Your English Five a Day #7.2

E119: Welcome to the English Like a Native Podcast with your host, Anna! Today, we're diving into Week 7, Day 2 of the Your English Five a Day series. Join us as we explore a fantastic set of words that will elevate your vocabulary and make you sound like a true English pro. First up is the adjective "supreme," followed by the noun "triumph". Now, let's talk phrasal verbs! "got away with" is our pick for the day. The fourth term is the verb "spoil" and we finish off with the adjective "relatable". And as usual, we'll wrap up with a charming story, this time we're heading to a small village where we meet Lily, Mrs. Thompson, and a mischievous neighbour, Mr. Carter. 

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Transcript

0:01

Hello, hello, and welcome to the English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you are listening to Week 7, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day series. In this series, we explore 5 pieces of vocabulary every day of the working week, from Monday to Friday. Let's kick off this second day with the adjective supreme, supreme. How do we spell it? S U P R E M E, supreme. This means very great or the best. So if something is supreme, it is brilliant. Okay, here's an example sentence."I joined the sea cadets to help get over my fear of water. I was so proud when I was awarded a medal for supreme bravery after our first weekend out on the boat." Our second word today is a noun and it is triumph, triumph. How do we spell that? T R I U M P H. T R I U M P H. Triumph. Triumph. This means a great success, achievement, or victory. For example, when you win a war, a fight, or a competition. Or it could be a feeling of great satisfaction or pleasure that you get from winning or having an achievement. For me, when I took up gymnastics in my thirties and ended up competing in a national championship and doing exceedingly well, I came second on one particular piece of equipment in the country, second in the country! I really felt like that was a great triumph for me. I just did it as a hobby and ended up with this huge success. So, that for me was a triumph. What's your biggest triumph of late? Where have you managed to triumph? Here's another example sentence."The biggest triumph in the team's history was winning in the final against their longest standing competitor." Next on our list is a phrasal verb. We all love a phrasal verb. This is got away with. You might hear got away with it. So you get away with something. Okay, this is spelled G O T, got. A W A Y, away. W I T H, with. Got away with something. If you get away with something, then it means you succeed in avoiding punishment for something. And I do want to note here that it's common In American English to change,'got' for'gotten'. So, you might hear gotten away with in American English. So, gotten is the past participle of got in American English. Okay. So, you might hear,"I might've gotten away with it." That was a terrible American accent! I do apologise. Oh, anyway, moving swiftly on to get away with something. Here's an example sentence."I took the car out last night without my dad's permission, I thought I had got away with it too... until my dad found my purse on the passenger seat! Oh, I'd forgotten to pick it up." Now, I remember when I was a little girl, sneaking out of the house when I was supposed to be grounded, which means I was told I had to stay in my room because I'd been naughty. But instead of staying in my room, I snuck out of the house. I creeped out and I put the door on the latch. So, I closed the door gently and I made sure that the lock wouldn't lock. It was on the latch. And I did a commando crawl up the garden path. And the whole reason for me sneaking out was because I wanted to go to the shop and buy some sweets with the money that I had. But I got grounded before I had a chance. So, I snuck out, ran to the shop because I wanted these sweets so badly, bought the sweets. Ran home, did my commando crawl on my belly so they wouldn't see me through the window. Went to open the door, but the door was locked. I was like,"Ah, no!" I was nearly there. I knocked on the door. The door was answered. I was in a lot of trouble. The sweets were taken off me and I was sent back to my room for an even longer period of time. And I would have got away with it. So, I would have managed to succeed without punishment if the door hadn't properly locked behind me. Never mind. Okay, so next on our list, number four is a verb and it is spoil, to spoil something. We spell this S P O I L. Spoil. This means to destroy or reduce the pleasure, interest, or beauty of something. This always makes me think of snow. When snow first falls, it looks so picture-perfect, so pristine and perfect. And then... All the kids and all the people run out into the snow and it all becomes very messy, full of footprints and it starts to turn to slush and yeah, then in some aspects the beauty of the wintry scene has been spoiled. Okay, here's an example sentence."Why do you always have to spoil a nice day with your bad temper? Next time, you can stay at home whilst we all go out and have a nice time." Alright, number five on our list, number five being our last one for today, is an adjective and it is relatable, relatable. We spell this R E L A T A B L E. Relate... able. Relatable. Relatable. If something is relatable, then it's something that someone can understand or they can feel sympathy for. Here's an example sentence."One of the reasons for Jane Austen's success is that the characters in her books are so relatable." All right, that was our five for today. Let's recap. We started with the adjective supreme, which means to be the best or very, very great. We had the noun triumph, which means a great success, achievement, or victory. Then we had the phrasal verb, to get away with something, or I got away with it, which means you succeeded in avoiding punishment for something. Then we had the verb spoil, which means to destroy or reduce the pleasure, interest, or beauty of something. We had the adjective relatable which means something that someone can understand or feel sympathy for. Let's now work on our pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Supreme. Triumph. Got away with it. Spoil. Relatable. Very good. Right. Let's bring everything together in a little story. Once upon a time in a small village, there lived a little girl named Lily. Lily loved to play in the garden next to her house where Mrs. Thompson, the kind, elderly lady, grew the most beautiful flowers. Every summer, the village held a flower show which always created a lot of excitement. This year, Lily was determined to help Mrs. Thompson to win the competition. They worked hard, watering the plants, removing weeds, and making sure each flower looked its best. But trouble was brewing. Mr. Carter, a troublesome neighbour who always seemed a bit jealous, wanted his flowers to be the talk of the town. And he had a plan to spoil Mrs. Thompson's chances of winning the competition. Late one night, he sneaked into the garden, hoping to carry out his plan undetected. However, Lily heard rustling outside her window and bravely went to investigate. To her surprise, she found Mr. Carter with a mischievous smile, holding a pair of scissors, ready to cut the flowers. Lily gasped,"What are you doing?" Mr. Carter stammered,"I wanted my flowers to be the best, I've never won anything in my life even though I work so hard, so I thought if Mrs. Thompson's flowers weren't as pretty, I would finally get noticed. I would have got away with it too if you weren't being so nosy." Mr. Carter's desire to win some recognition for his beautiful blooms was relatable even if his plan of action was misjudged. Lily, being a wise and kind girl said,"There's no need to spoil things for others. We can all enjoy the beauty of the flowers together. Put the scissors down and I won't tell anyone that I saw you here tonight. And perhaps you can help Mrs. Thompson and me to make this garden supreme." In the end, Lily's words made Mr. Carter realise his mistake. The next day, he joined Lily and Mrs. Thompson in making the garden even more beautiful. The flower show arrived, and to everyone's surprise, the garden was a triumph of teamwork and friendship. As the villagers admired the vibrant colours and lovely blooms, Lily smiled, happy that everyone could now share in the joy of the garden. Mr. Carter had learned a valuable lesson, and the village celebrated not only the beauty of the flowers, but also the relatable lesson of kindness and cooperation. And so, in that little village, the flowers continued to bloom and friendships blossomed just like the petals in Mrs. Thompson's garden. And that brings our episode to a close. I do hope you found today useful. Until next time, take very good care, and goodbye.