional act,  so an action that you do intentionally,  

which means on purpose you plan to do it.

Now some people, and I think  this is an amazing initiative,  

is they try to do at least one good deed a day.

So they try to do something  positive for another person,  

and they do it intentionally  on purpose every single day.

So maybe you're at the grocery store and you see  an elderly man struggling with his groceries,  

and you could help him take  those groceries to the gar,  

to the car, and then you could say  I've done my good deed for the day.

You don't technically have to say  good I've done my deed for the day,  

but because deed can also be a negative act.

We generally specify my good deed.

I try to do one good deed a day.

I try to do 5 good deeds a day.

Why limit it to one?

I've done my good deed for the day.

Watch out for meat and grate and threat.

So remember we're focusing on vocabulary.

I don't think there's anything we  need to discuss for vocabulary.

They rhyme with sweet and straight and debt.

OK, suite.

This is a room at a hotel.

They refer to that as a suite.

I booked a suite for three nights, for example,  so I booked a room at the hotel for three nights.

I booked a suite first three nights.

Now we also use this to identify an apartment  or condo building, usually for mail purposes.

So let's say your your address is on Main Street.

This is the name of your street  and your apartment building.

Your condo building is 100 Main  Street, but you live in Suite 304,  

which means apartment number, unit number Ste.

number three O 4.

So generally that's on the third floor and it's  the fourth unit, the 4th suite on the third floor.

So we also use this for apartments and condos.

Apartments, condos and hotels.

To say the unit a moth is not a moth  in mother, so a moth is an insect.

An insect with wings, like an ugly  butterfly, I guess not to say it's ugly,  

the poor Moss, but compared to a  butterfly, it's not as beautiful.

They're usually white or  brown and they have wings.

So I'll just write that for you.

Insect, flying insect, flying insect.

They really like light, like most all insects.

So they're the ones that are always around  your lights when you're trying to go to sleep.

Maybe a moth.

A moth is not a moth in  mother, nor both in bother.

Broth in brother.

So again, for pronunciation purposes, But broth.

This is the liquid used to form a soup.

So you could have chicken broth, which  is the the liquid in your chicken soup.

Or it doesn't have to be  chicken, it could be anything.

It could be vegetable broth,  meat broth, mushroom broth.

It can be a specific type of vegetable,  

Even so that's broth, the liquid  generally used to make soup.

A chicken broth.

Liquid in soup, broth.

So you can say this broth is delicious.

Did you make this broth yourself?

And here is not a match for there  and dear and fear for bear and pear.

OK, again, I don't think there's  anything for vocabulary here.

And then there's dose and rose and lose.

OK.

So dose, this is a medical term and it's how much  the quantity of a medication, that's the dosage.

So you could say I'm on a low dose of aspirin.

So dose is the measurement of that medication.

So maybe that represents 100 milligrams, but the  person wouldn't know whoever you're talking to.

So you would have to, if you wanted to know,  you would have to ask them, oh how much is it?

But it's just the measurement  used for medication and then lose.

This is of course the opposite of win.

So opposite of win, for example, we lost the game.

That's the past simple.

We lost the game.

Just look them up and goose and choose  and do and go then Thwart and cart.

OK, let's talk about Thwart.

Thwart is a verb, and when something thwarts  something, it prevents it from happening.

For example, the rain.

The rain thwarted my plans.

Remember, thwart is a verb, so  here is conjugated in the past.

Simple.

The rain always thwarts my plans.

So here is conjugated in the present simple  and this is the something the rain and this  

something prevents, which is the verb  thwart something else from happening.

The rain thwarted my plans.

The rain always thwarts my plans.

Come, come.

I've hardly made a start.

Hardly is another way of saying barely, barely.

So it means a small amount.

If I say I've hardly made a start,  it means I have made a start.

To make a start just means start.

There's no difference here.

So you can say to put it in an  easier to understand way, started.

I've hardly started.

I've barely started.

So you have started but just a very small amount.

Sometimes students will say  I hardly worked this weekend.

Now this actually means I worked  a small amount this weekend.

A very small amount.

But what they actually wanted to say was I worked  

hard this weekend because they  forgot that hard is the adverb.

So hardly does not mean hard, hardly means a small  amount, which is actually the opposite of hard.

So English can be confusing with pronunciation,  but it can also be confusing with vocabulary.

So if you want to impress your boss,  

don't say I hardly worked this,  let's say week instead of weekend.

I hardly worked this week.

Your boss will be very upset if you say this.

You wanna tell your boss I worked hard this week.

This will impress your boss, so I'll write that.

Just so you remember, I'll write.

Not a lot.

Not a lot.

So a small amount of.

That's what hardly works.

I'll write that here as well because  barely hardly means the same thing.

A small amount of or not a lot.

Whatever is easier for you to remember.

I did a small amount of work this week.

I did not a lot of work this week.

I hardly worked this week.

I worked hard this week.

You worked a lot this week.

That's what this one means, A dreadful language.

Let's talk about dreadful.

This is the second time we're seeing it,  but I didn't explain it at the beginning.

A dreadful language.

Dreadful means very unpleasant  or very bad quality.

So here a dreadful language.

The poem is suggesting that English,  

the English language is very unpleasant  because of how difficult it is to pronounce,  

and also because of how difficult vocabulary  and grammar can be as well a dreadful language.

Hopefully you don't think that about English, but  you could say, for example the movie was dreadful.

Your friend asked you how is the movie  dreadful, which means very unpleasant.

But remember it also means  bad quality, poor quality.

So if someone asks you how was the restaurant now  

you could say the food was dreadful  to focus on the quality of the food.

But you could also talk about  the quality of the service.

The the service was dreadful.

The decoration was dreadful.

So there could be different elements.

But we'll just say food or  service, the two most common ones.

The food was dreadful.

We use this to describe the weather a lot.

Oh, the weather was dreadful today.

It thwarted my plans.

The dreadful weather thwarted my plans.

So I hardly worked.

Ah, we're using all of it together now, OK?

A dreadful language.

Man alive.

I'd mastered it when I was 5.

And yet to write it.

The more I sigh.

Huh.

That's a sigh.

Huh.

I sigh.

Huh.

OK.

And yet to write it.

The more I sigh, I'll not  learn how until the day I die.

OK, Notice here I'll not learn.

So this is a contraction.

I will.

But let me rate this for you.

I will.

I will not learn how until the day I die.

So this is correct.

I will not learn how, but when  we form a contraction with the  

future simple in the negative,  we don't form it like this.

This is considered outdated English.

This poem was written a long time ago,  

so at the time of the poem I'm sure  that this was modern usage of the word.

But today this is not modern usage.

It's grammatically correct but not used today.

So it's outdated.

It's not modern, not used today.

You should not use it.

It will sound awkward.

You should say I.

Do you know what you should say?

I won't learn how I won't.

So this is the modern usage of how we  form a contraction today, used today.

So again, if you say this, sure  you'll be grammatically correct,  

but you will sound very weird.

Don't say it.

Say I won't learn how until the day I die.

And if you ever forget,  

just don't use the contraction and say I  will not learn how until the day I die.

So now you know both the pronunciation of the  

pronunciation poem and you know the  vocabulary in the pronunciation poem.

So now you can say, Oh no, English isn't a  dreadful language, you just need to learn it.

And you have a great teacher.

Hopefully you think so, a great  teacher to help you master it.

So now you've mastered the pronunciation poem.

Amazing job.

You've mastered the pronunciation poem.

Congratulations.

In a previous lesson you  mastered the pronunciation,  

and in this lesson you've mastered the vocabulary.

So now you can tell everyone that  you know the pronunciation poem,  

and you can quiz them, see if they know the  pronunciation, see if they know the vocabulary.

And that will make you realize how  advanced you are with your English.

So amazing job.

Celebrate this accomplishment.

Put woohoo.

Put woohoo in the comments because  you've mastered the pronunciation poem.

Put woohoo in the comments and  you can get this free speaking  

guide where I share 6 tips on how to  speak English fluently and confidently.

You can click here to download it or  look for the link in the description.

And you can keep improving your  English with this lesson right now.