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. If you're preparing
for that proficiency exam, or you just want to improve your business English, or indeed your
conversational English, well, you've come to the right place. certainly happy to help you.
If you've got any questions, any problems, give me a shout, I'll give you the, the address later on.
Okay, as I said, this is an advanced English lesson. And we're looking at powerful ways to
your use the word look, okay, so powerful, really stronger ways to use the word look. And we've got
14, in this particular case, 14 ways of looking at something or 14 ways of looking at somebody,
so I'll explain them where best I can. And we will go through them one by one. So most
of these have a physical reaction that goes with them, there's some mood that
you're in or some way of doing something. And this way of looking is appropriate with
that particular action. So I'll try to make sure that comes across in the explanations.
And before we get started on this advanced lesson, I would just like to ask you,
if you do like the lesson, please like the video. And also if you could subscribe to the channel,
it'd be really, really great because it can help us a lot.
So well, observe it's quite formal to observe something is to watch on... at
something without really getting involved. You usually observe from a distance you watch and
you note and you take care. So if there's some military manoeuvres taking place,
then the the government ministers or the generals will observe from a distance to
see what is happening, and how expert the people are. Or you can say I observed this
and that so it's quite a formal way to say I was looking at, I was watching. To observe.
But usually it means doing it from a distance without actively getting involved, to observe.
To stare. Yes, when you stare you have your eyes open, and you're looking hard
at something sometimes you don't believe what you're seeing. So you stare My God,
I don't believe it yet to stare, or sometimes it can be mistaken for being rude when you see
somebody perhaps beautiful or not so beautiful or whatever. And you stare
at them because it's an unusual sight and the somebody said, Don't stare, it's rude. Yeah,
so of course it is to stare at people. We shouldn't stare but we often do because
we don't believe what we see. To stare to stare in disbelief as a good expression.
Gawk it's a very informal way to go is another way to stare but it's a very,
very informal slang word, the pronunciation you've got the stress on the final que gawk?
What you gawking at? Very, very old Irish expression meaning what are you looking at?
So if you're standing staring at somebody and they don't like it,
they might say What are you gawking? At? Yeah, what are you looking at? So you have
to apologise because otherwise there may be a fight or a route. So to gawk means to stare
in a very informal and it's a slang word to gawk and practice that pronunciation.
To gaze. Well, we often gaze into somebody's eyes. It's the expression we use when new love
young love. Yes, somebody falls in love for the first time for the second time, and they gaze
into the eyes of their partner. Hmm, gaze, gaze, gaze, gaze. Or if you're on a wonderful holiday
and you're gazing out over the ocean you're standing on one of these golden sandy beaches
and looking out at nothing in particular on the ocean or there might be a few yachts or boats
or people swimming you sit there or stand there gazing into the distance Hmm, yes, gazing okay.
To leer. Leer as
well. It's a rude way to look at somebody a member of the opposite sex male or female Yes,
when you leer at somebody you might be physically attracted to them but it's not a pleasant way to
look. Yeah. So now it'd be would be very non-PC not politically correct to leer at
anybody in that way. And you know, people would say oh, it's disgusting. Have you seen the way
he leers up the girls in the office? Or have you ever been in the elevator with him. Oh,
I don't know he makes me creepy, makes my skin creepy. Leer. So somebody who
looks at somebody in a probably sexual way and but it's not pleasant and it's
certainly something that is not politically correct in the modern world. So to leer.
Squint. Well, people who wear glasses like me, if you take off the glasses and you can't
read something you squint, you're trying to read something, the print on your screen,
perhaps on your laptop. You start squinting at it because you forgot to put on your glasses,
and you can't read it. Or if you see the bus coming in the distance and you know glasses,
you can't make up the number of the bus. So you're squinting to see,
is this your bus or your train.Yep. Okay, so to squint, so you close your eyes,
and you try to focus on what's ahead of you so you can read it clearly and properly to squint.
Peek. Well, we used to have a game with the kids where we did Peekaboo. Peek. Peekaboo. Peek. Well,
peek is when you look very quickly, you hide your eyes or close your eyes, then you open
them. Peek. So to peek at something means to take a quick look, you can use it for example,
if you come home, and you're trying to find out the presence that somebody's bought for Christmas,
and you're very, very inquisitive. So you start peeking in a few cupboards to see if you can find
what has been bought. Yeah, so you're trying to just take a quick peek to see what it might be.
Okay, so you look in the cupboard of places where your partner might normally hide the presence,
because that's what you usually do try to find them and have a quick peek. Meaning a quick look.
Peep. Peep is to... peep at something quickly to... but without being seen,
you know. So we often have the situation when neighbours like to know what's happening,
particularly older neighbours, so they peep out of the window or the peep from the behind
the curtains hoping that nobody will see them. But if you're very, very quick,
you'll see the curtains moving. And you can see them trying to see what you're doing what you're
putting into the car what you're taking out of the car. Yeah, so they have a quick peep. Yeah,
but it's usually done in secret so that nobody sees them. Yeah. Okay, so, peep.
So it's a secretive way to look at something to peep. So if you're looking out for the kids,
and you don't want them to see that you're watching them. You don't want... You're
hoping they won't get hurt. So you peep around the corner quickly to make sure they're safe
and sound. So they walk into school for the first time on their own. So you follow them
a little bit of the way and you peep around the corner to make sure everything is okay to peep.
Peer. To peer into the distance. It's a bit like a gazing. To peer into the distance to see what
you can see, yeah. To peer over the wall to see what's there. To peer into somebody's garden. Or
if you're walking along the street and they have the curtains open and you can see quite clearly
into room, your peer into the rooms. That looks nice. Wow, look at the size of the TV they have
to peer to look into something a little bit but with a bit of a distance, yeah. To peer.
Gape. Now we often gape with our with our mouths open. My mother used to say to me, 'Don't stand
there gaping with your mouth open' when you're surprised or shocked. So perhaps when you come
down on that Christmas morning, or perhaps for your birthday, you come down and you see all the
presents on the table or under the tree and your mouth opens. Wow.... So what are you gaping? Oh,
have you seen all the presents under the tree? It's wonderful. So it's usually done
with a certain amount of surprise. To gape but usually with your mouth and your eyes wide open.
To gape. To gape in amasement.
The next one is glare. Now we usually glare at somebody when we're annoyed. So somebody
says something and we hmm. And we sit there and we stare at them. But we've got a very,
very stern face. And we glare at them to let them know without saying anything that we're
really really annoyed. So you know if you've done something at home,
and your mother or father turned around and they just you know one of those looks
the glare at you, and you know they're not happy. Okay, so they don't have to say anything but the
look and the look on their faces enough to tell you that they're not. They're not pleased. They're
not happy. So to glare. To glare. We're usually with annoyance or in annoyance.
Okay, glance, a glance is up a quick look. Did you see the accident outside? Nah,
I just had a quick glance, It doesn't seem to be anything serious.
So a glance, a quick glance, a quick look at something. Can you glance over those notes I sent
you before the meeting? Yeah, I'll take a quick glance meaning I'll take a quick look. I won't
study them in detail, but I'll take a quick look at quick glance, glance over it when you have some
time now just see that anything that jumps out at you that might not be correct to glance at them.
Glimpse, to glimpses to see something quickly, but without getting too much detail. I just had a
quick glimpse. Everything seemed to be fine to me. Yeah. Did you think everything was in order? Yeah,
I had a quick glimpse, meaning a quick look. But it all seemed fine. I don't think there'll be any
problems. So, or if the policeman asks you, did you see this guy coming into the bank? Or did you
see this guy coming into the office, I just took this got a quick glimpse of him as I was walking
past. But to be honest, I didn't really pay any attention. I didn't see anything unusual.
Why? What happened? So they're looking for information about somebody who came into the bank,
or came into the office and has taken something but they're looking for witnesses and you look at
many other people saw him but you didn't notice anything different. So I had a quick glimpse,
but nothing would out of the ordinary. So glimpse meaning a quick short look at something.
And then finally, ogle. To ogle something is to look at something with desire. Now.
You walk into that cake shop and you see the array of beautiful beautiful cakes in
front of you. Chocolate cakes, raspberry cakes, sponge cakes,
all sorts of... cinnamon cakes... whatever they are. They're all there. Chocolate eclairs lined
up one after the other. And you stand there with your mouth almost watering. Ooh... and you ogle.
Ogle means to look at them with desire that you really, really really want to get your hands and
more importantly your teeth into one or two of those because they just look absolutely
delicious. Well, don't just ogle those. Why don't you buy one? Yeah. So what are you ogling at?
So why don't you buy one cake try it and that will at least satisfy your appetite. To ogle.
Okay, so there are the 14 ways good ways, unusual ways, powerful ways in which you can
have alternative ways of looking at something so we can be observing gawking, gazing, glimpsing,
glaring at. And often, as I said, they do come together with some sort of mood or some sort of
action. You know, to glare when you're annoyed. To squint when you can't see something. Okay?
So the best thing to do is to take them, try them, see, can you put them into your speech, see, can
you use them and again. If you have any problems, you don't understand them? Come back to me one
or two of them have similar meanings. You're peeking and peeping, but you know, just find
out the situation when you can use them, practice them and you'll get a better understanding. Okay,
so as always, I really appreciate it when you you listen, if you want to contact me you can
www.englishlessonviaskype.com. Very happy to hear from you. And as always, I look forward
to meeting you at the next lesson. This is Harry saying goodbye. And thanks for joining me today.