How to Describe Sounds Clearly in English [523]

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In this episode, you’ll learn useful adjectives for describing sounds. Whether you are talking about music, noise, voices, or background sounds, choosing the right word makes your English more precise. I explain how these adjectives are used so you can describe what you hear more confidently.

This episode will help you expand your vocabulary with useful adjectives for different types of sounds and noises. Whether you’re preparing for an English exam IELTS, CAE or TOEFL or just want to sound more natural, learning the right words will make a big difference.

Perfect for intermediate and advanced learners looking to improve their spoken and written English.

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Transcript

0:09

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. So anything that you need, you know where to contact me, www.englishlessonviaskype.com. I'm always very, very happy to hear from you. So in this Advanced English Lesson, we're looking at adjectives used for describing sounds and noises. Particularly good for your written English, and particularly good if you're preparing for proficiency exams. That's not just a bang. Okay, let's start. So we'll start off with sounds. The first one is buzzing. Buzzing is a buzzing like a bee. So you get the sound of the bee. Or you can have a buzzing in your ear. So if you've got a bit of a headache, you might hear a buzzing in your ear. Now, this is not anything connected with Toy Story, that great wonderful series of movies, I think, for Toy Story 1, 2, 3, and 4. So his name was Buzz. But this is buzzing, yeah? It's the sound, the noise, the buzzing of the bees. Buzz. Buzzing. Creaking. An eerie sound. The creaking usually of doors or floorboards in old castles or old mansion houses. So you get that creaking sound. You know, if you're watching one of these thriller movies, I don't really like those sort of horror movies, but you always get that the noise of the door opening and nobody's there, or the creaking of the stairs as somebody is trying to creep up the stairs or down the stairs or along the hallway. But the old floorboards seem to be speaking. Yeah, you hear that noise as the wood has expanded over the years. So the creaking, rumbling. Now, this is a particular sound that we hear all the time. When there's a storm in the area, we get the rumbling of thunder as it rolls across the sky. And you're waiting for that flash of lightning that will invariably follow. So the rumbling of the thunder, then the flashing of lightning as it lights up the sky. Particularly at night time, really nice when you're at home watching out the window or listening as you're in bed to the rumbling of the thunder. You can also have rumbling as big, heavy, articulated lorries go through the town or the street of your town or your city. When big articulated trucks are travelling, you can hear that rumble, you know, the noise they make with the big heavy wheels and four or five trucks coming together makes a lot of sound, almost like thunder, but the rumbling of the big wheels of these articulated trucks. A muffled sound. And a muffled sound is where somebody tries to prevent the noise from annoying somebody so they speak under their breath. A muffled sound. Or if there are two people in the room beside you, they are speaking. But because you've got a big thick wall between you and them, you don't hear distinctly what they are saying, but you certainly hear the muffled sound of a conversation or the muffled sound of laughing. You're not quite sure who is saying what, you know, whether it's a man or a woman or it's somebody you know or somebody you don't know because it's not so distinctive, but it is muffled, muffled by the thickness of the wall or the glass between you, but you can hear it and it can be quite annoying, but unfortunately, it's not so distinctive that you know exactly who has said what or what is being said exactly. Okay, so the muffled sounds. Crashing. Crashing like a car crash or glasses falling to the ground. Big crash. You know, if you're sitting in a coffee shop and you hear this tray dropping and all the saucers, the cups, the glasses are broken, but there's a crashing sound. Okay, so you feel very embarrassed and sorry for the poor waiter or waitress that has to sweep up the mess, but these sort of problems happen. Okay, so crashing sound, a crashing of broken glass. Rustling, yeah? Now, that's the noise we hear when the wind blows, particularly in the autumn time. You've got a lot of dry leaves around the ground. The leaves have fallen, but there's not so much rain around, so the leaves are quite dry. And when the wind blows, you get the rustling sound of leaves. Or if you're going for a run or a walk, what kids love to do, they still do it. I did it. They love to run through the big piles of the leaves in the park, and you get that rustling sound as they kick the leaves here and there, and the wind picks them up and blows them around. Okay, the rustling of the leaves. And even when the wind blows through the trees and the leaves are a little dry, you get that rustling sound also. It's nice to listen to on a quiet, windy day. And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do. Just get in touch, www.englishlessonvireskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson and we'd be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. The next is a distinctive sound. I think it's not particular sound, but it's a distinctive sound of something like a particular bird, the distinctive sound of a gull, you know, with these seagulls that make a lot of noise when they're looking for food. Their noise is very distinctive, the calling of that seagull as it's trying to find food, distinctive. The distinctive sound of a train. When you hear a train coming along the tracks, it's a very distinctive sound. It's not the same as a car or a bus. It's very distinctive to a train travelling on the track. You know, that distinctive sound when you're sitting on a train and you hear the noise as the train goes over the tracks. Now, the next word is to describe not a particular noise, but it's a distant sound, okay? A distant sound could be a distant sound of thunder, so it's not right overhead, but it's something you can hear that's many, many kilometers away, but it's very recognizable. The distant sound, the distant sound of a car horn. You know exactly how a car horn sounds, but it's not outside your window, it's in the distance. So the distant sound, something that's not so close. And last number nine, a faint sound. And again, a faint sound is a very, very slight sound, something you can almost not hear. When you might say to somebody, did you hear that? No, I didn't hear anything. I'm sure I could hear something, the faint sound, perhaps, of a baby crying in the distance, or the faint sound of a dog howling or barking when the dog is in pain or in trouble or has been left abandoned. That faint sound. You can just pick it up. It's just about audible, but not so clear. Faint sound. Okay, that's the nine particular words, adjectives connected with sound. So let's look now at just noise. I've got four particular words connected with noise, adjectives as to how we can describe it. Banging. Well, usually a door bangs, okay? So if somebody hasn't closed the door correctly and the window is open and the wind blows in, bang. The banging of the door. Bang. You have to close the door properly or close the window or close both to avoid that really irritating noise. You are sitting trying to study and you hear this constant bang, bang, bang. Some door is left open and you're getting a little bit frustrated. Or if somebody is looking for something, maybe they come in late at night, they've had a couple of beers and they're making a little bit more noise than they normally make. So they're opening the cupboard, looking for the coffee, bang. Or when the children, when I was at school, we had these old, old desks that used to lift at the front and you used to just let it drop and bang. And the teacher used to get really, really annoyed. And so the banging of the tops of the desks as you used to open it to get your pencils or your books out. Banging. Number two, constant. So we use this a constant noise as something that is continuous, okay? The constant noise of birds singing in the morning. It's really beautiful to hear in the spring and the summer, but if you've got lots of birds' nests in the trees beside you, particularly the bigger birds like crows, then the noise can be really, really annoying and frustrating. You've got this constant noise, but a constant noise, something that is continuous. We can have a constant hum. So the traffic going by the window, if you live near a main street, then there's always the noise of traffic constant. The traffic going up and down the street, the screeching of tires as somebody breaks, then the screeching of tires as somebody accelerates away from the traffic lights. So that's constant noise, particularly in the big and the really busy, busy cities. Excessive. Well, excessive noise means noise over and above what you'd expect. So on a building site for a period of time, there can be excessive noise, particularly at the beginning when they are drilling down to make the foundations or they are digging the holes for the foundations and they come across some rock. So you hear and you get the drilling and the banging and the knocking and the screeching, all the noises associated with a very busy building site. Okay, so this excessive noise. And you see warning notices, neighbours or occupants of apartments are told to avoid excessive noise so that they don't disturb the other neighbors. So if you've got an apartment block of 10 floors and you're living on the fourth or fifth and somebody above you or somebody below you constantly playing music late at night, then this is excessive noise that is not normally acceptable by the management companies who run these apartment blocks. So excessive noise is to be avoided at all times. And then finally, incessant. Well, incessant means continuous, but usually in a negative way, really, really aggravating and annoying. Oh, I had to listen to the incessant ranting and raving of my boss. He went on forever, or it seemed he went on forever. He got really annoyed and frustrated about something. And of course, he went on and on. It was incessant, almost non-stop. Or the incessant noise of a baby screaming in an apartment near you. You know, we've all had it when our children scream and we can put up with it because they're our children. But it's very strange when the baby is somebody else's baby and that all you hear all night or appears all night a baby crying. It's an incessant noise. So something that is continuous, something that you might find a little bit aggravating or a little bit annoying. Okay, so there are particular adjectives connected with noise and also then our adjectives connected with sound. I'll run through them one more time quickly. Okay, so the sounds, the buzzing noise, like buzzing of bees. Crashing, the crashing sound of waves crashing against the rocks. Creaking, the creaking of my bones as I'm old and I try to walk, yeah, creaking, my bones seem to creak. The distant sound of thunder, distant. Distinctive, very clear, distinctive sound that a gull makes. The faint sound, something really far away, the faint sound, a muffled sound of voices in the room next door, the rumbling of the thunder, and the rustling of the leaves. And then the noises, banging, the banging of the door, the banging of the window, the constant banging all of the time, constant, excessive noise, excessive shouting, excessive screaming, and finally incessant, that something that continues hour after hour after hour after hour, incessant, something really irritating and annoying. Okay, so they're all our sounds and noises. And if you need to contact me, whether you can do so, practice them, use them in your, particularly in your written English if you're doing exams in IELTS or the Cambridge exams, whatever it is, these are the sort of words that you need to know, you need to practice, and you need to understand. And look out for some other words that mean the same or different noises and different sounds, because there's something, you know, roar, the roaring of lines, the bark, the barking of dogs. These are all different sounds. So see what other sounds you can find out. And if you need anything, you know where to get me, www.englishlessonbyskype.com. Happy to hear from you. Happy to have your comments. As always, join me again soon. And if you need anything, you know where to get me, www.englishlessonviaskype.com. Happy to hear from you. Happy to have your comments. As always, join me again soon.