Your Monthly Dose of English Best of September 2021

want to learn your target language for

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first the renting an apartment

conversation cheat sheet learn how to

say how much is the rent how many

bedrooms are there and much more with

this new pdf cheat sheet

second printable visual flash cards

that’ll improve your vocabulary

want to speak more of the language

you’ll need to learn more words

and with our new printable visual

flashcards you’ll easily master over 1

500 words just download and print these

flashcards out

third the top 50 marine animals and fish

how well do you know animal names in

your target language

with this lesson you’ll learn how to say

shark whale dolphin and much more

fourth how to talk about your day in 20

phrases if you can’t talk about your day

yet this one minute lesson will get you

speaking you’ll learn 20 must-know

phrases from talking about waking up and

brushing your teeth to dinner and going

to sleep

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description below download them right

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[Music]

can we have a bottle of wine with the

meal

we have a bottle of wine with the meal

so if you go to a restaurant and you

want to order a bottle of wine to go

with your dinner you can ask this

question can we order a bottle of wine

to go with the meal another really

common way to do this is just to ask for

the wine list if you want to order a

glass of wine you can do this or if you

want to order a bottle of wine you can

do this you can just ask the staff

person can i see the wine list please or

can i have the wine list please if

there’s one available they will bring it

to you and you can choose a glass or a

bottle to go along with your meal okay

next is

can i have a glass of water please

i have a glass of water please

okay so depending on the country and

depending on the restaurant that you go

to staff might not automatically provide

water at the restaurant you visit if you

need to ask the staff for water you can

say can i have a glass of water please

or you might just say can i have some

water please or just water please

something simple like that is the best

way to ask for water at your table

okay next expression

can i get one more serving please

so this is a very polite way to say one

more of this please if you have one dish

and you ate it at your table and you

want another one you can say can i have

one more serving of this if you want to

be really polite i would probably say

something like can i have another one of

these or can we have one more of these

or you could even name the dish like

could we have one more of this appetizer

you can ask for one more or one more

serving when you want another one of

something you’ve already ordered

what’s the special for today

some restaurants might have what’s

called a special that means it’s one

dish or maybe a couple of dishes on the

menu that are not part of the regular

menu so the restaurant has prepared some

new special dish with some ingredients

they have in the kitchen that day so if

you want to ask about this dish you can

say what’s the special today keep in

mind not all restaurants have specials

usually the waiter or waitress will let

you know about the special when you

arrive but if you want to check you can

say what’s the special for today or do

you have a special

okay next expression

do you have any desserts

so when you get to the end of your meal

if you want to ask about dessert options

at the restaurant you can say do you

have any desserts or you could also ask

do you have a dessert menu or you can

ask something like what sounds good for

dessert to the person that you’re at the

restaurant with there are lots of kind

of sneaky ways to ask about desserts at

the end of the meal but this is a good

polite question to know

okay next expression

could i see the wine list please

okay i talked about this a little bit

earlier if you want to have wine with

your meal you can ask for the wine list

so depending on the restaurant that you

go to the wine list might be very short

or it might be a whole book of wines if

you want to check out all of the

information they have available you

should request the wine list can i have

the wine list please

okay next is

what is the soup of the day

what’s the soup of the day

this question refers to a soup that is

available on that day so that means it

might not be part of the restaurant’s

regular menu maybe they have a seasonal

soup or a kind of special soup and you

want to ask about that you could say

what’s the soup of the day or even just

what’s the soup today both are fine

okay next expression

i’m on a

diet i’m on a diet

so this is maybe an expression you

wouldn’t say to the staff at the

restaurant you might say this to the

person that you’re having a dinner with

or having lunch with maybe you want to

talk a little bit about your food choice

for the day you might say i’m on a diet

i’m going to eat something healthy or

you might say this to the staff if you

are looking for a healthy recommendation

you might say something like i’m on a

diet i don’t want to eat a lot of bread

so can you recommend something for me in

those cases you might need to use this

expression i’m on a diet

okay next is

what does this dish contain

this is a very polite way of saying what

is in this dish or what are the

ingredients in this dish generally in

casual situations we just say what’s in

this or what’s in this dish if you want

to sound more polite you can use this

question what does this dish contain

this could be really important if you

have an allergy or some other kind of

food reaction that the staff needs to

know about you can say what does this

dish contain to make sure everything is

clear before you order

okay next expression

i am allergic to nuts

i’m allergic to nuts

okay a very important question pattern

if you have a food allergy you can

replace nuts for any other food in this

sentence i’m allergic to bread for

example or i’m allergic to something

something whatever food you’re allergic

to whichever food causes an allergic

reaction you can use this expression to

describe that another very common one is

shellfish i’m allergic to shellfish so

make sure to tell the staff before you

order so that they can make sure that

they don’t give you anything that might

contain that ingredient hi everybody my

name is alicia in this lesson i’m going

to talk about the differences between

seams

sounds and looks especially when using

the word like as in seems like or sounds

like or looks like so let’s get started

all right i first want to talk about

seems like seems or seems like we use

these in slightly different ways

first we use seams to make general

guesses about things we cannot confirm

or things we cannot check so when i say

we cannot confirm it’s like something

that we can’t test quickly we can’t

check our guests right away so we use

seams to make guesses about these kinds

of things

second we can use seams directly before

an adjective or an adverb

third we use seems like

before a noun phrase so please keep in

mind

seems no like comes before an adjective

or an adverb seems like comes before a

noun phrase so this is a key difference

and we’ll see this same pattern with the

other words in this lesson too so let’s

look at a few examples

first

you seem tired you seem tired and she

seems nice she seems nice these are

examples where we use seams with an

adjective so tired and nice are

adjectives we just use seam or seams

because we conjugate for this subject

here so when we use it in this way

before an adjective or an adverb we do

not use like

let’s look at this other example

sentence though this seems like a nice

place to stop for lunch a nice place to

stop for lunch so here we have this noun

phrase yes the word nice is in this noun

phrase there’s an adjective in here but

this right here this is a nice place so

we’re talking about the place actually

uh it’s not just the adjective that this

is modifying so we need to use seams

like to talk about it so that place

seems like a nice place we could say it

seems nice sure but if we’re talking

about the place the actual noun we need

to use seems like to describe that so it

seems like a nice place okay

so with this in mind with seams in mind

which we use for general guesses let’s

continue on to the next part which

focuses on sounds sounds so

we use sounds and sounds like

to make guesses about things based on

information we get with our ears so that

means we hear something and we make a

guess

based on the thing that we heard so i

hear something like from another room or

i hear a sound from outside i make a

guess about the situation

based on that sound so i got the

information with my ears

second point which is the same as seems

we use sounds directly before an

adjective or an adverb again and here

also

without the word like we don’t use like

here just sounds or sound

third as we talked about with seams we

use sounds like before a noun phrase so

some examples of sounds

first

she sounds sick she sounds sick so sick

is an adjective we’re using sounds here

because our subject is she she sounds

sick you sound sick it’s how we would

use this so sick

we use this adjective here because maybe

the guess is based on like hearing

someone coughing like that

sound

you might think hmm that person sounds

sick or maybe they’re sneezing or

maybe they just are making some kind of

awful sound and you think um that person

sounds sick so that’s based on

information we get with our ears

second example sentence that sounds

great that sounds great this is a very

useful and very common response to an

idea or a suggestion like for example do

you want to see a movie tonight that

sounds great so it’s like you heard the

suggestion you got that suggestion with

your ears and your response is that

sounds great so

that’s a good idea in other words so

this is a very common way that we use

sounds in this pattern to respond

positively to a suggestion that sounds

great

third

that sounds like a bad idea that sounds

like a bad idea so this is a good

negative response to a suggestion if

someone tells you like let’s stay up all

night drinking energy drinks you could

say that sounds like a bad idea so again

this is for information we got with our

ears and in this case it’s a noun phrase

bad idea so again there is an adjective

here the adjective is modifying the noun

idea so that sounds like a bad idea a

bad idea is the noun phrase therefore we

have to use sounds like in this sentence

we use like here that sounds like a bad

idea so you’ll notice sounds like and

seems like or just seams and sounds

follow a similar pattern but sounds is

used for information we get with our

ears

okay so with this in mind let’s go to

the last word for this lesson looks or

looks like

looks like is a little different from

seams and sounds because there are two

different ways that we use the look

pattern or the looks like pattern

first in the same way as we use the

other two words we can use looks for

guesses about things based on

information we get with our eyes so

sounds

is specifically for information we get

with our ears

looks is used for information we get

with our eyes

so again we use this before an adjective

or an adverb just look or looks

and we use looks like before a noun

phrase some examples of this first this

hiking trail looks difficult so here’s

my adjective difficult i’ve used looks

here so this hiking trail is my subject

it looks

difficult so no like here so i want to

express like i’m making a guess i think

this is difficult it looks difficult

based on like my visual understanding of

it so if you’re standing in front of the

hiking trail and you look at the hiking

trail and it seems really hard like i

just said seems that’s okay too if it

seems difficult you can say wow this

looks difficult

another key point for this lesson so i

just used seams to talk about using like

the word looks so

uh i mentioned that seems is used for

like general guesses about things yes

and it’s okay to use it there’s not a

communication problem to use it for

something you get with your information

you get with your eyes or information

you get with your ears but

if you can

use looks or sounds to describe that

thing or to make your guess it’s

probably going to sound a little more

natural to use that so i just said this

hiking trail seems difficult so that

sounds quite general but if i use this

hiking trail looks difficult it sounds

better because the listener understands

i can see the trail so i’m making a

guess based on like the information in

my eyes kind of so i can see it so

that’s why i’m saying this that’s the

reason for this comment so if you can

try to use looks or sounds to make your

guess seems does sound more general

okay another example with looks so it

looks like it’s gonna rain it looks like

it’s gonna rain this is a very common

actually way to express like a weather

prediction so it looks like it’s gonna

rain or it looks like it’s gonna snow or

it looks like it’s gonna clear up so

clear up means become clear so we use it

to talk about the weather but it looks

like it is going to rain so it really

here is our noun phrase so looks like

is the expression we use we use like

here

but as i mentioned there are actually

two different ways of using looks like

and so the second one you need to be

careful of

the pattern that we use here is a

looks like b

so this means a is visually similar to

or that means a has an appearance

similar to b so these two things share

an appearance

a looks like b they look the same

examples

that cloud looks like a rabbit so that

cloud a looks like a rabbit so that

means the two things have the same

appearance or this a similar appearance

another example your house looks like a

mansion your house a

looks like a mansion b so the two things

have similar appearances so you can

pretty i think clearly tell you can

pretty clearly understand which meaning

of looks like is intended based on the

situation is the speaker comparing

appearances or is the speaker making a

guess depending on the sentence you can

usually pretty clearly understand which

one the speaker wants to say

okay so finally a couple points here i

did mention yes if you can use looks or

sounds to describe your guess please do

that it’s very clear

and second um just a general point about

the word seam is that we use seem for

like very general feelings and

experiences so in my example sentences i

was talking about people’s emotions or

maybe like my opinion about a place so

it’s kind of a very general situation

where we use seam so this is a quick

introduction to how to use these words i

hope that it was helpful for you but if

you have any questions or comments or if

you want to practice making a sentence

with one of these please feel free to do

so in the comment section of this video

of course if you like this lesson don’t

forget to give it a thumbs up subscribe

to our channel if you haven’t already

and check us out at englishclass101.com

for some other things that can help you

with your english studies thanks very

much for watching this lesson and i will

see you again soon bye-bye

outside

outside outside

outside refers to something not in a

building

it’s getting cloudy outside

it’s

getting cloudy outside

inside

the word inside refers to something

within a building it’s the opposite of

outside

we are inside the hotel

we are

inside the hotel

left

left is the opposite of right it refers

to this side or if you’re watching in

this video this side i suppose

it’s on the left side

right

in terms of direction right is the

opposite of left we can also use this

word to mean correct but for this lesson

let’s focus on meaning the opposite of

left

there’s a park on the right side of the

building

there’s a park on the right side of the

building

there’s a park on the right side of the

building

first

first refers to the number one of

something we use this word in

competitions in tournaments and things

to talk about the number one rank of

something

they had their first child early

second

second is what comes after first it

refers to the number two rank of

something again we use this in

tournaments in races and so on

my office is on the second floor

third

third refers to the number three of

something while again we can use this

word in tournaments and races we can

also use it to refer to the number three

of something

my credit card bill is due on the third

of every month my credit card bill is

due on the third of every month

my credit card bill is due on the third

of every month

soap

soap is what we use to wash our hands to

wash our clothes to wash our dishes we

can refer to all of these as soap

bathe with soap and water every day

toothbrush

tooth brush

a toothbrush is the thing that we use to

clean our teeth so please keep in mind

we do not say teeth brush no we use

toothbrush toothbrush here can you give

me that toothbrush

can you give me that toothbrush

toothpaste

tooth paste

so we use toothpaste together with our

tooth brush it’s like the paste that we

use to clean our teeth

we’re out of toothpaste

shampoo

sham poo

shampoo refers to the kind of soap that

we use to clean our hair

the woman is shampooing her hair

information

in formation

information can refer to anything that

we hear or that we read it can refer to

something written it can refer to

something that we hear in sound many

different things can be information

can you send me the information

farmer

a farmer is someone who grows food or

they raise cattle cattle for example is

sheep pigs cows and so on a farmer can

be a man or a woman

the farmer is in the wheat field

secretary

a secretary is like an assistant they

usually work in an office and their

responsibilities are schedules answering

phones helping customers and so on

the secretary is on the phone

the

secretary is on the phone

banker

a banker is a person who works in a bank

they’re someone that deals with money

they might help their clients but they

work inside a bank

my brother is a banker

my brother is a

banker writer

writer

a writer is someone who writes this can

be a person that writes books maybe they

write articles maybe they write for a

newspaper or a magazine someone who

writes

the writer is outlining a story on paper

try

to try something is like trying to test

something or rather we are aiming to

test something it’s something maybe we

don’t know how to do yet or we’re not

good at doing yet but we want to

i’m trying to get up at six every day

measure

measure measure is a verb and it refers

to finding the length or finding the

width of something we can also use it to

measure to find the weight of something

more or less is fine you don’t have to

measure every millimeter

more or less is fine you don’t have to

measure every millimeter

more or less is fine

you don’t have to measure every

millimeter

keep

so the verb keep can refer to holding

something often in your house sometimes

for a long time we can also use the word

keep with another verb to mean continue

it’s not so easy to keep creating new

ideas

it’s not so easy to keep creating new

ideas

it’s not so easy to keep creating new

ideas

wait

the verb wait refers to stopping

activity usually for a short period of

time in order to do something else maybe

you are going to meet another person for

example

wait a minute

hey everyone welcome to the monthly

review the monthly show on language

learning

where you discover new learning

strategies motivational tips study tools

and resources

by the way all the lessons and bonuses

you’re about to see can be downloaded

for free on our website

so click the link in the description

right now to sign up for your free

lifetime account

okay today’s topic is

how to start conversations talking

points for language learners

how do you start a conversation in a

language that you’re learning believe it

or not it’s actually very easy to do and

in this lesson we’ll give you tips and

resources to get you speaking more of

your target language you’ll discover one

talking points for language learners two

the top five ways to start a

conversation and three resources to help

you master these talking points

but first here are this month’s new

lessons and resources be sure to

download these now before we take them

down in a few days first the renting an

apartment conversation cheat sheet

learn how to say how much is the rent

how many bedrooms are there and much

more with this new pdf cheat sheet

second visual flash cards that’ll

improve your vocabulary want to speak

more of the target language you’ll need

to learn more words and with our new

printable visual flash cards you’ll

easily master over 1 500 words just

download and print these visual flash

cards out

third the top 50 marine animals and fish

how well do you know animal names in

your target language with this quick

lesson you’ll learn how to say shark

whale dolphin and much more

fourth how to talk about your day in 20

phrases if you can’t talk about your day

yet this one minute lesson will get you

speaking you’ll learn 20 must-know

phrases from talking about waking up and

brushing your teeth to dinner and going

to sleep

to get your free resources click the

link in the description below right now

they’re yours to keep forever okay let’s

jump into today’s topic

how to start conversations talking

points for language learners

starting a conversation can be

intimidating for most people even in

their own native language so it’s

understandable if you feel even more

intimidated starting a conversation in

another language but if you do want to

speak more of your target language and

get more practice that’s exactly what

you’ll need to do have conversations

with native speakers

part one talking points for language

learners

the good news is starting a conversation

in another language is much easier

because one native speakers will realize

that you’re learning and will go easy on

you and two you don’t know enough of the

language to worry about saying something

clever and that’s totally fine so you

can easily start with basic phrases

so how exactly do you start a

conversation

you’ll need something called a talking

point a talking point is simply a topic

or a thing to talk about for example

weather’s a very common talking point

you can say nice weather today to

someone and start a conversation from

that and after that you can ask them

where they’re from or talk about the

city like wow this is a great city which

is another basic talking point and now

you have a conversation going all from a

simple talking point and a simple

comment about the weather so what are

some common talking points let’s get

into part two

part two the top five ways to start a

conversation

again a good thing about having

conversations in another language is

that it’s okay and natural to focus on

simple topics for a while so here are

five easy ways to start conversations in

your target language and if you’re

already learning with our language

program then you’ve already learned some

of these within your first few lessons

one introduce yourself in your target

language sometimes starting a

conversation or continuing one is as

simple as introducing yourself

you can also use this if you’ve started

with a different topic like the weather

then it makes sense to say by the way my

name is you’ll learn how to introduce

yourself in the very first lesson of our

program

two the weather

people talk about the weather all over

the world so you should learn weather

phrases in your target language just

saying it’s really nice today is enough

to start a conversation if you want to

talk about the weather check out our can

talk about weather learning pathway this

series of lessons teaches you how to

talk about the weather in your target

language

compliments

compliments are a great way to start a

conversation you can compliment

something about their city their country

or something about their culture

four ask for help so for example you can

ask for directions about the price of

something and let the conversation go

from there these are very basic phrases

that you learn in our survival phrases

lessons

and five learn phrases for transactions

like getting a room at a hotel or

telling the taxi driver where to go

these are very easy ways to start a

dialogue and you can easily move into