Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to my advanced English lessons with Harry.
And we try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language.
How you can use all sorts of expressions, collocations, phrasal verbs to improve your
conversational and business English skills.
So what have I got you today in this particular lesson?
Well, today we've got advanced collocations to describe sounds advanced call locations
to describe sounds and as always, I've got a list of them ready for you.
In fact, I've got 13.
Some say lucky, some say unlucky. 13.
I'll go through them, and then we go back to them one by one and give you an example
so that you can practice it.
Okay, so here they go.
And remember, it's all to do with sounds.
A small voice.
A trembling, shaking voice.
A squeaky voice.
A husky voice.
A gruff voice.
Muffled voice.
Utter a word.
Slur your words.
A broad accent.
Trace of an accent.
Peals/hoots/gales of laughter.
They're all the same.
Stony silence.
And then finally, an eerie silence.
Okay, so let's go through them one by one.
A small voice.
Well, a small voice can be somebody who's battling against lots and lots of people who
are talking about one thing, they're all supporting each other.
And you're the lone small voice that says, Excuse me, I don't agree.
A small voice, a little whispery, and not so sure whether you should speak up, or whether
you can speak up because everybody's in favour of the boss and you're the only one who disagrees
a small voice in the wilderness.
Trembling or shaking voice . Trembling or shaking voice.
Well, a trembling or shaking voice, usually the type of voices we use or we hear when
somebody is really nervous.
I don't know what to do.
They're really scared.
They're ashamed or embarrassed.
They're shy.
So you know, perhaps before they make a speech or at a round table when you're asked by all
the people present, okay, Well, I think we'll introduce ourselves one by one.
The words you hate to hear because your voice starts to tremble and you start to shake a
bit because you're not so comfortable speaking in English, or you're just not so comfortable
speaking in public.
So a shaking or trembling voice.
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Okay, let's get back to the lesson.
A squeaky voice.
Excuse me, excuse me, a squeaky voice.
You hear it on the tube or you hear it in the restaurant or in the cafe, and you look
around to see where it's coming from expecting to see a little mouse on the floor.
So a squeaky voice is somebody who's very silent, doesn't like to speak up or doesn't
like to raise their voice.
Or a squeaky voice like a door opening.
A squeaky voice.
Husky voice.
Husky deep, deep, husky voice.
Somebody's got a sore throat and likes to talk with a little bit of authority.
They've got a real husky voice.
Some people have a husky by a voice just naturally.
Other people have to try and pretend or to make the voice sound a little husky.
But indeed, if you have a very bad cough or cold, your voice can sound a little bit husky
because of the illness.
So husky voice.
A gruff voice.
Well, a gruff voice is usually not so much angry as a little bit short.
What do you want?
That's a little bit gruff.
So he spoke to her gruff voice.
Really, really?
What do you want for just get out and leave me alone?
So a little bit gruff or a little bit in a bad mood.
So often our parents have sounded like that when we've been asking for something repeatedly.
Yeah, so a gruff voice.
He can be a gruff person all of the time, but normally it's just temporary.
So he spoke to her in a gruff sounding voice.
Ruff.
Like almost like a dog, ruff . A gruff voice
Muffled voices.
Muffled voices could be heard behind the door.
So it's the noises you hear of people passing by your door or your noises you hear passing
by the hotel room when you're staying in a hotel.
You can't clearly distinguish who they are or what they're saying.
You just hear a lot of sounds coming from the other side of the door.
I hear them all the time, I have people coming in out of the main door, which is near the
entrance to my apartment.
So I often hear muffled voices late at night, I don't hear exactly what they're saying.
But I know there are people coming and going.
So I hear the muffled voices and the muffled sounds of conversation.
To utter a word.
Or often we use this when there's a negative don't utter a word.
So this is something that the teacher might say to the class, I want you to sit there
silently, open your books, but nobody utter a word.
I don't want to hear any sounds.
I've heard enough of you for one day.
So just please get on with your work in class.
I'll be back in five minutes and remember, don't utter a word.
Okay?
So use it in that negative way.
Not to say anything not to be heard.
I don't want you to utter anything.
Okay?
Don't utter a word of this to your sister.
Don't tell her what we've agreed it's a surprise.
You want to surprise her for a birthday.
So don't utter a word.
Don't tell her that she has to be here on Friday or Saturday because it will only spoil
the surprise.
So to utter or don't utter a word.
To slur your words.
Well, when somebody slurs their words, it often can be when they've had one or two glasses
of wine or beers more than they should have.
Or-yeah-at, yeah.
Somebody is trying to stand up in the middle of a wedding to make his best man speech,
and he's had a couple of whiskies or beers to try and calm his nerves.
And then he begins to slur his words where nobody can hear clearly what he's trying to
say.
So to slur can be because of the effects of excessive alcohol.
But some people can slur their words because they don't speak very clearly, they don't
open their mouths, and all the sounds come out.
So they can slur their words because they keep the lips closed, and they don't, you
can't hear them.
Okay, so when you're speaking, particularly publicly, you have to let the sounds out.
So not to slur your words.
A broad accent.
Well, a broad accent can be anything.
Lots of countries, people have very broad accents.
If you've gone to the UK, and you've visited a city like Liverpool, or Manchester, you'd
hear people with very broad accents.
Liverpool.
Yeah, they have a broad accent, it's very easy to understand it.
Okay, he spoke with a broad accent very distinguished, you might not understand which city it came
from, but you'd understand that the accent was broad.
And it gave you some difficulty in understanding everything that that person was trying to
say.
So, so broad.
He spoke with a broad Manchester accent.
He spoke with a broad Italian accent.
La-la.
So they you can understand clearly where he comes from.
But you might not understand all the words because of that broad accent.
He spoke without a trace of an accent, or with a trace of an accent.
So you can use it positively or negatively.
So if you were listening to some audio tape, and trying to understand the tape, and explain
it to a friend, you might say, It's really was a nice recording, there was a trace of
an accent, but it's very hard to understand exactly where it was from.
But there was a trace of an accent.
Or I'd like to be able to stand up and speak without a trace of my accent.
So somebody might come to me looking for some professional help or assistance and trying
to get rid of the accent that they have.
So to have a trace of an accent, so a little bit of your accent comes through.
Or to speak without any trace of an accent so that you speak in a very monotone way.
I prefer somebody with a little bit of an accent.
There's nothing wrong with an accent.
It's always more about pronunciation.
Okay, and the next we have about laughter peals, hoots and gales of laughter.
They all mean the same thing.
Okay, so peals and hoots are those big laughs.
You hear from a whole perhaps of the professional comedian on the stage, and he's telling some
jokes and then one or two people start to laugh, and then three or four people start
to laugh, and then one side the room laughs.
And then the other side of the room laughs.
We have peals of laughter.
Hoots of laughter or gales.
Oh-ha, like the wind blowing it through the the auditorium.
So, gales, hoots and peals of laughter, all about the sounds that groups of people make
when they start to laugh.
Stony silence.
Well, this is when nobody speaks, or nobody makes any noise or any comments or...
For example, if the boss stood up and told everybody that this weekend or next weekend,
everybody's expected to work because there's a big order.
And when he looked around the room, there was a stony silence.
Nobody commented.
Nobody asked any questions.
They all looked at the floor looked at the table.
They didn't make eye contact with them because they were all either shocked, or annoyed,
or surprised that the boss would tell them that they had to work Saturdays and Sundays
for the next two weeks.
There was a stony silence.
And finally, an eerie silence.
Well, an eerie silence is .... An eerie silence when you walk into a cold, old church and
there's nobody in the church at all.
You open the door, there's a little creaking of the door.
And you look inside, nobody to be seen.
There's a eerie silence as if it's occupied by ghosts.
And you can hear the wind blowing a little bit or whistling.
Yes, a very eerie silence.
And you get that sort of noise when you or lack of noise when perhaps you're walking
through a big forest.
Okay, you there's nobody around.
No traffic.
No bird sounds, you're deep in the forest and there's a eerie silence, and you're a
little bit uncomfortable.
A little bit scared, a little bit afraid.
And the hairs on the back of your neck almost stand up with that eerie silence.
Very silent.
Almost whisper.
Yes.
Okay, so eerie silence.
Okay, so these are all collocations describing sounds
let me give them to you one more time.
A small voice.
Small voice in the wilderness.
That trembling or shaking voice when somebody is nervous.
A squeaky voice.
Just naturally some people have a little squeaky voice and that's something not strong.
But then the opposite.
Somebody can have a deep husky voice, lots of strength.
Like somebody in army, sergeant.
A gruff voice when somebody can be a little bit angry or annoyed, or sound a little bit
angry or not.
What do you want?
Muffled voice.
This is sounds that are not distinguishable.
To utter a word.
To utter means to say something.
Or not to say something.
Somebody might tell you, Don't utter a word.
To slur your words.
When you've had one or two glasses of wine that you shouldn't have had to slur your words.
A broad accent.
A trace or without a trace of an accent.
Peals, hoots and gales of laughter.
Stony silence.
And finally, an eerie silence.
Okay, so as I said, they're all collocations connected with sounds.
So try them, see how you can use them.
Make sure they can understand them.
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you where we can help you.
Okay, thanks for listening.
Join me again soon.