Learn English With News: Advanced English Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation | Free English Lesson

Welcome to this lesson to help you learn English with the news.

We're going to read a news article together and you're going to learn a lot of advanced

grammar, natural vocabulary, correct sentence structure, and even the correct pronunciation

directly from reading this article with me.

Of course I'm Jennifer from JForrestEnglish.com.

And this is your place to become a fluent confident English speaker.

Let's get started.

Hello, hello.

Welcome to our article.

As you can see, we're talking about Britney Spears.

Personally, I don't really like celebrity gossip too much, but I do like Britney Spears

and you are going to learn a lot in this lesson.

So let me start with our title.

Sam Asghari responds to rumors he's controlling Britney Spears, social media.

So this of course is sound Ascari and hopefully needs no introduction.

Britney Spears.

Let's continue on.

Sam Asghari is addressing whether he's overstepping when it comes to his wife, Britney Spears.

All right, let's look here.

Of course you know what an address is right.

If someone asked you, what's your address?

What's the company's address?

You know what that is?

But this is not the same, right?

Because address What's your address?

That's a noun and this here is a verb, a verb and I know it's a verb because one is conjugated.

It's in the continuous form and here's my verb to be in the present continuous.

So this is the verb to address to address.

And this means to give attention to or to deal with a matter or problem.

So in this case, you can think Sam Askari has a problem.

The problem is, other people are saying that he's controlling Britney Spears.

That's the problem.

So he's going to address that he's going to deal with it.

He's going to give it attention.

Now this is a very useful for in a business context and in an everyday context, as well.

In a business context, you might say, let's schedule a meeting to address why our sales

are falling.

So this is your problem.

Sales are fine.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a problem that you address a generally it's some sort

of situation that needs attention.

And most of the time if a situation is positive, it doesn't really need attention.

So just naturally we use this to address in a more problem based situation.

So this is the problem sales are falling, and we simply need to discuss it we need to

deal with it.

We need to give attention to it.

So let's schedule a meeting to address why our sales are falling.

Or perhaps you're giving a summary of a meeting or a conference you attended and you can say

the conference address addressed marketing trends for 2023.

So in this case, it isn't necessarily a problem.

They're just talking about the overall subject that the conference was giving attention to

marketing trends for 2023.

The conference addressed so in this case, it isn't a problem base, so it is absolutely

possible.

But you'll see more and problem based situations and of course addresses a verb so you have

to conjugate it here.

I have it in the past simple.

Okay, so Sam Asghari is addressing whether he is overstepping to overstep.

This is very useful when you overstaffed.

It means you involve yourself in matters that you shouldn't.

So in this case, Sam as Gauri, why would he decide what Britney Spears posts on her social

media is her social media right?

So he is involving himself in a situation that he has no right to involve himself in,

that is over stepping.

So we see this again a lot in a business situation.

For example, I know I'm only a junior employee, and I don't want to overstep, but I have a

suggestion about how we can improve our sales.

So let's say you're in this meeting, you're a junior employee, you should only really

be listening taking notes and the executives or the more senior people are discussing this

sales issue.

And then but you have an idea, but you might be involving yourself when you have no right

to based on your position within the company.

So you can see that a lot when there's some sort of a hierarchy.

And perhaps people in the lower part of the hierarchy should not be involving themselves,

and if they do, we could use the verb overstep but remember, there's a hierarchy in families,

there's a hierarchy, even in friendships.

So you can use this in everyday situations as well.

So here's the definition for you to involve yourself when you have no right to you shouldn't

I'll give you one other example because we do commonly see this for example with the

police or government.

They have power and authority, right, but there's certain things they should and shouldn't

do, right?

So maybe someone might say the police overstepped when they searched the residence without a

warrant.

A warrant in North America is a legal document that gives the police the authority to search

someone's personal property.

So if they don't have that warrant, they are overstepping.

So that's another example for you.

Okay.

So Sam Asghari is dealing with addressing whether he is over stepping when it comes

to his wife Britney Spears, when it comes to this is good as well.

This is another way of saying regarding regarding we use them a lot at the beginning of a sentence.

So that's how I'll show you how to use it because I think this will help you sound quite

advanced, you might say when it comes to our sales strategy, just because we've been talking

about sales and my other examples when it comes to our sales strategy.

We need to involve the marketing department.

Okay.

When it comes to our sales strategy, so this is how I can introduce what topic I'm going

to be talking about.

Remember, it's the same as saying regarding regarding our sales strategy, so it's exactly

the same.

It seems a little bit longer, which it is, but it is a very nice expression.

It's a very advanced expression it will sound very natural so you can use it at the beginning

when you want to state the topic.

And then you can state your opinion.

You might say, for example, we use this a lot with opinions.

So you might say when it comes to social media, I prefer you to so you're stating your opinion

and what's your opinion on the topic is social media and you're using when it comes to to

identify that topic when it comes to All right.

Let's continue on.

The fitness trainer 28 This is his age he is 28 the fitness trainer 20 A touched on

speculation that he's controlling what the Grammy Award winner 41 This is of course Britney

Spears.

She's the Grammy Award winner.

What the Grammy Award winner 41 posts on Instagram after she previously admitted that her social

spots were alive.

During her 13 year conservatorship as she accused father Jamie Spears of controlling

much of her life.

Basically what this is saying is previously Britney Spears father Jamie Spears was controlling

her social media and Britney Spears admitted that a lot of her posts were actually not

written by her.

So it's easy to think that maybe now her husband is doing the same thing that her father did.

Let's take a look at this.

This is a very useful phrasal verb the phrasal verb is to touch on.

When you touch on a topic a situation.

It means you talk about it briefly briefly means for a short period of time.

And this is a phrasal verb to touch on something to touch on something there's something being

the topic.

So let's say you're in a meeting and there's only 10 minutes left in you want to talk about

the sales strategy, but it's a big topic.

You can talk about it in 10 minutes.

You might say something like let's quickly touch on the sales strategy.

Before we wrap up, wrap up this is a phrasal verb as well and this is the most natural

way to say before we end the meeting, you can say and the meeting but that's really

more of a literal translation.

Native speakers don't really say let's end the meeting.

Well, we do but we more commonly say let's wrap up.

Let's wrap up.

That's the natural way to say and a meeting.

Let's wrap up so that's what that means before we end the meeting before we wrap up.

So let's quickly touch on.

So let's just talk about it briefly.

I'm not going to talk about everything.

I'm just going to talk about a few areas.

So you can do that when you have a big topic and you only want to talk about it a little

bit.

So that's a very useful phrasal verb.

Now you may be wondering what speculation is touched on speculation speculation is a

noun, but we also have it as a verb which is to speculate so this is the noun form.

The verb form is to speculate.

When you speculate, you guess possible answers to a question, but you don't actually have

all the information to be certain.

So let's say that there's a problem at work.

And I have some information, I might say if I had to speculate, I'd say that and then

I would guess the cause of the problem.

So when we use to speculate if I had to speculate, we're letting the person know this is just

what I think happened.

But I'm not 100% Sure.

So here using it as a noun is talking about speculation.

It's his guess it's his guess about what happened.

So the fitness trainer touched on speculation that he's controlling.

So notice the speculation is about him.

So other people are guessing that he's controlling but they don't actually know.

So it's saying that they don't have evidence that her husband, Sam Asghari is controlling

her they're just speculating, they're just speculating.

So that's what how we use it.

I might say, I think Jane wrote the report, but I'm just speculating.

So I'm letting you know that I have some evidence to support that, but I'm not 100% Sure.

Another sentence structure is if I had to speculate, I'd say I would say that Jane wrote

the report is another way of saying if I had to guess, if I had to guess so really, it's

a fancy way of saying guess what it's very common and get comfortable with it in the

noun form, and the verb form because we use it in both.

All right, let's continue on.

Okay, now, this is quotation mark.

So somebody is saying this, and this is what Sam Asghari her husband said.

He said, I don't even control what we have for dinner, Asghari recently joked to photographers,

according to Just Jared, Just Jared, this must be some sort of online magazine or maybe

it's a social media channel.

I don't know what it is.

But it's the name of some sort of company or publication.

Now, this is a joke.

A joke is of course funny haha.

And it's funny because he's saying, How can I control her social media?

I can't even control what she eats for dinner.

So he's making a joke out of it, which is actually kind of funny.

I laughed a little at least.

All right.

In the past, there has been a lot of stuff going on.

So I understand where some fans are coming from.

He explained of the accusations.

They're just being protective, if anything, they're being good France.

So Sam s Gauri is explaining why people are speculating are guessing why people are speculating

that he is controlling Britney Spears, Vidya, this is his explanation.

So he could say, if I had to speculate if I had to guess why people think I'm controlling

Britney Spears.

If I had to speculate, I'd say it's because and then you could continue right here.

I'd say it's because there has been a lot of stuff going on.

So that's what he is saying he's guessing this is the reason but remember, it's not

100% He has some evidence, but he's not 100% Certain.

I don't think there's anything else I need to explain here.

If I'm missing things that you don't understand, feel free to share.

In the comments.

So I know in future lessons, what to talk about because I don't see any grammar concepts

or unnecessary vocabulary that I think needs to be explained in this paragraph.

But if I'm wrong, let me know in the comment section.

They're just being protected.

If anything, they're being good fans.

I guess the only thing I'll point out is what does this mean?

When you have a square bracket, when you have a square bracket, which is highlighted here?

It means that the actual words that sound asfari Or whoever said this, the actual words

have been changed slightly.

So remember, this is a quote when you see quotation marks, it means those exact words

came out of the person's mouth.

So Sam Askari in an interview perhaps or he wrote it on his Instagram.

He said in the past, there has been no he said all of this except sound escorting did

not say some fans are.

He probably said I understand where they are coming from.

Usually when we have square brackets, the journalist or the interviewer changed the

words for clarity, because Sam Ascari probably said I understand where they're coming from.

They are coming from I understand where they're coming from.

But who is they?

If we only have this one bit of his speech, we don't know who they are.

So the interviewer or the journalist changed it to some fans so we understand who they

represents.

That is what is usually the case when you see square brackets.

Okay, hopefully that was helpful.

Was that interesting for you to learn?

Again, I'm trying to understand what you want me to teach you from these articles.

So please let me know in the comments, comments, if I'm explaining parts that are useful or

if there are other parts of the lesson you would have liked me to explain?

Please let me know because it will help me improve for future lessons.

Okay, let's continue suspicion around Brittany social media activity group earlier this month

when she celebrated her birthday with a tribute to her younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears with

whom she had previously been feuding.

So let's take a look here.

She had previously been viewing.

This is the past perfect, continuous and we use it for a past action that happens before

another past action.

So on our timeline, let's say she feuded with her sister feud is another way of saying fighting

perhaps you don't know this and let me point this out.

It's not as common So honestly, I would stick with the word fighting.

It's way more commonly used than feuding, but it means the same thing feuding fighting.

So she and her sister had a fight.

They were feuding, but something else happened.

What is that something else?

She celebrated her birthday with a tribute.

So this is and the past simple, but it happened after the feud.

So we have let's say on Monday viewed well with Sister Wednesday.

celebrate birthday with tribute.

Okay.

So this action is in the past simple and this action is in the past perfect.

The continuous can also be used.

The continuous is used when you want to focus on the duration of the action, the past perfect

is used when you just want to more focus on the action, the result of the action, not

the actual duration of the action.

So I could say we had feuded before I made that video tribute for her birthday, we had

feuded before I made that video tribute for her birthday so notice past perfect.

I could have said we had been feuding if I want to focus on the action in progress, which

is fine.

Both of them are grammatically correct.

It just shifts where do you want to focus on just focusing on the results of it we had

feuded before I made that video.

So notice past simple because the action is the later action and past perfect for the

earlier action.

Okay, so that's a very good grammar concept is one of those concepts.

All students kinda know the past perfect and how it relates but most of them don't really

know how to use it in their speech.

So try a few examples.

Just think about your week.

What did you do on Monday?

What did you do on Wednesday or Tuesday, Thursday doesn't matter.

And then just try to form sentences.

I had gone to the mall before I watched the movie and just make some examples based on

your day.

It's good practice to do a few few examples every single day.

And you'll get really comfortable using the past perfect.

Ascari previously defended his wife social media activity after she began posting some

risque content, following the termination of her conservatorship last November.

Let's just take a look at this word.

Notice the pronunciation you might notice this little accent.

Obviously the English alphabet does not have this accent.

So we pronounce it according to French pronunciation rules, which is when you have this accent

to pronounce it as a risk a risk a risk a so that's how you pronounce it.

Just remember that is not English pronunciation we Borel the pronunciation, the French Okay,

now what does this mean risk a content is an adjective.

When you describe something as risky, is something that it shocks you a little bit just a little

bit.

It's not like oh my god, it's just like, Oh, it's just a little bit shocking, a little

bit shocking.

Usually because of sex, there's something related to sex.

So a little bit shocking.

So maybe you're watching a movie

with your kids.

And there's a scene in the movie that is risque.

So maybe there's some, you know, certain attire or some scenes involving some kissing, but

it's a little risque.

There's more than you would expect, but it's not like close your eyes.

It's just a little bit risque.

So let's say your friend is on vacation at the beach, and she posts some photos of herself

in a bikini in a very certain pose.

Right?

And she puts that on social media.

You might say, Wow, your photo was a little risque meaning, you know, there's a slightly

shocking I didn't expect you to host that photo.

Let's continue on.

The only person in the world that gets bullied for posting things like this Asghari wrote

on his Instagram story earlier this month.

I personally preferred she never posted these.

Oh, who am I to control someone that's been under a microscope and been controlled for

most of her life.

So I guess he's saying I personally preferred she never posted these, these being I assume

risque photos, risque photos, I don't fall over these fears on Instagram, but I imagined

she could post risque photos.

Okay, risque photos.

So again, a little bit shocking, right.

I'm going to highlight two words.

And I want you to think about why did I highlight these two words?

There's something grammatically odd, perhaps incorrect about the two words that I highlighted.

Do you know what that is?

Well, your clue is person and someone because we should grammatically we should use who?

Who that is for objects things.

Who is for people who is Ben.

Now, this apostrophe as represents hats.

So we need that with who?

Who has equals as a contraction?

Who's oops, okay.

So yes, technically, this is incorrect grammatically.

And if you are taking your ILT or submitting a formal business report or an academic report,

you should absolutely use who for people and that for objects, but I'll be honest, native

speakers make this mistake and we use that instead of who, all the time is just something

we do.

In more casual speech.

You'll see it all over the place on social media.

And if you're wondering, why are they doing this, it's grammatically incorrect.

Yeah, it is grammatically incorrect and yet we do it anyway.

So just for you to be safe just remember who we people that with objects.

I'll just this is a expression to be under a microscope.

And I think you can imagine what that means.

So, um, you put something under a microscope so you can see it.

Every single detail very clearly, right?

Scientists put something under the microscope and they examine it and they get to see every

single detail.

We use this as an expression to say that we feel like we are being examined too closely,

and we use it as a negative.

So you might say my new boss makes me feel like I'm under a microscope.

He always checks up on me.

So to check up on someone is just imagine you're working and then all of a sudden your

boss, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

How's it going?

Did you finish that report?

Did you do this every five every 10 minutes or you get you know, the person might not

be there but they might send you a message.

How's it going?

What are you doing?

Are you working on that report?

When's it going to be done?

That is to check up on someone to inquire about their status basically, but you can

imagine you feel like you're being watched very closely if somebody is constantly doing

that, right.

So generally, we use this expression as a negative to say we're being watched too closely.

You can use it with a work situation a co worker, a boss, you can use it in a family

situation, a parent, even a friend could make you feel like you're under a microscope.

Okay, I wrote out the definition here for you.

So I'm sure there's someone in your life maybe maybe not that makes you feel like you are

under a microscope.

Oh, all right.

Let's continue on.

Spears and Asghari tie the knot in June during an intimate ceremony with 60 guests in attendance.

Here are the people in attendance who some celebrities of course, Drew Barrymore, Selena

Gomez, Madonna, that's cool.

All right, to tie the knot.

What is this mean?

Based on the context, what do you think to tie the knot is an idiom to say to get married

to get married.

Now obviously you know what that means.

But notice my verb to get married because that is when you're having the ceremony.

Spears and Askari got married, got married.

Remember we use the verb get when we're talking about the transition from not married to married.

Oh once you are married once the ceremony takes place and you get the ring on your finger,

then you simply say we're married.

We've been married for 10 years.

Now I'm putting it in the present perfect because the action started in the past and

continues on till now.

So I'm using the verb be married because I'm talking about the current state.

Now.

I am married.

But if I want to talk about that transition from not married to married I use get.

So now I can say we got married in Hawaii, a destination wedding.

We got married in Hawaii.

So this is where you transition from not married to married.

So that's why I used get married and that's what tied the knot means to get married.

So you could say we tied the knot in Hawaii.

We tied the knot in Hawaii.

It's a fun casual way of saying get married.

So someone might ask you When are you going to tie the knot?

They're asking when are you getting married?

When is the date of your wedding?

When are you going to tie the knot?

Now you could pull it Where are you going to tie the knot?

How are you going to tie the knot just asking about the details so you can use a different

WH question.

Our final paragraph.

The couple began dating in 2016 after he appeared in her slumber party music video, and they

announced their engagement last September.

So to be in gauged.

So engagement is a thing.

It's the noun, but the verb is to be engaged, to be engaged.

This is when you have an engagement ring right you are going to get married at a specific

date in the future but you are not married right now to be engaged.

Now remember we can use to get engaged to talk about the transition from not engaged

to engage engaged just went when someone says will you marry me?

Right.

Okay to get engaged.

So, again, I could say we got engaged last month.

We got engaged last month.

So technically, that means we've been engaged for one year, right?

They mean the same thing.

If somebody asks you, how long have you been engaged?

You could say we got engaged last month or you can say we've been engaged for one year

they mean exactly the same thing.

Just remember get focuses on that transition and be focuses on that current state.

So that can be a useful thing to practice, married and engaged.

With get and be in the comment section below.

And that's the end of our article.

So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to read the article from start to finish so you

can focus on my pronunciation.

So let's do that now.

Sam Asgari response to rumors he's controlling Britney Spears social media.

Sam Asghari is addressing whether he is overstepping when it comes to his wife Britney Spears,

the fitness trainer 28 touched on speculation that he's controlling what the Grammy Award

winner 41 posts on Instagram after she previously admitted that her social spots were alive

during her 13 year conservatorship as she accused father Jamie Spears of controlling

much of her life.

I don't even control what we have for dinner.

Asghari recently joked to photographers, according to Just Jared, in the past, there has been

a lot of stuff going on.

So I understand where some fans are coming from.

He explained of the accusations.

They're just being protective.

If anything, they're being good fans.

Suspicion around Brittany social media activity grew earlier this month, when she celebrated

her birthday with a tribute to her younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears.

With whom she had previously been feuding.

Asghari previously defended his wife social media activity, after she began posting some

risque content, following the termination of her conservatorship last November.

The only person in the world that gets bullied for posting things like this Asghari wrote

on his Instagram story earlier this month.

I personally preferred she never posted these local up I to control someone that has been

under a microscope and been controlled for most of her life.

Spears and Asghari tied the knot in June during an intimate ceremony with 60 guests in attendance,

including Madonna Paris Hilton, Drew Barrymore, Selena Gomez, Donatella Versace, Ansel Elgort

and Maria Menounos.

The couple began dating in 2016 after he appeared in her slumber party music video, and they

announced their engagement last September.

Amazing job with this lesson.

Now you can look in the description below and you'll see a link you can download a free

lesson PDF that summarizes everything you learned in this lesson.

And if you found this lesson helpful, please hit the like button, share it with your friends

and of course subscribe.

And before you go, make sure you head on over to my website JForrestEnglish.com and download

your free speaking Guide.

In this guide I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently and until

next time Happy Studying!