How to Talk About Emergencies in English Improve English Conversations

rolling cool hi everybody welcome back

to our weekly live stream my name is

Alisha and today we’re going to talk

about emergencies

today’s theme is explaining emergencies

and making reports so in today’s lesson

I’m going to explain patterns you can

use to make phone or in person reports

about emergency situations I’m also

going to talk a lot about some key

vocabulary words that you can use to

describe like medical emergencies or to

describe like accidents we’ll also talk

about vocabulary for suspicious

situations so there’s a lot to talk

about

I will probably talk too much as usual

but there will be a lot of patterns that

you can kind of use to make your own

reports or to describe your own

situation so please feel free to send

your example sentences in the chat

throughout the lesson and I will try to

check them alive but they’re a lot so I

see Facebook and YouTube up hi everybody

lots of people there Josh and Diego

Minaj Lennon someone who’s a Korean name

I can’t read sorry Estevan Mohammed

Samson Adrian Apache Patricia Minaj

again hi Karina hi there and on Facebook

I’m milk our hello owl and ma say again

hey Luis and Roenick and Momma and Zia

and nabila hi everybody Osmond - great

lots of people as you join please don’t

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really appreciate it and of course if

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really appreciate that too okay we will

take about a minute before we begin the

lesson so as always a quick announcement

let’s see last yeah like 12 hours ago

maybe we have this new video go up on

the English class 101 YouTube channel

this is a video about food nouns so I

made this video about

counter words that you can use to like

count uncountable nouns that are like

food-related nouns so this is a really

good video for just everyday life things

so talking about eating so if you have

not seen this video yet you can check

this out this is on the English class

101 YouTube channel so I hope that’s

helpful coming soon is a similar video

uncountable drink nouns so I know lots

of you like food lessons okay cool so

with that as I said today’s lesson is

about explaining emergencies explaining

emergencies so I hope that we can talk

about a lot of things hi everybody I

can’t get to all your comments but I see

you thanks for watching okay uh we are

about three minutes in so I’m gonna

start soon I’m gonna share the video

actually and then we will begin there it

is cool okay so today we’re going to

talk about a lot of things I hope I can

get through it all we will see we will

see so let’s get started I want to start

over here I want to start by introducing

some reporting patterns so for today’s

lesson yes these are patterns you can

use to explain emergency situations yes

but you can also just use these to kind

of give reports even like at your

workplace like you’re calling to report

I don’t know some may be problem at your

workplace it doesn’t have to be an

emergency situation so there are a

couple of other times when you can use

these so let’s get started alright first

for reporting accidents for reporting

accidents we can use this pattern right

here this first one this is a phone

pattern this is a phone pattern so when

you’re calling someone like in the

emergency line in the US it’s 911 si

phone number when you’re using the phone

to report an accident

you can use this pattern right here I’m

calling progressive tense

I’m calling to report and then you’ll

need an article so I’m calling to report

up I’m calling to report and here then

are a few examples these are things to

report so we have specific noun phrases

in some cases or we have like some more

information that we need to provide

common examples I’m calling to report a

car crash or a car accident so a car

crash or car accident you can use both

of these to describe the same thing so

an accident involving a car an accident

between two cars or a car accident like

a car in a building so a car crash or a

car accident I’m calling to report a car

accident this second one this is

something that you will need to put your

own information into this is if an

object fell so fell here fell is the

past tense of fall fall becomes fell in

past tense so an object fell on a thing

or a person an object or a person so for

example a tree fell on a car or a

building fell on another building I

don’t know it’s something kind of crazy

happened so this is one you can use to

describe when one object falls on top of

another object so I’m calling to report

in this case I’m calling to report that

an object fell onto another object you

will need to change the sentence

slightly another one someone wrote I’m

calling to report that we are the best

English class whatever Thanks

that’s not a bad thing that was very

funny good Oh someone Marcelo says I

dropped a 200-degree cup of coffee on my

lap is that an accident yeah sure you

can describe that as an accident it’s up

to you if you need to call someone and

make a report about that

I don’t know but that’s a very hot cup

of coffee so you can describe that as an

accident yes so something you do not

plan on happening is an accident okay

um good yeah misil’s you’re getting

ahead they’re on Facebook someone said

I’m calling to report at Brooklyn

College someone not breathing well I’m

going to get to that in part two of

today’s lesson

you guys are getting ahead of me that’s

awesome okay a couple more common ones

though I’m calling to report a fire up

fire I’m calling to report a fire any

fire like that’s not supposed to be

there just use the word fire so you

don’t need to say fire accident or fire

incident I’m calling to report a fire

finally this one chemical spill chemical

spill so a chemical spill some of you I

know work in like research settings so

if you work with chemicals or if you

work maybe with lots of cleaning

cleaning products and there’s a spill of

a dangerous chemical you can use this

word to report it I’m calling to report

a chemical spill calling to report a

chemical spill okay so some of you I saw

in your example sentences you already

have this giving your location part

included that’s awesome so a couple

patterns to give your location so after

you make a phone report and you need to

give your location where are you you can

use one of these two patterns so if you

have studied how to give directions you

might recognize or you might remember

some of these so first one here is I’m

at so again I’m I’m I am I’m at the

corner of the corner up don’t forget

this up here this preposition I’m at the

corner of Street a and Street B so the

idea here is for example if you’re at an

intersection right here if this is your

spot at least

okay maybe we’ll zoom in in a second so

imagine you’re at an intersection here

so an intersection means a place where

two roads come together so if you’re

here at the corner of these two streets

you can say I’m at the corner of Street

a and Street B so I’m at this corner

here that’s what this means

that’s one pattern you can use to

describe your location if you’re in a

place that’s very well-known you can use

this pattern I’m at the supermarket in

front of or maybe behind or next to

whatever may be X station for example so

if you don’t know the street name if you

don’t know exactly where you are but

there’s a really big landmark like a

station in this case or like a really

well-known store or supermarket you can

use a landmark that’s called a landmark

so something that’s well-known like an

object or a building that’s well-known

you can use that to report your location

so I’m at the corner of Street a and

Street B so to put all of this stuff

together you could say maybe I want to

report a fire I see a fire in a building

I could say I’m calling to report a fire

I’m at the corner of Street a and Street

be like the fire is in the building next

to the supermarket across from the bank

so we can put together like directions

reporting information all of this

alright so these are our basic reporting

phrases we’ll use today we’ll use we’ll

come back to them a little bit later as

well okay so I want to take a quick

break it is ten minutes past the hour

um I have as always free PDFs for you

guys but I know III don’t think I have

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Black Friday is Black Friday is the day

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until Friday I think I saw the video

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right

if you’re just joining us though today’s

lesson is about explaining emergencies

and making reports explaining

emergencies and making reports

hello everybody that just joined I see

lots of you just joined on Facebook hi

Sylvia and Kim and I’m on and BK and Ali

dad hi okay let’s continue to part two

of today’s lesson then part two here is

medical emergencies medical emergencies

so in this part of the lesson I’m going

to talk a lot about key vocabulary words

you can use to describe like injuries so

if you get sick or if you get hurt

injured these are some words you can use

and some patterns you can use to just

that you can also use some of these when

you visit a doctor to explain an injury

or to explain an illness okay let’s take

a look first one the first medical

emergency is a very common one and you

don’t have to use this in emergency

situations you can just tell your

friends if this happens to you it is I

cut myself with a knife and cut myself

with a knife so you’ll notice here this

cut it seems like it’s the same as

present-tense cut so like present tense

cut and past tense cut they have the

same spelling the same pronunciation so

we know though that this is a past tense

statement because if this were a present

tense statement it would be a really

strange thing to say

so a quick grammar reminder we use

present tense to talk about regular

actions

yeah something we do like as part of a

schedule so if this is part of my

schedule I cut myself with a knife

that’s a really strange thing to say so

we know that this is probably a past

tense expression I cut myself with a

knife that’s how we know that this is

not a present tense statement it doesn’t

make sense as a present tense statement

so I cut myself this is also an example

of a verb that’s used reflexively so for

you more intermediate or advanced

learners reflexive verbs are verbs were

the subject and like the object are the

same person or the same thing so if you

want to change your subject make it he

cut himself with a knife she cut herself

with a knife so your subject and your

object refer to the same thing that is

correct

to do okay someone said I cut a knife

with my finger are you sure I cut my

finger with a knife so the object or the

person that was cut should be the object

of the verb here okay um I don’t see any

other questions yet okay so I’ll go on

to the next point someone mentioned this

in the facebook chat earlier many things

for that I’m having a trouble breathing

so here you’ll notice I’m having I’m

having trouble breathing you can use

this in the progressive tense I’m having

trouble breathing means right now it’s

difficult for me to breathe progressive

I’m having trouble breathing another way

to say this is I can’t breathe I can’t

breathe

so you’ll notice the grammar here

changes simple it’s a much more simple

sentence but it means like it’s

impossible for me to breathe I can’t

breathe if you want to change this so

that you can explain a friend’s

condition like my friend is having

trouble breathing he is having trouble

breathing or she can’t breathe these are

how we would change these sentences to

describe it so trouble breathing it’s

like it’s difficult to breathe can’t

breathe it’s like impossible like it

sounds much more serious I can’t breathe

okay good

I have trouble trying to breathe

underwater zazz lys I think that’s a

very common that’s very common problem

okay

let’s go on to another actually maybe

for some of you the most important part

of today’s lesson I’m having an allergic

reaction this word right here is really

important if you have like a food

allergy if you’re sensitive to food if

you’re sensitive to certain animals

allergies so like for example I know

peanuts are really common food item that

people have allergies to so some people

will eat that or contact like touch

peanuts and maybe their skin will get

really big or turn red or

can’t breathe so that’s called an

allergic reaction the pronunciation is

allergic reaction please keep in mind

there is this word allergies I have

allergies like I have allergies to pet

sir I have allergies to food allergies

and allergic has slightly different

pronunciations so I’m having an allergic

reaction reaction means response an

allergic response to something so again

we’re using this progressive verb form

here too I’m having an allergic reaction

and you can explain the the allergy to

I’m having an allergic reaction to

peanuts having an allergic reaction to a

cat for example okay someone says I

don’t understand the use of having okay

thanks for the question that man

so having here I’m having we use this to

mean I’m experiencing so in these

sentences if you can kind of think of it

as like I’m experiencing but

experiencing sounds way too formal we

use have like imagine in the sentence

I’m having a good time

it means I’m experiencing a good time

but we don’t say experience they’re here

having means experiencing so please

think of it in that way do I have any

allergies I have a slight cat allergy a

slight cat allergy I sneeze a lot okay

good Danny says I’ve got an allergic

reaction we would say I have an allergic

reaction I have I’m sorry I’m having an

allergic reaction or I’ve got allergies

too so in my case like I’ve got

allergies to cats

that’s something we would say okay good

I’m having chicken pop-up chicken pox

maybe P o XP o X is chicken pox

yes okay but let’s move along men time’s

running out

next time I have severe pain in my body

part this is the next pattern two points

for this sentence severe severe is the

pronunciation of this word severe means

very very strong very very bad I have

severe pain in something I have severe

pain in my left arm I have severe pain

in my stomach I have severe pain in my

head these are quick ways to explain you

are in a lot of pain something is very

very painful okay let’s see actually I

will talk about this because the last

part is a little bit shorter so let’s

continue on down this list for now and

if you have some examples with this

severe pain point please feel free to

send them in the chat okay I want to

continue I mentioned this word in the

first part of today’s lesson chemicals

so we talked about a chemical spill so

if you work with chemicals if you work

with like cleaning products chemicals it

might be part of your everyday life so I

got chemicals in my eye or I got

chemicals on my skin so this is one part

in my eye

I got chemicals on my skin so notice

here your preposition changes yeah in my

eye so meaning like inside your eye area

and on my skin I got chemicals in my eye

on my skin watch out for that

preposition there this part I got I got

so we used got to mean like I had eaten

like a negative reaction or I had a

negative it’s kind of used to mean like

something negative happened to me so I

got chemicals on my skin we would say we

would not say here I have chemicals

on my skin like you could explain it as

like a simple fact but it sounds more

kind of like a negative experience to

say I got chemicals on my skin

oh no similar to like I got a bad score

on a test or I got lost for example it’s

like saying became with a negative

feeling about it

I got chemicals on my skin it’s bad okay

um anything else someone said I everyday

have pain head I’m talking I’m going to

talk about that later I have a headache

every day I have a headache every day

nice examples to everybody Albertus that

I have severe pain in my shoulder

shoulder SH o u LD er shoulder shoulder

yes you may ask live questions I can’t

promise I can catch all of them nice one

I got chemicals usually we use this

plural form chemicals chemicals s don’t

forget your s there

I got chemicals in my ear I got

chemicals in my hair good I have severe

ah careful severe your spelling of

severe there there’s an e at the end

without it sever the word is severed

this becomes the word sever sever means

to cut something severe means very

strong watch out for your spelling there

I got chemicals on my nails up for your

nails we use this preposition on as well

so watch out for that okay I got wasabi

in my eye oh no come nice example

sentence that’s pretty good

I got chemicals in my mouth nice nice

nice

I have dizziness in my head or just I

have dizziness is okay we understand

it’s in your head there great nice

example is everybody let’s continue on

to this next part and then we’ll talk

about a couple more vocabulary words and

take a break um this is one I actually

had to use this one time I found a

person on the ground so maybe you’ve had

like this experience on the street or

something if you find another person

and you want to explain that what do you

say so first past tense I found a person

on the ground so not floor floor is

inside like now in the studio we are

inside there’s a floor here if you’re

outside it’s on the ground on the ground

again your preposition here is on so I

found a person on the ground he or she

is not responsive he or she is not

responsive responsive you see inside

this word responsive is this response

response so that means he or she is not

giving a response if I say like hello

are you ok there is no response we

communicate that with this he is not

responsive she is not responsive this is

a key word when you’re making a phone

reports there ok let’s finish this part

with this last bit down here describing

pain I want to introduce three points

here about describing pain junior Alisha

I have an allergy or I’m allergic both

are ok I have up like peanut allergy or

I’m allergic to something both are fine

there ok last describing pain if you

move nice era if you have arrived in a

hospital a common question a doctor or

hospital staff will ask you is this one

right here on a scale from one to ten

how bad is the pain on a scale from one

to ten this part on a scale from one to

ten means from zero or sorry from one to

ten how bad is the pain so that means

you please choose a number so one is

like pain ten is strong pain on that

scale how bad is your pain so you can

say eight six three that’s a quick way

for doctors and nurses to understand

your pain last part in this section

three key vocabulary words here some of

you already talked about

these are three ways different ways to

describe the pain that you feel the

first word is sharp pain sharp pain so

sharp like a knife a knife is a good

image for this word so sharp pain if you

can imagine like someone stabbed you

it’s really like like a knife pain in

your body you can describe that as sharp

pain so for example I have a sharp pain

in my stomach or I have sharp pain in my

head so it’s like a knife we use sharp

pain to talk about that the next word

here is this one throbbing pain this one

is hard to pronounce so there’s that th

at the beginning and unvoiced th

throbbing throbbing pain so this the

root here is throb throb to throb means

to rhythmically beat so this comes from

your heartbeat actually so your heart

has like that regular beat so when you

have pain that has the same rhythm as

your heartbeat like you notice it’s it

has like a rhythm to it we describe that

as throbbing pain something is throbbing

pain so like a headache is often a great

example of throbbing a pain you could

say sharp throbbing pain too if you want

to that’s also good okay and the last

one that I want to describe is eight you

can put this before I’m sorry after a

body part - someone mentioned headache

earlier great headache stomach ache

backache those are the common ones I

think so an ache is kind of just a low

level of pain that’s just constant it’s

not really throbbing it’s not really

sharp it’s just uncomfortable maybe like

shoulder ache as well okay so those are

three quick words you can use to talk

about different types of pain all right

but I have to take another break and

then we’ll finish with a few more key

words if you missed it earlier if you

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Friday deal okay a couple questions

Armando says hi when do you use it hurts

it hurts this a very general word

anytime you make it like an injury like

if I kick something like ahhh my leg

hurts like we use that to talk about

just general pain we don’t say I have a

pain in my leg for that we would say it

hurts like ah my head hurts a little

today like ah my hand hurts like I

stretched it I don’t know or like my

neck hurts I slept weird okay let’s

finish then with this part here MA

ammaji says how many days do you have

online class in a week this is once

you were watching once a week class okay

let’s go to this our last part here I

want to introduce just a couple of

vocabulary words for suspicious people

suspicious sounds they’re disturbances

so if you want to make a report like we

talked about here about something that’s

not an accident but it’s a suspicious

person this is how you can do it

so like I’m calling to report a strange

man or I’m calling to report a strange

woman outside my house so again you can

use those location expressions we talked

about at the beginning of today’s lesson

I’m calling to report a robbery I’m

calling to report a theft what’s the

difference between robbery and theft

robbery is generally like large-scale

like a bank robbery like someone stole a

lot of money or like lots of like

diamond necklaces or something that’s a

robbery

theft is usually smaller scale like

someone went to a convenience store and

like stole like five hundred dollars

it’s usually like smaller scale things

robberies are like bigger things so I’m

calling to report a robbery or I’m

calling to report a theft that’s another

point here we use an article I’m calling

to report a robbery I’m calling to

report a theft is okay or I’m calling to

report theft you may hear it with no

article there the last two words are

threat and assault threat threat so

again there’s that thr pronunciation a

threat so threat this is related to the

verb to threaten to threaten so in this

case there’s not any like physical

attack but someone uses strong words to

say something like I’m going to hurt you

or I’m going to do something bad they’re

saying that something bad is going to

happen in the future that’s as a noun a

threat so you could say I’m calling to

report a threat

or I’m calling because I was threatened

threatened finally assault if you see it

like a fight if you see a fight you can

say I’m calling to report a fight yes or

I’m calling to report an assault

and assault so if threats are like words

we’re using words to scare somebody

assault is actually attacking somebody

so you’re using physical force making

someone do something that is assault so

I’m calling to report an assault or

someone was assaulted for example as a

bird assaulted so these are a couple of

words you can use to talk about

suspicious people are like fights or

other disturbances so those means like

societal problems very example uh

armored threatened threatened with a

knife yes you could say that someone

threatened me with a knife yes you can

okay um I don’t see other questions yet

some of you are writing some very silly

sentences about theft okay ah great I

will end there for today though cuz I’m

late I talk too much as always so this

lesson if you missed it please don’t

worry this lesson was recorded you can

watch this on our Facebook page or on

our YouTube page at any time if you have

questions please send them in the chat I

will check your messages and try to

answer them somehow in the future of

course we will be back next week so

today’s lesson will finish here but next

week we will be back next week it will

be November 29th Wednesday November 29th

the topic will be explaining steps in a

process so I’m gonna talk a lot about

sequence words like first after that

then next that sort of thing um so I

kind of I want this to be a good lesson

to help you with writing and with

imitations too so please join us next

week for this lesson

so that’s Wednesday now it’s 9 p.m.

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really really appreciate it thank you

for your questions really great

questions everybody and thank you for

your example sentences so please enjoy

your weekend if you are celebrating

Thanksgiving and Black Friday I hope

that you have a nice celebration but

otherwise I will see you all again next

week thank you bye bye

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