Welcome back to English with Catherine.

If you're new here, hi!

This is my YouTube channel.

And if you're a loyal subscriber, respect you.

This is the YouTube channel for daily, natural English that is in use today.

None of this outdated stuff that's not actually being used.

And today the setting is the British seaside.

One of the happiest places on Earth.

The other week I went to Brighton Beach.

I used to live there, so I have a lot of memories there.

And I spent the whole day there just listening out for what people were saying and making notes on the culture.

Today you're going to learn some lovely seaside vocabulary, which is very important for daily English.

And of course you're going to learn about British culture.

Get yourself a lovely chilled glass of lemonade and let's get started.

The British seaside.

The seaside is a big deal in the UK.

It's where we go to actually have fun.

We're usually so polite and controlled in our everyday life.

But on the seaside, all of that goes out the window and everyone just lets their hair down.

And as you all probably know, it's the one place where your inner child can come out as much as it wants.

Acting like a child and behaving like a child all day is completely normalised.

The British seaside is a national institute.

It's the home of the fish and chips, the buckets and spades, and of course the socks and sandals.

Number one.

Do you fancy a dip or are you a chicken?

Do you fancy a dip or are you a chicken?

Okay, first of all, we say dip to mean going swimming in the sea.

Usually a dip is just to cool down if it's really hot.

On the day that I went, it was only about 20 degrees, so it wasn't that hot.

But still, people go swimming in the sea, even when the sea is freezing.

Chicken is what we say when someone is too scared to do something.

It's not very kind to call someone a chicken, but it's quite funny.

And obviously chickens are quite scared, aren't they?

So, there we go.

That's the relation.

Number two.

Daddy, can you help me dig out a moat for my castle?

So near where I was sitting, there was a family and there were some children playing and they were making sandcastles, which is a very typical activity.

Here we have the phrasal verb to dig out, meaning to literally get the sand and dig it out to make a moat around the castle, so that when the tide comes in, which we'll talk about in a second, it will go around the outside like a moat.

So here you've learnt the new word moat, if you didn't know that already, which falls into the category of castle language, and I love castles.

Number three.

This is related to fish and chips, or as we often say, fish and chips.

Fish and chips.

There's a connected speech tip.

I have to say, we really do fish and chips very well, especially if you order that by the sea, where it's likely to be fresh.

So there was a little fish and chip shop right near the beach, which, by the way, is so common.

There's usually about 20,000 of them all competing for the customers.

You need to know this language.

So here we go.

A small cod and chips, please.

A small cod and chips, please.

That's how I ordered it.

And then they ask you these questions.

You have to be ready for them, because they ask them very quickly, and there's often a queue behind you.

Do you want that wrapped?

Do you want that wrapped?

They ask it so quickly.

What they're actually saying here is, do you want that wrapped?

Which means, would you like them to wrap the box in paper, so it's like a bundle.

Usually people do this when they want to keep the fish and chips warm, if they're taking them to the beach, or taking them home, or far away to have them.

Fun fact!

Up until the 1980s, fish and chips were wrapped in newspaper to save money.

But this was later deemed unhygienic, so was banned.

Salt and vinegar?

It's so quick again.

They're asking if you want salt and vinegar.

In the UK, we like to put vinegar on chips.

Don't judge unless you've tried it.

Ketchup or mayo?

Ketchup or mayo?

They're actually saying ketchup or mayo.

I think this is the most difficult one to understand when it's said fast.

I mean, that's crazy, isn't it?

What I saw when I was queuing for fish and chips.

A man behind me wearing socks and sandals.

This is famously from the UK, the kind of UK look in the summer.

Apart from being completely red from head to toe because of sunburn, not only do we look like a lobster or a prawn, we're also wearing sandals with socks, which is kind of eccentric, kind of pointless, kind of weird.

To be honest, socks and sandals kind of comes in the same category as carpet for me.

They're both kind of cozy, but also a bit weird.

Fun fact, the Romans wore socks and sandals over 2,000 years ago.

So it's been a trend for a while.

Isn't the sea such a gorgeous shade of turquoise?

Isn't the sea such a gorgeous shade of turquoise?

That's actually quite difficult to say, gorgeous shade, gorgeous shade.

Tongue twister, practice it.

Now, here's an advanced word for blue.

Turquoise is a shade of blue.

And you know when the sea is like a colour of greeny blue, which it often is in the UK, it's never that crystal clear, beautiful, almost white colour that you get in the Caribbean.

So turquoise, great word to describe the colour of the sea.

Here, we are just remarking on something beautiful, which is very much part of British culture.

We often see something and just remark on it to everyone around us.

Number five.

I heard this when I walked down to the shore.

When you say the shore, you're really talking about where the sea meets the beach.

So where the waves are crashing onto the beach.

That's called the shore, or the shoreline.

And no, I didn't go for a dip.

I just paddled, which means you just get your feet wet and you walk out a little way, usually in your jelly shoes or your flip-flops.

Because of the pebbles, they're so painful on your feet.

And it just really cools you down if you're getting a bit warm.

And yes, it was only 20 degrees, but when you're in the sun, you still feel like you get a bit warm.

Ah, the tide's coming in.

Do you think we'll have to move our stuff?

Ah, the tide's coming in.

Do you think we'll have to move our stuff?

So note the word tide, which refers to the sea coming in, going out.

I'm not really sure how to describe tides to you.

I'm pretty sure it's all related to the moon.

It's not my subject, I'm afraid.

We use the phrasal verb coming in when the sea comes in and goes out for when it goes out.

And stuff, well, that just relates to all your things, all your belongings.

Shall we move our stuff?

Meaning, shall we move our things back a bit so that the tide, the sea, doesn't get them wet?

Number six.

Do you reckon there's a really strong current further out?

Do you reckon there's a really strong current further out?

So again, this was the English that I heard when I was standing on the shoreline, listening out, people were just paddling, and also having conversations right next to me.

Now here we have reckon, which is a great word to replace think.

It's another word really for predict or guess.

What do you reckon?

Meaning, what do you think?

What do you guess?

What do you predict?

And the current refers to the forces in the sea that take you with them.

It can be very dangerous if there's a strong current.

I'm sure you know that.

Also, further out is just general for over there.

You know, the sea is such a scary, massive thing, isn't it?

We often don't know how to refer to it.

Number seven.

Let's swim out to that boy over there.

Let's swim out to that boy over there.

Here we have let's, which is what we say when we're suggesting a plan, like, with enthusiasm.

Swim out, we have a phrasal verb.

So many phrasal verbs.

Meaning to swim out to sea.

And boy, which is pronounced as the same as girl or boy, even though it's a very different spelling, is one of those floating ball things that ships often moor up to, to stop the ship from floating away.

Sometimes we use them as landmarks when we're swimming.

Let's swim to that boy and back.

Let's do a lap around the boy, for example.

Number eight.

Wow, this jellyfish has been washed up on the beach.

Wow, this jellyfish has been washed up on the beach.

Jellyfish really freak me out.

They're like sea aliens.

They are, right?

No one can really describe them.

They just look like blobs of jelly, just...

I'm sure you know that quite often jellyfish end up on the beach.

Here we're using the phrasal verb washed up, which means the tide has, or the sea, has brought them in, and quite often they're dead.

Sadly.

Can we go on the pier now?

We're so bored.

You guessed it, this is kids.

Little kids, bored.

They've made all their sandcastles, they've eaten all the sandwiches, and now they need some more entertainment.

Now, piers are those long bits of land, really, that's strut out from the shoreline, and they often have a lot of attractions on them, like rides, candy floss, doughnuts, and Brighton Pier is really fun.

I really recommend visiting if you haven't already.

Number 10.

Look, there's a ship on the horizon.

I wonder where it came from.

Look, there's a ship on the horizon.

I wonder where it came from.

You know when you're a child, and you just make up all these stories of where ships came from, or if you see a plane in the sky, you wonder where it's just come from?

I used to do this thing where I'd imagine all the passengers on the plane and what they were talking about, and where they were off to.

So there was a big ship, a massive, massive ship, just on the horizon, which means as far as the eye can see.

Here we have the verb, I wonder.

This is one of my favourite words, actually.

If you say, I wonder, it really means, I don't know, but I'm thinking about it, and I'm trying to work out the answer.

I wonder what to do today.

I wonder what the meaning of life is.

Make sure you pronounce the word ship like ship and not sheep.

If there was a sheep on the horizon, I'm sure everyone would be talking about it.

I don't know about you guys, but I find the beach a bit chaotic when there's a lot of people.

However, what really relaxes me is just staring out to sea, or looking out to sea, and just looking at the horizon.

Somehow it just puts everything in perspective.

Just makes me so calm.

I really miss living in Brighton because I used to walk down to the seafront every evening and watch the sunset.

Oh, it was so great.

I hope you enjoyed my video, guys.

I hope it made you want to go to the seaside.

I really recommend visiting a beach in Britain just to get the culture because there's so much you can learn about what we're like here just by watching and observing and listening.

And of course, you've got to have some fish and chips and have a dip in the sea.

If you liked this video, please click subscribe.

I would really appreciate that as it really helps me out.

Comment down below, maybe tell me which beach you've been to in the UK.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Wishing you lots of sunshine.

See you next Friday.

Bye.