All Ears English Podcast
AEE: Ding! Buzz! Beep! Which Word Should You Use When You Hear a Sound?
27 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an All Ears English podcast. Ding, buzz, beep. Which word should you use when you hear a sound? Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times.
Chapter 2: What words should you use when you hear a sound?
Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. with your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
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What can you say when your phone goes off or when someone calls or when someone rings your doorbell? There are so many moments in life when we need these words. Listen in to get them today.
I founded Ornot in 2013. I think the best thing about Shopify is that we can practice business without technical skills. We can manage the company's background and front-end and sell online.
Chapter 3: How can you become fearless and fluent in English?
If Shopify was a bicycle, it would be a bicycle itself. That way things are handled and our business is handled in Shopify. Start your free trial at shopify.com.
Hello there, Michelle. How's everything today? How are you feeling today? Feeling good. How are you? I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good. Michelle, I got a question for you. Ready? So are you good about putting your phone on silent when you actually need to? Like is your phone on silent right now?
That's a good question. I should check that.
Yeah. Or does it ding or ring a lot? Maybe when you're recording a podcast or when you're in public or in awkward places where it's really rude to phone ring?
Yeah. I mean, it definitely has, you know, I've had an alarm go off when we're recording or something like that. So it can happen. I try to be pretty careful about it. Actually, I think I have more the opposite issue. I think it's I mostly have it on silent. And then I can't find it.
I know that that happens to me all the time.
Yeah. And then you're calling and you're like, well, it's on.
Yeah, yeah. So when my as a funny story, my partner and I first started dating back in 2016. My phone, I didn't know it, but my phone was on silent for like two years. Oh my gosh. And so I would always have these missed calls. I would have like three missed calls from my partner. And I was like, this person's kind of a stalker. You know, why are they calling three times? Like one's enough.
One missed call is enough. And I didn't realize until later that it was actually on silent for a long time.
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Chapter 4: What common sounds do we encounter in daily life?
Dings and rings. Who knows what else, right?
Yep. So today we're going to go over words that deal with everyday sounds. So actually a long time ago, I think we did an episode on onomatopoeias. Right. But that was over a thousand episodes ago. And today we're focusing on these words because of a recent episode we did on the word ding, dealing mostly with cars.
Yeah, right. You got a ding in your car, more of a dent type of thing. But these sounds, like what do they sound like? I know the sound of a dog barking is articulated differently in French versus Japanese versus English. We know this. We learn this when we learn different languages. We talk about these fun little aspects of the language. So it's kind of similar.
We assume the same thing is true about a car horn or a phone voicemail. So we're going to get into it today.
Yeah, exactly. So this is going to be fun. So guys, hit the follow button wherever you're listening to the All Ears English podcast so that you never miss an episode. We are here five days a week. Let us drop right into your queue so you don't have to go searching around for us.
Exactly. So let's start with the most common thing we hear. which I feel like now my phone's going to ding while we're recording. I'm going to feel very self-conscious about it. My WhatsApp or something is going to ding for sure. What is it? What is the word, Michelle? It is ding.
Yeah. So I would say this is the sound is the sound an iPhone's text message makes, like specifically iPhone. I feel like it's a ding, right?
It's a cute little ding. I think WhatsApp makes that sound.
um but yeah like i i feel like you could well there are standard baked in like automatic default settings for iphone which i think is usually a ding right yeah um or you might hear someone say ding ding ding like saying someone is right right um possibly sarcastically oh ding ding like ding ding ding you got it right being sarcastic
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Chapter 5: When is it appropriate to say 'ding'?
I know you have an alarm clock because you're putting your phone away. How has that been working out?
Well, these days we've been moving around because of our renovation project. So I have been, we've been in different condos and Airbnbs, all sorts of things. Life is chaotic right now, Michelle. It's crazy.
Yeah.
So I am now using my phone, but when I get back into my home soon, I will go back to that nice Zen alarm clock.
It's great. So have you, so, but has it made you look at your phone a lot again before bed?
No, I would actually say as long as I have a book that I can read that I'm interested in, I'm pretty good at still like letting the phone sit next to the bed and leaving it. Right. It's not, I don't feel that same pull that I used to feel quite as much. That's really incredible. Yeah. Small wins, small wins. Small wins.
Small wins. And then we're going to do one more and that's the ring, right? So more just like what you say, oh, my phone is ringing or a bell ringing.
Yeah. I mean, sometimes you might hear like church bells. I grew up in New England, a place where every little town has a town square and has a church at the head of the square. It's very cute scenery. You'd see in a postcard, right? And sometimes the church bells will ring, right? At certain times.
Yeah.
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Chapter 6: What does 'beep' refer to in different contexts?
And if you don't know what to say, what do you say, right? If you don't know what that word is in English, what do you even say? Yeah.
right right yeah so this is perfect yeah all right today all right all right lindsey well i don't i'm trying to think of a creative way to end it but i all right for the buzzer no wait all right guys thanks for listening bye lindsey take care bye bye
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I founded Ornot in 2013. I think the best thing about Shopify is that we can practice business without technical skills. We can manage the company's background systems and front-end and sell online. If Shopify was a bicycle, it would be a bicycle itself. That way things are handled and our business is handled in Shopify. Start a free trial at shopify.com.