BANG! CRASH! DING DONG! Words that Imitate Sounds

A cat goes “meow!“ A shotgun goes “bang!“ A doorbell goes “ding dong!“ When we imitate sounds, we call those words “onomatopoeia“. In this fun lesson, I will teach you some useful English words that imitate sounds and noises made by different people, animals, objects, and even the noises made by a well-known breakfast cereal! This will make your conversations more animated and descriptive. You will also encounter these words when reading novels and comic books. Onomatopoeia are NOT the same in every language, so after watching, do the quiz at to see if you recognize these sounds in English! TRANSCRIPT Hi. I’m Gill at , and today we’re going to be looking at “Onomatopoeia“. Now, don’t run away. It’s a very long Greek word, but it means something quite simple. It means words that imitate sounds. Okay? So, like a cat that makes a sound: “Meow, meow, meow“, and it’s been turned into a word. Either “mew, mew, mew, mew“ or “meow“, “miaow“, two different spellings, there. Three. Three different spellings. In your language, you... I’m sure you have words for these sounds as well, but they may be different because of your language having different vowel sounds in it and so on. You probably have words for sounds, but they won’t be exactly the same, probably, as the English version. Okay. So, I’ve divided them into three categories: sounds of animals, sounds that human can make (sometimes embarrassing), and other, other sounds. Okay. So, let’s start with the animals. So, we’ve already had the cat sound: “Meow“. So, that’s the kind of spelling we have for that. For a dog, it’s either: “bark“ or “woof“, and you can sort of make the sound or try to: “Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark“. That’s the sort of “bark“ sound. “Woof, woof, woof, woof“, that’s the “woof“ sound. Okay? So that’s the dog. This one, b-a-a is: “Baaaaaaa“, and that’s a sheep. Okay? So, in normal speak, we don’t go around using the words like this, we don’t actually imitate the animal sound. We just say it normally, like: “Meow“, “bark“, “woof“, “baa“, but you can actually make the real sound if you can, if you want to. But not in normal conversation. People might think you’re a little bit strange if you start going around making the actual animal sounds. So, be careful how you use them. Okay? So, that’s the sheep. “Mooooooo“ is a... Can you guess what a...? What makes that sound: “Moo, moo“? Oh dear, I can’t do that one very well. That is a cow. Okay? And children actually call them “moo cows“. They put the sound of the cow with the name of the cow, and they say: “Oh, look, moo cows.“ So, they put the sound with the name. Okay? Also, with the “baa“, with the baby sheep, the lamb, they say: “Aww, baa lambs, baa lambs.“ So, they put the sound the animal makes with the name of the animal. Okay. This one: “whinny“ and “neigh“ is for a horse or a pony. I don’t know if I can do this. “Neigh“, something like that, or: “Buh-le-le-le-le-le“, that sort of sound, and they shake their head as well. Okay? So that’s a horse or a pony. The pony is a smaller version of a horse. Okay. Can you guess what makes this sound: “Quack, quack, quack, quack“? In normal speech, you just say: “Quack“, but you can make it more like: “Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quaaack“. That’s a duck. Okay? A duck, a bird. Right. “Hisssssss“, and normally you just say: “Hiss“, make a shorter sound. But if you’re going to imitate the thing: “Hisssssss“, and that would be like a snake. Or sometimes a cat makes a hissing sound as well, so anything making a hissing sound. Okay. This one: “howl“ or “yowl“, nice, round open vowel sound: “Howwwwwl, yowwwwwl“, so it could be a dog who’s very unhappy and the owner has left the dog at home all day on its own and it’s getting very upset without human company. And this is what the dogs do eventually: “Owww, owwwww“, meaning: “I’ve been abandoned. Where is my family? I’m all on my own.“ Or it... Sorry. It can be a dog, a domestic dog, but it can also be a wild animal, like a wolf. Okay. So, quite a fun one, too, to do that. I’ve always enjoyed: “Owww“, howling. Okay. So, moving on to humans. This one you may already have seen a lesson that contains this word: “burp“, “belch“, both mean if you have some air inside you when you’ve been eating and you have to let the air come out: “Burp“. I can’t do it because I haven’t got any air to come out. “Blah“, it’s when the air comes out. I can’t do it, sorry. If you watch Ronnie, I think Ronnie does a perfect one of these. So, okay. Right, so that’s “burp“ or “belch“, to let out some air from your stomach. “Clap“, can you guess what that is, to clap? [Claps hands] So that’s the clapping sound. Right? When people clap, an audience clap after someone has performed.