In this mini episode, you will learn the interesting and useful word “oomph.”
Episode 379 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the interesting and useful word “oomph.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“This is Im, from South Korea. And you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 379 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 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 am going to teach you a very useful and strange word. I say that it’s strange because it doesn’t really look like an English word. Let me tell you what the word is.
The word is oomph. Oomph. That’s spelled o-o-m-p-h. Oomph. It has a strange spelling and a strange pronunciation, too, I think. Oomph.
But I really like this word. I think that it is a versatile word. That means it has many uses. It has many meanings. What does oomph mean? It’s a little hard to explain. Let me see if I can do it.
Oomph means “the quality of being energetic or exciting or even attractive.”
You can talk about a person having oomph. You can talk about a thing having oomph, like a machine. A machine could have oomph. You could talk about an effort to do something having oomph. If you have oomph, that means that you are energetic, or exciting in some way, or attractive in some way. Maybe it could even mean that something is glamorous in some way.
Oomph is this special kind of quality. It means that something is special in some way because it is exciting, energetic, or attractive.
Let me give you some examples of sentences that use the word oomph.
“I think that movie was okay, but it didn’t have any oomph.” That movie didn’t have any oomph. In other words, it didn’t have any kind of special quality that made it seem exciting or full of energy, full of life. It was just kind of boring and ordinary.
Here’s another sentence:
“He really likes that kind of car because it is full of oomph.” That kind of car is full of oomph. That means it’s full of energy. It can go really fast. It has a lot of life in it.
Here’s another sentence:
“She doesn’t know what’s wrong—she just doesn’t feel like she has any oomph these days.” She just doesn’t feel like she has any oomph these days. She doesn’t have any energy or excitement. Maybe she feels tired and just kind of bored. She doesn’t have her usual feeling of energy and excitement.
When we use oomph, we usually talk about someone or something having or not having oomph.
And that is oomph, a fun, interesting, and strange word that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 379 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Im 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. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!