Advanced English Sounds you need to know
Vanessa:
Hi.
I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Ribbit, ribbit.
Bum, bum, bum, bum, mwahaha.
What are these sounds?
Let’s talk about it.
What sound does a duck make?
Quack, quack, quack.
What sound does a frustrated person make?
Uggh.
What sound does a car horn make?
Beep beep.
Today, you are going to level up your English
skills by being able to make sounds like an
English speaker.
When I lived in France, I noticed that French
people said, “Tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck,” for
things moving.
And, “Aye,” for pain.
But for me, I had never used those sounds
in my life.
And to truly sound like a French speaker,
I had to adopt those extra sounds into my
French speaking experience.
To truly sound like a proficient English speaker,
yes, you need to have good grammar, yes, you
need to have good vocabulary skills, but there
are these sounds that are not exactly words.
They’re just sounds that are included in our
conversations as we’re telling stories about
things that happened, as you were reenacting
things, they just come up a lot in conversations.
So, I would like you to be able to use them
as naturally as possible.
I’ve separated these sounds into three categories.
The first one is the most simple, animal sounds.
Meow, meow.
The second one is a little bit more difficult.
Sounds for things.
Ring, ring.
And the final category is the most difficult
and that is a human sounds.
Burr.
Let’s get started.
For our first category, animal sounds, I’m
going to make the sound and then I want you
to guess, quickly, which animal you think
it is.
Let’s start with the first one.
Our first animal actually has many different
sounds that it makes.
Woof woof, ruff ruff, bark bark, haooo, grrr.
What animal makes all of these sounds?
It is the dog.
The typical sound we associate with a dog
is woof woof, woof woof, woof woof.
What about the sound?
Meow meow or hiss.
This is a cat.
When a cat is happy, meow.
When a cat is angry, hiss.
What about this animal?
Tweet tweet tweet, or a bigger version, caw
caw.
This is a bird.
A small bird say tweet tweet tweet.
This is similar to, you might notice it.
Twitter.
Twitter, the social media, their logo is a
bird and it’s based on this sound tweet.
Tweet tweet tweet tweet is the sound of a
bird and it is also the thing that you write.
You write a tweet on Twitter.
So it’s kind of evolved from this sound.
Or if you have a bigger bird, like a raven
or a crow, it will say, caw caw.
Let’s go to the next one.
What animal says neigh or whinny?
It is a horse.
A typical sound we associate with a horse
is neigh.
And you can say, neigh.
What about moo?
It’s a cow.
Moo.
What animal says heehaw heehaw?
This lesson is very strange and very fun.
So thank you for enjoying it with me.
It is a donkey.
A donkey says heehaw heehaw heehaw.
What about oink oink, oink oink?
It is a pig.
Oink oink.
Sometimes we make a kind of snorting sound
like associated with a pig, but if you want
to use a word, specific word for a pig, it’s
just oink oink, oink oink.
What animal says baa baa?
It’s a sheep.
Bok bok bok bok bok.
It’s a chicken.
What about a baby chicken?
What does a chick say?
Cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep.
It’s so cute.
Cheep cheep cheep cheep.
What about this sound?
Cock-a-doodle-doo cock-a-doodle-doo.
This is the male chicken, the rooster.
I know that every language has a very creative
way for saying a rooster sound.
Cock-a-doodle-doo is what we say in English,
but I want to know in your native language,
what does a rooster say?
What about this sound?
Quack quack quack quack quack.
It’s a duck.
Ribbit ribbit.
Not rabbit.
Ribbit.
Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.
It’s a frog.
Who who, who who.
It’s an owl.
Hiss.
This is not a cat, again.
Instead, it is a snake.
Sometimes we say hiss.
And sometimes we just say an S sound.
Ssssss.
Who says squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak,
squeak, squeak?
It is a mouse probably being chased by a snake.
Hiss, squeak squeak squeak squeak.
There are several animals that say roar or
growl.
Those are lion, tiger, bear, and probably
other variations of these animals.
These kind of big, scary sounds, roar or growl.
And our last animal sound is buzz.
This could be a bee or it could really be
any insect.
Sometimes we don’t make such a strong buzz
sound for other insects, just buzz, kind of
focusing on the Z for other insects.
But if you’re talking about a bee, it does
definitely buzz.
The next category of sounds are things.
The sound that things make.
The first one is knock, knock, knock.
What is this?
Knock knock knock, or we could just make a
tongue clicking sound.
And it is a door.
When you knock on a door, we also use that
same verb to make the sound, knock, knock,
knock.
Honk honk, honk honk.
This is a car honking its horn, probably in
traffic.
Honk honk.
What about beep beep, beep beep?
This could be a little car.
It could be a bike, kind of horn on a bike,
beep beep, coming through, but it is that
idea of a little horn.
Beep beep, beep beep.
What about ding ding ding ding?
Or brrring?
This is a bell.
There are two different ways to signify the
sound of a bell.
Ding, ding, ding is the first one, or brrring
with an emphasis on the R. That’s kind of
the trill of the bell.
Brrring.
Or ding ding ding, is a bell ringing.
What do you think of when you hear crack crack?
This is something cracking, probably an egg
cracking.
If you are cooking with your kids and you’re
trying to make it more exciting.
This is something that I love to do with my
three-year-old son.
When we are cracking eggs, as we crack the
egg, we’ll hit it on the side of the bowl,
and I’ll make that sound.
Even though the egg is also making that sound,
I will make this cracking sound with my voice.
All right.
There’s the egg.
And this is just a way that you can easily
incorporate these sounds and you can sound
much more natural and like an English speaker
when you use that.
All right, let’s go to the next one.
Weeoo weeoo weeoo.
You might notice a lot of these sounds are
repeated.
It’s either said twice or three times.
Weeoo weeoo.
This is a siren sound.
It could be a firetruck.
It could be an ambulance.
It could be a police car, but it’s that idea
of a siren.
Weeoo weeoo.
Bom bom bom bom bom bom bom bom.
This is a drum.
Bom bom bom bom bom bom.
But if we make this a little bit lower, bom
bom.
It’s the sound of a gong.
A gong is a deeper sounding, kind of like
a drum, a deeper sounding instrument, but
it has that same word, that same sound, bom,
but at a different tone.
What about tick tock tick tock?
This is a clock.
The sound of the clock makes.
Tick tock tick tock.
Do you have a clock that makes the sound in
your house?
I think it’s becoming increasingly more common
to have digital clocks, but in our house we
do have a face clock and it makes this ticking
sound.
Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
The final sound in the thing category is boink
boink or bonk bonk.
What is that?
That is a ball bouncing.
Boink boink boink.
Sometimes we also say bouncy, bouncy, bouncy.
When my son wants to throw a ball in our house,
if it’s a rainy day, there is a safe place
to do this.
We close all of the doors to the bedroom,
the bathroom, the office, and there is a hallway
with nothing to break.
So he can throw kind of like a light ball,
usually with us, it’s kind of a fun time.
We throw the ball, he chases it, kind of like
a dog, but it’s a fun time.
And as the ball bounces, sometimes we say
bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, or boink boink bonk
bonk as it hits the wall.
So this is kind of the sound of a ball bouncing.
Our final category are sounds that humans
make.
Sometimes these are sounds to signify our
emotions and how we’re feeling.
So this is key to be able to understand these.
You can also see someone’s facial expressions,
usually, unless you’re talking on the phone,
to be able to link with the sounds that they’re
making.
I think these sounds are slightly different
in each language.
So by upping your game, leveling up your English
and using the same sounds that English speakers
use, you will just be able to be more completely
fluent in English.
All right.
Let’s start with the first human sound.
Achoo.
This is sneezing.
Achoo achoo.
Shh.
Quiet.
Shh.
Notice that there’s no other sound here.
There’s no T. There’s no C. I know some other
countries say shh with a T at the beginning.
Some make it a little bit stronger of shh
sound.
Shh.
But in English, it’s just S H. Shh.
Shh.
I make this sound all the time as I’m helping
my baby fall asleep.
Shh shh shh.
Talking about babies, what is waa waa?
This is a baby crying, a baby who’s not happy.
But what about a baby who is happy?
They might say goo goo gah gah.
This is as a baby is learning different sounds
of its native language.
They aren’t really making words, but they’re
just making different sounds.
We might say, Oh, goo goo gah gah and we’re
imitating what the baby is doing, that is
what babies say.
They say goo goo gah gah.
Even if they’re saying other sounds, that
is the expression we use, the sound that we
use to talk about a baby practicing language.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
This is just talking.
When people are talking, we say, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
What about la la la?
This is singing, to signify singing.
We sometimes just use the sounds la la la.
La la la.
If I went ahem, what would that mean to you?
If I walked up behind you and I said ahem,
in English, this would feel a little uncomfortable
because it’s a way to get someone’s attention
and it’s usually kind of strong, like ahem.
I heard that you were talking about me, but
I wanted you to know I’m here.
Ahem.
Look around, stop talking about me because
I’m here.
So we would say, ahem, ahem, and you kind
of clear your throat.
That’s the term used for ahem.
You’re trying to clear your throat, but you’re
saying the word, ahem, at the same time.
ahem, I’m here, a little uncomfortable.
Burr.
You can see from my face and my hand motions
here.
Burr.
I am cold.
Burr.
Slurp.
It’s the sound of ingesting a lot of liquid
at one time.
It could be from a water bottle.
It could be from a soup bowl, but we use that
kind of strange tongue sound, which is slurp.
But this is the sound we make to talk about
drinking a lot of liquid.
Or if you are, for example, trying to drink
a whole beer at one time, you’re trying to
chug the beer.
We might say glug, glug, glug, glug, glug,
glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.
And it kind of is imitating the sound of your
throat.
Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.
Humm.
This is thinking.
Humm.
Ahh, eek.
I’m scared.
Ahh, eek.
Ooh.
I’m amazed.
As you’re watching fireworks, you will often
hear people say this.
Ooo, ahh, ooo, ahh.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
This is laughing.
It is of course slowed down and simplified.
But if someone says something that’s a little
funny and it’s maybe not hilarious, but you
want to show that you’re laughing.
You might exaggerate and say, ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha ha.
On the other hand, what if I said mwahaha
mwahaha?
You might think that I was hatching a plot
to take over the world.
Mwahaha.This is an evil laugh.
So sometimes in movies you might see the evil
character say mwahaha.
Uggh.
What kind of emotion am I feeling?
Uggh.
I am extremely frustrated.
If I log onto the computer and it says your
website is down.
That means my website is not working.
Oh no, this is a technical nightmare.
It is very frustrating.
I’m an English teacher.
I am not always a tech expert.
So I might say, uggh, and I need to figure
out a way to solve the problem.
Eich, eich.
I don’t really even know how to write this.
This is my best attempt.
But what happens if I say eich?
What do you get the feeling that just happened?
Maybe I stepped in some dog poop.
Maybe I just squished a caterpillar under
my shoe.
Eich.
It’s something that’s gross.
So you’re feeling like repulsed.
Eich, eich.
Like you don’t want to be close to that thing.
Eich.
Our final sound in this human sound category
is ouch or ow.
You can kind of guess what this means, right?
Maybe you are hammering something and you
hammer your finger, ow or ouch.
Both of these are used to talk about the sound
of pain, ow or ouch.
This would be a true test of your English
skills, if when you hit your finger with a
hammer, if you make the English sound ouch
or ow.
Wow.
That means that you have really immersed yourself
in English, that even in a moment of pain,
you can say ouch.
Now it is time for a little test.
I want you to watch this conversation and
to see how these sounds were integrated into
what we were talking about.
This is just a natural way to use these sounds
in your daily conversation.
Let’s watch.
Did you get stuck in the traffic jam yesterday?
Dan:
Yeah, it was awful.
All I heard for hours was honk, honk, honk.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
I heard that there was a wreck.
Dan:
Humm.
I guess you’re right.
I did hear some loud sirens going weeoo weeoo
off in the distance.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
I was stuck in traffic too, but I was trying
to take my dog to the vet and whenever he
heard the sirens, he kept going ruff ruff
ruff ruff ruff.
It was so annoying.
Dan:
Uggh.
That sounds awful.
Vanessa:
Yeah.
You wouldn’t believe it, but the car beside
mine had a box of baby chicks in the front
seat.
I guess they just came from the store, buying
them.
And all I heard was cheep cheep cheep cheep
cheep the whole time I was in traffic.
Dan:
After sitting in traffic for hours, I turned
my car off and fell asleep.
Next thing I know, there’s a policemen at
my door saying, “Ahem, time to get going.”
Vanessa:
Ha ha ha, I bet you woke up really fast.
Now, I have a question for you.
Let me know in the comments, what sound do
a and a cat make in your native language?
It is fascinating to me that we all hear the
same animal sounds, but we interpret that
in slightly different ways.
I love learning about this from other countries.
So share with me in the comments how you say
meow and woof in your native language and
let’s learn from each other.
Thank you so much for learning English with
me and I’ll see you again next Friday for
a new lesson here on this YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free eBook,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
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for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.