Zoom英会話クラス(金)

Lesson Notes July 17, 2026 (FRIDAY ZOOM)

Words & Phrases

• The rain was awfully terrible. I’m soaking wet, it’s like a typhoon outside!

  • I’m (drenched / soaked) to the bone. I should have worn my swimsuit! (Idiom for being absolutely soaking wet)

  • This is quite the thunderstorm we are having. There’s been a lot of lightning too!

  • I’ve never experienced torrential rain like this before. I never want to see it again. (We use “meet” for people, especially when “gathering”)

• We went to Tateyama. it’s sort of near my house it only takes two hours.

  • We went by car. (= we drove).

  • We ate sashimi at an old fishing shack. There was so much, I couldn’t eat it all. (= a rustic, local, seaside spot)

  • We stayed at a traditional inn by the sea. We had a seaside room with a beautiful sunset view. (= ryokan)

• If it was sunny we could have seen Mt. Fuji, but it was cloudy. (NOT the Mt. Fuji)

  • When talking about individual mountains we do not use “the”. We only use “the” with mountain ranges.

    • Have you seen the Rocky Mountains? (The Alps, the Andes, the Himalayas)

    • We climbed Mt. Takao on the weekend. (Mt. Everest, Kilimanjaro)

• When you drove back home how was the road? Was there a lot of cars or congestion?

Grammar

Common Counters for Vegetables

• Head; large, round, tightly packed leafy or dense vegetables

  • a head of lettuce, a head of cabbage, a head of cauliflower

• Bunch; leafy greens, or roots vegetables sold bound together

  • a bunch of spinach, a bunch of kale, a bunch of parsley

• Stalk; long, individual stem-like vegetables

  • a stalk of celery, a stalk of asparagus

• Ear; specifically for corn, the entire cob with its kernels

  • an ear of corn

• Bulb; clustered root of savoury vegetables

  • a bulb of garlic, a bulb of fennel

Pronunciation

• Shack (noun) ʃæk / shak

  • I leaned my back against the shack. (“back” and “shack” rhyme)

• Shark (noun) ʃɑːrk / shahrk

  • My dog barked at the shark. (“bark” and “shark” rhyme)

Appropriate Language

• Thunder (Noun) = The loud, rumbling, or crashing noise heard after a lightning strike

  • We hurried inside the cabin as a loud clap of thunder shook the windowpanes and the sky turned a dark, bruised purple.

• Lightning (Noun) = A massive spark with a brilliant flash of light and and shockwave after (thunder)

  • The old oak tree in the park was split clean in half after being struck by lightning during last night's storm.