✈ TRAVEL ENGLISH: Vocabulary & expressions for your flight ✈️

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Welcome to engVid.

In today's video, I want to talk to you about flight safety; but more specifically, I want

to tell you about the things you're going to hear from the flight attendant on the plane

- before you land, before you take off, etc.

You know how they stand in front of all the seats; they stand in the aisle and they make

that whole show?

Like, everything's on video now, but they still stand there, they put the vest on, they

put the tube - the oxygen, and they tell you where the...

You know, the emergency exits are, and you have to pay attention to all of that.

So, if you're not sure exactly what they're saying, I'm going to go over some of the vocabulary

today that you're going to hear during that speech.

We're going to start with: "Fasten your seatbelt."

You're going to probably hear this quite a few time during the flight, because they want

you to be safe, they want you to be in your seat with your seatbelt fastened.

Now, "fastened" means closed; together tightly, securely.

So, how do you do that?

You have your belt, which is actually the strap that goes around, the black part; and

then you have the buckle - this is the metal part where you actually close it.

The two pieces are the fittings.

One fitting goes into the other fitting, you hear a click, and then you know it's closed,

and then you can lift the tab to open it.

So that's what it means "to fasten your seatbelt".

It means put it on, put it tight, be safe.

Now, the reason you might hear it a few times is because your plane might go through some

So, if you're not sure what that means, you know sometimes you're on the plane and everything's,

you know, quiet and there's that hum of the engines, and then suddenly the plane starts

shaking like this and you get all scared - not a big deal.

"Turbulence" is just basically unsteady air movement.

The air outside is not flowing in a stream, it's a little bit shaky, so the plane's a

little bit shaky.

It's perfectly safe; nothing to worry about.

But...

But just in case they have to make an emergency landing; they have to come down because something

happened, maybe the engine blew up or there's fire on board, so they have to land and they

want you to "evacuate" the plane.

"To evacuate" means to leave a place that's dangerous to go to somewhere safe.

Now, this is not only on airplanes; if there...

If your building...

If you live in a building or you work in a building and it's on fire, the police department

will come and they will evacuate everybody; they will get everybody out and get them to

On a plane, that means it's getting away from the plane.

Now, how do you evacuate?

So, usually, because if they do an emergency landing, it's not at an airport so they don't

have the stairs or they don't have the gangway.

Sorry, I should have put this one on, here.

The "gangway" is that...

You know, that hall that when you come off the plane, you have that hall until you get

into the building.

So, they don't have that, they don't have stairs, so they're going to use an inflatable

"Inflatable" means that it can be filled up with air.

So, that life vest that you're going to put on...

If you land on water, you put on that yellow life vest - that's also inflatable; means

it can be filled with air.

You can inflate it.

The verb: "to inflate" - to fill with air.

So, they will have this big slide that's full of air, and you jump on it, you slide, you

get off the plane, you run.

Now, what might also happen with an emergency landing is that the cabin will decompress.

The cabin is the space where you're sitting, and it will "decompress", means the air pressure...

They adjust the air pressure to be like outside.

It will decompress; it will lose all the pressure and you will not...

Won't be able to breathe, you might have a major headache, etc. and then the oxygen masks

will fall from above you, and you put these on and you just breathe like normal; get oxygen,

be okay until the landing.

So, these are all, like, cases of emergency and safety, but there's a few other words...

There are a few other words that you need to know to understand that they will say in

Let's look at those.

So, we're going to continue on the, you know, emergency situations.

Hopefully this never happens, but they tell you...

Again, they have to tell you all these things in the safety speech.

So, if you're about to crash or if there's going to be an emergency landing, they want

you to "brace for impact".

"Impact" Is basically when you touch the ground.

So, "brace", basically they want you to put your hands over your head and put them between

your knees, and get ready.

So, "to brace" is to support.

It could also mean to lean, so you lean against the front seat, you brace, you get ready for

So that's "brace".

Then, there's a life vest, that yellow thing with a tube, you can blow into it, you can

fasten the belts on it, etc.

Sometimes it's called a "life jacket".

It'll be under the seat where you're sitting.

Now, before you land or before...

Before landing and before takeoff, they will say, you know: "Please turn off all electronic

So, "devices" are basically tools or machines.

Phones, iPads, iPods, laptops, tablets; anything electronic, turn it off.

Once you've hit cruising altitude, you can turn everything back on; we're going to talk

about that in a second.

Now, they also tell you: "Do not tamper with".

So, if you're a smoker and you get on an airplane, just get used to not smoking for the length

You're not allowed to smoke on the plane.

If you go to the "lavatory", which is the washroom (the toilet)...

If you go to the lavatory, thinking you can smoke there, nobody will notice - they have

alarms and sensors.

They will know that there's smoke and the alarms will go off.

The sensors will pick up the smoke, the alarms will sound, you will be arrested.

And they also tell you: "Do not tamper with or disable the alarms in the washroom".

"Tamper with" means, basically, make any changes to; manipulate.

So, try to turn it off so it doesn't ring or it doesn't connect, or disable; turn off.

So, "tamper with" - make changes to in a bad way; "disable" - turn off in the lavatories.

"Cruising altitude".

This is the height that the plane will be at for most of the flight.

The plane takes off; goes up, up, up; gets to this height; and this is the height it's

going to stay at until it's close to the destination.

That's the cruising altitude.

"Altitude" - height; "cruising" - travel.

Then once they reach cruising altitude, they say: "Okay."

The fastening seatbelt sign goes off, you can take it off, but doesn't matter because

you can't go anywhere, and then they will start serving the complimentary drinks.

"Complimentary" - free.

Of course, you paid a lot of money for the plane ticket, so I don't know if you can really

call it free, but they call it free; complimentary; compliments of the airline.

When you're about to land, they will tell you: "Please put your seats and your tray

tables in an upright position."

So, you have your seat, maybe you press a button and you're leaning back, and you have

the...

The table in front of you, you're working on your computer or maybe having a snack.

Before landing, press a button, sit back straight up, put the table straight up.

"Upright position".

Up, down, straight - safer.

So, now you're ready to fly, anywhere you go.

When they give you that little speech, the flight attendants are standing there, the

video is going - you know exactly what they're saying, you're ready for anything...

Hopefully none of it matters except the seatbelt.

Just put it there in case because sometimes the turbulence can actually shake you quite

So, if you have any questions about any of these words, please go to www.engvid.com;

there's a quiz - you can check your knowledge of the words; you can also ask questions - I'll

be happy to give you answers.

And if you like this video, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, look at all the other

videos around; there's lots of helpful tips for all kinds of travel purposes, and come

back again soon - see us again.