5 Daily NATIVE Phrases of British English | spoken English!

 

 

5 Daily NATIVE Phrases of British English | spoken English!

 

hi there everyone welcome to English

with Catherine

if you’re new here welcome thank you so

much for being here I’m going to share

with you today five phrases that we use

in native English

so what I’ve done is just been really

aware recently of things that we say

every day really kind of basic responses

reactions if you start using these

phrases you will definitely sound much

more natural

less formal much more friendly and easy

to talk to I think I’ve told you before

that when you come to the UK you will

notice that the English that we speak is

not the English that you learned at

school it’s spoken English and spoken

English has phrasal verbs idioms and

many many things like little Expressions

that we just don’t use in writing and we

don’t learn at school generally

so here I am making your life easier if

you come to the UK and you use a couple

of these phrases you’ll definitely fit

in number one is the thing is

the thing is the thing is we use this

all the time and what it means is the

issue is the problem is in British

culture we really really don’t like to

say when there’s a problem

or we don’t really like to say no either

we’re kind of terrified of Confrontation

and sort of causing a fuss or offending

someone so there’s so much you need to

learn about how to behave here is just I

mean I have many more videos let’s just

say that so to give you some examples of

how to use the thing is we can say the

flat is so beautiful the thing is the

traffic sound coming from the road

really puts me off so here you’re saying

the flat is really nice maybe you’re

looking at a flat you’re wanting to rent

it or buy it and you’re saying the flat

is lovely but the traffic sounds coming

from the road is kind of a negative and

it’s kind of making you not like the

flat as much it’s not a very direct way

to express this it’s a typically British

way to express this we also use it to

soften the blow or reduce the impact or

the effect of saying something negative

to someone maybe something that is maybe

quite offensive or a bit difficult for

them to hear

for example when a manager is addressing

his employee about a situation an issue

something that’s wrong

he could say you’re doing really well in

this job the thing is a few colleagues

have noticed you’ve been late a few

times this month so this is a good way

to bring up a problem with that employee

that will not automatically

offend them it will give them time to

process the information so that they

don’t immediately get offended and look

red in the face Etc

so it’s a really good way to soften the

blow of that kind of criticism another

example of softening the blow is just

saying no to someone in that something

just isn’t possible or isn’t logical or

isn’t rational and you want to say no in

the best way for example the thing is

Karen we just can’t afford to have six

swimming pools in the garden

we just can’t afford it

right so that example is a bit silly but

you know what I mean it’s about saying

no it’s about softening the blow that’s

another expression you’ve learned today

to soften the blow means to reduce the

impact or the effect of something

negative number two is

fair enough

fair enough

fair enough

so we say this as a response to

something that we see as acceptable

logical

understandable reasonable

for example I can’t come tonight because

I’m working late

the response would be fair enough it’s

very very common to hear this every day

in conversation amongst friends or

family and really it’s a very useful

response because it’s only two words

another example I’ll do the dishes

tonight if you do the dishes tomorrow

response would be fair enough great

great idea now we say do the dishes by

the way it means to wash the dishes

that’s a collocation with do

number three is what a shame

what a shame

what a shame

so this is another response but this

time it’s When someone tells you

something disappointing almost sad

annoying for them and you want to

respond in the right way now if it’s

something really sad and really serious

you can’t say what a shame because

you’re going to need something a bit

more serious and a bit stronger

but for example if someone says to you

my auntie can’t come to visit anymore

because of the train strikes you can say

oh what a shame

what a shame

that means oh that’s that really that’s

a shame you know that’s disappointing

that’s sad for you

another example is

oh I dropped my favorite necklace in the

river when I was bending over the bridge

you can say oh what a shame that’s

that’s a real shame you know for you so

it’s it helps to be understanding show

sympathy for someone it’s really nice

actually it’s a nice expression it shows

that you care and that you’re listening

to what they’re saying about their

problem

so use what a shame if you want to sound

a little bit more native number four is

a complete nightmare

a complete nightmare

a complete nightmare

now you’ll notice that I’m saying this

with quite a lot of drama and energy and

that’s because it helps to describe a

feeling of being angry about something

now in British culture we do love to

complain We complain about a lot of

things but this phrase a complete

nightmare we usually use to complain

about the traffic so a lot of heavy

traffic when you’re trying to get home

after a long day at work perhaps you

have to drive home and you get stuck in

traffic our roads are notoriously busy

we have a lot of cars on the roads

so it’s very common to get stuck in

traffic or we use this phrase to

complain about the trains the trains in

Britain are notoriously very very bad

sorry to say that but they are often

canceled or very delayed and they often

don’t really give you much warning but I

have to say the underground trains in

London are absolutely amazing we also

use this phrase to complain about cueing

now in British culture queuing is very

important we do always queue and if

someone is trying to queue jump it is

always a massive problem so some

examples using this phrase

the trains were a complete nightmare

yesterday it took me over an hour to get

home when it would normally take me 20

minutes

what a nightmare

okay very dramatic that’s very true

um but yes this is very very common

especially if you just want to describe

that annoyance that you felt because of

the trains it was absolute gridlock on

the motorway yesterday it was an

absolute nightmare getting home

now gridlock means solid traffic so Kaka

Lori Lori car Laurie Carr nothing moving

nothing moving and an example for cueing

it will be a nightmare tomorrow we will

have to queue for hours

so here we are here predicting the

future and worrying about queuing in the

future which is by the way another thing

that we do we worry about the future

we’re always thinking what’s coming

what’s coming

so it will be a nightmare tomorrow we

will have to queue for hours

number five is what have you been up to

what have you been up to

what have you been up to now this is

very common in British small talk when

you haven’t seen a friend or a colleague

or a family member for a while we often

ask this in small talk when we see them

and it means what have you been doing

how have you been filling your time have

you been playing tennis have you been at

the pub have you been doing a new hobby

have you been working too much you then

need to answer the question with what

you have been doing you don’t answer

with up to in the answer it’s only for

the question okay for example what have

you been up to recently well I’ve been

um I don’t know just playing the piano a

bit I’ve been going out for walks I’ve

been spending a lot of time with my

sister but I’ve been working far too

much we also use up to to ask about what

someone is doing in the future so on the

weekend typically so what are you up to

on the weekend what are you up to on the

weekend I use this very often when I’m

asking my friends what their plans are

either the same evening or on the

weekend when I’m maybe going to invite

them for a drink or suggest doing

something with them

I hope you’ve enjoyed this video about

five native phrases maybe it will make

it a little bit easier when you come to

the UK and you hear these on the streets

in conversation in cafes wherever you

are so hit the Subscribe button if you

feel in the mood too and I’ll see you

next week for another class thank you

 

5 English Habits to Practice Every Day to Improve English Fluency and Communication Skills

 

5 English Habits to Practice Every Day to Improve English Fluency and Communication Skills

at the upper intermediate and advanced

level of english

it’s time to really make english part of

your day-to-day life

many of you have already been to

esl courses

and now

you’re using english in the real world

with your jobs and your relationships

and

in everyday life in english

but in order to really use it every day

you need to create daily habits

centered around english practice

but it’s gonna be fun i promise

so today in this lesson i am sharing

five

daily habits that you can add to your

daily routines and your schedules what’s

amazing is that they won’t take more

than one hour of each day can you

believe it you’ll have fun while doing

it and you will dramatically improve

your english communication skills

these english habits will focus on

reading

writing

listening

speaking and comprehending what are we

waiting for let’s get started

[Music]

for each of the five categories of

english habits that we’re building

try to choose something that interests

you or something that you’re curious

about learning the idea is to make it

fun not a chore

and don’t think of this as homework

think of it as a way to add value to

your life

what’s great is that it serves a dual

purpose

one

improving your english language skills

and two

learning something new okay for the

first thing

read 10 minutes in english each day

choose your favorite type of reading and

content to read and make it a daily

practice

some examples of this include reading

online news

reading books paper or digital it’s up

to you

reading recipes reading blogs

reading articles or newsletters the

focus here is on absorbing grammatical

structures

learning spelling and vocabulary

acquisition and my pro tip for you is to

read aloud

because this can help you with your

pronunciation muscles and your speaking

endurance you’ll notice that you might

get tired in your mouth in your jaw and

your throat

and that’s because it’s a different

language and you might not be used to

using all of the muscles that we use

in english

and so

you might feel like you need to work on

that endurance and that’s what i mean by

speaking endurance

also reading aloud will help you retain

the information that you read better all

right number two write for 10 minutes

each day in english

if you’re not really sure about what to

write or if writing feels laborious to

you

try to make it something that you really

enjoy

so here are some examples of fun writing

activities

writing a gratitude list or a journal

entry on gratitude writing down things

that you’re grateful for in your life

and what you’re thankful for

writing out your worries it’s also known

as worry pages or a brain dump just

getting everything off your mind that’s

causing you to worry about something

writing in a stream of consciousness so

this is about writing anything that

comes into your thought system and just

writing writing writing without lifting

your pen from the paper it’s fun you

should try it and then the other one is

writing about your day

logging the events of the day what

happened what you’ve done

you can also write an email in english

to a friend or it can be a totally

fictional person such as your favorite

character from a book

a movie or a show

and this obviously won’t get sent

but it’s still a really fun activity to

try and it’s good english writing

practice

so the focus here is on vocabulary

retention and thinking in english my pro

tip for this is to write aloud meaning

as you write or as you type

you are

speaking aloud your thoughts this is

going to help you think more clearly

because you actually hear what you say

and also it will help you structure your

writing

more effectively

number three listen 10 minutes in

english each day

listening comprehension is also very

important and we want to make sure that

we’re giving this skill some time to

shine

so some ideas for listening materials

are the following

songs in english from your favorite

artist or genre

podcasts in areas of interest or in your

field of expertise or study audiobooks

i’m a huge fan of the libby app which is

a free library app and all you need is a

library card if you’re in the us the

radio and if you’re in a car you might

be able to turn the radio on or you can

access some stations from your computer

focus is on connected speech training

your ear to porosity stress patterns and

intonation and also to learn new words

and expressions

so for my pro tip pause and imitate the

pronunciation it’s a lot of fun and you

might find yourself laughing afterwards

which is a good thing

number four watch 10 minutes in english

each day

so out of all of these many of you might

find it easiest to make time for working

on this skill simply because video based

learning is more and more accessible

these days

right

the point with watching is to increase

your listening comprehension

and also to improve your awareness of

non-verbal communication which is very

important

that includes things like head movement

hand gestures

facial expressions and overall body

language that we use to communicate our

points

if you’re watching without subtitles you

can give yourself that extra

comprehension challenge if you’re

feeling up to it here are some examples

of possible content to watch youtube

videos to learn something new or watch

your favorite channel

watch a ted talk without subtitles

watch half of an episode on your

favorite streaming platform no subtitles

watch a web course that you’re following

watch a free webinar that you’ve signed

up for all right so the focus with this

is listed in comprehension learning

nonverbal communication like gestures

facial expressions hand movements and

when they are used and then my pro tip

for this is to pause and imitate the

non-verbals of the speaker

and also to pause and do a comprehension

check so every few minutes

or seconds

depending on your preference you pause

and then paraphrase or repeat

in your own words what was just

discussed or the gist of

the video whatever you’re watching try

to do your own self-administered

comprehension check number five speak 10

minutes in english each day some of you

might find this to be the most

challenging habit to do because of

nerves or because of limited access to

real world communities

well

the good news is

is that the beauty of speaking practice

is that you can literally practice

anywhere in the world

and that’s because we can tap into

online communities and leverage our

virtual communication platforms

now there’s no excuse because of what

technology has made possible so if

you’re not able to have in-person

conversations that is okay

hop online and join a forum where you

can have conversations in the comments

or in the chat rooms

or you can jump online for a zoom or a

skype call say while doing a virtual

book club meeting

the point is you can practice your

speaking skills in person

or in the virtual world

all right so some examples include

making small talk with strangers at a

cafe

waiting online or at the library

chatting with a colleague from work

joining an online community for example

if you’re into fitness let’s say there

are plenty of fitness communities around

and you can strike up a conversation

with people who also enjoy working on

their fitness

joining a book club or any type of

meetup based on your own interests

doing a zoom or a skype call with

someone even

a regular phone call would work which is

voice only

there are so many options to check this

one off the list so definitely leverage

both in-person communication as well as

virtual communication

so the focus here is on verbal

communication skills communicative

competence and strategic competence

and my pro tip here is to use the new

words that you’ve acquired practicing

newly acquired expressions phrases

idioms vocabulary and testing out your

grammar and syntax

and also thinking in english and it

would also be a great opportunity to ask

for corrective feedback

alright there you have it five daily

english habits to do every day doing

these five things every day will

increase your communication skills and

your ability to hold conversations in

english

now it might seem like a lot but if

you’re only spending 10 minutes a day on

each of the skills that i shared with

you then you’re really looking at less

than one hour of english practice a day

which is not really that much most

workouts take longer than an hour right

and most commutes to the office take

more than one hour if you want to set

aside one hour and complete all the

tasks in one go roughly 50 minutes then

that’s great but if you prefer to space

it out over the entire day and into the

evening that’s also great

the best configuration is the one that

works best for you and the one that

you’re going to actually do

so i want you to sit down with your

calendar before the start of each week

and take a look at your commitments both

personal and professional

find time to squeeze in your daily

english habits because it’s going to

make a huge difference in your personal

and professional life in english

if it’s a priority for you

also think about being as strategic as

possible for example if you have a long

commute then you might be able to get a

bunch of the tasks done in transit

if you find that your afternoons are

pretty slow

add some english practice to make things

more lively and spice things up

set up a schedule and stick to it that’s

the most important thing

10 minutes for each task is not a lot

but over time

practicing a little bit each day has big

returns

the magic will start to unfold once

you’re keeping consistent and actually

creating these habits hold yourself

accountable and if needed find an

accountability partner an accountability

partner is someone who helps hold

yourself accountable for the tasks at

hand this person can be a native speaker

of english or a non-native speaker of

english it doesn’t matter the idea is

for the two of you to consume the same

content for 10 minutes and then discuss

afterwards and this can be done

virtually or over a cup of coffee in

real life

for example let’s say you found a

podcast that you want to listen to and

you think that they will also enjoy

just send it along to them both of you

will listen to it and you can discuss

afterwards so while this might take some

additional time for planning and

coordinating it also might make it that

extra bit of fun for you so it’s up to

you

and more importantly if you’re finding

it hard to hold yourself accountable and

accountability partner can really help

either way

do these five things every day and i

promise that you will notice a world of

difference in your english speaking

listening writing reading and

comprehension skills

all right advanced english learners

thank you so much for joining for this

lesson the full transcript of this

lesson can be found on our blog

so be sure to check out

advancedenglish.com

when do you plan on starting these daily

english habits how will you hold

yourself accountable feel free to share

that with us in the comments down below

alright i will see you in the next one

where we’re going to continue advancing

your english together until then keep up

the awesome work and i’ll see you soon

[Music]

 

Learn the 5 tenses that make up 90% of English! 90% of all spoken and written English is done in these 5 tenses. I will teach them to you today!

 

5 Tenses = 90% of English

 

– Hello, lovely students,

and welcome back to English with Lucy.

I have got such an exciting video for you,

because now there are various
studies, various claims,

but the general consensus

is that 90% to up to 95% of
all written and spoken English

is done in just five grammar tenses.

So what are we going to do today?

We are going to go through
those five grammar tenses

so that you can get that
little bit closer to fluency.

We’re going to improve your
grammar fluency and accuracy

in the most efficient way possible.

To make your life even easier,

I have created a free
PDF for you to download.

It contains all of the information

about these five grammar tenses

that make up 90%, if not 95%,
of spoken and written English.

We look at them in greater
detail with more examples,

and I’ve also included a quiz

so you can test your understanding.

If you think that that will help you,

if you’d like to get your free copy,

all you have to do is click

on the link in the description box.

You enter your name
and your email address.

You sign up to my mailing list,

and the PDF will arrive
directly in your inbox.

After that, you will automatically receive

my free lesson PDFs every week,

plus all of my news, course
information, and offers.

It’s a free service and you
can unsubscribe at any time.

Okay, let’s start this amazingly
efficient grammar lesson

by reviewing the English verb tenses.

So technically there
are only three tenses,

the present, the past, and the future,

but we have four different
aspects within these tenses.

The simple, the continuous,
the perfect simple,

and the perfect continuous.

When we combine these four aspects

with the three verb tenses,

we get what we typically refer
to as the 12 verb tenses.

Some people like to include
the conditionals in the tenses.

I don’t.

You will hear some people
say there are 16 tenses.

I like to set the conditionals apart.

Let’s have a look at
each one really quickly

just to refresh our memories.

The present simple is used

for general truths, habits,
and permanent situations.

The present continuous is
used for actions happening now

or around the present moment.

The present perfect is
used for past actions

with a connection to the
present or for experiences.

And the present perfect
continuous is used for actions

that started in the past and
are ongoing up to the present.

Now the pasts.

The past simple is used to talk

about completed actions in the past.

The past continuous is used for actions

that were in progress at a
specific time in the past.

The past perfect is used
for actions completed

before a specific time in the past.

And the past perfect continuous is used

for actions that started
in the past, continued,

and were completed before
another past event.

Don’t worry, we’ll look at
some of these in more detail.

And finally, the future.

We have the future simple,

used for actions that
will happen in the future.

The future continuous,

used for actions that will be in progress

at a specific time in the future.

The future perfect, used for
actions that will be completed

before a specific time in the future.

And the future perfect continuous,

used for actions that will
start in the future, continue,

and be completed before
another future event.

Okay, that’s a lot of
information to remember

and I covered it very, very briefly.

Don’t worry, we’re going to go deeper.

I know a lot of English learners struggle

with deciding which verb tense
to use in a given situation.

Well, lucky for you, not all
verb tenses are created equal.

Let’s go ahead and look at
this beautiful chart I made

to see which are the five
most commonly used verb tenses

in both spoken and written English.

By the way, if you’re
curious about the numbers,

I’ve added links to various
studies on verb tense frequency.

You can find those in the description box.

Okay, time for the big reveal.

Our most common verb tense,

making up nearly 60% of all
English communication is,

drum roll, the present simple.

We then have that followed

by the past simple at close to 20%.

Then the future simple at around 8%.

So that’s three tenses making nearly 88%

of the entire usage,
according to certain studies.

Then we have the present
perfect simple at around 6%

and present continuous at 5%.

And then we have this tiny sliver of pie

that contains the other seven verb tenses.

Now, if you’re good at maths,

you’ll notice that’s 99%
for all of those tenses.

In the title I say 90%

because I don’t 100% trust those numbers.

But don’t let this chart fool you.

Each and every verb tense
has its time and place,

but for general day-to-day conversations,

these five are going to
be your bread and butter.

So let’s go ahead and see
how you can start using

each of these tenses to
the best of your ability.

As you just learned, the
present simple makes up

a large portion of daily communication

and rightfully so, we live
in the present after all.

Let’s look at some of the most common uses

of the present simple.

Firstly, we use it to talk
about facts and statements

that are always true.

Most people prefer to shop online.

Or, the supermarket is
busy on Saturday mornings.

We also use it for statements
that are true in the present.

You are my best friend, Jasmine.

Or, I can’t bake to save
my life. Look at this cake.

You can just show a really rubbish cake.

And we also use it for routine actions

or habits in the present,

often used with an adverb of frequency.

Do you always bike to work?

Or, I never see her in
yoga class these days.

We use it to refer to
scheduled events in the future.

Carmine’s holiday officially
starts on the 5th of October.

Or, my stag do kicks off at
10:00 PM at Boots and Brews.

And the last one I’ll mention today,

we use it to give
directions or instructions.

Mix the flour and water together
to create a thick paste.

Or, to get to the bookshop,

walk down to the corner and take a left.

As you can probably
tell from our examples,

these kinds of statements and questions

make up a large portion of
our daily conversations,

so it’s no wonder why the
present simple topped our list.

Next up, we have the past simple.

Of course, this is the
second most used verb tense

because we use it to talk

about completed actions in the past.

And we sure do love to
talk about the past.

Look at a news article or
pick up your favourite book.

Most of them rely heavily
on the past simple tense.

Let’s go ahead and look at some uses

of this very versatile tense.

It’s commonly used to describe actions

that occurred at a
specific time in the past.

I visited Greece last
summer with my girlfriend.

It’s also used to narrate
a series of past events.

Yolanda woke up, brushed her teeth,

and headed off to the office.

It’s used to express habitual

or repeated actions in the past.

Every morning, Ben watered
his plants and fed his dog.

And number four,

it’s used to discuss past
states or conditions.

We were so tired after
our long hike yesterday.

Alright, next up we have
the future simple tense.

Let’s start with spontaneous decisions.

For example, I’m pretty
hungry. I will order some food.

Predictions.

The weather forecast says
it will rain tomorrow.

Promises.

I will get to the office 20 minutes early

to get everything set up.

Offers.

Mom will be happy to help
you with your project

if you need it.

And requests.

Will you pass me the salt?

Got it?

Good, because it’s time to
move on from the future simple

and talk about the present perfect simple.

Don’t let its long and slightly
confusing name fool you.

It’s actually quite an
easy tense to master.

We use it to talk about
unfinished states or actions

that started in the past.

He’s been in his new
position for about two weeks.

We use it to talk about completed actions

with relevance to the present.

My dad has just pulled up to the house.

We use it for life events and experiences.

They have travelled around
Asia and most of Europe.

And we use it for actions or events

at an unspecified time in the past.

Yeah, we’ve tried that
recipe. See, not so bad.

Now let’s move on to our
last verb tense of the day

so you can get out there

and start showing off your grammar skills.

The present continuous.

We use it to talk about a
few different situations,

like describing things
happening right now.

Debra is whipping up some
delicious banana pancakes.

We use it to talk about
activities that are not permanent.

I’m giving this workout
plan a shot for a month

to see how it makes me feel.

We use it for discussing plans or events

that will happen in the future.

Mark isn’t going to that
conference next month.

He changed his mind.

We use it for actions happening
around a specific time.

I’m working this morning, but
I’ll be free this afternoon.

And we use it for describing things

that are gradually changing or improving.

The city is slowly
becoming more eco-friendly

with new recycling
programmes and bike lanes.

Right, that about does it for me.

As I said before,

if you want to know a
little bit more information,

more information about the
structure, negatives, questions,

download the PDF.

All of the information is there

with more examples and a quiz
to test your understanding.

It’s a really good grammar tenses test.

In this PDF, I also
talk about the structure

and formation of these tenses.

So if you want to practise
that, make sure you download it.

I really hope you enjoyed today’s lesson.

I hope you learned something.

If you want to take your
English really seriously,

we have launched our amazing
level programmes in English.

We have our B1, B2, and C1 programmes.

And if I do say so myself,
and I’m incredibly biassed,

but I say it wholeheartedly,
they are amazing.

We have had the most incredible feedback.

You can visit englishwithlucy.com

or visit the links in the description box.

I will see you soon for
another lesson. Bye.

(upbeat music)

 

The Ages & Periods of English History: Victorian, Tudor, Edwardian, Elizabethan Era

 

 

Hello. I’m Gill at engVid, and today we have a
lesson on some historical periods. So, people

have asked for… Sort of to clarify what
do we mean by “Victorian”, what do we mean

by “Elizabethan”, those sorts of terms in history,
and when was that? What century was that in?

So, this lesson is to cover the main periods
in history, both for the history itself,

maybe for some examples of the literature of the
time, maybe a bit about what architecture was

built in a certain period, that kind of thing, and
different names, the names of kings and queens,

and sometimes how that period in history was
labelled with a particular name. So, it’s not

meant to be a completely detailed, comprehensive
coverage of English history or British history

over the last few hundred years, so I haven’t
mentioned every single king. I’d probably…

No, all queen. There were some queens as well
that I haven’t mentioned. So, there were kings

and queens who were not on the board. It’s just
to give you a basic outline and an overview

of the last few hundred years and some of the
labels given to the different periods in history.

So, if you think, “Oh, oh, she hasn’t mentioned
Queen Anne, or she hasn’t mentioned James II,

or William and Mary”, it’s just because partly
there isn’t room on the board for absolutely

everything, and also it would get very complicated
and detailed if I… If I covered all of them.

So, this is just a basic outline. Okay. So,
let’s have a look, then. So, we’re going from

the medieval period, the Middle Ages or medieval.
So, that’s around the time of, well, Chaucer,

and earlier than Chaucer as well. It’s quite a
number of centuries, Chaucer being one of the

well-known writers in English literature. So,
we’re going from medieval, and then you may

recognize some of these names of the periods.
Tudor, Stuart, then we have the Commonwealth,

Restoration, Hanoverian or Georgian, Victorian,
Edwardian, and then the present day Elizabethan,

well, the Second Elizabethan Age, because we have
Elizabeth II as the queen. There was an earlier

Queen Elizabeth I, and that was also called the
Elizabethan period, but that was part of the

Tudor period, so we’ll come to that. Okay,
so that’s the overview. Those are the names,

the basic names of the different periods in
history. Some of them based on the names of the

kings or queens, and some for different reasons,
different types of labelling. Okay. So, just for

the medieval period, I can’t go into all the
detail again of that because it covers a few

hundred years, but Gothic architecture, you would
see from this period, churches and cathedrals

around this time, that style with the big, you
know, sharp pointed spire and the sort of…

That sort of shape arch, not a really rounded
arch, but a sort of narrow arch for windows

and doorways and so on. And just to mention
just one writer who’s very important in English

literature, Chaucer, who wrote the Canterbury
Tales, a set of comic tales, who lived from

somewhere in the 1340s. I don’t think we know
exactly what year he was born, but he died in

1400. And he wrote in a much earlier style
of English, of course, which is called Middle

English, not Modern English, but Middle English
to go with the Middle Ages or the medieval

period. So, Middle English Chaucer was writing
in. So, it looks very… A lot of French words

in it. It’s not always easy to understand.
It’s actually been translated into Modern

English so that more people
can understand it. Okay.

So, moving on, there were some other kings in
between called the Plantagenets, but again,

I can’t cover everybody, unfortunately. So,
I’ve moved on to the Tudors, and Henry VII

was the first Tudor king who came to the throne
in 1485, so that’s 15th century. So, you always

add another 14-something, means 15th century,
you always add one to the year for that. So,

there was Henry VII and Henry VIII, Henry
VIII being the king who had six wives, one

after another, not all at the same time. Okay.
So, very famous. And Henry VIII, that was

when this country had been a Catholic country,
but partway through Henry VIII’s reign, it

became a Protestant
country for the first time. Okay.

And then his son, Edward VI, reigned not very
long because he died as quite a young man.

So, then his sister, Mary, came onto the throne,
and she took the country back into being Catholic

again. This all caused a huge amount of trouble,
and there were executions and all sorts of

terrible things going on because of these
changes between Protestant and Catholic, even

though both are supposed to be Christian,
but it meant an awful lot of violence and

execution and so on. So, Catholic again under
Mary. And then Mary’s sister, half-sister

Elizabeth came to the throne, and it… The
country went back to Protestant again. Okay.

And Elizabeth I, who reigned until 1603, so
we’ve got the Tudor period, 1485 to 1603,

and so her period was called the Elizabethan Age,
named after her. And that’s when Shakespeare,

the plays and the poems became well-known,
Shakespeare, who continued on into the next

period, so he became a popular playwright
under Elizabeth I’s reign. And then Elizabeth

died, and James I came to the throne, and
his… He was from a different family called

the Stuarts, so 1603 for James. And his period,
it’s not called Jamesian, it’s called Jacobean

because Jacob and James, it’s the same name,
basically, so Jacobean. So, Shakespeare lived

in the Elizabethan and
the Jacobean period. Okay.

And then after James, we got Charles I, but
then some difficulties again. Charles I was

wanting to have too much power and the…
And to get rid of the Parliament, basically,

so there was a civil war, the English Civil
War took place. Again, it was partly to do

with who was sort of more interested in Catholicism
rather than Protestantism, and a lot of conflict.

And then Charles was actually executed. He was
blamed for the civil war and for the deaths

of many, many people, and he was put on trial
and condemned to death, and he was executed.

And then there was no king at all for a time
because the person who had led the civil war,

Oliver Cromwell, on the Protestant side was
in charge. He’d been in the Parliament before,

so it was like the Parliament suddenly took
over. There was no king at all. Charles had

tried to get rid of Parliament, and what happened
was the Parliament itself became in full control

of the country with no king or queen, so Oliver
Cromwell, and that’s called the Commonwealth

period. But then when Oliver Cromwell died,
things just sort of couldn’t go on that way,

so a king was brought back, Charles II. So the
Restoration, meaning the restoration of the

monarchy, restoring a king to the throne, that’s
why it’s called Restoration. Okay, from 1660,

his reign, to 1685. And I’ve put “theatre” here
because under the Commonwealth these people were

called Puritans. They were so very strict
Protestants, and they didn’t approve of the

theatre at all. There’d been some of them around
in Shakespeare’s time trying to close the theatres

because they thought the theatre was immoral
or was a bad influence on people. So in Oliver

Cromwell’s period in the Commonwealth, the
theatres were closed. Even Christmas was abolished

because it was thought to be too frivolous.
So it went the other way with the Restoration,

and Charles II was a very fun-loving king, to say
the least. And the theatres were opened again,

and it was quite an immoral time, really. You
know, a lot of freedom of behaviour. And also

a new thing that happened with the theatre was
that women could perform. In Shakespeare’s day,

it was illegal for women to perform on the stage
in the professional theatre. For the female roles,

they had boys who had higher… Higher-pitched
voices before their voices broke. So they had

boys playing the women’s roles in Shakespeare’s
day, even. So here, for the first time, you had

actual adult women actresses performing in the
theatre. So the Restoration Theatre, the period

is the Restoration, but it also gives its name
to the theatre, Restoration Theatre, and the type

of plays that were being written and performed
at that time. So that’s quite an important thing,

there. Okay, and then things moved on. I can’t
mention again all the, you know, other kings

and queens in between here, but generally, if we
go on to the Hanoverian or the Georgian period.

Georgian because there were four kings called
George, one after another, first, second, third,

and fourth, from 1714 onwards. And Hanoverian
because they actually came from Hanover in

Germany. Again, they were Protestant, and that
seemed to be the best option. There was a danger,

people felt danger that a Catholic king might
come to the throne again, and they didn’t want

that kind of disruption going between the two,
Protestant and Catholic, that had caused so much

trouble earlier. So these German people were
invited over to become the monarchs. And so that

went on, that was the Georgian period with all
the Georges, one, two, three, and four. Again,

followed by William, William IV as well, but I
haven’t added him in on the board. But then when

he died, we had a fairly straightforward period
that lasted a long time. Queen Victoria, 1837

to 1901, so the Victorian period is a very sort
of long, specific period. A period of a lot of

industrial development, a lot of social change,
more democracy. There were three acts of parliament

that gave the vote to more people, and more
people, mostly men, but it was more people getting

the vote gradually. Women didn’t get the vote
till the 20th century, but it was a period of

great social change and industrialization as
well. Just one name here, Charles Dickens,

the famous novelist. There isn’t room to put
all the other many, many writers on there,

but that’s just to give you an idea where
Charles Dickens belongs in this picture. Okay.

So, Victoria died 1901, and her son Edward became
Edward VII, so that was called the Edwardian

period. And because he was already, you know,
she’d lived such a long time, he was already

getting quite old by the time he came to the
throne, so 1901 to 1910 he was king. And then,

again, there are other kings following this, but
I can’t put them all on the board, but two big

defining periods in… In this early part of the
20th century were the two World Wars, so World

War I, 1914 to ’18. And poetry, in particular,
was important at this time. There were war poets,

poets who actually wrote about the war because
they were possibly involved as soldiers. There

were soldiers who wrote poetry, and some of it
was published and it’s still studied today. So,

World War I, and then World War II that
followed not that long afterwards, 1939 to ’45.

And then after all that, again, there’s another
king, George VI, who I haven’t had room to put

in here, but then his… Oh, and Edward’s… Oh
gosh, before him there was Edward VIII. Again,

complicated period. He abdicated for various
reasons, for one particular reason. His brother,

then George VI, became king, and then when he
died, his daughter, Elizabeth, became queen. So

she became queen in 1952, and at the time of
making this video, she is still the queen,

but very elderly now. So… But it’s been,
I think, an amazing period in history,

and a very stable period. I’m getting quite
emotional about it because it’s the period I’ve

lived through, so that’s the Second Elizabethan
Age. So, there we are. So, that’s just a very,

very limited overview of the period. So, you
know, if you post comments, if you say, “Oh,

you forgot to mention this king. You didn’t
mention that queen.” It’s because there isn’t

room on the board for that, but, you know, we
have the internet, lots of information on there.

If you want to follow up on any of these periods,
you can search with keywords to find out either

the names of kings and queens, the label of the
period. You can search to find out more about

what was going on at that time. So, I hope that’s
been a useful lesson for you, and if you’d like

to do a quiz on this topic and test your knowledge,
just go to the website, www.engvid.com, and do

the quiz. And thanks for watching, and
hope to see you again soon. Bye for now.