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The Five Senses and Related Phrases

The five senses are sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.

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We see with our eyes, but "to see" can also be used to mean "to understand" or "to realize." "To watch" something takes longer, like when we watch television. The verb "to look" can be transitive or intransitive. You can look at something to examine it or look (as in “outwardly appear”) a certain way. 

 

Finally, I can see you crystal clear.

Caption 3, Adele: Rolling in the Deep

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Now I can see that we've fallen apart

Caption 27, Backstreet Boys: I Want It That Way

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Make sure you guys watch the whole video if you want to see all that footage.

Caption 22, Aspyn Ovard: What To Pack for Vacation! Tips + Essentials!

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Just look at all those acorns!

Caption 22, America's National Parks: Grand Canyon

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This may look like a massive body of water.

Caption 9, BBC News: California ‘crippling drought’ leads to strict water restrictions

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The difference between "hearing" and "listening" is a little like the difference between "seeing" and "watching." If you listen to a sound, what someone is saying, or music, you pay close attention rather than just noticing it with your ears. 

 

Did you hear that?

Caption 54, Abiventures: Sandwich

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And then I always listen to music because it helps me work out better.

Caption 41, Harvard: A Day in the Life of a Harvard Student

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So, now listen to how I pronounce the following words.

Caption 8, British vs American English: Pronunciation Lesson

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Our sense of touch is about physical contact and how things feel. There are many phrases that use the idea of touch to describe different types of physical and metaphorical contact. "keep in touch" (remain in contact), "lose their touch," (lose their ability to do something), or "have the right touch" (have certain skills)."

 

If we touch his tail, he'll get frightened.

Caption 10, Nature & Wildlife: Wild Sharks

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He must be losing his touch.

Caption 42, ALF: Some enchanted evening

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And, of course, a pineapple just to add a touch of the tropics. 

Captions 15-16, Tara's Recipes: Delicious Fruit Salad with Greek Yogurt

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Like "to look," the verbs "to smell" and "to taste" can be either transitive or intransitive. They can be used to talk about the action of smelling or tasting, but also to describe how something smells or tastes. 

 

I think I can smell chocolate.

Caption 23, Peppa Pig: Easter Week

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And they smell so good.

Caption 35, Blippi: Cool Science Experiment for Kids

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I'm gonna open up a restaurant, so people can taste my food!

Caption 16, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives: Pam's Trinidadian Caribbean Kitchen

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I wanna see what the lambsquarters taste like, first of all.

Caption 38, Food Talk with Sigrid: Foraging

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You may know that "taste" is also a noun meaning someone's idea of what's good or bad and their ability to choose well. It can also refer to a short experience of something. 

 

This show is all about the three Ts of New York: The talent, the trends, and the taste.

Caption 2, On Deck with Lucy: TV Host Jeremy Hassell

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Another thing to be aware of: While "tasty" is a positive adjective, "smelly" means that something smells bad!

 

Further Learning
There are several videos on the senses on Yabla English where you can learn even more about this topic, including a detailed overview from Sigrid and a fun video about a dog's sense of smell.

Vocabulary

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Spanish Words in English, Part I

Many words of Spanish origin have been absorbed into the English language, especially in the United States, whose Hispanic and Latino residents account for nearly 18% of the total population. As well as having predominantly Spanish-speaking territories such as Puerto Rico, the United States also borders the mainly Spanish-speaking Mexico. Thus you will find many words of Spanish origin listed in American English dictionaries that you won't necessarily find in British English dictionaries, or in the latter they will be identified as Spanish words rather than English words with a Spanish origin.

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Some of the most common words of Spanish origin in English are food-based: 

 

Yellow split peas, boiled and grounded [sic] in the food processor, cilantrohabanero [pepper], garlic...

Captions 49-50, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives - Pam's Trinidadian Caribbean Kitchen - Part 1

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The fresh herb "cilantro" is most commonly called "coriander" in British English, whereas in US English, "coriander" usually refers to the dried root of the plant and not the fresh leaves.

 

Habanero peppers (habeñero in Spanish) are among the hottest chilis around, rating at 100,000 to 350,000 on the Scoville scale. The word "chili" (also spelled "chile" in English) is, although also a Spanish word, derived from the indigenous Nahuatl language that is still spoken by 1.7 million people in Mexico. Chili is also a kind of thick stew made from beans, tomato sauce, and chilis: 

 

Don't ever eat chili out of a dented can. That's my advice.

Caption 27, Karate Kids, USA - The Little Dragons - Part 9

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In the US, it's common to see canned (or "tinned" in British English) chili labeled as "chili con carne," so watch out if you are vegetarian, as con carne is Spanish for "with meat."

 

...and the good news is that I got some extra tortillas.

Caption 38, Travel + Leisure - Weekend Getaway: Santa Barbara

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In US and British English, as well as North American Spanish, a tortilla is a thin, round pancake made of corn meal or flour. But in Spain, a tortilla is more often a kind of egg omelette! 

 

Packaged foods, like chocolate and tea and salsa... 

Caption 9, New York City - The Union Square Holiday Market

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Come summer, this place is full of people sunbathing in bikinis, playing beach volleyball, and even dancing salsa.

Captions 24-25, World Cup 2018 - A Tour of Cities and Venues - Part 4

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Here you see "salsa" in its two meanings as a sauce and a kind of music and dance. 

 

Of course, nearly everybody knows this one, from the Spanish adíos:

 

If you didn't worship him, it was out, adios, you know, off.

Caption 76, Ask Jimmy Carter - Interview with Anthony Hopkins

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Actor Anthony Hopkins is British-born, but has lived in Southern California off and on since the 1970s, and in fact got US citizenship in the year 2000.

 

With that, we'll say goodbye for now! 

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Further Learning
Take a look at this extensive list of Spanish words in English on Wikipedia and see if you can find some of them used in a real-world context on English Yabla

Vocabulary

Infinitive Verbs - Part 2

Infinitive Verbs - Part 1

An infinitive verb is the plain form of a verb that is not conjugated and often has the word "to" before it. It is good to know the plain or base form of a verb, since that is the form that is typically the main listing for the word in a dictionary. You may hear the infinitive "to sit" conjugated as "sat" or "sitting," but the form of the word you will need if you care to look it up is the infinitive "sit." In standard usage, the infinitive will always be preceded by another verb.

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An infinitive is often used in a sentence in combination with a conjugated from of "to be." In these examples, the subject "it" is used to make general observations: 

 

It is going to blow up!

Caption 37, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives - Pam's Trinidadian Caribbean Kitchen

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It's going to boil down.

Caption 6, Cooking with Aria - French Toast and a Berry Topping

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It is not enough to obey Big Brother.

Caption 15, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four - BBC TV Movie

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"The world is watching. It's time to detox."

-Greenpeace: Detox How People Power is Cleaning Up Fashion

 

The infinitives are written in bold above: to blow up, to boil, to obey, and to detox.

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Further Learning
Read this in-depth article on infinitive verbs, then search for examples on Yabla English to see them used in a real-world context.