NHKラジオ英会話のディクテーション「理解を表す動詞 ー understand、grasp、comprehend、follow」L131 2025/10/13

Onishi: Some say I have too big of a heart and I am hard to comprehend. ピラミッドも大きく理解しがたいですが、私の大きな心も理解しがたいと言っているのです。

ラジオ英会話、ハートでつかめ英語の極意。講師の大西泰斗です。

Roza: Well, you are definitely hard to comprehend. さっぱり分かりません。Akino Roza here.

David: And I'm David Evans. Yep, it is a little hard to follow.

Onishi: というわけで、今週もがんばっていきましょう。

• It's difficult to grasp that concept.
• It's hard to comprehend how big it is.
• In can't follow what you're trying to say.

David: Great job.

I had a little trouble to follow the science but everything has changed, thanks for my professor. Her classes were very easy to understand. Thanks to her, I became to grasp the concept.

David: All right everyone, if you used to struggle with pronunciation, don't worry. Today, we'll practice and master it together. Welcome to pronunciation polish, here is today's phrase. "It's hard to comprehend how big it is" ...

Just a couple of quick points to focus on today. First, we gave hard plus to. The /d/ sound gets very small and we combine these two words. hard to ...

Next up, the /d/ sound at the end of comprehend, again nice and small, almost disappears. comprehend ...

All right, and last up, we have a three words set, big it is, one chunk, OK? big it is ... how big it is.

All right, let's try the full phrase.

• It's hard to comprehend how big it is.

All right, very nice.

Onishi: You know, the word struggle is misunderstood sometimes, right?

David: Yeah, I agree, yeah.

Onishi: It's got such a negative image, right?

David: Well, it's really that feeling, better just a sound like, んっ、あっ、うっ・・・, you are trying but the progress isn't coming, and you are pushing and pushing, but nothing is moving, yeah, it's a, I got a feeling.

Onishi: Oh, yeah, exactly.

Roza: Yeah, it's used to describe difficult situations and it doesn't have the meaning of がんばる. It's like you are drowning.

Onishi: はい、この struggle、ときどきですね、誤解をされる方もいらっしゃいますが、もがくとかですね、苦しむとかいう、そうしたニュアンスを含む動詞だということに、ひとつ注意をしておいてください。というわけで、今日はこの辺で。

All: Bye.