Let's all be silent for 5 seconds, this is what you call a hush and what about this?
am I talking about a tennis racket or am I talking about too much noise around you? it
could be any of these. Stay tuned to this lesson with me because, in this lesson, you
are going to find out different ways to talk about silence and a lot of noise. My name
is Michelle and here we go.
So welcome to the lesson and here we have the first word. Let’s start with the word
I used first in the lesson. we are staring with silence and don't worry we'll go up to
making a lot of hooting and a lot of noise for you but the first word that we have means
silence. A lot of silence alright hush. Hush means silence but as you know that silence
can be either positive or negative depending on the situation. so you can use this word
in a sentence when you are okay, let's think of a situation where it's a marriage hall,
alright and there are a lot of people and the groom is waiting for the bride and suddenly
when the bride walks in, a hush falls over the marriage hall. This means that everyone
becomes silent. So when the bride walked in the marriage hall, a hush fell over. That’s
how you can use this. A hush fell over, okay. So a hush fell over the marriage hall as the
bride walked in. but we can also use this in a negative sense when there's suddenly
just too much silence. When everyone is talking and then suddenly everyone becomes quiet.
So when does that happen? So let's say that you're in your school and you're listening
to your teacher talk, you're in the classroom and everyone is talking and suddenly your
teacher tells you, she announces that your exams are starting next week and there's suddenly
a deathly hush. Which means no one is going to speak even a word because everyone's like,
oh no. so you could also say a deathly hush. So you could say that there was a deathly
hush in the classroom after the announcement.
Now let's look at the next word that we have with us. This is also related to silence.
Something which is very faint. It’s something that you cannot see clearly. Alright when
you're talking about something which is faint in appearance, it means that it's not clearly
visible. But something that is faint in terms of hearing is something that you cannot hear
properly, alright. So, something in a low voice. So a low voice is what you call a faint
voice that cannot be heard properly. Now if you want to use this in a sentence, you could
say that there was faint hiss coming from the TV. So you couldn't hear the voice from
the TV clearly but there was a faint hiss. So, probably your TV is not working properly.
So there was a faint voice coming from the TV. Your TV isn't working properly and you
need to get it repaired and otherwise, if you use the word, low voice that also means
the same thing, it's not incorrect.
The next one that we have with us is muffled. So muffled is when you are not able to hear
something clearly. So, you cannot understand the words although you’re hearing that someone
is talking but you're not able to understand the words. So that's when you cannot hear
clearly. So you could say that they muffled behind the door but I couldn't hear them clearly
pr they muffled behind the door but I couldn't understand anything. So you surely know that
someone's talking but you don't know what they are saying. So like I said that you knew
that I was saying something but you don; t know what did I say. You didn't understand
the words. So he muffled behind the door and I couldn't hear him clearly.
Now let's look at the next one that we have and this is muted. It’s a possibility that
you might confuse muffled with muted but they have different meanings. So mute, the word
mute means when there is no sound, zero sound but when you use it with an ed, muted. so
this is used when you expected that there would be a lot of sound but there wasn't any.
so you expected something to be very noisy but it turned out to be very silent. so if
it's getting confusing for you then let's say that you were listening to a speech, a
wonderful speech, you were in an auditorium and you were listening to a wonderful speech
and you expected a huge round of applause after the speech ended. however, the applause
was actually muted. which means that you expected it to be very loud, however it turned out
to be a very dim applause. so that’s when you use it when you expect a loud noise but
you don't get any. right, so when you expect a loud noise but it turns out to be very dim.
that's when you say that the applause was muted.
okay, the next word that I said in the beginning of the lesson, a racket, is a racket with
which you hit a tennis ball or any another ball and a racket otherwise also means you
know an illegal activity or tricky scheme. so like a new weight loss racket which means
that people are luring into a new scheme for losing weight. so you could say that it's
a new weight loss racket which means you know that it's false and it's a dishonest scheme
but here we're not using in that sense. so here a racket means a loud and unpleasant
noise which is very continuous, sorry which is very continuous. I guess I’m talking
too much. a continuous noise which is very unpleasant. okay, so what happens when you're
trying to sleep and there's a lot of noise from the traffic which is coming from the
streets below, that's when you can use the word, racket. you could say that there was
a loud racket coming from the street below, that didn’t allow me to sleep or you could
say that I couldn't sleep because of the terrible racket made by the traffic in the street below.
so this is used when there is a loud continuous unpleasant noise.
the next word that we have with us is a commotion. so this word I heard it first from my own
school teacher. she always used this word, whenever we were making too much noise in
the classroom. she'd tell us, what's all the commotion about? or what's the commotion all
about? so commotion has a similar meaning like a racket. it means a continuous noise
but definitely, you cannot use it for traffic. commotion would be used when there are a lot
of people who are talking continuously. so people talking continuously. so you could
hear it in a classroom or in an auditorium if there's an announcement that's made and
that announcement has caused a lot of confusion. that's when you can use the word, commotion.
so commotion actually means a lot of noise coming out because of confusion. So no one
knows what to do. so if somebody instructed you after an event, that okay you leave the
hall and now you go to this room and then another person comes and makes another announcement
that you leave the hall and you go to another place and everyone is confused. where are
we supposed to go? so then there's a commotion because people are talking to each other,
trying to find out where are they supposed to go or what are they supposed to do. that's
when you have a lot of commotion in the room.
the next one that we have is a hubbub. that's how we call this word. a hubbub, so a hubbub
is a more positive word and this also talks about a lot of noise but this kind of noise
you would not find in an auditorium, you would rather find it in a party where people are
just generally talking a lot. so you could say that I couldn't hear anything that he
was saying, because of the general hubbub in the party. so you could expect a lot of
people talking happily and excitedly in a party. so this is a lot of excited people
talking. so there was a general hubbub in the party because of which I couldn't hear
my friend talk.
the next one that we have is a clatter and this is the most annoying of all the sounds
we have on the board. I really don’t like this sound. so this one you would hear possibly
from the washbasin. let's say you were trying to have a conversation with your friend in
the living room and you know that someone is washing the dishes in the kitchen and there's
this continuous sound where two hard things are hitting each other or you know two dishes
are hitting each other and that sound is so irritating. so you could say that my conversation
was almost impossible because of the clatter coming from the kitchen. so that means when
two hard things are hitting against each other, the kind of sound you would hear when you're
washing dishes. so clatter is two hard objects hitting each other or it could be more than
two of course. so I removed this, I just put hard objects hitting against each other. so
that's when you hear a clatter. mostly a clatter would be from the kitchen.
the next one that we have is, we have the phrases now. the first one is, can't hear
yourself think. so sometimes, the noise around you is so loud that you cannot even think.
it's just so loud and you're trying to think something. you're like oh gosh, again they
are talking. so if someone is shouting too loudly or they're talking too loudly, you
cannot hear yourself think and this generally happens with the kids around you because they
wouldn't just listen even if you ask them to keep quiet. they wouldn't. so you could
say, could you just please stop shouting. I can't hear myself think. so when someone
is shouting loudly.
the next one we have is blaring out. so this is a very common word, which is used with
the word, music. music is usually blaring out. you could say that the music was blaring
out of the speakers next to the pool. so whenever the music is at a very high volume and you
cannot hear anything. it's really irritating and too loud, that's when you can say blaring
out. sometimes, you can use it positively also. like music was blaring out. so for music.
there's another alternative instead of blaring out that you can use and that is full blast.
full blast, so whenever you use full blast, you will use a preposition with it, which
is on full blast. you could say that my granddad has the television on full blast. so the TV
was very high volume when my granddad was listening to it or when my granddad was watching
the TV.
the last one that we have with us is the best one and I think we are very acquainted with
this phrase. especially with teachers telling us in the classrooms, that I want pin drop
silence. so what do we mean by pin-drop silence? pin drop silence is absolute silence. that
the place around should be so silent that you could hear a pin drop on the ground. so
if this marker falls on the ground and I hear it, this means that it's very, very silent
around me. so, if there’s such a silence around you, you could say, that was stunned
silence. I could even hear a pin drop. Okay, this is a stunned silence. so in stunned silence.
right, so whether it is noise or whether it is silence around you, now you have lots of
vocabulary to talk about either of them and some interesting phrases as well. I hope it
was fun for you, thank you so much for staying with me, bye.