Let's Learn English! Topic: Describing Things Around The Home! 🪑🥾🧦 (Lesson Only)

Well, hello, and welcome to this English

lesson about describing things around the home.

As you walk around your house or apartment, you see a

number of things, and you need to be able to describe

those things when you talk about them in English.

Maybe you have an old pair of shoes and

they're a little bit scuffed and worn out.

Oh, I'm giving away some of

the words and phrases already.

Maybe there's a bunch of cords behind

your desk and they're all tangled.

There's another word I will talk about in this lesson,

but it's nice to be able to describe the things

that you have around your house at home.

And not just the things, but the

rooms as well, in some cases.

So, once again, welcome to this English

lesson about describing things around your home.

Droopy.

So I really like this word.

Let me say it again. Droopy.

This plant is droopy.

When you don't water a plant,

the late the leaves will droop.

Isn't that a fun word? Droop?

So this plant has droopy leaves.

Notice I use the verb form, and

then I switch to the adjective form.

When a plant has droopy leaves, it looks like this.

There are other things as well in life

that you can use this word for.

Sometimes things just droop.

But certainly plants are the best example.

So if something's like this and then let's say

a plant is like this, then you don't water

it and the leaves slowly go like this.

That action is called drooping.

And we would describe that as the

plant is very droopy and needs water.

When you come home from vacation, sometimes

some of your plants might be droopy.

So I just like saying that word. Droopy.

Scuffed.

I mentioned this in the intro.

If you have an old pair of shoes as you

walk, if your shoe hits against the ground or other

things, eventually parts of the shoe wear away.

The shoe starts to be scuffed.

These shoes are scuffed.

They need to be polished and shined.

But I don't know if that will remove the scuffs.

So you see where the shoe is dark.

That's how the shoe originally looked.

But if you look at those lighter parts where it's worn

a little bit, we would describe that as being scuffed.

These shoes are scuffed.

Sometimes your shoes get so scuffed, they

start to get holes in them.

Uh, and then at that point, you

need a new pair of shoes.

So scuffed. Smudged. Sometimes.

Well, this doesn't happen as much now.

When our kids were little.

Often our windows would be smudged.

There would be a lot of fingerprints and

markings on our windows, because our kids would

touch the windows with their hands.

So maybe they would be eating something,

and then they would touch the window,

and they would smudge the window.

You can see the finger marks.

Someone on this window went like that,

and now the window is smudged.

A glass can also be smudged.

This is plastic, but if this was made

out of glass, there could be smudge marks. I could.

This glass could be smudged if

there were fingerprints on it. Hmm.

The water tastes particularly yummy this morning.

Dusty.

Now, this one I think I taught in a previous lesson.

We live in a world where

eventually there's dust on things.

I think I even did these same actions last time.

There's dust on top of the lens of my camera.

It's just a natural thing that

happens when you live somewhere.

There are fine particles in the air that slowly drift down,

and then you get a little bit of dust on things.

Can I hide my face enough so there's

a little bit of dust on my finger?

I need to dust this room.

My laptop is dusty.

This desk is dusty.

It's a lot of dust in here.

So you can describe something as being dusty.

Cluttered.

My desk over there is a little bit cluttered.

It's not too bad.

Let me give you a bigger view of that. No display.

It's a little dark over there, isn't it?

It's a little bit cluttered.

It's not too bad, though.

When we describe something as cluttered, it

means there's just a whole lot of

stuff there, and it's not organized.

It's not in a nice, orderly fashion where

you can find the things that you need.

My desk over there.

One over there.

One end is usually quite tidy.

The end that's on camera, and then the other

end that you can't see is actually quite cluttered.

Your kitchen counter can be cluttered.

A desk can be cluttered.

If you have a window sill by a window that

has a lot of space and you put a bunch

of things there, it can be quite cluttered.

So simply, a spot that has a

lot of things that aren't really organized.

Tangled.

That's a little bit too big.

Maybe we'll leave it there, though.

Behind my desk, there are a lot of cords, because there are

a lot of cords, and you kind of move them around.

Sometimes they get a little bit tangled.

If you have really long hair,

your hair can also get tangled.

When you use the word tangled, it means

things that are kind of around each other.

So you can see here, even these

headphones, this can get all tangled. Right.

And then I have to kind of

figure out how to straighten it out.

But if you have a lot of cables, if you

have a lot of cords, if you have a lot

of wires, they can get very, very tangled.

This doesn't work for me in English, when you say

something doesn't work for you, it means it bothers you.

In my house, I don't like it

when the cords are tangled like that.

I would certainly straighten this out and tidy this up.

Foggy.

If you take a very, very hot

shower, sometimes the mirror gets foggy.

Sometimes the windows get foggy.

We also use the word fogged up.

So I took a hot shower, and now the mirror is foggy.

I took a hot shower, and now the mirror is fogged up.

So you can see here, he can't see himself in

the mirror because there's a thin layer of moisture.

There's a thin layer.

Because the room was steamy, the

mirror got foggy and fogged up.

So simply not able to see.

Well stacked.

This is a pretty straightforward one.

When you have things like these

mugs, you can stack them.

When you look in our cupboards, there

are often cups that are stacked.

There are plates that are stacked.

There are bowls that are stacked.

And then just to expand on

that, these mugs are stacked.

I can also say, these mugs are in a stack.

These bowls are stacked.

These bowls are in a stack, or there's a stack

of bowls in the cupboard, go and grab them.

But, yes, when you put things on top of each

other, and when they kind of fit into each other

a little bit, we say they are stacked, messy.

So there are a few words here.

Well, there's a few more coming up.

There's disorganized and disarray.

And we already did cluttered.

They're all variations of something not being tidy.

So when your room is tidy, it doesn't look like this.

When your room is messy, it looks like this.

Messy is probably the most common word that we

use to describe a room that looks like this.

Oh, your room is messy, kids.

It's Saturday morning.

Your rooms are messy.

Go clean your rooms.

That would be a common thing to say.

But you can see here, this person has lots of clothes

on their bed, very disorganized, and lots on the floor.

So we would say, this room is messy.

This plate, though, is dirty.

So dirty is a word we use for things

like dishes or clothes like, oh, my clothes. Are dirty.

Oh, I didn't do my laundry.

My clothes are dirty, and I need that shirt today.

That's actually true in my case.

There's a shirt I need today, and I didn't wash it.

But when you're done eating, we would

say that you have dirty dishes.

Okay, so this dish is dirty.

It needs to be washed.

You can tell this person didn't clean their plate.

Uh, usually in our house, we tell our kids

to eat all the food on their plate.

But, uh, this is a dirty dish or a dirty plate.

Um, you could use either to describe it.

Disorganized.

So this is a little more formal sounding, you know.

Oh, his desk is always disorganized.

Or you could even say a person

is disorganized when something is disorganized.

It's not tidy, it's not organized.

You could also use it to describe a

place where things aren't in spots where you

would think, like, oh, her kitchen is disorganized.

There's spoons in three different drawers.

There's plates all over in all different spots.

It's very disorganized.

So, simply, probably the best description for this

one is to say the opposite of organized.

The opposite of neat and tidy.

Disarray.

Again, this one sounds a little formal.

Maybe you're reading a book, and the book says, and

he went to his office, and it was in disarray.

Or he was a very messy person.

His desk was always in disarray.

So this is simply another word for.

For messy.

Okay, so you can see here, this is not organized.

This is definitely in disarray.

This is messy.

This is disorganized.

These are all words we could use to describe that area.

There's a lot of things in this picture, though.

Be fun to do a lesson where

I just describe what's in pictures.

Did you see the cat?

Do you see the sunglasses?

Do you see the record, which is the round, black thing?

Do you see the coat hanger and the electric guitar?

I don't know what everything is in this picture, but

anyways, let's move on before I get too distracted.

But there is a cat in that picture.

If you look, you can find it missing.

Sometimes you describe something because

you can't find it.

Sometimes my reading glasses are missing.

Sometimes I can't find my reading glasses.

Sometimes my keys are missing.

I don't know where they are.

This is a little bit of a funny joke

on this key holder, on this key rack.

If my keys are missing, I've gone fishing.

I don't know why they shorten fishing. It doesn't rhyme.

When you say it this way, it should be the full word.

If my keys are missing, I've gone fishing.

That would rhyme.

But, yes, sometimes if you look at the

middle hook, sometimes something is just missing.

You don't know where it is.

Have you seen my keys?

Have you seen my reading glasses?

That's how you would ask someone

to help you find something.

Or can you help me find my glasses?

Can you help me find my keys?

Broken.

So we mentioned this a bit earlier.

Sometimes something is just broken.

Maybe the stove is broken.

Maybe the fridge is broken.

It means that it's no longer working.

When something is broken, it's not working.

So I get frustrated.

A couple weeks ago, my camera was broken.

Or what was broken recently as well. I can't remember.

There was something else that was broken,

and we had to get it fixed.

So anyways, when something isn't working, it is broken.

A few years ago, our stove was broken, and it

wasn't repairable, so we had to buy a new stove.

But when something's broken, it doesn't work.

Filthy.

So this cooktop, or stove is filthy.

It needs to be cleaned.

When you say something is filthy, it means it is.

I was gonna say dirty.

Yeah, dirty would work, too.

The stovetop is filthy.

The stovetop is dirty, but filthy

is, like, really, really dirty.

Like, this is filthy.

Like, look at the corner here.

It's like, what is that?

Some cooked, dried up food, and it's just a mess.

So when something is filthy, it simply

means that it needs to be cleaned.

In English, we might even say it's disgusting.

That means that you have a

negative feeling when you see this.

Like, oh, it's disgusting, it's gross, it's filthy.

Those would all be ways we would describe that.

I would use all three sentences.

That's gross, that's disgusting, that's filthy.

It needs to be cleaned.

Cracked.

Sometimes things get cracked.

Oh, I don't have my phone,

but, uh, windows can get cracked.

You can have your phone.

Screen can be cracked.

Um, it's not nice when something hits a

window and then the window is cracked.

Uh, because then it, um.

Oh, wrong slide.

I thought the next slide was the one I wanted.

I think I got that mixed up. Oh, here it is.

It needs to be replaced.

Let's go back to this, though.

Sometimes kids play with a ball and they hit

a window, and then the window is cracked, and

then you need to replace the window.

Not nice.

It's not nice when you drop your phone and then the

screen is cracked because then you got to spend a lot

of money to get a new phone burnt out.

Or even just out so you can see the.

I don't know how light number one,

two, and four are actually on.

I didn't.

I didn't realize when I chose this picture, these lights

are magically on, but the third light is burnt out.

You can also say burned out.

So it can be b u r n e d as well.

But I say burnt out.

You could also say, the light is out.

Hey, the light in the garage is out.

Or hey, do we have any new bulbs?

The light in the kitchen is out.

Or the light in the kitchen is burnt out.

Those would all be example sentences.

And again, not sure how light number

one, two, and four are on.

Some sort of magic electricity because these

lights are not screwed into a socket.

So kind of strange.

But, hey, it's good to have a little

bit of magic in the lesson, isn't it?

I think so.

And then needs to be replaced.

This is a very common phrase for something that's

broken, burnt out, um, worn out, um, falling apart.

All of the things where something is becoming unusable.

Okay, maybe you have a toaster and you put

your bread in and only one piece of toast

gets toasted and the other side doesn't.

And it's like, you could say, it needs

to be fixed, but generally, in that case,

you would say it needs to be replaced.

The light in the room is burnt out.

It needs to be replaced.

The window is cracked.

It needs to be replaced. Those are.

That's the phrase we would use

to describe all of those situations.

So it took me a long time to

find a picture of someone hitting a tv.

For those of you that are younger than the age of

35 or 40, even, you might not remember this era, but

there was an era where if a tv was acting flaky,

that means it wasn't working the way it was supposed to.

If you.

If you hit the tv on the

top or side, sometimes that fixed it.

When I was a kid, we had a tv where you.

Sometimes you had to hit the

tv because it was acting flaky.

So anything that works sometimes and not other times

or is working and then just stops working and

you don't know why we would say it's flaky.

In the modern era, we often say, my Wi Fi is flaky.

Okay, so today the Wi Fi is working great, but there have

been times where I'm doing a live stream when the Wi Fi

is flaky, and then my signal drops in and out. Out.

So flaky means to kind of work on and off.

Out of commission, out of service.

This is something that you will not.

I don't think you guys have elevators in your home,

but if you live in an apartment building, the elevator

might be out of commission or out of service.

It means the same thing.

I couldn't figure out if one phrase is

more american and one is more british.

But sometimes you walk into a building

and the elevator is out of commission

or the elevator is out of service.

Maybe you do laundry in a laundry room in

your apartment building, and one of the washing machines

is out of commission or out of service.

And there's a little sign on it that

says, out of commission or out of service.

It simply means that thing is not working. Okay.

We use this to talk about people sometimes too.

Like, where's Joe today? Oh, he's out of commission.

He hurt himself playing soccer.

He won't be at work today.

So, anyways, if something in your house is

out of commission or out of service, it

simply means that it is not working.

Crooked.

I think this is pretty easy to figure out.

Two of these paintings are straight.

One is crooked.

When you hang something on the wall, which Jen

and I don't do a lot, it can either

be straight or level, or it can be crooked.

So when something is on the wall and

it looks like this, it is crooked.

Um, you can also have it where you

might have a window in your house.

And if your house is hundreds of

years old, the window might be crooked.

Like, maybe the wall isn't straight anymore and

the window is crooked in your house.

But, yes, sometimes things are crooked.

Those doors are nice and straight, though.

They're not crooked.

So that's nice.

Tilted.

So this burner on the stove is tilted.

So this picture is crooked.

You could say this is crooked,

but you could also say tilted. Okay.

I would more likely say that this is tilted.

If you live in a really old

house, the floor can be tilted.

When I was a kid, the old house that was here

before this house, the back room, the floor was tilted.

We used to put marbles at one end, and

they would roll down to the other end.

Marbles are like little glass balls.

I don't know if you've ever played with

marbles, but definitely this burner is tilted.

It needs to be pushed in

in order to work properly, probably.

So we don't use this word very much.

We use the word crooked more often.

But you can see that this rug is not nicely

positioned between the wall and the couch, it's askew.

Sorry, my voice.

My voice doesn't want to say the

word because we don't use it hardly.

It's askew. Okay.

You should know the meaning of this,

though, because you might see this word

in, like, a news article or something.

But if something is straight and then it's moved

like this carpet, we would say it is askew.

Well, look at that.

The next word is stained.

This table is stained. Okay.

It has a coffee.

Stained things can get stained. Okay.

Coffee will stain things.

What else will stain things?

Let's say you hurt yourself and your fingers

bleeding, and you get some blood on your

shirt that will stain your shirt.

Generally, we use the word stained when

something is stained to mean it's discolored

in a way that can't be cleaned.

Like, I think this coffee stain will come

out, but sometimes a stain won't come out.

Um, so those are good phrases as well.

By the way, if you spill coffee on a white shirt,

it might be stained and it might stay that way.

You might not be able to get the stain out.

So when something's stained, it means it's probably

permanently changed in terms of its color.

So there you have a nice coffee stain.

Those usually clean up pretty good, but definitely, if

you are wearing a white shirt and spilled coffee

on it, it's going to be stained.

So when you're talking about food, you

can talk about food that's good.

The apple on the right side here is good.

The apple on the far left.

Wait, is that your left?

I hope it's your left.

I think so.

Well, you can tell one of these is rotten.

One of these has gone bad.

Okay, so when you're talking about food, we

usually say that something is rotten, or we

say that it has gone bad.

Hey, are the bananas still good?

No, they've gone bad.

No, they're rotten.

That's always a sad day for me, although

that usually never happens in our house.

Bananas get eaten far too quickly here.

And if they're.

If bananas are really ripe, we usually

just peel them and freeze them, and

we use them to make smoothies later.

But definitely, you choose.

One of these apples is rotten.

One of these apples has gone bad.

So something can smell off.

We even just use the word off, like, is the milk's gone

off, or the smoke is off, or this milk smells off.

You could see by the expression on his

face that there's something wrong with this milk.

This milk has gone off.

This milk smells off.

Oh, did I use gone off, too?

Yes, you can say that. Um.

But, yes, um, always good idea.

Always a good idea.

Um, if milk has been in the fridge for a few days to.

We call it the sniff test.

Give it the sniff test to see if it is still good.

And if it smells off, well,

you can bake something with it.

But usually we don't.

Usually if the milk has gone off or if the milk

has gone bad, we just get rid of it muddy.

So you might have children or you yourself might sometimes

walk in your house or apartment with muddy boots.

And then you might have a muddy carpet.

So, notice, I can say in this picture, these

shoes or boots, it's kind of hard to see.

I would say shoes.

These shoes are muddy.

This carpet is muddy.

When you walk outside, when it's wet.

Outside, dirt turns to mud.

When it's wet.

And then you get it on your shoes.

And then if you walk in, you get it on your carpet.

So these shoes are muddy.

This carpet is muddy.

We also use the verb track.

So you can track mud into the house.

Oh, you tracked mud all over the floor.

There's a bonus word for you.

Um, don't walk outside in the mud and then track the

mud into the house with your muddy shoes or boots.

Pleasing.

This is indeed a sprig of eucalyptus.

It is a plant that smells really nice.

It's very pleasing.

These books are stacked in a very nice, orderly way.

When you see something that's very

organized, it can be pleasing.

When we say something is pleasing,

it makes you feel good.

Like, um, it's nice. When it's a.

Oh, it was a very pleasing day, or

I had a very pleasing cup of tea.

Or this eucalyptus smells very pleasing.

So when something's pleasing, it means.

It makes you happy, it means it makes you feel good.

And, yeah, that's definitely eucalyptus.

Hopefully, ours grows really nice and

tall on the farm this year.

That would be cool.

So two things.

Something can be falling apart and

something can be brand new.

So we had a door handle.

This one looks kind of new.

So I'm pretending this is falling apart.

But this might be a picture

of someone installing a new one.

But when something's falling apart, it's worn out.

It doesn't stay together anymore.

Eventually things fall apart.

If you use something enough,

eventually it will fall apart.

So you could describe this as, oh,

the door handle is falling apart.

My car is falling apart.

The kettle in the kitchen, if the handle

wiggles, you would say, oh, it's falling apart.

So when you have something that is no longer brand

new, you've had it for a very long time and

it's starting to make noises it's not supposed to and

wiggle and jiggle in ways it's not supposed to.

You would say it's falling apart and then brand new.

When you buy something that's brand

new, it simply means it's new.

I don't know why we have brand new.

If you buy a new car, you could

also say you bought a brand new car.

I bought a brand new toaster. I'm so excited.

We're getting a brand new microwave today.

But when something's brand new, it

means simply that it is new.