hi everybody and welcome back to love English I'm Sabrah your British
University English teacher now what do you think guys do you think English is a
beautiful language sure it may not have the musicality of Italian or the
sophistication of French or even the mysteries of Arabic or Hindi and of
course all the other qualities that many languages around the world hold but we
would argue that English is a beautiful language because it is very varied and
there are many beautiful sounds in English as well as many beautiful
meanings now in this video we're going to look at 25 of the most beautiful
English verbs and I've chosen these either because they have a beautiful
sound or because they have a beautiful meaning now what we would like you guys
to do is to share any words that you think are beautiful in English that you
particularly like or a word from your own language share that in the comments
below let's make this a celebration of the beauty of language now of course
guys this is a vocabulary lesson and we teach you a lot of vocabulary on love
English but you may be sometimes finding that you have trouble remembering it all
or you don't know how to record it things like that or simply you want to
learn more vocabulary more quickly now if this is your problem then we have a
great course we have our own ebook course a guide to learning and building
your vocabulary in English and in that course there are 60 pages of tips
guidelines exercises and lots of vocabulary as well as 3 exclusive videos
so if you go to our website guys the link is here then you can get a free
sample of that or you can of course purchase the course and of course guys
if you haven't already don't forget to subscribe and you can follow us on our
social media as well number one to adorn to adorn and to adorn its really a
synonym of to decorate but we use it more with people we can also use it with
things but we do use it quite a lot with people so we might say she adorned
herself with her best jewels this means she decorated herself she made herself
look more beautiful with her best jewels number two is to quip to quip and to
quip means to make a witty or a funny remark so witty means clever in a funny
way so if we quip we make a witty or a funny remark it could be a funny
response to something somebody has said or something like this so it's quite
sophisticated to quip so the American film director Woody
Allen he quipped by saying this he said 'in America they don't just throw out
their garbage they turn it into TV shows' number three to devote to devote and
this has a beautiful meaning and also a beautiful sound to devote basically it
means to commit yourself to something fully if you devote to something you are
committed to that thing fully it is the first thing in your life so for example
she is devoted to her job or she devoted her life to public service this means
that she was completely committed it came first it was the number one in her
life, we can also say that a section of time is devoted to something so for
example part of the lecture will be devoted to answering your questions
this means given completely number four to languish beautiful sounding word to
languish and basically this has not got a positive meaning this has actually got
a negative meaning it means to to be left in a very bad condition, in a
bad state to become weak to become depressed so if we say he's languishing
at home without a job or plants languish without enough water or even he
languished in jail for the wrong crime for 10 years so anything like this so
it's not got a positive meaning but it is a beautiful sounding word to languish
number five is to elaborate to elaborate and this means to go into more detail
so if somebody says could you please elaborate they mean could you please say
more could you go into more detail or in an essay you can actually write to
elaborate which means to tell you more about this to give you further details
but it's got a lovely sound to elaborate now don't confuse this guys with the
adjective which is spelt the same but has a different pronunciation the
adjective is elaborate elaborate not to elaborate so they have different
pronunciations elaborate of course means the same it means detailed but it's more
descriptive so it means something is very detailed or ornate for example we
might say the paintings on the ceiling was so elaborate number six now this one
doesn't have a positive meaning but again it has a nice sound to insinuate
to insinuate and this means to suggest something in a non direct way so in an
indirect way to suggest something unpleasant might be true so if you said
for example well those two people have been spending a lot of time together
they're not spending as much time with their husband and wife but they're
spending a lot of time with each other someone might say what are you
insinuating ? Then what are you trying to suggest are you trying to suggest
they're having an affair so what are you insinuating
Oh Sabrah all this yoga is all very well and good but if you want to be really
fit you need to go to the gym or go running running is good for you
excuse me Leila what are you insinuating? I'm fit as a fiddle number seven to
gleam to gleam and this is where light is produced or reflected from the
surface of something so for example if you are somebody who loves cleaning you
might want to polish your surfaces and clean your tables and work tops until
they gleam unfortunately that's not me I'm not that devoted to cleaning but yes
so other things can gleam such as our eyes can gleam in a certain light
or water can glean or your smile can gleam so an
advertiser who was advertising whitening of teeth or perfect teeth might say get
your gleaming smile number eight to banter this is definitely one of my
favorite words from the English language and this is because I love the meaning
of it so when we banter this is kind of like verbal ping-pong it's when you have
a witty or funny conversation with somebody often
where you're joking with each other and teasing each other and you have to come
back with a response because if you don't come back with the response
the other person has won so my boyfriend and I often do this together where we
tease each other but it's all very playful and funny many couples like to
do this but also this can happen between friends between family members and
basically the winner is the one who is left with the last remark who the other
one can't think of a reply to so number nine
this is to shimmer to shimmer beautiful sound and also beautiful meaning to
shimmer is where light again is reflected from something but the light
moves more so for example a lot of girls might wear shimmery eyeshadow where the
the light is reflected from the eyeshadow a beautiful example sentence
would be she saw her reflection in the water shimmering in the moonlight she
saw her reflection in the water shimmering in the moonlight Oh Leila
nice shimmery eyeshadow number 10 is to drift to drift and to drift means to
move slowly usually on your own moved by outside forces so for example if you put
a piece of paper on some water on for example a little river or something like
that as long as the river is moving slowly the paper will drift along with
the water we can also describe ourselves as drifting if we feel we have no clear
direction in life at the moment we don't know what we're doing with our career we
can say oh I feel like I'm really drifting at the moment I'm not really
settling on anything or committing to anything I feel like I'm really drifting
another example would be a mist drifted in from the mountains number 11 is to
charm to charm and we often think of this in the adjective somebody is
charming for example Prince Charming however we forget that we can use this
word in the verb if somebody is particularly pleasant to us is
particularly polite in the way that they are towards us or kind basically knows
how to be very good mannered with somebody we can say that they charmed us
so normally we want our girlfriend or boyfriend if they haven't met our
parents yet we want them to charm our parents we want our parents to like them
and so we want them to be very charming and to charm our parents number 12 is to
flatter to flatter someone and this is similar to charm but this is more verbal
so if somebody flatters you they give you praise they say nice things about
you and sometimes they do this without any ulterior motive just because they
they like you they want to give you compliments and other times it is
because they have an ulterior motive so a man might flatter a woman because he
wants to take her out on a date or someone might try to flatter their Mum
and dad because they want to get a lift somewhere but other times it can be
sincere it's not always with an ulterior motive a phrase we use quite a lot is
don't flatter yourself don't flatter yourself and this is where
we think somebody is complimenting themselves too much and we can say come
on don't flatter yourself number 13 is to court someone to court
someone and this is a little bit of an old-fashioned word today however you
will still hear it basically if two young people were described as courting
this would mean that they were dating getting to know each other seeing if
they would probably get married this kind of thing so quite old-fashioned so
we might say oh those two are courting for example particularly something that
my grandmother would definitely have said
today if we use it can sound quite cute and romantic but we also can use it if
somebody is interested in someone else in the business sense for example a
person can be courted by a company a company that wants that person to join
them number fourteen is to lavish to lavish and this means to give very
generously and in large quantities to someone or something so we can lavish
praise on a person we can be very generous in our praise towards a person
or we can lavish gifts on a person or we can lavish compliments anything which we
give we give it generously and in large quantities number fifteen is to evoke to
evoke and to evoke is like the word provoke but it's more about our emotions
so if something evokes something it means it brings to our mind an idea a
feeling an emotion a memory anything like that so we might say wow this poem
is really a vote memories of my childhood or this place's it's really
evoked some ideas I've really got some good ideas from from being in this place
or this holiday has really evoke some happy and contented feelings number
sixteen is to illuminate to illuminate which means to light up if something is
illuminated it is well lit light has been cast on it so we might say
brilliant sunshine illuminated the park or if we say this research has really
illuminated areas we didn't know about child psychology it's almost saying it's
shone a light on it it has revealed it number seventeen is to rescind to
rescind and this means to formally take back to formally withdraw something so
if I say I rescind my invitation it means I formally withdraw my invitation
often this is connected to matters of the state or policies and things like
that anything which is official but if you listen it has a
lovely sound to rescind so we might say the Queen rescinded her invitation to
Leila and Sabrah to attend Buckingham Palace as she no longer felt they were
appropriate guests what do you guys think do you think we would be
appropriate guests for the Queen I think so number 18 is to elude to elude and
if something eludes you you can't quite get it you can't quite manage to achieve
it or you can't remember it so you might say the meaning of this word it eludes
me I mean you can't quite get it you can't quite remember it or if we say
success in my career it still eludes me it means that you're trying to get it
but you haven't managed to achieve it yet
it's elusive it's hard to find it's hard to get number 19 is to revel and this
comes from an old-fashioned English word which was revelry which was basically
merrymaking enjoyment having a party but we still use the word to revel today and
if we say we revel in something it means we take joy and satisfaction from that
so for example I always revel in the idea of having an evening just with my
boyfriend watching a film getting our favorite food in not having any stress I
just revel in that I know that Leila might actually revel in the idea of
being alone now I know she likes to just watch what she wants getting her pyjamas
start eating some chocolate that's her idea of having a great evening and she
revels in that so Milly what do you fancy watching an episode of the crown again
number 20 is a lovely word it is to cherish to cherish and to cherish is
when we hold something dear we have a huge amount of affection for it it's
something that's very precious to us so we might say she cherished her favorite
necklace that was given to her by her grandmother and this would mean she
looks after it she takes care of it and when she wears it she feels very happy
or we might say she cherished memories she had of when she first fell
in love with her husband number 21 is - twinkle - twinkle you may have heard of
the song twinkle twinkle little star and twinkle is of course when light flickers
it goes on and off so typically the stars twinkle again our eyes can twinkle
if our eyes twinkle it can sometimes mean that we are feeling a bit
mischievous we are thinking of our plans and fun things that we can do so to have
twinkly eyes for example lights from houses can also
twinkle in the night time number 22 is a verb phrase that I love and I use it
quite a lot actually it is - dilly and dally - dilly and
dally and basically this is very similar to the English verb to faff only it's a
little bit sweeter and funnier than that essentially it means waste time
procrastinate kind of be not getting on with the main task it can also be that
you were just being particularly slow so you might say come on stop dillying and
dallying we need to leave stop wasting time stop dillying and dallying number 23
is to wax lyrical - wax lyrical and if somebody waxes lyrical they talk a
lot in an animated way in an enthusiastic way about something that
they like so they might wax lyrical about how well it's going at work or
about the joys of beekeeping or about something which is very interesting for
them but may not always be for other people so sometimes with wax lyrical it
can mean that actually they talked so much that they started to bore the other
people oh my goodness it's going to be fantastic
twelve days of Leila and Sabra twelve consecutive days of lessons with us over
the Christmas period can you believe it it's just going to be wonderful
number 24 is to fawn to fawn and we can actually use this with over it can be a
phrasal verb to fawn over somebody or something don't confuse this
with the noun fawn which actually means a baby deer like Bambi so no this is to
fawn over and this means to flatter, to fuss to make a big deal out of something
so sometimes the media can fawn over a particular celebrity for a while they
can lavish them with compliments they can say many nice things about them and
fawn over them it's almost like falling at somebody's feet to fawn over
number-25 beautiful word it is to ripple to ripple and to ripple it means when
water drops on a surface or a raindrop or a stone going into water or a boat on
the water this means that a small circular motion is created in the water
so the water is rippling and this can look quite beautiful in the UK when you
see light rain falling on a lake you see all the ripples it is really quite
beautiful right guys they were our 25 beautiful English verbs I hope you agree
and that you think they are beautiful as well do try and use any of them below in
a sentence and I will check that for you and your other homework is to say which
word do you think is beautiful in the English language or a word that is
beautiful from your own language remember let's celebrate the beauty of
language here in the comments as always guys thanks for watching don't forget
that we cherish all of you and of course we cherish your comments as well we'll
see you soon on love English bye bye