Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast. My name is Anna and you're listening to Week 31, Day 4 of Your English Five-a-Day. We are blowing up your active vocabulary and improving your listening skills by focusing on five items of vocabulary every day of the working week, from Monday to Friday. So, all you have to do is tune in. We're starting today's episode with the adjective rueful. Rueful. How do we spell that? Well, we spell it R U E F U L. Rueful. Now, rueful is not a very common word, but it is out there and it is around. It means to feel or express sorrow or regret. So, if you are regretful, then you could use the word rueful instead. Rueful. Here's an example sentence,"Sarah gave a rueful smile as she realised her mistake. Was it too late to win the audition or could she dance her way through it?" Next on the list is the adjective facetious, facetious. We spell this F A C E T I O U S. Facetious. Now the word looks like FACE TI OUS FACE-TI-OUS. So don't look at the word for any help with pronunciation. We pronounce it/fəˈ siː ʃəs/ facetious. To be facetious is to not be serious when the situation is serious. So, it's trying to be humorous and funny at a time when things are quite serious. So, it's treating serious issues with deliberate and usually inappropriate humour. For example, the bride steps out of the wedding car, about to head into the church to get married on her big day. And unfortunately, she slips and falls into a big muddy puddle, covering the back of her dress in mud. And she puts her hands in mud, which then she touches her face with. She gets mud in her hair. She's a mess. As she steps into the doors of the church, her brother spots her, realises something bad has just happened outside and now her dress is ruined as she looks a mess on her wedding day, and instead of offering support, smiles and says,"Sis, you're getting married. You could have made an effort." Obviously trying to make light of the situation, trying to be funny. He doesn't think for one second that she hasn't made a huge effort to get ready for her wedding, but he's making a joke that she hasn't made an effort to look nice on her wedding day in order to be funny. But this is completely inappropriate because of course the bride is going to be devastated. She's going to be really stressed and upset about ruining her dress and her hair and her makeup on her big day just before walking down the aisle and before having photographs. But her brother has made a facetious remark."Oh, you could have made an effort, Sis." Okay, so that's to be facetious. Here's another example of using the word facetious in the sentence,"Adam made a facetious remark about his terminal illness, causing everyone to laugh." Okay, so we had rueful and facetious. Let's move on to a verb, and it is instigate. Instigate. We spell this I N S T I G A T E. Instigate. Instigate. To instigate is to provoke or initiate, to start an action or event. For example, if there is a fight between three or four people and someone comes to break the fight up. And they'll want to know who instigated the violence, who started it, basically. And the person who instigated the violence is the instigator. So, there you go, you've got a bonus word today. The instigator instigates the action or the event. Here's another example,"I watched as the group of protesters instigated a peaceful demonstration in front of the government building." Alright, let's move on to number four. This is an adverb and it is seldom, seldom. I do like this word. We spell it S E L D O M. Seldom. Seldom means rarely or not often. So, if something seldom happens or seldom occurs, then it doesn't happen often. It doesn't occur often. For me, a lie in seldom happens. What else seldom happens? A moment of peace seldom happens in my household. My house is always quite chaotic, messy, loud, and full of action. So, there is seldom a moment of peace. Okay, let's have another example,"I seldom go to the cinema because it is too expensive. It's cheaper to buy a Disney Plus subscription." And that is true. Going to the cinema is extortionate these days. I'm always surprised when I find out how much I have to pay for a ticket. Okay. So, moving on to our last item, we have an idiom and it is to be in the black, to be in the black. Be in the black, like the colour B L A C K. To be in the black means that you're not in debt. You have money. If you have no money, and you owe people money, then you are in a different colour. Do you know which colour? You are in the red, if you have lots of debt. But if you are in the black, then you're good. You have money. You're okay. Here's an example sentence,"I can't believe it, for the first time in 20 years, I am actually in the black. All that hard work has finally paid off." Alright, so there we have it, our five. Let's do a quick recap. We started with the adjective rueful, which means to express sorrow or regret. Then we had the adjective facetious, which means that you're very silly at times that are serious in order to be funny. You're trying to be funny. Then we had the verb instigate, which is to start or provoke an event or action. We had the adverb seldom, meaning something rarely or not often occurs. Then we had the idiom be in the black, which is to have money to not be in debt. Woohoo! So let's now do this for pronunciation purposes. Please repeat after me. Rueful. Rueful. Facetious. Facetious. Instigate. Instigate. Seldom. Seldom. Be in the black. Be in the black. Very good. Okay, let me test your memory now. What's the adverb that I use which means rarely or not often? Seldom. I seldom get a lie in. And if I provoke something to happen, if I initiate an action, what verb could I use here? Instigate. Yes, I instigate something if I start it. Okay, if I'm feeling regretful, if I'm feeling bad, that something happened, what adjective could I use here instead of regretful? Rueful, yes, rueful. And if I try to be silly at a time when things are very, very serious, in order to make people smile, what adjective would you use to describe me at that point? Facetious. Facetious. And yay, I'm no longer in debt! I finally have money. What idiom could I use? I'm in the black. Absolutely. Very good. Alright. Listen out for today's items in our storytime. It was a rueful morning when Trevor Jenkins, an ordinary man, found himself in a very strange situation. Trevor's life was usually quite boring. He seldom did anything exciting and liked it that way. He worked a regular job at Grayson Sons and was careful with his money, always making sure he was in the black, meaning he never spent more than he had. But today was different. Today, Trevor woke up to find a weird machine in his living room. It looked like a mix between a vacuum cleaner and a coffee maker. The machine hummed softly and flashed colourful lights, almost like it was teasing him."What on Earth?" Trevor said, scratching his head in confusion. He tried to be facetious, making a joke to himself, but he could tell this was something serious. This wasn't just a normal household gadget. His curiosity, which was seldom strong, made him step closer to the machine. Part of him wanted to ignore it, to act like it wasn't there, but another part of him, the part that wanted to know more, pushed him to check it out. As he reached out to touch the machine, it suddenly came to life. Lights shone brightly, gears turned, and a holographic image appeared in the air. Trevor's heart raced as the image formed into a figure that looked just like him, but glowing in a strange way."Trevor Jenkins," the hologram said,"you have been chosen for a special adventure." Trevor couldn't believe what he was hearing. An adventure? For him? The man who thought an exciting night was finishing a crossword puzzle? But it was true. The ordinary had become extraordinary, and Trevor Jenkins was right in the middle of it. Trevor stood frozen in a state of panic, wondering what on earth he had instigated by entering the living room on this very ordinary day. And that brings us to the end of today's episode. I do hope you found it useful. Until tomorrow, take very good care and goodbye.