Your English Five a Day #24.5

E240: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast! I'm Anna, and you're tuned in to Week 24, Day Five of Your English Five a Day. This series is your daily dose of vocabulary enrichment, offering five juicy words or phrases every weekday.

🚊 First up, we have the noun phrase "train of thought". Next, we've got the noun "variety", followed by the verb phrase, "reign supreme". After that, we dive into the playful adjective "whimsical", and last but not least, we have the adjective "bespoke".

💌In our storytime segment, we follow Julie's journey of entrepreneurial spirit and creativity. In a world dominated by mass-produced goods, Julie's bespoke greeting cards brought back the personal touch, offering a variety of designs to suit every occasion.

⭐ ENGLISH LIKE A NATIVE PLUS ⭐

Join English Like A Native Plus - a membership allowing you to access the bonus episodes, plus live classes and all podcasts' transcripts & vocab lists. Become a Plus Member here: https://englishlikeanative.co.uk/elan-podcast/

If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a rating/review - it is a simple, free way to support us.

Transcript

0:01

Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you are listening to Week 24, Day Five of Your English Five a Day. This is the series that aims to increase your active vocabulary by giving you five healthy pieces of vocabulary every day of the working week from Monday to Friday. So, let's start today's list with a noun phrase and it is train of thought. Train of thought. We spell this T R A I N, train. Of, O F. Thought, T H O U G H T. Train of thought. Now, your train of thought is referring to the flow of your ideas or the flow of what you're thinking, how one thing leads to another. So, here's an example sentence,"Billy's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the loud noise outside." We sometimes have that, don't we? We lose our train of thought when something distracts us. It usually is our phone, a notification pops up on your phone or it goes and you lose your train of thought. You lose what you were thinking about or what you were trying to do because you were interrupted so rudely and so suddenly. I've lost my train of thought now. I can't remember what I was saying. I often do that actually, in the middle of talking to people. Sometimes even when I'm live streaming, I'll be talking about something and then I'll get distracted by a comment or by my own thoughts. I get pulled onto a different subject or topic. And then I try to come back to what I was originally saying and I've completely forgotten my point. I've completely lost my train of thought. Okay, next on the list is a noun and it is variety. Variety. We spell this V A R I E T Y. Variety. Variety is the quality or state of being diverse and different, or a range of different options. So, if I go to an ice cream shop, I would hope that there would be a variety of flavours in the shop that I could choose from. What's your favourite flavour of ice cream? I have to say, I think mine is rum and raisin. My children love chocolate ice cream. So does my partner. Chocolate ice cream all the way. But not for me. I find chocolate ice cream to be a bit too rich. It's not very refreshing on the palate. So, if I had to take one of the standard flavours, I'd rather have vanilla or strawberry. But if there's a real variety of flavours, then rum and raisin is something I enjoy. I do actually like salted caramel sometimes. Next on the list is a verb phrase and it is reign supreme. So, you might say to reign supreme, or"He will reign supreme." We spell reign, R E I G N, reign. Supreme is S U P R E M E, reign supreme. This means to hold the highest rank or position and have the greatest influence or power. So, if you reign supreme, then you are the most powerful. You have the highest position in the government or in the kingdom, depending on which realm we are talking about. So, in the tennis world, Serena Williams continues to reign supreme as the number one ranked player. Now, I would love to reign supreme in squash, but according to my app that follows my activities, it will take me 12 years to become a pro squash player. So, I am a long way off and I don't think that my app takes into account my age. So, I think if I'm in my fifties, it's unlikely that I will ever reign supreme in squash. But it's nice to have hope. So, next on our list is an adjective and it is whimsical. Whimsical. We spell this W H I M S I C A L. Whimsical. Whimsical describes something that is playful or fanciful. So, playful is a nice way to think of it. Here's an example sentence,"The whimsical decorations at the party added a touch of magic to the room." Whimsical is not a word that I use very often. It suggests that something isn't very serious. So, you might talk about someone having a whimsical manner, and that might actually be annoying. If you need someone to be very serious and talk seriously about plans or to discuss something that is very serious in nature, but they come in with a whimsical attitude, then you're going to be frustrated because this is a very serious discussion. So, whimsical isn't always positive it can be negative, depending on the context. It can also mean to be a bit unusual. Okay, so, moving on to our last adjective, we have bespoke. Bespoke. We spell this B E S P O K E. Bespoke. If something is bespoke, then it is made to order. So, someone's ordered it and then it has to be made. It's not pre-made. It's not ready to go off the shop shelf. Just like my pronunciation assessments, for example, when you purchase a pronunciation assessment, it's not delivered to you instantly because I have to do it. I have to assess your voice and so it's made to order. You get your feedback, but it's made to order. It's bespoke, a bespoke assessment. Or for example, over the Christmas period, I bought this wooden jigsaw. It's more of an ornament, but it's like a jigsaw. It's an ornament of four bears that all fit perfectly together, like a jigsaw would. And on each bear is written the name of each person in my immediate family. So, myself, my partner and my two children, and these bears are representing us and we all fit together as a perfect little jigsaw. And so that was bespoke. It was made to order. It was custom-made with our names on, especially for us. Here's another example,"The tailor created a bespoke suit for the client, taking precise measurements and using high-quality materials." Now in that example, remember a tailor is somebody who makes or adjusts clothing. So, you'd go to a tailor if you wanted a very special suit made for you. Or you might go to a tailor if you're getting married. That'd be quite a typical thing to do to go to a tailor to have your existing suit or wedding dress adjusted, or made from scratch perhaps. Okay. So, that's our five pieces for today. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the noun phrase, train of thought, which is the flow of someone's ideas or thoughts. Your train of thought. Then we had the noun variety, variety, which is a range of different options or the quality or state of being diverse or different. Then we had the verb phrase to reign supreme, which is to hold the highest rank or position or to have the greatest influence or power. We had the adjective whimsical which suggests playful or unusual, which can at times be slightly annoying. Then we had the adjective bespoke, bespoke, when something is made to order or it's custom-made. Okay, let's now do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Train of thought. Train of thought. Variety. Variety. Reign supreme. Reign supreme. Whimsical. Whimsical. Bespoke. Bespoke. Very good. OK, let's test your memory now. I go to a clothes shop and I find some beautiful jackets. In fact, there's a huge range of jackets available, lots of different styles and colours. What noun could I use to describe this large range? Variety. There was a variety of jackets available to buy. However, I am hoping to become the president of the world, because I've always intended to hold the highest rank in the world. What verb phrase could I use to replace hold the highest rank? I've always wanted to......reign supreme. Yes, I've always wanted to reign supreme and now I have a chance to become the president of the world. So, I go into this clothes shop to pick from a huge variety of jackets. Now, I have this very long conversation in my mind. So, one thought is flowing into another thought and suddenly this lady appears in front of me,"Excuse me, do you need any help?" And she completely interrupts my flow of thoughts. What noun phrase could I use to describe this flow of thoughts? Train of thought. Yes, she completely interrupted my train of thought. And for a second, I totally forgot what I was doing in the shop. And I stuttered and stammered and I said,"Yes, I am looking for a... uh, uh, uh." And then she jumped in and said,"Do you fancy a jacket? We have lots of jackets on offer today, a huge variety of jackets, on sale, in fact." And she picked out a jacket and showed me this very colourful jacket. Now, it was actually quite a playful jacket with lots of pretty designs that were quite funny. What adjective could I use to describe this playful jacket? Whimsical. It was quite a whimsical design on this particular jacket. And her showing me this jacket reminded me; I finally found my train of thought again. It reminded me why I was in this shop in the first place. And I said to her,"Yes, actually, I'm hoping to become president of the world. And I need a very special jacket. I don't like any of the jackets that you've got here, even though I see you have a huge variety of jackets, including this very whimsical jacket. But what I'm looking for is something special. Do you do custom-made jackets?" What adjective could I use instead of custom-made? Bespoke. Do you have a service that creates bespoke jackets? Perhaps I could get one made. So, it's exactly what I want. And she says,"Oh, yes, we do. We do have a bespoke option that you can choose. Come with me." Okay. So let me recap that little off-the-cuff story. I headed into a shop to buy a jacket because I intended to reign supreme. I wanted to be the president of the world. But in the shop, there was a huge variety of jackets. And I was having a conversation with myself in my head about what kind of jacket I needed. When I was interrupted, my train of thought was completely lost. And for a second, I forgot what I was even doing in the store. The person who interrupted me was one of the shop assistants who asked me what I wanted. She showed me a very whimsical jacket, one that was covered in all these funny little patterns, very colourful, and this reminded me why I was there. And I asked if they had a bespoke jacket service. Would they be able to make me a jacket? I wanted a bespoke one, not one off the rail. OK, so, let's visit these words and phrases once again in today's storytime. In a world where technology reigns supreme, it is no surprise that online shopping has become the norm for many customers. And with the rise of popular online shopping sites, the market has become saturated with the same products and lack of personal touch. That's where Julie comes in. Julie had always been a creative soul with a passion for handmade crafts. After losing her job due to the pandemic, she found herself with plenty of time on her hands and a train of thought that led her to start her own business. She wanted to bring back the personal touch to the online shopping experience, and what better way to do it than with handmade and bespoke greeting cards? With determination and hard work, Julie launched her online business selling her unique and one-of-a-kind greeting cards. She poured her heart and soul into each card, carefully hand-crafting them with love and attention to detail. And it didn't take long for her business to take off. Word spread quickly about Julie's business, and soon her cards were in high demand. Customers were drawn to the personal touch and the variety of designs she offered. From cute and whimsical to elegant and sophisticated, Julie had a card for every occasion. As her business grew, Julie faced challenges along the way. She had to learn how to manage her finances and marketing strategies, but she never lost sight of her ultimate goal to bring back the personal touch to the online shopping world. Through hard work and determination, Julie's business became a success. She was able to hire a team of like-minded individuals who shared her passion for handmade crafts. Together, they continued to create beautiful greeting cards and spread joy to their customers. Julie's online business became known as the go-to for unique and personalised greeting cards. And she was proud to have brought back a piece of the past into the modern world. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. But before you go, please, if you enjoyed today's episode or any episode of The English Like a Native Podcast, take two seconds to hit the like button or to leave a rating or review. I do hope you have a wonderful day, whatever you're doing. Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.