Funky Galaxy Battles

Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.

And I’m Erica.

And today we have a special lesson for all our sci-fi or science fiction fans.

Yes, and actually one special user was the inspiration for this lesson.

Right.

Some… Wolfgang

Exactly.

This one is for you.

Haha. Well, sci-fi is very popular. Star Track, Star Wars…

Yeah.

And, well, there are some really interesting words that… maybe you wouldn’t use in real life or in… in normal circumstances, but you w… do wanna understand these movies or… or why they say these words, right?

So, we’re gonna look at some sci-fi language in this lesson, but we… before we start let’s look at “vocabulary preview”. Voice: Vocabulary preview.

And in vocabulary preview today we have one phrase only.

That’s right, unidentified spacecraft.

Unidentified spacecraft.

Unidentified spacecraft.

Okay, so, unidentified…

You don’t know which one it is.

You don’t know the name, you…

Yeah.

You don’t know the identity.

Yes.

Okay. And a spacecraft.

A spacecraft is a vehicle that travels in space.

Okay. Also know as a spaceship.

That’s right.

Actually, this is interesting, because you know the word UFO.

Yes.

That’s… that comes from…

Unidentified flying object.

Exactly.

So, unidentified spacecraft – an… an unknown vehicle flying in space.

Right, a UFO. Have you ever seen a UFO?

Uh, no.

Oh.

Yeah.

That’s too bad. Hehe.

Have you?

Of course, hasn’t everyone?

Alright, well, um, I think the people in our dialogue may or may not have seen a UFO. So, why don’t we take a listen?

Okay, so, really cool Lord Hater, ha?

Yeah.

That music and everything. Well, you may have noticed that it's similar to a certain movie out there.

W… I don’t know, I mean…

Hehe.

Seems quite… quite original to me.

Hehe. But everything for educational purposes.

That’s right.

Okay, so… so, we saw some words that were maybe a little bit difficult, so let’s take a look at these now in “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway.

Well, I guess in the dialogue the bad guys were breaking through.

Breaking through.

Breaking through.

In the simple present it would be…

To break through.

Okay, break through, and what does that mean?

Well, let’s listen to some examples to help us find out. Voice: Example one.

After fifteen minutes the workers broke through the wall and rescued everyone from the fire. Voice: Example two.

He’s such a good player. He broke through entire defense. Voice: Example three.

They are breaking through our impenetrable wall! Run!

Alright, so, it’s kind of like to enter by force somewhere.

Yeah, to maybe break some glass and come into a room or something…

Okay.

Like that.

Break through.

Yeah.

Alright, so, Lord Hater had a fight with his enemy and he said he wants to settle this.

To settle this.

Settle.

So, what… what do you do when you settle something?

Well, when you settle something is you end a fight or a dispute.

Or an argument.

Or an argument.

Uhu.

Or a problem.

Yeah, when you settle an argument, does everyone always agree?

No, not always, right?

Right.

Sometimes you are forced to agree.

Okay.

Not everyone agrees, but you have no other choice.

So, it’s a little bit different from reaching an agreement, because there’s usually a winner and a loser.

Right, exactly. Well, now another very popular word and within sci-fi is this word tractor beam.

Tractor beam.

A tractor beam.

Tractor beam.

Now, I’m not sure if this really exists in real life.

Well, I’ve never heard of it.

Hehe. But a tractor beam in sci-fi movies is like this invisible force…

Aha.

That grabs an object and doesn’t let it escape and brings it towards another spaceship.

So, it’s like… almost like a rope that you can’t see.

Right, and it brings it in… so, the spaceship managed to escape their tractor beam.

Okay, I think that is definitely not true.

Hehe. Well, maybe, I don’t know, but in sci-fi you will always hear this tractor beam.

Okay, now let’s move on to our final word. This spaceship was accelerating towards the speed of light.

Accelerating.

Accelerating.

To accelerate.

That’s right.

So, that means to increase speed, right?

Yeah, to s… to go faster.

To go faster, so…

Uhu.

If you are in your car…

You want to accelerate, so you could pass another car.

Okay. Or even when you stop at a red light and it turns green…

You gotta accelerate.

Okay, to accelerate. Let’s listen to our dialogue again and then we’ll come back and take a look at some of the phrases that came up in this dialogue. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)

Well, great, um… well, great, I mean that’s a little more clear this time, but like Marco said I wanna look at now some phrases that you might hear in a sci-fi context. Voice: Fluency builder.

The first phrase that we can take a look at and maybe it looks a little bit strange. He said “she will no longer be your prisoner”.

No longer be.

Uhu, no longer be. So, what does he mean by no longer?

Um, anymore.

Anymore, right?

Yeah, so, you will not be my prisoner anymore.

Okay. So, how would I use it in this form “no longer be”?

You’ve always gotta use it in the future tense.

Okay.

So, she’ll no longer be your prisoner.

Uhu.

Um, I will no longer be your employee.

Okay, or… or I can say I will no longer be your boyfriend.

Okay, so it’s always will no longer be.

Uhu.

It’s always in the future.

Okay.

One more thing, Marco, is this quite commonly used or maybe a little bit formal?

I think it’s a little bit formal.

Uhu.

And it’s very… I don’t know, uh… to a certain point, poetic.

Yeah.

Right?

Which I think is why we hear a little bit more often in sci-fi movies.

Uhu. Alright, so, no longer be. What about our next phrase?

You know nothing of the power of the obscure side”.

Okay, you know nothing of.

You know nothing of.

So, again it’s very poetic ???, I think.

Yeah, basically meaning “you don’t know about”.

You don’t know about.

Yeah.

So, again, let’s take a look at how you would use it. You know nothing of and then…

Science fiction.

Hehe. You know nothing of science fiction, very good.

Yeah.

So, you would use a noun afterwards.

Exactly.

Okay, so, interesting phrases.

Again, formal, um, and probably quite often used in… in science fiction movies.

Uhu, but now you can understand when they use some of these words that maybe are a little bit difficult and very common in these types of movies.

Now, let’s go to our last phrase. And this one actually can be used in… in many different circumstances. Let’s settle this once and for all.

Okay, so, we saw the verb… uh, we saw the word settle already. Now, let’s settle this once and for all.

Uhu, once and for all.

So, what does that mean?

Finally, that’s right, forever.

Okay, so, once and for all – forever.

Uhu.

So, why don’t we listen to some other examples of how we can use this phrase once and for all in different contexts? Voice: Example one.

I’m fed up with arguing about this. Let’s just settle the argument once and for all. Voice: Example two.

He claims his photographs prove once and for all that UFOs do exist. Voice: Example three.

I told him once and for all that I don’t want to be his girlfriend anymore.

Okay, so, now I think it’s clear. We’ve saw… we’ve seen a lot of words; we’ve seen a lot of phrases. Let’s listen to our dialogue one more time.

Okay, so, are you a big sci-fi fan?

Um, I think, as you can tell, no.

Not…

Actually, I’ve seen some of the Star Wars movies, but every one that I watched I've fallen asleep in the middle of.

Really?

Yeah, even in the movie theater… I fall asleep in the movie theater watching S… Star Wars.

Wow, was it too boring?

It was too boring.

Or you don’t… you’re not really into the fantasy ???

No, I’m just… the whole time I’m sitting there… going… this cannot happen.

Hehe. Well, that’s why it’s called science fiction, right?

Yes.

Hehe. But it is interesting to some people and, well, behind Star Wars there is a huge culture. Even some people know some of the languages or symbols tha… that are used and… and… or the names of some of… of some of the robots and models of spacecraft.

Well, maybe we’ll have to come up with, um, StarWarsPod.

Hehe. Exactly. Well, that’s all for today, guys, I hope you enjoyed our lesson and, of course, if you have questions or comments, you can leave them in a comment section on our website englishpod.com.

Well, thanks for listening, you guys, and until next time… Good bye!

Bye!