Hand Motions 🖐️ English Vocabulary with JenniferESL 👏

Hi everyone. It's Jennifer.

Isn't it amazing how many words we have to describe how we move?

For example, we can walk.

We can run.

We can crawl. And I'm sure you can add to that list.

But the motions I want to focus on in this lesson are the ones we do with our hands.

We'll see how well you know those actions.

Let's study some English vocabulary.

There are many verbs to explain how we move our hands.

I'll try to group them together in ways that will make it easier for you to remember all these words.

Okay?

First, how can you get someone's attention using only your hands?

I can wave. I can wave my hand.

I can wave both hands.

I can even wave my arms.

A smaller gesture would be to wiggle my fingers.

I can snap. I can snap my fingers.

I can clap. I can clap my hands.

I can clap softly.

I can clap repeatedly.

I can clap angrily.

Note how many of these verbs are transitive and intransitive. They can be used with or without an object.

If I'm next to you, I might tap you gently on the arm.

If I get excited or scared, I might grab your arm.

It's not very polite to poke someone with your finger, but you might poke someone to wake them up.

It's also not polite to point at people, but we sometimes point with our finger to get someone's attention.

We point at things, for example.

If you're at someone's door, you knock. You knock on the door.

How about motions we use when we're excited or happy?

Again we can clap. We can clap our hands.

When something is funny, some people slap their knee or they slap the table.

You might also squeeze someone's arm in excitement.

Some of these same actions can be used when we're angry, frustrated, or scared.

You can grab someone's arm while you sense danger.

If someone insults you, you might be tempted to slap them. You might slap them in the face.

But hopefully you have enough self-control not to do that.

Children might slap their mother's hands or arms away if the mother is trying to do something annoying.

What can you do if there's a really bad smell in the air?

The first thing most people try to do is wave the smell away.

You could cover your mouth.

Some people try pinching their nose. If you pinch your nose, you can't smell anything.

Here's another problem. How can we protect ourselves from mosquitoes and other bugs?

We try to shoo them away by waving our hands.

We could also shoo them away with a flick of our wrist.

"Flick" is a verb and a noun, like many of the other words I've already highlighted: tap, snap, clap.

So we can shoo a fly away with a flick of our wrist.

We can flick our wrist.

We can also flick our fingers like this.

I've seen some people slap at bugs on their arms or their legs.

But I think that's kind of gross. I don't want to have dead bugs on my skin.

When we want something, what do we do to get it?

First, we reach for it. We extend our arm, our hand.

If we need to move quickly, we grab an object.

Grabbing is getting something very quickly.

A similar verb is "grasp." But when you grasp at something or grasp for something you're usually desperate.

There's an idiom "grasping at straws." If you're grasping at straws, then you're trying to find a solution,

but nothing seems to work. There doesn't seem to be anything that will solve the problem.

I know not everyone loves animals, but there are plenty of people in the U.S. who have dogs and cats as pets,

so we might as well go over some of the ways we show affection to animals.

We can pat an animal on the head to show approval or to tell them everything is okay.

We can also pet them, which is a repeated motion, but it's more gentle.

Some animals like to be scratched behind the ears. We scratch gently.

Our dog loves belly rubs. She's very happy when we rub her belly.

Our dog knows how to shake her paw with us just like two people shake hands.

Okay. There are just a few more verbs I'd like to go over.

Are you ticklish? If you are, then you laugh when someone tickles you.

I think most of us don't like to be tickled, but we often tickle little children to make them laugh.

We can fold our arms to protect ourselves from being tickled.

Some people call this crossing your arms.

You can also fold your arms in a relaxed position.

You could fold your arms or your hands. Some people lace their fingers.

What's your habit? When you sit and watch a lesson,

are you busy taking notes or are you sitting there relaxed? Are your arms folded?

Maybe your fingers are always laced together.

Let's review a little before we end.

Here are the verbs we studied in this lesson. You can repeat after me.

Clap

Flick

Fold

Cross

Grab

Grasp

Knock

Lace

Pat

Pet

Pinch

Point

Poke

Rub

Scratch

Shake

Slap

Snap

Squeeze

Tap

Tickle

Wave

Wiggle

Well, that's all for now. Please remember to like this video if you found the review helpful.

As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

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