Hello and welcome back to Easy English with James! Today we're going to have a
look at something called onomatopoeia.
Onomatopoeia what do you think that is? I can tell you that if you learn all
about this it will help you to improve your english pronunciation and your
vocabulary so stick with me let's find out what
onomatopoeia is
okay what is it
simple answer is that onomatopoeia is when
the sound of a word sounds like
the meaning of the word so
the sound of the word that's the sound that comes out when you read the word
actually makes you think that that's like the actual thing that it is
it's very confusing so examples will help you to understand this a lot better
the sound that a b makes okay the sound that a b or something flying makes in
english is buzz buzz
okay we say the fly is buzzing around the room buzzing
now that word buzz actually sounds like
the sound of a fly moving around the room when a fly is moving around the
room you might hear
that is onomatopoeia because the word buzz
buzz sounds like the actual thing it sounds
like the flying of a fly or the b around the
room so we can say that a b buzzed also when your phone
vibrates we can also say my phone buzzed because when you hear
your phone vibrating that is a buzz
buzz so onomatopoeia means when the word sounds like what it is okay what it
actually is so the buzzing of a bee or the buzz of a
phone ringing okay
okay we're going to have a look at 21 examples of this today to make sure that
you know exactly what onomatopoeia is so the first example we just said the buzz
of a bee the buzz of a phone because that buzz word be used zed
sounds like the actual sound of z z the buzzing of a phone or the buzzing of a
fly number two is
the crack crack
that word crack crack
the crack of a screen or the crack of an egg
when you like that that that sound crack is the
sound that an egg makes when it breaks or when you drop your phone on the floor
and your screen cracks
that is onomatopoeia because the word crack
sounds like the actual thing happening to your phone or to the
egg when it breaks onomatopoeia so the crack of a phone the crack of a
screen the crack of an egg okay something that's moving up and down or
bouncing right bouncing up and down like a spring like a spring we say goes boing
boing boing boing and the word we write there is boing okay when children are
playing on something that's going up and down we often say boing boing
if you imagine mario in the game when he jumps up and down
that is boing boing okay because it's onomatopoeia it's supposed to sound like
what it is okay number four is the boom of a bomb or
thunder okay the boom of something very loud and powerful if someone has a very
deep voice and they scream across the room like hello like
this we would say their voice is booming their voice is booming
why because boom
sounds like something very deep and strong and powerful
boom boom okay often when a bomb explodes
we'll say it goes boom when thunder makes a sound in the sky it
booms against the sky because boom is onomatopoeia it sounds
like the thing that it is okay if you're walking somewhere and you stand on
something maybe there's a a small animal crossing
the street and you go like that and you go oh no
i have squished something squish to squish means to stand on something
and sadly squash it okay to make it into nothing
basically squish is probably the sound that you hear
okay squish so to squish something or sometimes to squash something is when
you do this okay you stand on something or
you do that squish that is the sound you
hear when you squash something to squish okay if you're on a very
crowded train you might say i was squished in between many people because
people are pushing together i was squished in
between many people on the train okay
number six is ding dong ding dong you probably know this is the sound of a
doorbell in english okay when somebody rings your front door
that is the sound of a doorbell so ding dong is the sound of somebody
opening a door somebody ringing a bell or a notification on your phone
sometimes ding dong okay you'll often hear this when somebody has a really
good idea ding dong okay the aha moment is represented by
ding dong as if a light came on somebody rang the door
ding dong why because ding dong sounds like
ding dong the doorbell downstairs okay then we
have tick tock number seven is tick tock tick
tock you probably guessed is the sound of time moving okay if you listen to a
clock you'll hear tick tock tick tock tick tock that is
the sound of time moving around the sound of the hands on a clock so we'd
often say the clock went tick-tock okay time
ticked away you'll often hear that in stories when
they want to describe time slowly moving time ticked away
okay because it comes from the sound the clock makes tick tock tick tock tick
tock of a clock when you slam a door shut number eight
you'll have bang the sound bang because when you slam something bang
that bang word represents the sound bang okay of when something hits something
else if two cars hit each other you might either say crash because you'll
hear that sound crash that's crash but you could also hear
bang okay if something was a bit harder if it hit something very hard bang
crash and bang both on a mata peak words
for something that hits something else okay crash and bang
number nine also with a car is the beep of a car horn okay b-e-e-p
okay when you hear a car outside beep beep or you're on your motorbike and you
want someone to move out of the way be beep we write b-e-e-p-b-e-e-p
why because the word be sounds like
okay it actually sounds very close that is onomatopoeia number 10 might be the
splash splash of water
splash when you jump into water or you throw
something into water you'll hear splash okay so we write splash the splash of
water the sizzle of cooking or something really hot we say that it is sizzling
okay you know that sound when you put cooking oil into a pan and you heat it
and it kind of makes it [Music]
sound that is to sizzle to sizzle okay and sizzling often goes with hot so if
it's really hot outside and your skin is burning you might say it's sizzling hot
today it's sizzling hot because it's burning your skin sizzle is that sound
of something frying or cooking okay sizzle again onomatopoeia because it
sounds like the word sizzle sounds a little bit like this is the sound of
cooking okay number 12 is the clang of pots and pans in a kitchen
clang clang clang if you have like pots and
pans banging off each other and somebody's making a lot of sound in your
kitchen the word we write in english is clang
clang okay the clanging of pots and pans in a story where somebody's walking
through a market you might hear the clanging of pots and pans and different
items everywhere the clanging of something okay clang
number 13 is screech screech
screech is the sound of a car trying to stop very quickly or a young girl or boy
screaming at the top of their voice okay if somebody is shouting but their voice
is very high pitched high pitched means like like this rather than like this
okay low pitched and high pitched so screech is that
horrible sound of a scar going around a corner or a girl screaming at
the top of her voice we say screech why because screech sounds like the thing
that is actually happening number 14 the drip and drop of water okay if you've
ever listened to water falling into more water you might hear
drip drop drip drop that drip drop is the sound of water
okay drip drop is the sound of water falling
into water okay we often describe the rain
drip drop of the rain okay the drip drop sound of the rain hitting the road okay
drip drop okay number 15 is exactly the same it's also about rain and this time
it's the sound of rain on a window we say that rain patters
patters on a window you might hear the patterning of the rain on the window you
know that sound that rain makes when it sort of gently hits a window
that is the pattering of rain against a window i love that sound it's one of my
favorite sounds when you're in the winter and it's cold
inside and it's raining outside and you can just hear the patterning of rain on
a window and if you say it softly it almost sounds a little bit like that
pattering of rain on a window okay number 16 is one i'm sure you'll know it
is the word haha sounds like laughing okay so haha is the
sound laughing people make in english and haha is onomatopoeia because when
you say the words haha it sounds like you are
laughing or finding something funny haha okay the pop of a balloon okay if
something pops that has air inside it maybe a car wheel the tire of a car
pop pop okay a balloon and you take a pin to it
pop okay that sound
pop pop
comes from the actual real sound that is made when
a balloon does that okay pop
pop number 18 the growl of an animal the
growl of an animal growl
that sound that a tiger makes a scary animal when you're looking at it
and it's coming towards you is growl because it sounds like the real sound
that the animal makes growl the cat growled at me the tiger growled
at the lion okay growled growl people can do this too you can
growl at somebody if you say something in a way that is meant to make people
feel really uncomfortable you can growl at somebody a little bit angry she
growled at me she growled at me okay to growl is
onomatopoeia for that sound that animals make or people make when they're trying
to do something a bit scary or coming for you okay okay number 19 is the twang
of a guitar string you know the string on a guitar when you
like that that is twang twang
okay you can also use this word when you're walking past something metal in
the street and you hit it with something by accident you're walking down the
street and you twang your finger or you twang the ring on your finger against
something metal it makes that tongue sound okay to twang
to twang number 20 really easy one number 20 is
the clap okay because that sound
clap is the same it sounds like when we speak the word clap clap clap okay
c-l-a-p clap represents that that is onomatopoeia
finally we have the word slur
slurp slurp is the sound that you make when you're drinking the last bit of a
drink if you imagine that you've drank your coca-cola and it's all the way down
to the bottom and you go like that that is slurp slurp okay slurp
in english is the sound for drinking the last little bit of something
slurp slurp
okay that was the last one but i want you to see if you can remember or you
know any other
onomatopic words in english okay if you know any other words that sound like
what they are or what they represent write them in the comments below
otherwise go back and practice the ones that i've
just taught you again so that you remember the next time you're walking
down the street and you hit your finger on something ah i just twanged my finger
okay oh can you stop slurping your drink that
was really good we all clapped okay and you'll use them all the time in english
because they're sounds that you often hear every
day okay so thank you very much for joining me today i hope you enjoyed this
lesson if you do hit that like button and that subscribe button and i will see
you again for another english lesson okay bye bye
you