Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident
English and what is the number one thing that you probably want when
you're using English at work? You want to sound smart and professional. So today I've got 10 smart words that
you should definitely be using to sound professional, intelligent,
and positive at work. And the best part about today's lesson
is these are small changes that you can make. Sometimes a very small change can have
big results and that's what we're focused on today. So be sure to stick with me to learn
these 10 smart words and find out exactly how you can use them with example
sentences and be sure to watch to the end because word number 10 is maybe the most
important one that you need to know on this list. [inaudible] Let's get started right away
with number one. Certainly. What are some of the most common words
that you hear when someone wants to agree with you or agree to a request? We often say words like,
okay, or no problem, but we use them too much
and they're pretty casual. So if we want to sound a little bit more
professional and positive certainly is a great option. For example, if your boss asks for a document by the
end of the day, you could say, okay, or certainly, or a colleague
asks you to help with a project. Certainly I can do that. Number two, the word modify. Let's be
honest about something. Most people don't like change. Let's say that you have a project at
work and just before the deadline you get an email that says there's some
changes in the requirements. How do you feel when you get that
email? You're probably not celebrating. You're dreading it, you're frustrated. Most people don't like the word change. A better smarter word that
you could use is modify. It doesn't have the same feeling
that the word change can have. For example, at a meeting, a colleague might say that we need to
change the way that we're dealing with our customers and that sounds like you have
to change everything and nobody really wants to do that. It
sounds like a lot of work, so instead it's better
to say something like, we should modify the way we
deal with customers at work. Modify doesn't sound so
scary or overwhelming. It's a fantastic word to use
in place of the word change. Smart word number three is complication. Similar to the word change, there is another word that no one likes
to hear at work and that is the word problem. There's a problem with the
order. We have a customer with a problem. The boss has a problem
she wants you to solve. None of us like hearing those statements. The word complication is a great
alternative and it doesn't sound as bad or scary. For example, instead of saying there's
a problem with your order, you could say there's a complication
with your order, but we're working on it. It sounds much less serious. Number four is the word sensational. I'm curious, when you think of a word that native
speakers use to be positive and show that something is great, what
word do you think of? It might be the word awesome. Native speakers love the word
awesome and it's a fantastic word. I use it a lot. I love it, but I want you to have the ability
to be flexible and English. I want you to have vocabulary that
you can adapt and use in different situations. And the word sensational is a fantastic
positive word that you can use in place of the word awesome. For example, if I didn't sleep very much last night
and I'm feeling super tired at work and a colleague says, Hey Annemarie, I'm
going to go to the coffee shop. Do you want anything? I could
say, oh, that would be awesome, or that would be sensational. Smart word number five is
elaborate. To elaborate simply means to give more details and
there are many times at work when we need someone to clarify something
or give us some extra details. So if you're in a meeting and a coworker
says something that isn't really clear, you're not exactly sure what
she means. Instead of saying, what do you mean? You can
say, could you elaborate? It's much more polite and professional. Word number six is leverage. The business world loves this word. If you use the word leverage at work, you'll definitely impress
some other people. What it means is to get an advantage.
So here's a great way we could do that. If we modify our marketing approach, we can get some real leverage
over our competitors. We've used two words from our list there. I could say if we change
our marketing approach, we can get an advantage over our
customers. Or I could use these two words, modify and leverage to
impress word number seven, similar to talking about
problems versus complications. We can use ramifications
instead of consequences, a bad consequences when something
negative happens as a result of something else. And that word consequence
can immediately have a
negative feeling with it. So ramification is a great
alternative. For example, if your team is talking about how
to modify a marketing approach, you definitely need to think about the
pros and cons and what are some of the possible ramifications
of making that change. We've got just three more words on our
list of 10 smart words to be using at work. And word number eight is perplexing. I love this word. I don't know why, but I love the way it sounds perplexing. You and I know that confusing
things happen at work. A customer does something
weird, files disappear. Someone says they sent you an
email but you never got it. In those moments you could say, I'm really confused about that situation
or I'm confused how that happened, but a great alternative is perplexing. That's perplexing. That's a perplexing situation
or similar to saying, I'm confused. We could say I'm perplexed. Smart word number nine is straightforward. Everyone loves things that are easy to do, easy to understand and straightforward
is a great alternative to using the word easy. Instead of saying something
like, this project is really easy, you could say this project
is really straightforward. Maybe you're working with a new client
and you know that they're going to be wonderful and easy to work with. You could also say working with
this client is going to be really straightforward and finally we're at
smart word number 10 that you should be using at work. Kind of. This word is actually a word that you
should avoid and we're going to replace it with something else. That word is like, like is used way too much. It has become a filler word, a word that we use when we don't
really know what to say. In fact, sometimes I've heard the word
like used in the same sentence, two, three, four, even five times. This is a word that you definitely want
to avoid using because it doesn't sound smart or professional. In fact, it can sound uncertain
when it's used too much, but the problem is it's a really
great word for some situations, like when you're going
to introduce an example. Did you notice I just used it there
to introduce what I wanted to say. That is an appropriate
way to use this word, but because the word
like is used too much, I want to give you an alternative. When you need to introduce information
or introduce an example you could use such as or for instance, here are a couple of examples. I could say there are a lot
of opportunities like this
for our clients or there are a lot of opportunities
such as this for our clients. That one little change makes the
sentence much more professional. Another example, you need to be
really careful with this client. Like if you go to a meeting, make sure
that you're early instead of using, like I could say, you need to be really
careful with this client. For instance, if you've got a meeting, make
sure that you're early. Again, that little change is much smarter and
more professional and now you've got 10 smart words that you can start using it, work immediately and I want
you to practice choose one
or two of your favorite words from this list and use
it in an example sentence. Share it with me in the comments below. It's a great way to immediately get more
comfortable with these words so that you can use them at work in
your daily conversations. If you found this lesson useful
to you, I would love to know. You can give it a thumbs up on youtube,
share it with friends and coworkers, and be sure to subscribe to this channel
so you never miss a future confident English lesson. Plus, I've got a playlist for you on
advanced vocabulary in English, including collocations. Collocations are words that native
speakers use together naturally, and you should definitely be using
them in your English as well. So be sure to check those out. And
with that, have a fantastic week. Thank you for joining me and I'll see
you next time for your Confident English Lesson.
