Video lesson

Welcome

Hi everyone, today, we’ll continue our lesson with Gaston and Belle. And trust me, it’s the best lesson in how to say ‘no’ politely in English. Let’s watch and learn.

Learn new words and phrases

wonderful book you have there

Gaston tries to be charming and impress Belle. He shows enthusiasm and compliments her book, trying to find common ground. “wonderful” means extremely good.

chuckle

Gaston is trying to talk about books, but he clearly doesn’t read much! He’s trying to hide that he doesn’t care. ‘chuckle’ means to laugh quietly. It’s a soft, polite laugh.

Shall I join you this evening?

Here, Gaston invites himself to dinner. He doesn’t wait for Belle to ask him. He thinks he can just come! A more polite way of asking is “May I…” or “Can I…”.

No

“Sorry, not this evening.” Belle politely declines his invitation. Gaston pushes further, suggesting that she must be “busy.” Belle’s simple “No” shows that she doesn’t want to look for a reason why she’s turning him down.

move on

‘move on’ means to start a new activity or job, especially after you have spent a long time doing a previous activity or job. In the scene, LeFou is asking Gaston if he should give up on Belle.

It’s the ones who play hard to get that are always the sweetest prey

Let’s look closer at this sentence.

‘play hard to get’ means pretend you don’t like someone to make them like you more. Gaston thinks Belle just acting like she is not interested in him.

‘sweetest’ means most enjoyable, or most desirable. Here, it’s sarcastic.

‘prey’ means an animal that is hunted for food; or, another meaning is ‘someone who can be easily fooled’.

So, Gaston is comparing getting a girl to hunting! He likes that Belle is smart and plays “hard to get”. That makes her a more interesting challenge for him.

appealing

‘appealing’ means attractive and interesting. Gaston likes that Belle doesn’t try to impress him.

gain

‘gain’ means to increase in weight, speed, height, or amount.

gain my favor

‘gain my favor’ here means doing things to make him like her. But Belle doesn’t think she needs to do that!

dignity

‘dignity’ means calm, serious, and controlled behaviour that makes people respect you, or makes you respect yourself.

outrageously

Gaston says, ‘It’s outrageously attractive, isn’t it?’ The word ‘outrageously’ means something is very extreme or excessive. For example, ‘That dress is outrageously expensive!’ It’s often used to emphasize how big or extreme something is.

Great job, everyone! Keep practicing your English! See you next lesson!

👉 Watch the first part of the lesson: 👇
Speak Fluently with Gaston & Belle | Practice Conversation & Learn Vocabulary