Lesson summary
Video transcript
Hi everyone and welcome to part two of this beginner English phrases for conversation series. If you haven’t seen the first part, you can find the playlist up here or you can find the link in the description below. Alright, let’s talk about today’s phrase.
Today’s phrase is ‘What do I call this in English?’ This is the most basic phrase that you can use to ask the word for something when you don’t know what it’s called.
Let’s pretend you see this and you’re not sure what it’s called in English. You can say ‘What do I call this in English?’ We use this phrase when we’re asking about just one thing.
What if you see these things and you don’t know what they are called, what can you ask? You can say ‘What do I call these in English?’ We use this phrase when we’re asking about two or more things.
If someone shows you a book and says to you ‘Excuse me, what do I call this in English?’, how can you answer this question correctly? There are many ways to answer. You can say ‘It’s a book.’ This is a book. That is a book. It’s called a book.
If someone asks you ‘What do I call these in English’, how can you answer correctly? There are many ways to answer, again. You can say ‘They are books.’ These are books. They are called books.
The phrase ‘What do I call this in English’ can sometimes be said in different ways. For example, you can say ‘What is this called in English’ or ‘What do you call this in English?’ All of these phrases are correct and just mean ‘What is the name for this thing in English?’
Now let’s look at some common mistakes with this phrase. The most common mistake is when students say ‘How do I call this in English?’ This is incorrect because ‘How do I call this’ means ‘By what method do you use to make the sound for this thing?’ We don’t want to know about the method or how to do it. We just want to know the name of thing. We want to know what it’s called. So to correct this, you need to say ‘What do I call this in English?’
Another mistake students make is saying ‘What I call this in English?’ To correct this, you need to say ‘What do I call this in English?’
The next mistake is about answering the question. Many students answer the question ‘What do I call this in English’ by saying things like ‘It a book.’ This is incorrect because we don’t have the word ‘is’. So to correct this, you need to say ‘It is a book’ or you can say ‘It’s a book.’
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