– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Hello, my name is Emma, and in today's video,

I am going to teach you English for life.

So what do I mean by that?

Well, there are many important English expressions

and words we use when we talk about life events

and life stages.

I've drawn here a timeline to kind of show you what I mean.

So in this video, I am going to teach you some

key expressions or words when we're talking

about people and their birth or when they are born.

We're going to talk about some key words about

school and education, some key words and expressions

for work, for when people get married and have families, for retirement, and then for

when people die.

So many of us are in different stages of our

lives, and so whether you're talking about

yourself or someone else, we use these words a lot.

I've also noticed many learners make mistakes

with a lot of the words I'm going to teach

you today.

So let's look at an example of this.

We'll start with birth words, and then we'll move through life.

Many learners have trouble with the word "birth" and "born".

They don't know how to talk about birth.

So, I want us to do a practice quiz, and then

afterwards, I'll tell you the answer and explain.

So my question is, which is correct?

Do we say, "I born in Canada."?

I borned in Canada with ED.

I birthed in Canada.

I am born in Canada, and notice there's no

ED here, or I was born in Canada without ED.

So which of these is the right way to talk about where our birth happens?

Well, if you said answer number five, you are correct.

The way we talk about birth and being born is we say, "I was born in Canada."

So I see a lot of learners making mistakes with this specifically, so let's see some

more examples of this and practice this.

So let's look at different subjects and how we use "born" with them.

So, "I" is a subject, "was", "born".

Again, when we use "born", we need

something before it, either "was" or "were".

I was born in - we often use the preposition

"in" with "born", and we can say either a

year or a place.

I was born in Canada.

I was born in Toronto.

I was born in - I'm not going to tell you

the year I was born, I don't want you to know

my age, but just for practice, I was born in 1954.

Okay, we can also do "you".

"You" is a subject, and now because we need

the subject to match the verb, we have "were".

You were born in - and then you can put a year or a place.

He or she - so he was born in, she was born in, and again, you end up with a year or a

place.

We were born in - and they were born in.

So pay close attention just for the agreement

with "they" and "were", "we were", "he was",

"she was", "you were", "I was".

Alright, and again, notice there is no "ed"

with "born", so we say "I was born", no "ed"

needed.

Alright, so how can you use this in a conversation?

Well, we often ask people questions about their birth.

So we might ask somebody, "Where were you born?"

And this is a great question to memorize.

So we have "where", our question word, so we want to know the place, "were you born?"

And again, notice our "be" verb is just right

after "were", and then we have our subject

word, and these two need to be in agreement,

they need to match, "Where were you born?"

So you can say this out loud, practice it, "Where were you born?"

You might ask somebody, "When?"

Women often don't like this question, but

just so you can see how to ask the question,

you can say, "When were you born?"

Or maybe we're talking about someone else,

"When was she born?", "When was Taylor Swift

born?", "When was Drake born?"

So this is how we would use this question.

So I have some examples down here.

Like I mentioned before, if we use the year, we can have the preposition "in".

She was born in 1984.

She was born in May.

So we can also use it for a month, but if we are using a specific birthday, we need

to use "on".

She was born on May 24th, 1984.

He was born on December 31st, 1982.

So, the next major life event we're going to talk about is graduation.

So after someone finishes school, they graduate.

So this is the spelling of the word "graduate",

and I want you to pay careful attention to

the pronunciation, because the "du" actually

has a "ju" sound, "gra-ju-ate", "graduate".

And again, that means to complete your education.

We can use this word when we graduate different types of schools.

So, I graduated grade 8 in 2000.

I graduated high school in 2003.

I graduated university in 2006.

So you can use this with university, high school, or even earlier grades.

So, I just want to now look at the structure of this.

I graduated - and I have "ed" here because we're talking about something from the past

- in, so the preposition we use is "in", and then we have a year.

I graduated in 2000, for example.

Now, what about if we want to talk about where we graduated from?

Well, if you want to say the name of a university

or the name of a school, then you use "from".

I graduated from the University of Toronto.

I graduated from Harvard.

That's not true, but just to give an example.

You might also see this, where some people might say, "I was graduated from".

I was graduated from Oxford University.

It is grammatically correct, but it's not common.

So, the more common examples are without "was".

I graduated from Oxford University.

So, it's always good to know a couple questions.

You can ask people about graduation because it's an important part of people's lives.

So, if you meet someone and you know they

went to university, you might ask them, "Where

did you go to school?

Where did you go to university?"

And then they'll tell you a name, and then you might ask, "Oh, when did you graduate?

When did you graduate?"

"Oh, I graduated in 2004."

All right, so we graduated school.

Well, first we were born, some things happened,

we graduated, and then we start working.

So, let's look at some work expressions that are really important to know.

Well, so the first thing that is a life event

is when you get a job, especially when you

get your first job.

So, and notice we use "get a job", the past of "get" is "got".

So, another way to say "got a job" is "hired".

When you are hired, and it has two syllables,

hired, it means a company gives you a job,

or someone gives you a job.

It's another way to say "start a job".

So, these are some key words to know, "hired", "got a job", "start a job".

And then, if you do well at work, you might be promoted.

So, why am I going like this?

Well, I'm trying to show that you might move up in the company.

You might start, or here's another word, "advance".

Maybe you are a worker, and then you get promoted,

and you become a supervisor, and then you're

promoted again, and you become a manager, and then you become the director, and maybe

you're promoted and you become the president of the company.

So, this is what "promoted" means, it means to advance at work.

And, in this case, it's a verb, "promoted".

If we're talking about, like, a noun, we can

say "promotion", "I have a promotion", or

"I was promoted".

So, let's look at some questions we might ask someone about work.

And let's look at some example sentences, too.

So, "In 2007, I got my first job."

So, notice, "I got", we can say "I got my first job", "I got a job".

"I was hired by", let's give a company name,

"I was hired by Apple", or "Google", let's

say "Google".

"In 2007, I was hired by Google."

That's not true, but just to give you an example of a sentence.

"In 2010, I was hired by Walmart."

So, what I'm doing is I'm showing "hired", we have the verb here that helps it, "was",

and if you use things like "you", you would say "you were hired", "he was hired", "she

was hired", "they were hired", and again, it just means to get a job.

So, what are some common questions you might ask somebody about their work?

Well, you might ask them, "What do you do for a living?

What do you do for a living?"

And this means, what is your job?

Or you might say, "What do you do for work?

What do you do for work?"

"Oh, I'm an engineer.

I'm an English teacher.

I'm a singer."

You might also ask somebody where they work.

"Where do you work?"

So, again, these are great questions to memorize

because they come up in small talk a lot.

All right, well, now let's get to the next life

stage, which is getting married and engaged

and starting a family.

The next stage we're going to talk about is when someone gets engaged.

So, this means a person is not married, but they are planning to get married soon.

So, usually you might have a boyfriend or a

girlfriend, and it's a serious relationship,

and then there is a...

Somebody brings a ring and says, "Will you marry me?"

And the other person says, "Yes, I will."

And then they put the ring on the finger, and now that couple is engaged.

So, like I mentioned, "engaged" means there's

a promise a wedding is going to happen.

It's the period before the wedding when there's a promise a wedding will happen.

So, here are some example sentences on how to use this and how not to use this.

"My friend engaged."

Notice the "x" here?

So, we do not use "engaged" in this way.

When we use "engaged", we need our "be" verb.

In front of "engaged".

So, we can say, "My friend is engaged."

"I am engaged."

"You are engaged."

"He is engaged."

"She is engaged."

"They are engaged."

So, this is a mistake I see many students make.

They say, "Oh, we engaged."

What they need to do is they need to remember this "be" verb.

So, here's another example.

"They engaged."

So, that's incorrect.

"They got engaged."

This is another option.

So, you can either "be engaged", like "is engaged", or you can use "get" or "got".

That's possible, too.

I can say, "I got engaged."

"My friend got engaged."

"They got engaged."

So, you have a choice between using the "be" verb or using the verb "get" or "got".

So, now we are at "marriage".

So, I'm going to talk to you about some of

the common mistakes people make with the word

"marriage" and "marry", and the different meanings.

So, we have "marriage", "marry", "get married", and "wed".

So, we'll go through each of these in a moment.

But first, let's start with "marriage".

So, "marriage", and notice the pronunciation,

the "g" has that soft "g" sound, "marriage".

It's a noun.

The rest of these, "marry", "get married",

"wed", those are verbs, but we're now looking

at a noun.

And what this word means is it is the relationship

between a husband and a wife, or between spouses.

So, let's look at some examples of this word.

And just so you know, this might be a new word, sorry, "spouse".

A "spouse" just means somebody who is married.

So, if you have a husband, you can say "my spouse".

If you have a wife, you can say "my spouse".

So, "spouse" has that meaning, it's just, it's not gendered.

So, we don't know if the spouse is a man or a woman.

So, let's look at some examples of "marriage".

"My grandparents had a happy marriage."

We often use the verb "have" or "has" or "had" with "marriage".

Here's another example.

"He is afraid of marriage."

"He is scared of marriage."

And our final example, "same-sex marriage is legal in Canada."

So, "same-sex marriage" means when you have two

men who get married or two women who get married.

So, this is how we refer to it in Canada, "same-sex marriage", it's legal in Canada.

So, now let's look at the verbs I mentioned earlier.

I want you to think about which of these is correct.

So, the first one I wrote is "I married" or "we married".

"I am married", "we are married".

"I was married", "we were married".

"I got married", "we got married" or "we wed".

Well, the answer is it depends on what your meaning is.

These have slightly different meanings.

So, let's first look at the word "wed".

So, "wed" is a verb, and it means when two people are married, they get married.

When we use the word "wed", it's old-fashioned and uncommon.

This means we used to use the word "wed"

more often, but we don't use it much anymore.

I'll give you an example of this word.

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama wed in 1992.

Again, we don't use this that often.

The word we use more frequently is "marry".

"Marry" is a verb, and when we use "marry" as

a verb, we're talking about the wedding event.

When did the wedding happen?

So, for example, "We married in 1984."

Obama and Michelle married in 1992.

So, this is possible, but what's the most often

used or more common is to use the word "got".

"Got married", or if we're talking about the future, "get married".

So, "marry" and "got married", "get married", they have the same meaning.

They're talking about the wedding event.

So, they're talking about when somebody says,

"Do you take this man to be your husband?"

"I do."

So, that's what they mean by the... by getting married, that event.

So, here's an example.

"I got married in 1998."

"We got married in 1984."

So, you might ask somebody, "When did you get married?"

"I got married in 2011."

And then if you're talking about the future, you might see "will".

"We will get married."

"We will get married in the summer."

"We will get married in September."

So, that's how we use that.

All right, so here's another word, "married",

but when we have "is" or "are" or a "be" verb

in front of it, we use this when we're talking about our status.

So, I mentioned "marry" and "got married" has to do with the actual wedding.

"When did you make things official?"

When we use the word "married", like "is married",

what we're talking about is we're talking about

the status of someone.

"Are you married?"

"Yes, I am."

Or, "No, I am not."

"Are you single?"

"Are you divorced?"

These are all examples of status.

So, "My sister Audra is married."

This means that we're not talking about the specific wedding event.

We're talking about her current status in life is she is married.

She is in a relationship with her husband.

What about if somebody uses "was"?

"I was married."

Well, it really depends.

That can mean a lot of different things.

It can mean somebody is divorced.

"I was married once."

It can mean maybe they're a widow.

A widow means the husband or wife died.

So, maybe they're now single, but in the past they were married.

It can have different meanings depending on context.

So, what are some common questions we use when talking about marriage?

Well, you might ask somebody, "Are you married?"

And the answer is, "Yes, I am."

"Yes, I am married."

Or, "No, I am not married."

You might ask somebody, "How long?"

"How long" means years or months or days.

"How long have you been married?"

So, this question means you want to know the time.

"How long have you been married?"

"Oh, I have been married for four years."

"I have been married for two years."

So, those might be some answers you might hear.

Or, if you change this, "How long has she been married?"

"How long has your sister been married?"

"She's been married for two years."

So, these are common questions we use frequently in conversation.

So, we talked about marriage.

Let's now talk about babies and having children.

So, here are some words and expressions that

are useful for people who have children.

You might talk about "have a baby" or "have children".

You can also say "start a family".

These have the same meanings.

So, let's look at some examples.

"My sister Audra had a baby."

"My sister Audra had a baby."

And notice we use the verb "have" or "had" here because it's the past.

"My friend Lucy is having a baby."

This means the baby hasn't come yet, but in

a couple of months, she's going to be a mom.

We can also use this for fathers, people who

will have children in the future who are men.

We can say, "The man is having a baby with his wife."

Or, "The man is having a baby."

It's not meaning that the man is giving birth to a baby,

but you can say, "The man is having a baby."

"They are having a baby."

"They are starting a family."

All of these are possible.

So, here is another word.

This is an adjective, and the word is "pregnant".

"Pregnant".

When someone is pregnant, well, that someone is a woman usually.

"Pregnant" means there's a baby inside the person.

So, here's our woman, here's the little baby.

So, you know, she has a big belly.

We say "pregnant" for this.

"She is pregnant."

And notice the verb is our "be" verb.

It's not, "She has pregnant."

It's, "She is pregnant."

So, you meet somebody, and they're pregnant,

and you want to ask them some questions.

I recommend you let them tell you they are pregnant.

I don't think it's a good idea to say, "Are you pregnant, miss?"

Because if they're not pregnant, it's embarrassing.

So, once the woman says, "Oh, I'm pregnant.

I'm having a baby soon."

You can ask them questions.

Maybe you ask, "When is the baby due?"

This means, "When is the baby due?"

By "due", we mean the date the doctors think the baby is coming.

So, doctors will give a due date.

So, Lucy might say, "Oh, my baby is due in July."

Just as an example.

You might ask somebody, "Oh, is it a boy or is it a girl?"

Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?

That's another common question people ask pregnant women.

Wow, we have seen so much life already.

We saw birth, school, work, engagement, marriage, having children.

Now, let's talk about retirement.

So, "retire" is a verb.

We have "retired" with "ed", which is an

adjective, and "retirement", which is a noun.

And all of these mean the same thing.

They mean when you stop working and you don't plan to work again.

And usually, this happens at a certain age.

So, in many countries, the age might be 60.

At 60, people stop working.

Or maybe it's 65 or 67.

So, when you are at a certain age and you stop working, we call that "retire".

So, let's look at how we use these in a sentence.

"My father is retired."

So, we're describing the status of my father.

"My father is retired."

"He retired in 2008."

But right now, he is retired.

He's no longer working.

If I want to talk about a year, the specific date

when it happened, when the retirement started,

we can use "retire" as a verb.

When did he retire?

"He retired in 2008."

We can also choose a specific date.

"He retired on June 23, 2008."

Or we can also say the age with the verb.

"He retired at 65."

Meaning 65 years old.

"I would like to retire when I'm 65 years old."

So, what are some questions you might use with this vocabulary?

Well, you might ask somebody, "Oh, are you retired?"

You might ask somebody, "When do you plan to retire?"

"When do you plan to retire?"

"Oh, I plan to retire next year."

Or if you know someone is retired, you might

ask them, "Are you enjoying your retirement?"

And, again, "retirement" is a noun, so you have a verb in front of it.

In this case, the verb is "enjoy".

"Are you enjoying your retirement?"

"Yes, I love being retired."

Or, "No, I hate retirement."

I think most people enjoy their retirement.

So, now we're at the finale.

So, we're going to talk about the words "pass away", "died", and "dead".

So, "pass away" is another way to say "died", and this means when life ends.

So, let's look at these words in sentences.

We can say, "He passed away in August."

This means the person died in August.

"She died in 1974."

So, if we have a year afterwards, we use "in".

"She died in 1998", for example.

We also have the word "dead".

"Dead" is an adjective, so "died" and "pass away" are verbs.

"Dead" is an adjective, and it has the exact

same meaning, but we use it to describe.

a person.

So, for example, for all you Elvis fans out there, I'm sorry to have to tell you this,

Elvis Presley is dead.

I know some people say Elvis lives on Mars, or they see Elvis walking around,

but Elvis Presley is dead.

Just to show an example of how to use the word "dead".

Alright, so we've talked about these words.

We began with the beginning of life, and we went through a lot of different stages,

and now we're at the end of life.

And again, not everyone goes through all these different stages,

but I think it's very important to have vocabulary for all of the different stages.

Oh, sorry, there was something I forgot to mention.

So, questions, let's go back, let's rewind and talk a little bit about what questions

people might ask when it comes to death and dying.

Well, remember, death, especially in the West, it can be very taboo to talk about.

People try to avoid talking about death when they can, and if somebody dies,

you know, some people want privacy, so they don't want to talk about it.

Other people do want to talk about it.

It depends on the person.

So, if you are close, if you're a close friend

or a family member, you might ask someone,

if someone in their family or their friend dies,

you might say, "Oh, you know, how did he die?

How did Elvis die? How did she die?"

Meaning, what is the manner?

How did the person die?

I wouldn't ask this question unless I felt comfortable with the person.

Another question you might ask is, "When did Elvis pass away? When did Elvis die?"

So, these are some examples of questions you

might hear with the word "pass away" or "die".

All right, so thank you so much for watching this video.

Again, lots of great words in this video to

learn and lots of great questions to remember.

In order to practice what you learned here, I recommend you go to www.engvid.com,

and there you can take our quiz to practice what you learned in this video.

You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel.

There you can find more examples of lessons on all sorts of things, like pronunciation,

vocabulary, listening, reading, writing, and so much more.

So, thanks for watching, and until next time, take care.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
birth /bɜːθ/ A2	noun - the act or process of being born verb - to bring into life; to give birth to
graduate /ˈɡrædʒueɪt/ B1	verb - to complete a course of study and receive a degree or diploma noun - a person who has completed a course of study
marriage /ˈmærɪdʒ/ B1	noun - the legal or formal union of two people as partners in a personal relationship
engage /ɪnˈɡeɪdʒ/ B2	verb - to agree to marry; to become betrothed verb - to involve or attract someone's interest or attention
spouse /spaʊs/ B2	noun - a husband or a wife; a married partner
pregnant /ˈprɛɡnənt/ B1	adjective - carrying a developing embryo or fetus within the body
retire /rɪˈtaɪər/ B1	verb - to stop working permanently, typically because of old age
promotion /prəˈmoʊʃən/ B2	noun - the act of raising someone to a higher position or rank; a marketing activity
pass away /pæs əˈweɪ/ C1	verb - to die; a polite euphemism for death
die /daɪ/ A2	verb - to cease living
dead /dɛd/ A2	adjective - no longer alive; having died
death /dɛθ/ A2	noun - the end of life; the state of being dead
question /ˈkwɛs.tʃən/ A2	noun - a sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information verb - to ask about something
stage /steɪdʒ/ B1	noun - a particular point in a process or development verb - to organize or present an event in stages
life /laɪf/ A1	noun - the existence of an individual human being or animal
teacher /ˈtiː.tʃər/ A1	noun - a person who teaches, especially in a school
family /ˈfæm.ɪ.li/ A1	noun - a group consisting of parents and children living together
work /wɜːrk/ A1	noun - activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a result verb - to engage in physical or mental activity to achieve a purpose