Your English Five a Day #26.2

E251: 🎙️ Welcome to The English Like Native Podcast! I'm Anna, your host, bringing you Week 26, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day. Join me as we explore five essential pieces of vocabulary to enrich your language skills.

🎾 Let's kick off with today's first word, the adjective "newfound". Next up, we have the verb "cast". Our third word is the noun "metaphor", which is followed by our idiom of the day: "the ball's in your court". And finally, we have the adjective "routine".

💔 And in today's story, we meet someone who finds solace by the beach after a difficult divorce. Reflecting on life's unpredictability, they embrace newfound determination, inspired by metaphors in nature, ready to face life's challenges.

⭐ 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 Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 26, Day 2 of Your English Five a Day. The healthy series that aims to increase your vocabulary by regularly giving you five pieces of vocabulary. When I say regularly, I mean every day of the working week, from Monday to Friday. So, let's start today's healthy dose with an adjective, and this is newfound. Newfound. We spell this N E W F O U N D. Newfound. If something is described as newfound, then it is something that's just recently been discovered or acquired. So, I might talk about my newfound confidence in a new skill if I've suddenly become confident in it. For example, when I was practicing all the skills that I can now do in gymnastics, I would want to show off my newfound skills. So, I would often get my camera out on my phone and record my newfound skill so that I could share it with the world in the hopes of motivating someone else to get out and tackle their fears. Here's another example,"Trisha felt a sense of newfound confidence after completing the challenging project her boss had given her, maybe she would now be considered for the promotion." Next on the list is a verb and it is to cast. To cast. C A S T. To cast. To cast is to throw or project something forcefully in a specific direction. Now, we often talk about light being cast, or shadow. So, you might say,"He cast a shadow across the garden." Or,"The sun cast a light across the land." We can cast a net. When we throw a net out, a fishing net out into the ocean, we cast the net. We also cast a spell. So, that's quite common usage for the verb cast. Here's an example,"The moon cast a pale light over the cottages and we could see the reflection of the forest shimmering across the lake." Next on the list is a noun and it's also a figure of speech and this is the word metaphor. Metaphor. We spell it M E T A P H O R. Metaphor. Paying attention to how we pronounce the P H. It's often as an F sound. Metaphor. So, a metaphor is a figure of speech and it basically compares two things, or rather it says that one thing is another. So, it takes two things that are not the same thing and it suggests that they are in order to paint a picture, to give a description. So, I might say,"He is a dog." Which would compare the two, even though we know that a man and a dog are not the same, but it compares the two without using words like'like', or'as'. You're just saying they are that thing."She is a devil.""He is a dog.""The storm was a wild child." Something along those lines. And it's usually used within creative works in order to really paint a picture of something. Here's an example,"My novel begins with the metaphor,'her heart was cold, hard stone'." Okay, so moving on from metaphors and into an idiom, and it is, the ball is in your court. The ball is in your court. What we tend to do is contract'ball' and'is'. So, we have the ball's in your court, the ball's in your court. So, ball, B A L L. And then an apostrophe S, ball's. In your court, C O U R T. The ball's in your court. Now, this idiom basically means the next action is yours. You're the person who has to make the next move. So, often within a negotiation or during some sort of discussion or when you're trying to figure out how you're going to work with a client, perhaps. Before any final decisions are made, there's a lot of back and forth and after you've stated your case, then the next action has to come from the other party. So, let's imagine you're trying to divorce someone. You know, there's a lot of actions that need to be taken by each party, one after the other. And so when you do what's required of you, you filled out your paperwork, and now you've sent the paperwork over to your partner, or your partner's solicitors. The next move has to come from them. They have to agree to the paperwork and they have to sign it. So, the ball's in their court now. And then when they've done that, the ball will come back to you and you'll have to take another action. Here's another example,"Well, boss, you've heard my concerns over the new security contract. The ball's in your court now, you need to decide whether signing this is the right thing to do." Okay, next and last on today's list is the adjective routine. Routine. We spell this R O U T I N E. If something is described as routine, then it's something that's done on a regular basis, maybe as part of everyday life. It's not anything special. For example, when you're at the hospital there'll be many routine operations going on, the kinds of operations that aren't special or rare cases. They're the kinds of operations that surgeons will do 10, 20 times a day. Things like removing appendix and doing cesarean sections to, you know, deliver babies or hip surgery, knee replacement surgery, things like that. Very regular, common, routine operations. Here's another example,"I've made an appointment for you at the dentist's tomorrow morning. It's just a routine checkup. Don't forget to put it in your diary." I have a routine checkup coming up soon, actually. I go every six months with my family. We make it a day out. We all take a packed lunch and head to the dentist together and do all our checkups and our hygiene appointments. And then we have a spot of lunch afterwards to celebrate. That's our routine checkup. Okay, so let's recap today's pieces. We started with the adjective newfound, when something has just been discovered or acquired, and we often associate it with confidence. Then we had the verb cast, to cast something, which is to throw or project something forcefully in a specific direction. We often talk about casting light, shadows, nets, and spells. Then we had the noun metaphor, which is a figure of speech that says that something is like something else, but without using'like' or'as' it just says this thing is this thing in order to provide an interesting description. Then we had the idiom the ball's in your court, which means you are the person that has to act next. Everyone is waiting for your action. And then we finished with the adjective routine, describing something as regularly done, not done for any special reason, just a regular part of everyday life, like a routine operation or a routine checkup. Let's now do this for pronunciation. Please repeat after me. Newfound. Newfound. Cast. Cast. Metaphor. Metaphor. The ball's in your court. The ball's in your court. Routine. Routine. Very good. Okay, let me test your memory. What verb would we use to describe throwing light on something? To cast. Yes, we'd cast light on a scene perhaps. And what adjective would we use to describe something that's just been discovered? Newfound. Newfound. Very good. Now, I need to use a figure of speech that describes a person as being something. I don't want to use the words'like' or'as'. What kind of figure of speech would I use? A metaphor. Absolutely. And now it's your turn to take action. So, what idiom could I use to describe when it's up to you to make the next decision? The ball's in your court. Yes, the ball's in your court. And finally, I want to describe my next checkup as just a very normal checkup. It's something that happens every day in the surgery. What adjective could I use to describe this everyday occurrence. Routine. Yes, a routine checkup. Okay, let's bring these five pieces together in story time. There I was, a shell of my former self, broken in mind, body and spirit by the horror show that was divorce. I sat on a bench at the beach, watching the waves crash against the shore. The sun was setting, casting a warm orange glow over the sand. Children were playing and laughing, their carefree voices filling the air. People were gathered around barbecues, cooking up delicious-smelling food. It was noisy, but it was the kind of noise that lifts your soul. I sat and breathed it in, allowing my mind to wander a little. I ended up contemplating our existence. I wondered why there wasn't a book of life, a guide on how to navigate through the ups and downs, the joys and struggles, the routine chores and tasks we do day in, day out. It seemed like something that would be incredibly helpful, yet it didn't exist as far as I knew. With a sigh, I leaned back against the bench, closing my eyes as a gentle breeze caressed my face. I knew that life was unpredictable and constantly changing. There were no step-by-step instructions on how to deal with everything that came my way. It was all a learning process, trial and error. But as I opened my eyes and looked around, I realised that maybe the answer was right in front of me. The beach was the perfect metaphor for life. The waves represented the constant ebb and flow, the highs and lows. The children playing reminded me to never lose my sense of wonder and joy. And the people barbecuing showed the importance of taking time to relax and enjoy the simple things. I sucked the air deep into my lungs and made a decision."The ball's in your court," I told myself. I was going to tackle life head-on, embracing all that it had to offer. I would learn from my mistakes and celebrate my successes. There may not be a book of life, but there were plenty of lessons to be learned from the world around me. With a newfound determination, I stood up from the beach and walked towards the water. As the waves lapped at my feet, I knew that I was ready to tackle whatever life threw my way. And with the beach as my guide, I was confident that I could handle anything. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found it useful. And as always, take very good care and goodbye.