This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1527, noise versus sound in English.
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Today, we find out what the key differences are between the words noise and sound.
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Hey, Michelle, how you doing today?
What's going on?
Hey, Lindsay.
Hey, guys.
How are you?
Oh, my gosh.
Feeling good.
Feeling good.
We're in late February.
I can't believe it.
Moving through 2021 here.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
Exactly.
So I am excited for today's episode.
I had a conversation with a student and they were asking about the difference between the words noise and sound.
Ah, this is such a good question.
I love the questions that come in from our students.
Don't you, Michelle?
Yes, yes, yes.
Exactly.
And I just thought this was a great one.
And let's do an episode about it, because it is like, if you think about it, it's.
I mean, even since I started planning this episode, a couple of times it's come up where I've heard one or the other, and I kind of listen and I think
Huh.
Okay.
Let's think about that for a second.
I know now that I think about it.
I hope we have some good plans for this episode, because I'm not sure what the difference is.
Well, I'm going to help you.
I'm going to help us out.
All right.
Thank goodness you're here for the rescue, Michelle.
But speaking of our students, I do want to shout out to one very special listener of All Ears, English.
And who is that, Michelle?
Shout out to Fernanda, right?
So Fernanda is recognized by Spotify as one of the top 10 All Ears English listeners in 2020.
So, oh my gosh.
Thank you so much for listening.
Send me an email, lindsay at allersenglish.com, because we want to recognize you.
That's a big deal.
It is.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Shout out.
All right, Michelle, let's get into it.
So sound versus noise, right?
Okay.
Awesome.
So, all right.
So we're going to talk about sound first, but guys, also head over to episode 1083.
So here we talk about the word sound and different expressions.
So this is called make your English more sound with today's episode.
So definitely head on over and listen to that one.
Yeah.
So that's kind of using the word sound as an adjective.
Right.
So that's another topic altogether.
That's really good.
Okay.
So let's get into it today.
All right.
So a sound, what does it mean, Michelle?
Okay, well, this is, of course, using our ears, right?
So it deals with listening, something that's heard.
So we talk a little bit more about this on the other episode.
But for example, I love the sound of a baby laughing, right?
Or the sound of rain is very relaxing to me.
So, let's just start with sound, right?
Okay.
But we're going to quickly get into noise and talk about okay now, because if I say that, it almost sounds like well, how is there a difference between a noise and a sound?
Right,
Right.
We have to contrast them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, we have to do that.
So what is a noise?
Okay.
It's the same thing as sound, guys.
And that's the end of the episode.
Just kidding.
Just kidding.
So it's not as positive, I guess, right?
Something that is not as nice to hear, because what I heard, in common with those examples of sound, are positive things.
Yes, exactly.
Things that are positive.
So a noise is many times something that you don't want to hear, okay?
Right.
What was that scary noise, for example?
Yeah.
What was that scary noise?
Right?
Right.
Or there's a noise coming from the dishwasher.
I need someone to check it out.
That actually happened to me.
And we had some problems.
I'll just say that.
But usually if you hear a noise from your dishwasher, not a great thing.
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
That sounds terrible.
Oh, my gosh.
Flooding.
Hello.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Exactly.
So, yeah.
I mean, so that I would say is the biggest difference.
And I mean, you will hear times when it's like, well, couldn't that be either one?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's true.
Yeah, it could be either one.
You know, it really could.
I mean, I might say, oh, there's a sound coming from the dishwasher.
But to me, a noise sounds more accurate there.
But there will be times when you can find, oh, maybe one could be used or the other.
But that's a really good distinction to start off with guys when you're trying to understand the difference here.
Yeah.
I think, Michelle, that's a good foundation, positive versus negative.
And there's always going to be that crossover.
I'm thinking about horror movies, right?
Like, oh, did you hear that sound?
Did you hear that noise?
There could be some crossover there, right?
Right, right, right, right, right.
But I think it's a general rule.
I also think of noise as kind of like interrupting something, like a sound.
I think of it maybe being more in the background, like, oh, what sounds do you hear right now?
Oh, I hear the sound of the water.
I hear the sound of my air conditioning.
Whereas the noise, I feel like it's more like, oh, what's that noise?
Right.
Like, for example, the word noisy.
So noisy is usually negative.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Stopping.
You're being noisy.
It's so noisy here.
Right.
In Jersey, we're always hearing the sirens and that kind of thing.
Like that's sort of a negative thing.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Right.
So, of course, I mean, sound can also be a verb.
Right.
So, you know, you you can't. noise can't really you can't say something noise is no don't don't say that guys don't say right right exactly and we talk about again sound in the other episode so um like for example you could say like oh that sounds nice or that sounds like a good idea right so it's like giving us you know A feeling, right?
Or does that sound good to you?
Okay, so here we are.
Like you said, Michelle, we're using sound now as a verb, not so much as a noun.
So another example, that sounds like a good idea.
The way I hear that, it sounds like a good idea.
Sounds good.
Super common, right, Michelle?
Exactly.
Or yeah, if I want to know your opinion, does that sound good to you?
Right?
What's your feeling on it?
Oh, yeah.
I'm all the time whenever we emailed together as a team.
I often finish my email like sound good.
Sound good or make sense.
You know, we've shared that with our audience.
Does that make sense?
I'm looking for agreement.
I'm looking for you know, do you understand?
Does it make sense?
Does that work for you?
Sound good, right?
Okay.
And Lindsay, like to get back to noisy, right?
So then that way we don't, we can't describe something as soundy, right?
We don't want to say noisy.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I love it.
Do we have any idioms or expressions here with these words?
We do.
And this first one, it was wild.
I was planning this episode and I had the news on in the background.
And I was writing it down.
And all of a sudden, I heard it.
Well, not at the exact end time.
I think I had moved down a little bit.
But right away, I heard a politician say, we need to stop listening to this noise.
Right?
Oh, that's weird.
You're having some weird coincidences when it comes with the planning.
I don't know what's going on.
After you plan enough of these, it just happens.
They're everywhere.
The words are everywhere.
Again, you guys know we're teaching you real English, not textbook English.
I love it.
It's so true.
It's so true.
So yeah, this is the idea.
So saying...
Listening to this noise, or sometimes you hear like, all that noise, right?
It's just calling something noise.
Like, don't listen to all that noise.
What does that mean?
Yes, all that noise.
It's nonsense, right?
It is a distraction, right?
It's just noise, okay?
You know, there's a lot of noise online these days.
So if you want to really learn something, it's really hard to focus.
A lot of it is just noise, social media, things that just are kind of a waste of time.
So the question is, how do we really focus and cut out all the noise? right?
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
I love it.
So yeah, we're sticking on noise with these ones right now.
So what's the next one, Lindsay?
So make noise, right?
So we tell you, come on, guys, make some noise, right?
Clap your hands.
Something exciting is happening.
Maybe there's a parade or a performance.
Really common to say that, right, Michelle?
Right.
But also it can be used in a way that's not necessarily about like clapping your hands.
It can be about standing up for what you believe in.
Right.
So like kind of like maybe like if you're protesting or something like that.
So you could say something like the union made a lot of noise about the way its members had been treated.
Right.
Yeah.
So here we're using this in a more figurative way.
Of course, verbally they're also probably making noise, standing outside with signs, but in a figurative sense they're making a lot, they're calling a lot of attention to themselves.
Yeah.
Right, right, right, right, right, right.
Did you hear that Google employees just unionized?
Did you hear about that?
I didn't.
Yeah, Google, there's a union now at Google, which I found really interesting.
Apparently it's not everyone there, but it's just like a certain group of employees that are trying to unionize to get better treatment or around gender issues or pay.
I'm not sure.
Interesting.
So things are happening around like labor these days, which is fascinating.
It'll be interesting to see where that goes.
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, what else, Michelle?
What else?
Okay, and then this last one is a chunk.
It's background noise, right?
So this is more of a chunk.
So what does that mean?
I mean, we use this a lot with recording, for example.
For sure.
We always hear those sirens in New York for you, right?
And for me, there's my puppy.
Sometimes he's trying to get out of the office and he knocks on the door.
He like scratches on the door.
There's background noise.
Exactly.
Exactly.
What about now?
I just was thinking of white noise.
When you sleep, do you like to have any white noise or any sound in the background?
I mean, what does that mean?
Yeah, white noise machine.
Right.
Right.
So people even you can even have this on your phone through an app now.
Right.
Or some people have an actual machine that just lets out like a humming noise, a light humming or sometimes the sound of the ocean.
I don't need it.
Like I can sleep without it.
But some people need it.
What about you, Michelle?
I actually just the past couple of nights have been turning it on.
I like go through phases.
Sometimes I want it.
Sometimes I don't.
Although last night I fell asleep with the TV on because sometimes I like that.
Sometimes I have nothing.
Sometimes I had TV.
Sometimes I use my phone.
Last night i fell asleep with the tv on at 4 30 in the morning.
I woke up 4 30, oh yeah, and no no no, not to not, it just just.
I like had to go to the bath okay, and and i just heard it was so scary.
It was just like on tv, because sometimes that that time of night the infomercials come on or i don't know why, but it was just like this woman singing the star spangled banner and if you can just a Imagine like waking up at 430 in the morning and you just hear someone singing the Star Spangled Banner and you're like where am I?
Yeah, for sure.
There's no good TV on at 430 in the morning.
It's going to be all infomercials and awful stuff.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So awesome.
So guys, a lot of stuff.
I mean, these words are so common.
I mean, Lindsay, we've conversation questions.
We have a role play.
Do we have time for a little bit of both?
What do we have?
So let's do, how about we jump to the role play and maybe we'll swing back to the questions.
We can chat a little bit.
Let's do the role play.
Yeah.
All right.
So, Lindsay, we are studying for a test and it's very late at night and we're at your house.
OK, here we go.
So did you hear that noise?
No, I only hear the sound of your dishwasher.
Oh, okay.
I got nervous.
Oh man, I'm so nervous about this test.
So many people have said it's super hard.
Don't listen to all that noise.
It'll be fine.
I know.
Also, the classroom is always so loud during tests.
I can't concentrate with that background noise.
Oh, you know what?
If it's too noisy, should we make noise about it and tell the teacher to make sure it's quiet?
Yeah, maybe.
Let's try.
Oh, that sounds awful.
Yeah.
So guys, we didn't use all of them here.
It would have been a little crazy.
But we used a bunch.
We used a bunch of them.
Let's talk about it.
Yes.
Let's talk about it.
So first you said, did you hear that noise, right?
So this is like an interruption.
It sounds like you're scared.
Yeah.
And again, this is a place where we could probably interchange, right, Michelle?
Like, did you hear that sound?
Did you hear that noise?
But noise works, right?
Noise works.
Yeah, it works.
And then what did I say?
So no, I only hear the sound of your dishwasher.
Now that one only works for sound. right?
So, yeah.
And I wanted to use dishwasher again here, because I used it before and I talked about a noise coming from my dishwasher.
So the difference is like that noise was kind of a negative, like an uh-oh, what's that noise situation.
Whereas the sound of the dishwasher you know, if you have the dishwasher on, if things are going well, there's still background noise that goes along with it, right?
So, you could use sound there.
Yeah.
And the other important distinction here is grammatical, Michelle, right?
So we don't say technically you cannot say I only hear the noise of your dishwasher.
That sounds wrong to me, right?
Yeah yeah yeah yeah, so when you're saying the blank of something you want to say sound guys okay, that's important.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Um, and then you said you're nervous because other people have been talking how hard this test is, and i said don't listen to all that noise right yeah, and by that you're saying that friction or that distraction.
Yeah like, don't listen to everybody else, right?
It's, you know, pay attention, focus on yourself, right?
Exactly.
And then you say, I said, I can't concentrate with that background noise.
And that's a chunk, right, Michelle?
Background noise is not background sound.
It's background noise, guys.
Right, right.
So you want to make sure that's how you use it.
And then I say if it's too noisy, right, we're not going to say if it's too soundy.
That's weird.
As in, should we make noise, right?
So basically, you know, should we talk to the teacher?
Right, exactly.
Make noise.
Yeah.
And actually figuratively, right?
You're saying this figuratively.
Should we make some noise?
Hey, let's make some noise.
Let's speak up.
Let's complain, right?
Let's make a change, okay?
So we're using this both literally and figuratively in this role play, Michelle.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I love it.
I love it.
I love it.
So, okay, Lindsay.
All right.
I'll ask you one question.
Okay.
Go for it.
Ask me a question.
Do you ever get creeped out by house noises?
Oh, my gosh.
And what's a house noise?
I was hoping you'd ask me something like that.
A house noise, for sure.
Haunted houses.
I believe in ghosts, so yes.
Do you really?
Yeah.
I kind of do.
Yeah.
You know, like, I don't know.
I just, you know, I just watched the movie Ghost for the first time.
The famous Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.
Oh, my God.
So famous, Michelle.
Ghost.
Yeah.
So good movie.
I recommend it.
But I do kind of...
I do get freaked out by house noises.
When I was a kid, we had a babysitter and she was too young to babysit for us.
And she heard all these noises, so she called the police.
So the police had to come and check our attic and check all the way around the outside of our house.
My parents were so upset.
Oh my gosh, that's terrible.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I believe in ghosts or not.
I just didn't know that you did.
So I want to hear more.
Maybe we should do more about that another time.
But no, I get creeped out.
I mean, there's always these creaks and, you know, like...
I don't really have it as much in an apartment than I would in a house, I think.
We don't have too many house noises.
Good.
I don't like when I hear that stuff.
Yeah.
No, it freaks me out too, just because I just have heard so many ghost stories.
Maybe we'll do this in another episode.
It's so hard to imagine that they're all just made up and people telling stories.
Some of them are.
But I don't know.
I kind of think there's a supernatural thing going on out there.
I don't know.
I'd like to believe that, even though it's kind of scary.
I'd still like to believe that.
As long as they're benevolent ghosts, right?
So, Michelle, what's the takeaway for today for our listeners?
Awesome.
Okay, so guys, wow, we went over the distinction between the words noise and sound, right?
And we talked about the differences, the nuances, right?
And we gave you a ton of different chunks or idioms, tons of different things.
Our role play was very busy.
It was a very noisy episode.
Yeah.
Noisy and productive.
Guys, yeah, these are the nuances you need to know to be fluent in English, right?
So go back, study the episode again, and then try out the two difference.
Try out these differences.
Right, Michelle?
Yes.
And Lindsay, did we have a quiz we wanted to send our listeners to?
This would be a great question for our quiz.
Wow.
High level question, right guys?
But we have a simple fluency quiz that you can take.
If you go to allearsenglishcom forward, slash Q U I Z.
Answer seven questions and get your fluency score.
Okay.
So cool.
So easy.
So go there right now, guys.
Okay.
All right, Lindsay, this was fun.
Have a good one.
Take care.
Talk to you soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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