In this mini episode, you will learn special vocabulary about our senses (seeing, hearing, and so on).
Episode 270 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you special vocabulary about our senses. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello! This is Marcin from Poland. And you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 270 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I want to talk about some special vocabulary. These are words that have to do with our senses, like seeing and hearing. I assume that you already know all of the basic words, like to see or to hear, to smell, to taste, to feel, and to touch.
The words that I want to talk about today are a little bit different. These are words that can have a technical feeling sometimes. And they are all about using our senses to detect things in the world, to sense things in the world. You might already know some of these words. I think you should know all of these words. So let’s talk about them.
The first word is visible. Visible: v-i-s-i-b-l-e. Visible. If something is visible, that means you can see it. That’s all visible means. It means you can see it. If something can be seen, it is visible.
The next one is audible. Audible: a-u-d-i-b-l-e. Audible. Do you know what audible means? The same way visible means that you can see something, audible means that you can hear something. If something is audible, you can hear it, or it can be heard.
When it comes to our sense of touch—our ability to feel things with our hands or to feel things with the skin on other parts of our body—there are several words that people use. And I think, basically, these all mean the same thing. Maybe in some situations, there are some small differences. I think you can think of these as being the same.
And the first one is tangible. Tangible: t-a-n-g-i-b-l-e. Tangible. Tangible means “able to be felt.” If you can feel something, it is tangible.
The next one is palpable. Palpable: p-a-l-p-a-b-l-e. Palpable. If something is palpable, that also means that you can feel it. It can be felt.
And the last one of these words is tactile. Tactile: t-a-c-t-i-l-e.This word is often pronounced [tac-tile], also. [tac-tl], [tac-tile].
Now, we do not have similar words for all of the main senses. So there is not a technical word that has to do with the sense of taste—being able to taste something. I think there are words in the dictionary for this, but not words that you will ever hear. I don’t think people ever use those words. They might say, “tasteable.” If something can be tasted, it is tasteable. But that isn’t one of those more technical-sounding words.
And the same thing is true for our sense of smell. We don’t have one of these technical words for being able to smell something. At least, we don’t have a word that people actually use.
But there are two more related words that I want to teach you. These are not about tasting, but they are about eating and drinking.
If you can eat something—if something can be eaten safely or comfortably—then that thing is edible. Edible: e-d-i-b-l-e. Edible. Don’t say [eat-able]. This word is pronounced [ed-ible], and it means “able to be eaten” or “able to be eaten safely or comfortably.”
And the last word that I’m going to give you today is potable. Potable: p-o-t-a-b-l-e. Potable. Can you guess what potable means? Potable means “able to be drunk safely.” This really only goes with water. Potable water is water that you can drink safely. Water that is okay to drink.
Here are the sensory words we talked about today: visible, audible, tangible, palpable, tactile (or [tac-tile]), edible, and potable. And these are all good words that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 270 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions for the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Marcin recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.