BANG! CRASH! DING DONG! Words that Imitate Sounds

Hi. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com,

and today we're going to be looking at

"Onomatopoeia".

Now, don't run away. It's a very long Greek word, but it means something quite simple.

It means words that imitate sounds. Okay? So, like a cat that makes a sound:

"Meow, meow, meow", and it's been turned into a word.

Either "mew, mew, mew, mew" or "meow", "miaow",

two different spellings, there. Three. Three different spellings. In your language, you...

I'm sure you have words for these sounds as well, but they may be different because of

your language having different vowel sounds in it and so on. You probably have words for

sounds, but they won't be exactly the same, probably, as the English version. Okay.

So, I've divided them into three categories:

sounds of animals, sounds that human can make

(sometimes embarrassing), and other, other sounds. Okay. So, let's start with the animals.

So, we've already had the cat sound: "Meow". So, that's the kind of spelling we have for

that. For a dog, it's either: "bark" or "woof", and you can sort of make the sound or try

to: "Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark". That's the sort of "bark" sound.

"Woof, woof, woof, woof", that's the "woof" sound. Okay? So that's the dog.

This one, b-a-a is: "Baaaaaaa", and

that's a sheep. Okay? So, in normal speak, we don't go around using the words like this,

we don't actually imitate the animal sound. We just say it normally, like: "Meow", "bark",

"woof", "baa", but you can actually make the real sound if you can, if you want to. But

not in normal conversation. People might think you're a little bit strange if you start going

around making the actual animal sounds. So, be careful how you use them. Okay?

So, that's the sheep.

"Mooooooo" is a... Can you guess what a...? What makes that sound: "Moo, moo"? Oh dear,

I can't do that one very well. That is a cow. Okay? And children actually call them

"moo cows". They put the sound of the cow with the name of the cow, and they say:

"Oh, look, moo cows."

So, they put the sound with the name. Okay? Also, with the "baa", with the

baby sheep, the lamb, they say: "Aww, baa lambs, baa lambs." So, they put the sound

the animal makes with the name of the animal. Okay. This one: "whinny" and "neigh" is for

a horse or a pony. I don't know if I can do this. "Neigh", something like that, or: "Buh-le-le-le-le-le",

that sort of sound, and they shake their head as well. Okay? So that's a horse or a pony.

The pony is a smaller version of a horse. Okay.

Can you guess what makes this sound: "Quack, quack, quack, quack"? In normal speech, you

just say: "Quack", but you can make it more like:

"Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quaaack".

That's a duck. Okay? A duck, a bird. Right.

"Hisssssss", and normally you

just say: "Hiss", make a shorter sound. But if you're going to imitate the thing: "Hisssssss",

and that would be like a snake. Or sometimes a cat makes a hissing sound as well, so anything

making a hissing sound. Okay. This one: "howl" or "yowl", nice, round open vowel sound: "Howwwwwl,

yowwwwwl", so it could be a dog who's very unhappy and the owner has left the dog at

home all day on its own and it's getting very upset without human company. And this is what

the dogs do eventually: "Owww, owwwww", meaning: "I've been abandoned. Where is my family?

I'm all on my own." Or it... Sorry. It can be a dog, a domestic dog, but it can also

be a wild animal, like a wolf. Okay. So, quite a fun one, too, to do that. I've always enjoyed:

"Owww", howling. Okay.

So, moving on to humans. This one you may already have seen a lesson that contains this

word: "burp", "belch", both mean if you have some air inside you when you've been eating

and you have to let the air come out: "Burp". I can't do it because I haven't got any air

to come out. "Blah", it's when the air comes out. I can't do it, sorry. If you watch Ronnie,

I think Ronnie does a perfect one of these. So, okay. Right, so that's "burp" or "belch",

to let out some air from your stomach.

"Clap", can you guess what that is, to clap? [Claps hands] So that's the clapping sound.

Right? When people clap, an audience clap after someone has performed.

"Slap"-[slaps face]-when you do that. Or-[slaps hands]-slap, slap, slap, slap. Okay? "Cough". [Coughs],

that's the cough. Okay. "Hiccup". "Hiccup, hiccup, hiccup, hiccup". Okay? So if you've

got the... When you can't stop the air coming up at regular intervals. It's very difficult

to stop. "Hiccup, hiccup, hiccup". Okay? "Hiccup".

To "sneeze", when you have a cold or if your nose just tickles, a funny feeling in your

nose and you go: "Ah-chu", like that. And it's... I suppose it sort of imitates the

sound: "Sneeze, sneeze, sneeze". There's a lot of s's and z's in there, so it's that

sort of sound. "Sneeze, sneeze", like that. Okay? "Mumble". If people don't speak very

clearly and they sort of [mumbles] like this, and they're talking quietly to each other

and you can't hear them properly, but you can hear this funny sound going on:

"Mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble", that's to mumble. Don't mumble, because if you're

speaking to someone and you mumble, they won't be able to hear what you're saying. Okay?

"Mutter", similarly: "Mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter". If two people are muttering in the

corner of the room and you think: -"What are they muttering about?"

-"Mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter", some secret they have that they're talking about.

To "stutter" and to "stammer" are when someone repeats a sound. "Stutter, stutter". If they

can't get the sound out properly. It's a very unfortunate thing to have a stutter, and people

have to have coaching to get out of doing it. Stutter. If, say, with a word like "turn",

and if you go: "T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-turn", when it's like that, the person can't get

the word out properly. And with "stammer" as well: "M-m-m-m-m-m-mother", so the "m"

for stammering. Okay?

And then finally, if you're very tired or very bored, which I hope you're not at this

moment, but if you get tired and you do this: "Ahh, ahh", and it's a good idea to cover

your mouth when you do this, but I didn't cover my mouth because I wanted you to see:

"Yaaaaaawn", "ahhhhhh", "yaaaaaawn". So, that's the "yawn", when you open your mouth and breathe

in a lot of air when you're tired or bored. Okay, you need some fresh air or you need

to go to bed. Okay.

Finally, a few other sounds which come more from objects, inanimate objects rather than

animals and people. So: "bang". [Bangs on board]. "Bang, bang, bang, bang", any sound

like that. "Clatter"... Oh, I do this. [Taps on board with markers].

That's a clattering sound. "Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter". Okay?

"Click". [Clicks fingers], that's a click. Or

[hits markers together], that could be a click. Or... [Hits marker on board]. No, that's not really clicky

enough. [Clicks fingers], that's more of a click. It's quite a sharp sound, a click.

Click your fingers. We say: "Clicking your fingers". Okay.

"Crash", that's when something quite big and probably made of metal or pottery, plates,

cups, and saucers, cars crash. Quite a loud noise and a lot of damage probably. Okay.

With a crash, crash. If you think of dropping a whole pile of plates on a hard tiled floor:

"Crash!" and they all break, and it makes a terrible noise. Okay. "Ping, ping", if you

put a meal in the microwave and given it five minutes, say, and then it's ready and the

microwave goes: "Ping!" and you know that it's ready. Okay? "Ping".

And "ring": "Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring". Anything can ring. The doorbell can ring, a bell in a church

tower can ring. "Ding-dong, ding-dong", ringing, so it sort of imitates the sound.

"Squeak", that could be an animal, like a mouse, if they do squeak. I've never heard

a mouse squeak and don't really want to because I can't bear mice. Oh, horrible. But things

can squeak as well, like a door: "Ee-enh, ee-enh, ee-enh", like that, that's a squeaky

sound. "Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak". Okay? A clock:

"Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock". Okay? "Tick tock". And "thump".

Oh, again, it's like: [Hits fist on board], a sort of dull sound. "Thump, thump, thump". Okay.

Right, so that's quite a few onomatopoeia words. And finally, to end, I don't know if

you know this breakfast cereal called Rice Krispies. I remember it from years and years

ago when I was a child and I used to eat it. And one of the advertising things about it

is that if you pour the milk on it, it makes a sound. Well, it makes three sounds, it goes:

"Snap, crackle, pop!"

So, if you ever get the chance to try Rice Krispies, put them

in a bowl, pour some milk on, put your ear down to it like they do in the television

adverts, and you'll hear: "Snap, crackle, pop!" Okay?

So, there we are. That's onomatopoeia. I hope that wasn't too painful. So, anyway, if you'd like to

go to the website, www.engvid.com, there is a quiz there to test yourself on

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that would be very nice. Thank you. And hope to see you again soon. Thanks for listening.

Bye.