This one is short and scary! In just 44 seconds of Resident Evil Village you’ll hear three brilliant sound words. Press play, read along and then test yourself.
Horror games are full of noises, and the closed captions describe them with some really useful English verbs. 🐺 In this Resident Evil Village Short, Ethan meets a terrified old man, something is thumping on the roof, something is snarling above them and something shatters outside.
Tap any line of the interactive script to jump to that moment. The lines in [square brackets] are the game’s closed captions, and the definitions are the ones I show on screen. Then flip the cards and try the exercises.
▶️ Watch and read along
They’re coming!
- Old man: Oh, no. They’re coming!
- Ethan: Who is? What the hell was that?
- Old man: Do you have a gun?
- Ethan: What?
- Old man: Please tell me you have a gun!
- CC: <i>[<mark>thumping</mark> above]</i>
- Ethan: No. Why would I?
- On screen: <b>thump</b>: to hit something and cause a noise
- CC: <i>[<mark>snarling</mark> above]</i>
- On screen: <b>snarl</b>: to make a deep, rough sound while showing the teeth
- Old man: It’s all I can <mark>spare</mark>. Take it! Take it!
- Alex: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give me the gun.
- Alex: Come on.
- Ethan: Tell me what’s out there!
- CC: <i>[ceramic <mark>shatters</mark> outside]</i>
- On screen: <b>shatter</b>: to break suddenly into very small pieces
- CC: <i>[gunshot]</i>
- Ethan: Hey, are you listening? Hey!
- Ethan: What the…?!
- Alex: And the best gun is gone, too.
Short excerpts are quoted for teaching purposes; all rights belong to their owners.
This Short comes from my full stream of the game’s opening. Watch the Short on YouTube: What do “snarl”, “thump” and “shatter” mean here?. It comes from my full stream of the game’s opening, which has its own interactive episode too:
Resident Evil Village: Surviving the Opening. The whole scene, plus a creepy bedtime story full of vocabulary.
🃏 Words from this episode
- thump: to hit something and make a dull, heavy noise
- snarl: to make a deep, rough sound while showing the teeth (dogs, wolves, monsters)
- shatter: to break suddenly into very small pieces
- spare: to give something because you have enough of it
- Who is?: short for “Who is coming?” We drop words the listener already knows.
- Why would I?: short for “Why would I have a gun?” It shows surprise.
🔗 Exercise 1: Match the horror sound to its meaning
- thump
- snarl
- shatter
- creak
- sizzle
- groan
✍️ Exercise 2: Fill the gap
- <i>[___ above]</i> (Something heavy is hitting the roof.)
- <i>[___ above]</i> (A deep, angry animal sound.)
- <i>[ceramic ___ outside]</i>
- “It’s all I can ___. Take it!”
- I dropped my phone and the screen ___.
- The dog ___ at the postman and showed its teeth.
- I heard a loud ___ when the bag hit the floor.
🔽 Exercise 3: Pick the right word
- “Oh, no. They’re ___!”
- “Please tell me you have a ___!”
- “No. Why ___ I?”
- “Tell me what’s ___ there!”
- “Hey, are you ___? Hey!”
🧠 Exercise 4: Quick quiz
- The old man says “They’re coming!” and Ethan answers “Who is?”. What does Ethan mean?
- Which noise would a wolf make?
- A glass falls and breaks into tiny pieces. It…
- “It’s all I can spare.” The old man means…
- “No. Why would I?” shows that Ethan is…
Which horror sound is the scariest for you: a snarl, a thump or a creak? Tell me in the comments on YouTube! 🐺
Alex