Do All Birds Sing?

My name is Duncan Brown and I am an English Facilitator, here are some of my thoughts about learning the English language. 

I was recently asked by a student, “How do you say, ‘The birds are singing’?” as this is a translation of what Japanese people would say. I immediately thought that that was good enough for the action of the birds. However, with a little more discussion, I reconsidered this answer.

Masami and I live in a semi-rural area teeming with wildlife, a few of the birds I often see are: sparrows, larks, thrushes, warblers, house martins, pigeons, pheasants, crows, falcons, cranes, ducks, and my favourite, black kites. But do all of these birds sing?

In the English language, there are many verbs for birds’ vocalisations and it isn’t always singing. Singing implies a tuneful, melodic sound; are geese pleasant to hear? Not to me, they sound like someone playing clarinet for the first time with a dry reed! The lowly goose can honk, hiss or screech and possibly chatter; I’m not a goose whisperer so chattering is my interpretation.

Small birds, like finches or budgies, tend to chirp, tweet or cheep: basically, the same sound. If you recall Twitter, their messages were “tweets”, twitter is another verb for a bird’s type of call.

Birdsong can be a warble or trill; these are often pleasant to hear in the waking hours but rather disturbing at 4:30 A.M.; “Up with the lark” is a very appropriate saying where we live!

Confusingly, cuckoos cuckoo but crows don’t crow, roosters crow. Crows caw, hens cluck, pigeons coo, owls hoot, ducks quack, and various birds squawk and screech in an unpleasant way. Are these songs?

You can argue that a police siren is music as pleasant sounds are subjective. A screeching seagull is a sound I intensely dislike whereas a screeching black kite makes me smile.

It's up to you to think if it's worthwhile to remember all these verbs. Alternatively, you can compare birds’ voices to humans, such as, shout, scream, whisper, mumble, murmur, laugh, or giggle. Or, do all birds sing?

Brown’s English Language School offers;

・English (examination English, preparation for various exams)

・English conversation (adults, children)

・English communication skills

It is a school where you can learn in a fun way.

Courses can be taken either face-to-face or online.

Also,

・Seminar on useful differences between Japanese and English

・English Communication Workshop

・English Pronunciation Workshop

etc., are useful for communicating in English.

We hold seminars and workshops .

Brown’s English Language School
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