Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to improve their oral comprehension. As always, you can find the transcription of this episode and the vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. 

It is the 100th episode, uiii. Can you believe it? I once heard that if you create something, the first 100 times suck so hopefully it is only uphill from here and my podcast will become good from now on. Fingers crossed. 

I was thinking about making it a special episode, maybe giving you some of my behind-the-scenes – all the times I didn’t say something right, I had to rerecord and so on but to be honest, those moments are long deleted. Sometimes it gets rough. Once I accidentally published an unedited episode, and it was a little bit awkward, although I think I wasn’t swearing in it, at least. 

But you know, it is a three-digit number now, I had to make it special!  And what’s more special than a little game show? Today, I’ll be playing with you. Yes, you, my dear friend, I am talking to you. So get ready, because we’re going to do some tongue twisters, grammar questions, and even some weird facts about English that you’ll have to guess.

And apparently, every time I decide to record a new episode, everyone in the 5-kilometer radius decides to drill something, load heavy things into trucks or cut the grass so sorry if you can hear something in the background.

Are you ready? Okay. Wait a second, I need to bring the atmosphere a little bit. Ehmm, where is it, where is it? Oh, here, let’s go. 

Good morning, afternoon, evening or whenever you are listening, everyone, and welcome to the English Game Show. I’m your favourite host Dája and you’re not just listening… you’re competing. Yes, you – wherever you are – on the bus, in the kitchen, maybe even hiding from your responsibilities.

We’ve got three exciting rounds lined up: a tongue twister challenge to warm up your mouths, a quick-fire grammar round to test your instincts, and a vocabulary guessing game that will stretch your imagination from A2 all the way up to C1. And if you wait until the end, I might even tell you some fun facts about English.

Round 1: Tongue Twister Challenge
Alright, the first challenge is a tongue twister. I’ll say it slowly first, then a bit faster, and your task is to repeat it. Ready?
“She sells seashells by the seashore.”
Classic, right? But trust me, once you try to speed it up, it’s a total disaster. Try saying it three times as fast as you can without tripping over your tongue. Go on, I dare you!

Okay, how did that go? Not so easy, right?

Now let’s make it harder:
“Red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry.”
This one is brutal because of the R and L sounds. Try it three times in a row without crashing.

And remember, the point isn’t to be perfect – it’s to push your mouth to move in new ways. That’s how you make your English sound smoother and more natural.

Round 2: Grammar Quick-Fire
Alright, round two is grammar. I’ll give you a sentence with a mistake, and you need to correct it.

Here’s the first one:
“I am knowing the answer.”
What’s wrong? … Exactly! It should be “I know the answer,” because “know” is a stative verb.

Second one:
“She don’t like pizza.”
Easy, right? The correct version is “She doesn’t like pizza.”

And one a bit trickier:
“By this time tomorrow, I will finish my work.”
Do you hear it? It should be “I will have finished my work,” because we’re talking about something completed by a certain time in the future – future perfect, not simple future.

And actually, if this last one made you pause for a second, then I have some exciting news for you. My brand-new course Mastering English Tenses is launching today! 🎉 It’s eight lessons where I break down all the tenses in English in a really simple and practical way. You’ll get clear explanations, fun exercises, reading practice, even interactive escape games – and of course, you’ll finally understand not just when to use a tense, but also why.

And because it’s launch day, you can get the course right now at a special discounted price. So if you want to finally stop hesitating mid-sentence and start feeling confident with your grammar, this is your chance. You can find all the details and sign up on my website, dajatomaskova.cz – I’ll put the link in the show notes as well.

Alright, now let’s move on to round three…

Round 3: Vocabulary Guessing Game
Now let’s play with words. I’ll describe a word, and you have to guess it. We’ll start easy at A2 level, then go step by step up to C1. Ready?

A2 level – word one:
It’s something you carry when it rains, it usually folds. What is it? … Yes, an umbrella!

A2 level – word two:
This is a drink that many people have in the morning to wake up. It’s hot, usually black or brown, and sometimes you add milk or sugar. What is it? … Exactly, coffee.

B1 level – word three:
This word means someone who loves books so much, they basically live in the library. Starts with “b”. Any guesses? … That’s right, a bookworm.

B2 level – word four:
This one is for travellers. If your flight is supposed to leave at 9 pm, but it actually leaves at midnight, what happened? … It was delayed.

B2 level – word five:
This word means to keep doing something even when it’s hard, to not give up. For example, “She ___ until she passed the exam.” What is it? … Exactly, persevered.

C1 level – word six:
This one means to show or express something very clearly. For example, “Her face ___ her true feelings.” What’s the word? … It’s conveyed.

Round 4: Weird Facts About English
Okay, now for the fun facts round. I’ll ask you some trivia questions about English.

Question one: What is the only word in English that ends with “-mt”?
Think about it… The answer is: “dreamt.” And yes, it’s also sometimes spelled “dreamed,” but “dreamt” is the only one with -mt at the end.

Question two: Which English word has the most meanings in the dictionary?
Any guesses? It’s “set.” Believe it or not, “set” has over 400 different meanings depending on the context.

Question three: What’s the longest word in English?
Well, technically, it’s the chemical name of one protein, but it’s almost 190,000 letters long – nobody really uses that. In more normal use, one of the longest is “antidisestablishmentarianism.” Try saying that three times fast!

Alright, my friends, that’s the end of our 100th episode game show! How did you do? Were you able to keep up with the tongue twisters? Did you correct the grammar mistakes? Maybe you even learned a new weird fact about English.

And I just want to say one more time – thank you for listening, for playing along, and for being part of this journey with me. Honestly, I wouldn’t have made it to 100 episodes without you.

Thank you for listening! If you liked this episode, please leave a five-star rating and share it with your friends. Don’t forget, you can find the transcript and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. See you next time. Bye bye