Lesson 40b

Describing Your Boyfriend, Husband, Girlfriend, or Wife

Lesson contents:

- Vocabulary-rich descriptions
- Introduction to the Present Perfect
- The use of "would" for requests

Always watch the video without subtitles first in order to train your ears! It's a good idea to watch several times until you feel the "music", before watching the version with subtitles. Your pronunciation will be much better if you follow this rule.

Exercises for this lesson:

• Good company ( 1)
• Compatible (2)
• What's the question? (3a)
• "Easy" (3b)
• What brings you here? (4)
• Anniversary or birthday? (5)
• Intro to Present Perfect (6)
• How long have...? (7)
• Tall, dark & handsome (8)
• Tall, dark & handsome explained (9)
• The first quesion for Wilmaris (10)
• Intro to Present Perfect II (11)
• One and a half years (12)
• How would you describe him? (13)
• Calm (14)
• Cute (15)
• Polite request "Could you...? (16)
• She's sexy (17)
• He's gone grey" (18)
• Embarrassing parents (19)
• Artsy? (20)
• Generous (21)
• How would you describe her? II (22)
• Tyler's got a girlfriend (23)
• Smart & determined (24)
• How long have II (25)
• How would you describe her? III (26)
• Fantastic! (27)

How to do the lessons:

1. Watch the video without subtitles.
2. Do all the Exercises.
3. Come back to this page.
4. Watch the video with English Subtitles. Use the Pause button. People speak fast!

Problems? See general support, recording support or ask your question here.

Describe Your Boyfriend, Husband, Girlfriend, or Wife
Watch this video, then click on Exercise 1

Same video with Precise Subtitles
Do the exercises before watching this video with subtitles.

Real English®

Teachers:

Filming for this video was a lot of fun. We put interviewees "on the spot" because in most cases, they were describing the person standing right next to themselves. I think one husband might have gotten into trouble with his wife due to his lack of imagination in his description.

This is one of the very recent clips filmed with my iPhone in HD. The tiny smartphone looked a bit strange on top of my huge professional tripod.

I did make one "mistake", however, in the sense that Joanne, the interviewer, sometimes asked "How long have you known (him or her)?" To be perfectly hoest, I didn't intend on introducing the Present Perfect. What can I say? This is real English? Well yes, but now I label this lesson as one for intermediate students instead as one for the pre-intermediate / beginner levels as I had originally intended.