Free English Class! Topic: Describing Things You Like! 📺📚⚽ (Lesson Only)

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about describing

things you like. As you go through life there are things

that you like. There are things you like doing. And in English

there's unique ways to describe different experiences. There's

unique ways to describe different things you do. In

today's English lesson I'm going to talk about how to

describe a book that you liked reading. A movie, a TV show

that you like. Maybe a trip and we'll also look of course at

music. So in this I'll give you some unique phrases. This

English lesson is a little different than what I've done

in the past. Instead of teaching just vocabulary words.

I'll be teaching unique, cool, common, interesting phrases to

describe different things that you like. I had to stop myself

from describing things you don't like because I'll save

that for another lesson. So in this lesson we'll just look at

things you like and how to them. For those of you that are

going to be taking an English test in the future. This will

be a great lesson because often you need to describe something

that you liked doing or something that you enjoyed. So

let's get started with this lesson on describing things you

like. We're going to start with songs. So in this lesson I'm

going to give you phrases that you can use to describe things

you like. And I'm going to put them into a couple of different

categories. A different categories actually. The first

category will be songs, songs and music. And the first phrase

would be I like the beat. So sometimes you like a song

because the drummer and the bass guitarist if it's a rock

song. Um there they just create a really good beat. The song

you can hear the drums. It makes you want to maybe tap

your foot or maybe just kind of clap a little bit. Maybe you

like to clap along. These are the things old people do. Maybe

it makes you want to dance a little bit but you would just

say I like the beat or this song has a good beat. Oh I like

this song. I like the beat. This song has a good beat. So I

tried to get a picture of a drummer and a bass guitarist

obviously I'm talking about rock music but other types of

music as well you would be able to say I like the beat. You

might like the lyrics. You might enjoy a song because the

lyrics are just really really meaningful. When I say lyrics I

mean words and you can say that as well. You could say oh this

is a great song. I like the lyrics. Or this is a great

song. I like the words. And of course in English you can

always replace like with love. If you want to emphasize it a

little bit more. You could say oh I love the lyrics. This song

has great lyrics. I love the lyrics. Or you could say I love

the words. This song is really meaningful to me. I love the

words. You could also just express how the song makes you

feel. So a common way to describe a song would be to say

it makes me feel good. Oh I like this song. It makes me

feel good. When this song comes on the radio. You could tell

I'm old. I still listen to the radio. When this song comes on

the radio it makes me feel good. You could also just say

this song gives me a good feeling. I enjoy this song. It

makes me feel good or I enjoy this song. It gives me a good

feeling. There a lot of songs that I like because they just I

don't know they make me smile. They it's like they lighten my

mood a little bit. Uh especially when I'm driving a

long distance. It's good to have songs come on the radio

that make me feel good. Sometimes there's a song that

you like and you would describe it by saying it's easy to sing

along. When you have a song where you can clearly hear the

lyrics. And where the melody of the song is easy to remember.

You might describe it as saying ah this is a great song. It's

so easy to sing along. Remember in English sometimes we add the

word so to emphasize. This song is great. It's so easy to sing

along or it's easy to sing along. Often when you are a

child or when you're a kid you will learn songs that are easy

to sing along. Um maybe your parents or a teacher will say

okay I'm going to teach you this song while I sing and play

my guitar please sing along. So often for me I enjoy songs that

are easy to sing along to but only if I'm by myself. So if

I'm driving by myself and a song comes on that's easy to

sing along to. Uh I will sing. But as I've mentioned Before I

have trouble singing on key. Uh if you said sing a C sharp I I

can't do that. I don't know how to sing on key. You might also

say it's a great dance song. We talked about this a little bit

when I talked about a song having a good beat. But you

might just say ah this is a great dance song. Or let's get

out on the dance floor. This is a great dance song. So a good

dance song or great dance song will have a good beat. It will

make you want to move. This is as much dancing as I'm doing in

the video. Uh but it will make you want to get up and move. So

when you hear a song that just has a good beat and a fast beat

usually it's a song where you would say it's a great dance

song. And then you might have songs that you would describe

by saying it brings back memories. So there are a lot of

songs that when I hear them I really enjoy them because they

bring back memories. When a song brings back memories. It

means that when you hear it you think of a time when you were a

teenager. Or you think of a time when you were younger. Uh

or maybe you even think of a time a few years ago or just a

month ago. But a song that brings back memories is usually

quite enjoyable to listen to. Um there's quite a songs from

the nineties and the early two thousands. That when I hear

them they bring back memories of my time at university or the

time when Jen and I were first married before we had kids. Um

that was a time where we listened to a lot of music

because I think we were just always doing things and having

lots of fun. Children are fun. I'm not saying the fun stopped

after we had kids. But there are certainly songs that bring

back memories. It's relaxing. So you might have certain songs

that you listen to because they just make you feel at peace.

They just calm you down. You might say oh I like that song.

It's so relaxing. Maybe you listen to classical music at

night. Maybe that's the kind of music that you find very

relaxing. Uh and so you put on some classical music and you

sit down and maybe you just think about your day and the

music relaxes you. So you might describe the song by saying

it's laxing. Then we also have a funny little phrase in

English where we say it it has a catchy tune or you might say

it is a catchy tune. You could use both. So you could say ah I

love this song. It's it has a catchy tune. That means that

when you hear it once or twice. Um it's easy to remember maybe

the chorus. Or it's easy really quickly to sing along. It's

just a song that's really well written really fun and

enjoyable. And you can remember and maybe whistle maybe You can

whistle the tune later because it's catchy. It's very easy to

remember. Books sometimes you read a book and you really

really like it. And you might be asked about the book.

Someone might say did you like the book? And you want to be

able to describe it. So we're going to look at positive ways

to describe a book. We're going to look at a few ways to

describe books that you liked reading. So interestingly here

I'm going to either the present tense or the past tense. So

when we talk about books you can you can use the present

tense. Even if you read it last month you can still say things

like oh it's a real page turner. Did you read the client

by John Grisham? Yes it's a real page turner. You could

also flip to the past tense and say yeah it was a real page

turner. So again you probably have figured it out already.

When you say a book is a real page turner. It means that it's

so exciting and good to read that you you flip the pages

really quickly. Like you read fast and if you think about it

like a cartoon and the person's just flipping pages really

really quickly. But certainly a way to describe a good book in

English would be to say oh it's a real page turner. Um or again

in the past tense it was a real page turner. I did read the

client. It was a real page turner. You could also say I

couldn't put it down. Okay. So there are books that I read I

read one or two chapters and it's just not that interesting.

But there are books like The Alchemist which many of you

recommended that I read. Uh a while ago I did a survey on

books people were reading. By the way this is by a Brazilian

author named Paolo Coelo. I think I'm pronouncing that

right. It is a great book. So I couldn't put it down. It meant

that if I had an hour to read I would usually read for more

than an hour because it was so Interesting and so fun to read.

So if you read a book that you just want to read all day long

and do nothing else you would describe it by saying I

couldn't put it down. So that's kind of in the past. In the

present you could just say oh I can't put it down. Um I'm

reading a book right now by Paolo Coelo and I can't put it

down. So that would be a way to describe a book that's really

good. We also will say I read it cover to cover which is an

interesting way to describe a book because for me when I read

a book I always read the whole book. There are no books where

I've read half the book and stopped reading it. I almost

okay that's a lie. Bob the Canadian just lied to you.

There are very few books that I haven't finished reading. But

you could say this. You could say oh I read The Martian by

Andy Weir. I read it cover to cover. It was a really really

good book. By the way I do like this book if you are learning

English. I think it's a great book to read. It does have some

swear words in it. You need to be aware of that. But I

definitely I read it cover to cover. When someone says that

about a book it's a very positive thing. It means that

it is a very good book. And then we have this phrase. I

know this sounds kind of funny. It's a good book or it was a

good book. You can use the present or past. Um it's kind of

a funny thing isn't it? It's a good book. It's such a basic

phrase. But it's very very common. Okay. If I was to say

oh did you read the humans by Matt Hay? Yeah it's a good

book. Um oh I read it last week. It was a great book. It

was a good book. So we do just in a basic way talk about

books. That's why there's a website called Good Reads dot I

don't know if you know about that but it's a website where

people say whether a book was good or not. So a basic

description but still very very common. And then we have I read

it in one sitting. So it there might be a book that's just so

fun and so amazing and so exciting to read that you sat

down and you read the whole book in one sitting. This is

rare. I did not do this with the Hobbit. The book is way too

thick. It's too long for that. But definitely a thinner book.

Like if you read The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Um that's a

fairly thin book. And it's really and you could sit and

read it in one sitting. Obviously if you say a book it

was so good I read it in one sitting it means it's a good

book because it was so exciting you could not stop reading it.

Hey let's talk a little bit about movies and TV and how to

describe them in a positive way. We often watch movies in

our house and we watch a lot of television as well. And so

there are certain ways to describe movies and TV. And we

usually talk about what happens in the show or in the movie. So

let's start with it's action packed. So again with movies

you can talk about it in the present or the past. So the

Fast and the Furious movies. They are action packed. You

would say this movie it was packed or it's action packed. I

watch The Fast and the Furious. It's action packed. Action in a

movie involves car chases or gunfights or anything that's

fast and exciting. Maybe someone's getting chased around

a city. So I would say the Fast and the Furious if I was to

describe it I would say it's action packed. When some when

we describe something in English as being packed. It

means it's it's full of that thing. So this would basically

mean the movie is full of action and I don't know if

you've watched these movies, they're definitely action

packed, for sure. Now at the other end of the spectrum we

have movies that are real tearjerkers. So any kind of

movie that we would describe as a tearjerker is a movie that

would make you cry. Maybe it's a love story. Maybe it's a

story of someone who's loses their pet and they find them

back a year later. But anytime anytime a story causes you to

almost cry we would say it's a tearjerker. The notebook is a

bit of a tearjerker. I don't know if you've watched it. By

the way I think tear jerkers supposed to have a dash in it.

You might want to check that before you use that. There

might be a small mistake there. I was on the edge of my seat.

So whenever you watch a movie that's incredibly exciting. You

would say I was on the edge of my seat. When I saw the movie

Twister it's a movie about tornadoes and people chasing

tornadoes and it's just crazy and it has really good special

effects. I was on the edge of my seat. It doesn't mean you

actually sat on the edge of your seat. But it means you

were the movie was so exciting that it's like you were instead

of relaxing like instead of watching the movie you are more

like totally engaged and totally interested. I was on

the edge of my seat. So we use the word worthy sometimes. And

with Netflix in particular because you can watch one show

after another you can binge watch shows. So when you binge

watch it means you sit down and watch like eight in a row or

ten in a row. We sometimes a show is binge worthy if we

really like it. So I watched the Marvel series Loki last

spring and I would say it's binge worthy. It was really fun

to watch. I like those types of movies. It was very exciting.

It was a little bit action packed as well. But a different

kind of action. Um but we would say it's binge worthy. So it's

worthy of sitting down and watching more than one episode

after another. Definitely Loki I thought was binge worthy for

sure. It was a very fun series to watch. And sometimes we have

what's called a feel good movie. I don't know if you've

watched the movie Babe. It's an older movie. It's the story of

a little pig who grows up on a farm and the farmer's really

fun and the farmer sings a song at one point and it almost

makes me cry but it's a movie where you are happy when you

are watching it. It's a movie where you just it's a feel good

movie. It literally means exactly what it says. It makes

you feel good. And in English we take that and we turn it

into a descriptor or adjective for the movie and we say Babe

is a feel good movie. Or you could say it was a feel good

movie. Yeah I watched it all was a feel good movie. So it

made you feel good. Just looking where I am here. You

might just say that a TV show is hilarious. So if you've ever

watched the office now mind you it's a it's a unique kind of

humour. Um it might not be to your taste. But I thought the

office was hilarious. Or I can say it's hilarious. The show is

just really really funny. So when you watch a TV show or

movie that's really funny you might say it's hilarious. I I

still laugh when I watch this. I'm I I think sometimes though

some of the humour is getting a bit old. So I'm not sure

younger people would find it hilarious. We use the word

worthy as well when a movie is just so well made. We think it

might win an award. So the award show for movies is called

the Oscars. You can win a little statue of a man for

directing or acting or the music. But before the Oscars

happen there are movies where people would describe them by

saying oh it's Oscar worthy. Oh he it was an Oscar worthy

performance or that movie is Oscarworthy. This means that we

think that movie is so good that it should win an award.

And then we have must see. When you say a movie is a must see.

This is a little bit like the term feel good you can figure

out what it means when you say it's a must see. It means that

you should go see it. When I saw Iron Man I said to my

brother oh it's a great movie. It's a must see. That means

that You should go and see it. Don't miss it. Um go to the

theatre and watch it or maybe rent it when it comes out on a

DVD. Certainly don't wait till it comes out on Netflix

someday. It's a must see. So go to the theater. Buy a ticket

and go and see that movie. Sports. So when you describe

sports I'm mostly going to be describing actually watching a

game. Not necessarily in person. It could also be on

television. But when you see a really really good game it's

fun to be able to describe it. So the first description would

be this. It was a nail biter. So people sometimes bite their

nails when they're nervous. We describe a game where the score

is really really close. Especially at the end of the

game as a nail biter. It doesn't mean you're actually

biting your nails because you're nervous. But when your

team is winning by one point. And then the other team ties it

up. And then the other team is winning by one point and then

your team ties it up. And when that continue we say it's a

real nail biter or it was a real nail biter. It was a game

where it was exciting to watch but you were also worried that

your team was going to lose the whole time because the score

was so close. Uh you could also say it was a roller coaster. So

maybe your team is winning at the beginning and then they're

losing at half time and then they're winning towards the end

and then at the very end they lose. So you were happy and

then sad and happy and then sad. We say it's like a roller

coaster. A roller coaster is a ride at an amusement park.

Where you sit in a little car on a track and it goes up and

down. So you can see your emotions during the game go up

and down and we describe the game by saying it was a roller

coaster. You might just say it was thrilling. Thrilling is a

pretty common word when talking about a sports game. You would

say the that game was thrilling. That was an amazing

game. It was thrilling. I wanted to put this in as well

because I know it's a little bit difficult for English

learners to say. So let me say it one more time. It was

thrilling. It was thrilling. Let's talk a little bit about

trips and experiences. The next few phrases are phrases you

don't use very often in life but they are very common after

doing something amazing or going on an amazing trip. And I

talked about one of them earlier. It was a was a once in

a lifetime experience. So there is probably a trip that you've

either done or that you are going to do and you'll probably

only do it once in your life. I went to South Africa many years

ago on a school trip and I would say it was a once in a

lifetime experience. That means I'm probably not going again.

It means that it was a very enjoyable trip. I just really

really liked it. It was beautiful to see the country of

South Africa. And if someone asked me hey did you have a

good trip? I would say oh it was once in a lifetime

experience. So again not a phrase you use that often.

Maybe just once in a lifetime. But a phrase used to describe

usually a trip but other things as well. Like if maybe you went

to a Beyonce concert. You might say oh it was a once in a

lifetime experience. We bought we were in the tenth row. We

spent a lot of money on the tickets. It was an amazing

show. It was a once in a lifetime experience. You could

also say it was the thrill of a lifetime. Maybe you've jumped

out of a plane with a parachute and it was very exciting and

you had a lot of fun doing it. Uh maybe it was like your

adrenaline. You had an adrenaline rush. That means you

your body physically reacts and you get excited. You could say

it was the thrill of a lifetime. You could also say it

was a thrill of a lifetime. You could switch the article there.

But I would say it was the thrill of a lifetime. So

something that was super super exciting. It was a dream come

true. So if I was able to go to the city of Paris and if I was

able to visit for a month I would probably describe it by

saying it was a dream come true. I went to Paris last

year. I stayed for a whole month. It was a dream come

true. So all of us have dreams. Um when you sleep you have

dreams but you can also have dreams about what you want to

do in life. Maybe you want to visit Canada. And if you

visited Canada when you went back home you could say ah it

was a dream come true. I saw an Falls. I saw the Rocky

Mountains. It was a dream come true. And again this isn't just

for trips. You could use it to describe an experience as well.

Maybe you had front row tickets to a Toronto Raptors game. And

you saw a basketball game live. Um you could say oh it was a

dream come true. It's something I always wanted to do. It was a

dream come true. You could also say I had the time of my life.

I have this picture here because I always thought it

would be fun to go to Times Square in New York a New Year's

Eve. I've never done it. But if I was able to do that I think

when I got home I would say to people you know what? It was

great. I had the time of my life. There was music. There

was dancing. There was there were fireworks. Um I had the

time of my life. So basically you're saying it was one of the

most enjoyable things that you've done in your life. And

we have the phrase it was a night to remember. So oddly I

don't think we have the phrase it was a day to remember. We

would probably just say the day was memorable. But we do have

the phrase it was a night to remember. A lot of times this

is used for like a wedding. A wedding celebration. So often

in North America people get married in the afternoon. And

they have a party later in the evening called a reception. And

it's usually a enjoyable time for the bride and groom. And

they might describe it later as saying ah it was a night to

remember. It was just so beautiful. It was a night to

remember. Now again you can use this for other experiences as

well. Maybe you went to a really beautiful concert. And

after the concert you can say ah you know it was a night to

remember. It was just really really beautiful. I really

really enjoyed myself.