From intermediate to high intermediate and even to advanced fluency, with every course flowing naturally into the next.
No gaps, no guesswork.
No searching for extra resources.
Plus, you'll get live speaking practice, community and teacher support.
It's a done for you plan.
Everything you need in one place.
All unlocked with a single one time investment.
This Black Friday only.
Build your English for the long term.
Start today.
Go to allersenglish.com slash Black Friday to save 50% off the normal price.
Expires at midnight on Friday. allearsenglish.com slash B-L-A-C-K-F-R-I-D-A-Y.
This is an All Ears English podcast.
Don't miss this hilarious vocabulary.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times.
Are you feeling stuck with your English?
We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection.
With your American hosts, former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer coming to you from Denver and Portland USA.
Do you love to laugh?
Of course you do.
So let's talk about it.
On today's show, you'll learn three adjectives and two idioms to describe things that are funny.
Don't miss it.
Lindsay, I wonder if our All Ears English audience knows about Isles Energy.
Do you think they know about that podcast?
That is a great question, Jessica.
Well, if they don't know, they haven't learned about it until today, they're going to know today.
Because yeah, you and Aubrey are over there two days a week on IELTS Energy Podcast talking about amazing things, getting our listeners onto their target countries.
Yeah, exactly.
And it's not just test prep, you guys.
It's not just IELTS.
In fact...
Lindsay, I'm sure you know this, but if you look at the reviews for IELTS Energy, what do you think is one reason people love to listen to the show over and over?
They say this all the time.
What do you think one of those reasons is?
Well, I think it's laughter Jessica, because there is research that says when we laugh and learn, we learn more, right?
The science says that it's what we evoke emotion and that helps us remember things for testing.
Definitely.
Definitely, definitely.
And guys, I promise you, you will laugh a lot when you listen to me and Aubrey on IELTS Energy.
So that's why, guys, we are bringing you a super cool episode that we did from IELTS.
All right.
So you are going to learn how to describe funny things in this episode.
I love it.
So let's go ahead and listen to this episode of the IELTS Energy podcast.
Here we go.
How's it going?
I'm great, Jessica.
How are you?
Except that I just had a toenail removed, which gross and not fun.
That's gross and it's not funny.
Why am I laughing?
You know, because here is why humor is so important, you guys.
And we are talking about vocabulary for IELTS today.
Ways to say that things are funny.
So we will teach you this vocabulary first, and then, in the last part of the episode, we will use this amazing Band 9 vocabulary to respond to sample IELTS speaking questions.
All right.
Humor is so important because it helps us deal with the bad stuff, like having toenail surgery, as Aubrey just did.
Exactly.
And you are going to have to talk about bad stuff on IELTS, right?
So there are so many ways you can use today's vocabulary.
Whether you're talking about something that actually was so funny, or if you're talking about something terrible that happened, some of this vocab comes in handy too.
It's super useful.
So useful.
And it's just, it's fun.
These adjectives and phrases today are so fantastic.
So let's get into it, guys.
We have a whole list of amazing phrases to teach you today.
But we do want to remind you to hit follow right now if you are not following.
And we want to let you know that Google Podcasts is going the way of the dodo.
It is going away at some time in the future.
So guys, if you are listening on Google Podcasts right now, ahead and switch over to spotify or apple podcasts and hit follow on ielts energy there so you never miss an episode.
Absolutely okay, we're going to share a mistake that i heard recently in an ielts mock speaking test that i have heard students make this mistake before and you could easily make it on test day.
We want to help you avoid that, and it's with the word amusing, so that the mistake was.
The student said you know oh i, i find watching the TV show The Office to be amusing.
I always laugh so hard when I watch it.
Here's the trick with amusing.
It doesn't mean extremely funny, hysterical makes me laugh.
I usually use this to sort of be meh about something like, oh, it was amusing.
Like I wasn't laughing very hard, but I was entertained.
It was so-so.
Right?
Yeah, totally.
And the thesaurus doesn't tell you that.
If you look up synonyms for funny, you will see amusing on that list.
But to native speakers, to examiners, that doesn't sound right.
If you say something is amusing and then to talk about how extremely funny it was, that's exactly like Aubrey said.
That's not what amusing means.
Amusing, like... I use it for dad jokes.
Like someone tells a bad dad joke, I'll be like i guess that was amusing.
If i, if i watch a movie and i laugh maybe twice, then i could say it was amusing, like it was okay.
You know, because i am a very easy laugher.
I just i laugh at the drop of a hat and if this only makes me laugh twice, That I'm like I guess it was amusing.
It was okay.
And your intonation is exactly how we use it.
So if you're asking out speaking question, you need to talk about something that was so-so this is perfect.
Be like, I guess it was amusing.
I laughed a little bit.
It was all right.
But it'd be very strange if you say it was very amusing.
We just don't say that.
Instead, we use the vocabulary we're about to teach you.
If we want to say something was like really entertaining and great and funny.
Awesome.
All right, let's get into this vocab.
So what is the first adjective for very, very funny?
Hilarious.
I use this all the time.
I love to be called hilarious.
I call other people hilarious.
It's my favorite word to let someone know that I think they're very funny.
I laugh really hard when we're with them or a movie or a TV show.
I'm laughing a lot.
I might call it hilarious.
I say it constantly.
Anytime James says something funny and I laugh.
I don't know why I have to always like narrate my laughter.
But I do say this all the time.
I will laugh at something and then I'm like, oh, that's hilarious.
Remember guys, that we are going to to give you this vocabulary within sentences you can use on IELTS speaking at the end.
OK, so we're explaining the vocab now.
And then right after that, we will use this vocabulary to answer IELTS questions.
All right.
So stay with us.
Here's the next one.
This is even more extreme than hilarious to say something is hysterical.
So hysterical is like very, very hilarious.
It is an extreme hilarity.
Yes, you're laughing so hard.
It would be very strange to say i laughed a couple times it was hysterical.
No, you're gonna say it was absolutely hysterical.
I was dying of laughter.
It's like it's those times when you can't stop laughing.
It's these, these nights that you have with friends where you are just laughing the entire time.
Um, maybe it was an unexpected evening.
Things just happened that were surprising and weird, and you're telling this crazy story and you're like You won't believe how hysterical it was last night.
Let me tell you about it.
And we do use this to exaggerate, right?
Something funny happens and you're getting someone excited for a story like that, right?
Okay, this was hysterical.
I can't wait to tell you about it.
And as long as it was funny, that works.
Exaggerating a little bit.
We can use it sarcastically as well.
If you are telling a story of something bad that happened in speaking part two a problem, you had a flight, you missed, something like that you could be like let me tell you, this is hysterical.
And it's sarcastic because then you go on to describe how terrible something was.
Yes, I would say this after a dad joke that wasn't funny.
She'd be like, totally hysterical.
And it's pure sarcasm letting them know, like, that's actually really not a funny joke.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah.
Use it as a tag after you say something bad that happened.
Be like hysterical.
Right.
And that could be how you end your answer.
That would be great.
Love it.
This next one's very similar.
It's uproarious, uproarious.
We don't hear it quite as often.
I found this one.
I'm looking for high level synonym.
We want to give you band nine synonyms here.
You don't hear students use this.
It does mean the same as hysterical, something very funny that causes a lot of laughter.
I imagine like an audience at a comedy show, right?
Just like the whole show was uproarious because people are laughing so hard.
You know, use this one to describe laughter itself.
I feel like this is more of an adjective that's specific to the noise of the laughter.
Like we could describe the funny things, the jokes, the movies as being hilarious and hysterical.
But then you could say I responded with uproarious laughter.
Or I saw this movie in the theater and it was uproarious laughter all the way through.
I love that.
And the great thing about using it that way is it's going to be easier to use several of these in an answer, right?
You're saying I was hysterical.
The movie was hilarious.
All of the laughter was uproarious and you're using all of that and it makes sense.
That's fantastic.
That's fantastic.
All right.
Now the next one, this is a very informal idiom, split a gut.
So your gut.
There's a idioms with the word gut.
Your guts are your.
It's your stomach, right?
So um, i also say side splitting.
I say side splitting more than split a gut, but they both mean the same thing.
Like your stomach was hurting because you laughed so much yes, and i grew up saying bust a gut.
Oh, i busted a gut.
But when I looked it up I saw splitting, split a gut more often.
Both would work.
The examiner will know what you mean.
We usually use this to describe ourselves, I think, to say like I was laughing so hard.
I was splitting a gut.
I was busting a gut.
And it's interesting because on IELTS, I think if you're describing something really funny that happened, or you're sharing something funny, you are going to describe yourself.
You're going to want to use these to talk about how heard you were laughing.
And that's where this one really would be in handy.
Well, that's how you convey that something was funny by describing your own reaction to it, right?
So we're giving you vocab for all of the steps here.
Describe the funny thing.
You say it was hilarious.
Describe your reaction, the laughter.
I was laughing uproariously.
And then you could say, in fact, I mean, I haven't busted a gut like that in so long.
Yes.
And our last one is, this is sort of newer slang to say, I'm dead or I'm dying.
And this is what we say, like, I'm laughing so hard.
People will use the skull emoji to say something's really funny.
It means like, I'm dead.
My kids say this all the time.
And I do feel like it's being adopted more generally.
So you could say, I was absolutely dead.
I was laughing so hard.
Totally, totally.
Yeah, I say this in daily life.
I'm like I'm dying right now.
That's so funny.
Yes exactly, all right.
So aubry and i are going to go back and forth and we're going to take turns responding just with a sentence or two, just to show you how to use this vocabulary with real ielts questions.
All right first, all right, i'm gonna ask you first okay, what kind of tv shows do you enjoy watching?
I love a good comedy.
In fact, I just rewatched a show that I saw probably 20 years ago with my daughter.
It's called Happy Endings.
And it was hilarious.
We both were busting a gut.
I loved that she thought it was so funny too.
In fact, the whole room, there were several people there and all of the laughter was uproarious.
It's just written so well and there's so much great comedic timing.
Chef's kiss.
That's awesome.
That is a good show.
Okay, my turn.
All right.
Did you watch the same kind of shows when you were a kid?
Funnily enough, yes.
I'm getting back into animation right now, honestly.
And I watched a lot of cartoons when I was a kid and I still love cartoons.
One of my favorite new cartoons that I'm watching is called Gary and His Demons.
Oh my gosh.
I watched the first episode and I was busting a gut the entire time.
It's adult animation, for sure, but Even I mean, if I watched it when I was a kid, I still would have been absolutely dying with laughter.
I mean, this is it's the hysterically gory and funny Canadian cartoon.
Nice.
All right.
Give me one.
All right.
What is something funny that happened to you recently?
I fell down the stairs two days ago.
And I think falling is always hysterical.
You can't help unless someone gets severely injured.
If someone trips and falls in its minor, it's like I'm always dead when I see someone fall.
I just sort of tripped and slid down the stairs.
Three people witnessed and we were all it was hilarious.
We were all laughing so hard.
That's awesome.
All right.
Last one.
Last one.
All right.
Are you a funny person?
I think so.
Don't mean to toot my own horn, but I
I'm pretty funny.
At least my son finds me hilarious.
And I think that's what matters.
I really value any time that I can make my son bust a gut.
If I make James laugh uproariously at any point, I feel like I have won as a mom.
Nice.
I think our audience thinks you're funny.
I think you're funny, but I love that you said what really matters is that my son thinks I'm funny.
That's all that matters.
All that really matters.
Oh, those are great answers if I do say so myself.
I love that you said not to toot my own horn.
That's so great if you're asked about yourself and kind of have to brag about yourself.
What a great idiom to introduce it.
Such a fun idiom.
That's a bonus vocabulary phrase for you guys.
So to summarize, here is how you guys say something is really funny.
It is hilarious.
It is hysterical.
To describe the laughter itself, your response, you can say, you responded with uproarious laughter.
And to describe how hard you were laughing, you could say, I was busting a gut or splitting a gut.
And then you could end the answer by saying, I was absolutely dying.
Nice.
Such great vocabulary and great sample answers.
I'm excited for you guys to practice your own.
And yeah, thanks, Jessica.
This was fun.
Super fun.
All right.
See you on Friday, Aubrey.
Yep.
Bye.
Bye.
You know what, Lindsay?
These are some of my favorite IELTS episodes that we get to do, where we teach amazing vocabulary and we use it in sample answers.
Oh, for sure.
And the vocabulary that our listeners over there in IELTS Energy are learning are not just for IELTS.
Of course, it's going to help you score a seven or higher if you're taking IELTS, but they also work great in real life.
Right, Jessica?
Exactly, guys.
We give you context for everything we teach you over there, just like you guys do with the role plays here, right?
It's the great models of how you use this vocab in the real world.
But Here's my question, Lindsay.
After listening to this episode with us, what was your favorite phrase that we taught today?
Oh, that's a good question, Jessica.
I love the word hilarious because there's a lot we can do with our intonation with that word.
Yes.
Hilarious, right?
You would never just say hilarious or it would never be monotone.
It would be full of energy which, by the way, would definitely increase your pronunciation score on the IELTS.
Right.
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
Yes.
But it's true.
I use this word all the time.
And you're talking about intonation, right?
Hilarious.
It's like we give it so much space to breathe.
Even yesterday, I literally texted my friend the word hilarious because he'd made a joke.
But I capitalized the A-R because I wanted him to know that's how I was saying it.
Hilarious.
Oh, it's so good.
It's so good.
So this is the kind of episode that we have over there on IELTS Energy.
Tell our listeners, Jessica, a little bit about that podcast.
Yeah, for sure.
So of course we are here twice a week to help anyone taking IELTS who wants to increase their score, or maybe they haven't taken the test.
But they need sevens, they need eights.
That's why we are here, guys.
But also...
Here's the thing.
In order to get sevens and eights on IELTS, you have to have really excellent English.
So, at the end of the day, that's what we are teaching you guys is excellent English, from vocabulary to pronunciation, to grammar.
But also you get insights into listening skills and reading skills.
Everything we have over there is applicable to you guys.
Listening right now.
So wherever you're listening, search for IELTS Energy.
And for more laughs, more vocabulary, hit follow right now.
I love it.
And just as a reminder to our listeners, Jessica, you were an examiner for how long?
You were an IELTS examiner for how many years?
An incredible amount of years.
An 102 years.
No, I was an IELTS examiner for 14 years guys, which I guess might have felt like 102 years at some points, but it was a long time.
Yeah.
So I bring all of that insider knowledge to you guys on the show.
Yes.
So guys, if you are serious about passing your IELTS exam, or if you just want another way to learn real vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, go over, open that search bar, search for IELTS Energy Podcast and hit the follow button.
All right, Jessica, well, have fun over there on IELTS Energy.
Always.
All right, Lindsay, see you next time.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Thanks for listening to all ears English.
Would you like to know your English level?
Take our two minute quiz, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score.
And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything.
See you next time.
