Improve Your Vocabulary: 13 Adjectives to Describe Sounds Like a Native

Hi there. This is Harry. And welcome back  to advanced English Lessons with Harry,  

where I try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language,

So in this advanced English lesson,  

we're looking at adjectives used  for describing sounds and noises. So

Particularly good for your written English,  

and particularly good if you're  preparing for proficiency exams.

now such just a bang.

Okay. Let's start.

So we'll start off with sounds. The first one is  buzzing. Yeah. Buzzing is a buzzing like a bee.

So you get the sound of the bee. Or you can  have a buzzing in your ear. So if you've

got a bit of a headache,  

you might hear a buzzing in your ear.  Now this is not anything connected with

Toy Story, that great, wonderful,

series of movies, I think, for Toy  Story one, two, three and four.

So his name was Buzz, but this  is buzzing. Yeah, it's the sound,  

the noise, the buzzing of  the bees buzzes, buzzing.

creaking. An eerie sound. The creaking usually  

of doors or floorboards in old  castles or old mansion houses.

Oh,

So you get that creaking sound, you know, if  you're watching one of these thriller movies.  

I don't really like those sort of horror movies,  but you always get that for the noise of the door  

opening and nobody's there, or the creaking of  the stairs. If somebody is trying to creep up the  

stairs or down the stairs or along the hallway,  but the old floorboards seem to be speaking.

Yeah. You hear that noise. The wood has  expanded over the years, so they’re creaking.

Rumbling. Now, this is a particular sound that  we hear all the time. When there's a storm  

in the area, we get the rumbling of thunder  as it rolls across the sky. And you, you're  

waiting for that flash of lightning that will  invariably follow. Yeah. So the rumbling of the

thunder, then the flashing of the of  lightning as it's, lights up the sky.

Okay. Particularly at nighttime. Really  nice when you're at home watching out the  

window or listening as you're in  bed. The rumbling of the thunder.

You can also have rumbling as big,  

heavy, articulated lorries go  through the town or the street

of your

town, of your city

when big articulated trucks are traveling, you  can hear that rumble. You know, the noise they  

make with their big heavy wheels and 4 or 5  trucks coming together makes a lot of sound,  

almost like thunder. But the rumbling of  the big wheels of these articulated trucks

a muffled sound, and a muffled sound is where  somebody tries to prevent the noise from,

annoying somebody. So they speak under  the breath of a muffled sound. Or if there  

are two people in the room beside you, they  are speaking. But because you've got a big,  

thick wall between you and them, you don't  hear distinctly what they are saying,  

but you certainly hear the muffled sound of a  conversation or the muffled sound of laughing.

You're not quite sure who is saying what  you know, whether it's a man or a woman or  

it's somebody you know, somebody you don't  know because you it's not so distinctive,  

but it is muffled, muffled by the  thickness of the wall or the glass  

between you. But you can hear it and it can  be quite annoying, but unfortunately it's  

not so distinctive that you know exactly  who has said what or what has been said.

Exactly. Okay, so the muffled sounds

Crashing. Crashing like a car crash  or glasses falling to the ground

big crash. You know, we're sitting  at a coffee shop and you hear this

tray dropping and all the sauces, the  cups, the glasses are broken, but they.

There's a crashing sound. Okay. So it's.  You feel very embarrassed and sorry for  

the poor waiter or waitress has to sweep up the  mess. But these sort of problems happen. Okay,  

so crashing sound, crashing of a broken glass.

Rustling. Yeah. Now that's the noise we hear when  the wind blows, particularly in the autumn time.

He got a lot of dry leaves around the ground.  The leaves have fallen, but there's not so much  

rain around, so the leaves are quite dry. When the  wind blows, you get the rustling sound of leaves.

If you if you're going for a run or a walk, what  kids love to do, they still do it, I did it.

They loved to run through the big  piles of the leaves in the park,  

and you get that rustling sound as  they kick the leaves here and there,  

and the wind picks them up and blows them  around. Okay? The rustling of the leaves.

And even when the wind blows through the  trees and the leaves are a little dry,  

you get that rustling sound. Also, it's  nice to listen to on a quiet, windy day.

The next is a distinctive sound. And

it's not particular sound, but  a distinctive sound of something

like a particular bird, the distinctive sound  of a gull. You know, with these seagulls that  

make a lot of noise when they're looking  for food. Their noise is very distinctive.  

The calling of that is as seagull as  it's trying to find food distinctive.

The distinctive sound of a train.

you hear a train coming along the tracks,  

it's a very distinctive sound. It's not the  same as a car or a bus. It's very distinctive  

to a train traveling on the track to do,  to do you know that distinctive sound when  

you're sitting on a train and you hear the  noise of the train goes over the tracks to.

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Now the next word is to describe not a particular  noise, but it's a distant sound. Okay, a distant  

sound could be a distant sound of thunder. So  it's not right overhead, but it's something you  

can hear that's many, many kilometres away. But  it's very recognise the distant sound, the distant  

sound of a car horn. You know exactly how a car  horn sounds, but it's not outside your window.

It's in the distance. And so the distant  sound, something that's not so close.

and last number nine

A faint sound. And again, a faint sound is a very,  

very slight sound. Something you can almost  not hear when you might say it. Something.

Did you hear that? No, I didn't hear anything.  I'm sure I could hear something. The faint sound,  

perhaps, of a baby crying in the distance or

the faint sound of a dog howling or barking when  the dog is in pain or in trouble, or has been left  

abandoned. That faint sound you can just pick it  up. It's just about audible, but not so clear.

Faint sound

Okay, that's the nine particular  words adjectives connected with  

sound. So let's look now at just noise. I've got  

four particular words connected with noise  adjectives as to how we can describe it.

banging. While usually a door bangs. Okay,  so if somebody has in closed the door,

correctly and the window is open and the wind  blows in, bang the banging of the door, bang,

you have to close the door properly, or close  the window or close both to avoid that really,

irritating noise, you know, sitting, trying  to study and you hear this constant bang,  

bang, bang, some door is left open and  you're getting a little bit frustrated.

Or if somebody is looking for something, you

maybe they come in late at night,  they've had a couple of beers

and they're making a little bit more  noise than they normally make. So  

they're opening the cupboard  looking for the coffee bang.

Oh and the children, when I was  at school, we had these old,  

old desks that used to lift at the front.  And you used to just let it drop and bang.  

And the teacher used to get really, really  annoyed. And so the, the banging of the tops  

of the desks as used to open it to get  your pencils or your books out banging

Number two constant. So we use this a constant  noise is something that is continuous okay. The  

constant noise of birds singing in the morning.  It's really beautiful to hear in the spring,  

in the summer. But if you've got lots  of birds nests in the trees beside you,  

particularly the bigger birds like crows and,

and the noise can be really,  really annoying and frustrating.

And you've got this constant noise,

and a constant noise,  something that is continuous,  

we can have a constant hum. So the  the traffic going by the window,  

if you live near a main street then there's  always the noise of traffic constant.

Yeah.

The the traffic going up and down  the street, the screeching of

Tires of somebody's brakes, then  the screeching tires as somebody  

accelerates away from the traffic  light. So that's constant noise,  

particularly in the big and  the really busy, busy cities.

Excessive. Well, excessive noise means  noise over and above what you'd expect.  

So on a building site for a period  of time, that can be excessive noise,  

particularly at the beginning when they  are drilling down to make the foundations,  

or they are digging the holes for the  foundations and they come across some rock,

So you had to do did, did, did. And you  get the drilling and the banging and the  

knocking and the screeching, all the  noises associated with that very busy,

building site in case of this excessive  noise and you see warning notices, you

neighbours or occupants of apartments are  

told to avoid excessive noise. They  don't disturb the other neighbours.

So if you've got,

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apartment block of ten floors and you are living  on the fourth or fifth and somebody above you or  

somebody below you constantly playing music late  at night, and this is excessive noise that is not  

normally acceptable. And by the management  companies who run these apartment blocks,

So excessive noise is to be avoided at all times.

And then finally incessant, well, incessant means  continuous, but usually in a negative way. Really,  

really, aggravating. Annoying. Oh, I had to listen  to the incessant ranting and raving of my boss. He  

went on forever. Or it seemed to go on forever. He  got really annoyed and frustrated about something.

And of course he went on and on. It was incessant,  

almost nonstop. Or the incessant noise of a baby  screaming, in a apartment near you. You know,  

we've all had it when our children scream  and we can put up with it because there  

are children. But it's very strange when the  baby is somebody else's baby in that area.

And you all you hear all night or is all night a  baby crying. This an incessant noise. So something  

that is continuous, something that you might find  a little bit aggravating or a little bit annoying.

Okay, so there are particular adjectives  connected with noise. And also then are  

adjectives connected with sound. I'll run  through them one more time. Quickly. Okay.

So the sounds, the buzzing noise  like buzzing of bees crashing,  

the crashing sound of waves  crashing against the rocks,

Creaking, the creaking of my bones as I'm old  and I try to walk. Creaking. My bones seem to  

creak. The distant sound of thunder. Distant.  Distinctive. Very clear. Distinctive sound. A  

gull makes the faint sound something really  far away. The faint sound and muffled sound  

of voices in the room next door. The rumbling  of the thunder and the rustling of the leaves.

And then the noises banging, the banging  of the door, the banging of the window,  

the constant banging all of the time,  constant. Excessive noise. Excessive shouting,  

excessive screaming. And finally incessant.  That something that continues. Hour after  

hour after hour after hour. Incessant.  Something really irritating and annoying.

Okay, so there. All our sounds and noises.

And if you need to contact me. Or you can do so.

Practice them. Use them in your. Particularly  in your written English. If you're doing exams  

in IELTS or at the Cambridge exams, whatever  it is, these are the sort of words that you  

need to know, you need to practice, and  you need to understand and look at for  

some other words that mean the same or  different noises and different sounds,  

because there's something, you know, roar, the  roaring of lions, the bark, the barking of dogs.

These are all different sounds. So see  what other sounds you can find out.

Okay, this is Harry saying thanks for listening.

Thanks for watching. And as always,  join me for the next lesson.