300 English Words for Every Day Life | English Vocabulary

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In this vocabulary master class, you're going to learn 300 words that you can use in your daily speech to help you sound fluent and natural, just like a native speaker. Welcome back to JForrest English. Of course. I'm Jennifer. Now let's get started. First, in this master class, you're going to learn over 50 must know phrases that you can use in your daily speech. These are the most common daily phrases that native speakers use, so start using them every single day. Let's get started. First, let's start with some greetings that you must know to understand native speakers and to sound natural yourself. How's it going? How's it going? How's it going? This is how a native speaker will say, how are you to a friend, a colleague, a family member. How's it going? And if two people haven't seen each other for a longer period of time, you can add on. How's it going? Long time no see. Long time no see. You can reverse them. Long time no see. How's it going? Long time no see. Here is one that native speakers love, but it confuses students. What have you been up to lately or recently? This is in the present perfect. What have you been up to? Up to just means doing. What have you been up to lately or recently? And you can use all of these together. How's it going? Long time no see. What have you been up to lately? You will sound so natural. Now let's talk about how to answer these greetings. How's it going? It's going. And then your adjective. It's going great. Long time no see. You can confirm this by saying I know too long. I know it's been a long time since we last saw each other. I know too long. It's been too long now. Although what have you been up to lately? Recently is a long question. Generally, native speakers will answer by saying not too much, not too much. And then for all. Of these you can add on and you and you to get the reply from the person you're talking to. Now let's talk about how to say thank you like a native speaker. Thanks so much. Now notice instead of thank you I'm saying thanks you need that S It is required grammatically. Thanks so much. Thanks a million. Thanks a bunch. These are simply alternative ways to say thank you very much. Thanks a bunch. Two of my favorite ways to say thank you are simply by saying you're the best, you're the best. I also say you rock. You rock. You rock. So if you want to sound very natural, you can use those two. You can also say I really appreciate. It. Or you could say. That's so nice of you. That's so kind of you. You can use nice or kind, it doesn't matter. So if you're enjoying this video, why don't you show appreciation right now? Use one of these expressions, whichever one is your favorite, and put it in the comments. Thanks a bunch, Jennifer, you rock. Jennifer, you're the best. Jennifer put that in the comments. To show appreciation for this video and to sound very natural. How about to say you're welcome? My favorite, and one that's very common, is simply no worries, no worries, no worries at all. No worries. You could say happy to help or my pleasure. Or you could say. Anytime. Notice, it's one word. Anytime, anytime, anytime. And I will reply back to your comment saying thank you with one of these natural expressions saying you're welcome in a very natural way. Now when it's time to say bye, you can say take care, take care, take care. If someone is getting into a vehicle, you can say drive safe or drive safely. Drive safe. Now technically, grammatically you need the adverb which is safely. But native speakers use drive safe more than drive safely. So you will absolutely hear both. Drive safe, drive safely, you can say talk soon, talk soon or see you soon. See you soon. Now let's say someone offers you something like a drink or a piece of cake, but you want to say no. You want to decline? It. But you want to do it politely. You can say I'm good, I'm good. But thanks anyway. It's nice to add appreciation. I'm good, but thanks anyway. Nothing's I'm good. None for me but thanks anyway. I'll pass I'll pass but thanks I'll pass so definitely add on that but thanks or but thinks anyway to sound very polite when you're requesting help you can say can you give me a hand give me a hand give me a hand you can say. Do you mind? And then you need a jaron verb. Do you mind helping me? Helping me out? Native speakers like to turn help into a phrasal verb, help out. Do you mind helping me out? One I use a lot is Got a sack? Got a sack? Sack is short for second, which represents a small amount of time that you can make available for me. Got a sack? You got a sack? So let me. Try these expressions with you got a sack. Do you mind helping me out by liking this video, sharing it with your friends and subscribing? It would really help me. Out now if you're offering. Help to someone else, you can say. Need a hand, but notice you do the rising intonation to make it sound like a question. Need a hand? Need a hand? Or you can say it as a statement and you can say I can give you a hand with that and then you can give them a hand. You can help them out. Or as a. Statement you can say let me help you with that. Let me help with you with that and then you can pick up that heavy box and help your friend out Let. Me help you with that. It's Friday, so let's talk about the weekend. You can ask someone what are you up to this weekend? Again, notice that up to at the beginning. What have you been up to lately or recently? And now I'm asking you what are you up to this weekend? So what are you up to this weekend? It's very common to ask any plans this weekend and again rising intonation to show it's a question. So do you have any plans this weekend? I love the expression on the go, anything on the go this weekend? It's simply an alternative to plans. Now if you want to arrange social plans, you can ask. Are you free? Are you free? On Saturday you can make a statement and say. We. Should hang out soon. We should hang out soon. Hang out is when you interact with someone socially. We should hang out soon. Native speakers love using the verb grab. Do you want to grab coffee? Grab dinner. Do you want to grab dinner sometime? And then you can add your time reference. Tonight. Do you want to grab coffee tonight? Now if you're. Arranging a business meeting you can still use Are you free? You might add the verb to me. Are you free? To meet and then a specific time, because a meeting takes place at a very specific time on Thursday at 2:00 PM, You could say I'm available on Thursday at 2:00 PM and then ask does that work? Does that work for you? Or you could ask what? Works best for you. What works best for you? Well, whatever works best for you, Bill. Now let's say you. Want to ask for clarification? You could say. Sorry, I didn't catch that. I didn't catch that. Sorry, I didn't catch that. Sorry. What does? X mean and then X is whatever the word is that you don't understand. Or you could clarify by saying sorry. What do you mean by X? If you're having trouble understanding someone, you need to be honest. You can say could you speak up a little? Speak up means speak louder. Could you speak up a little? I'm having trouble hearing you. Could you speak up please? If they're speaking. Too quickly, you can say. Could you slow down a little? I'm having difficulty understanding you. Slow down, Slow down, Slow. Down now let's say. You want to confirm understanding of either something you've said or something the other person has said. You can say, do you know what I mean? So you explain something and then say, do you know what I mean? You know what I mean? No, I know what you mean. Does that make sense to you? Does that make sense? Or you can simply shorten that and say make sense with a rising intonation. These two you need to put in your vocabulary. Does that sound good to you? Does that sound good to you? And then native speakers will often shorten that just to sound good. With a rising intonation, sound good sounds great. There's one idiom you could use, and that's to be on the same page. So you could say are we on the same page? And this is used to say. That you agree or that you have a shared understanding. For example, I could say J. Force English is a great resource to help you become fluent. Are we on the same page? Do you agree? Do we have a shared understanding now? If you do agree, you can say we're on the same page. We're on the same page, Jennifer, So put that in the comments to show that you agree we're on the same page. We're 100% on the same page. Are you enjoying this lesson? If you are, then I want to tell you about the Finely Fluent Academy. This is my premium training program where we study native English speakers from TV, the movies, YouTube and the news so you can improve your listening skills of fast English, expand your vocabulary with natural expressions and learn advanced grammar easily plus. You'll have me as your personal coach. You can look in the description for the link to learn more or you can go to my. Website and click on Finally, Fluent Academy. Now let's continue with our lesson. Now every single day I say I don't know for various reasons, and I'm sure you do too. But there are many different ways that you can say I don't know, to help you sound more advanced, more fluent, and to also help you understand native speakers because we use a lot of alternatives. So let's learn over 30 different ways that you can say, I don't know, like a native speaker. First, let's talk about some everyday ways that you can say I don't know. You can use these in more casual situations and professional situations. So let's say your friend or. Co worker asks you a. Random question like how far away is the sun and you don't know the answer. How can you reply the most popular answer wibi? I have no idea. And this is. Really to stress the fact that you have no knowledge on the topic, remember the question is how far away is the sun? I have no idea. Now we can also shorten this and simply say no idea. I have no idea. No idea. Another common answer is I'm not. Sure. I'm not sure. Now you can expand on this and you can say I'm not too sure, not too sure, I'm not too sure about that. That meaning the question, I'm not too sure about how. Far. Away the Sun is not sure about that. Not sure about what a fun one is simply to say? Who knows? Who knows? Seriously, who knows? Do you know? Who? Knows you could say. Your. Guess is as good as mine. It's implying that you also don't know the answer. Your guess is as good as mine. Well, your guess is as good as mine. I created a free lesson PDF that summarizes all the different. Ways to say, I don't know. You can look in the. Description or the comment section for the link. Now another one with the word guess is. If I had to guess, I'd say. So you're letting the person know that your answer could be completely wrong. So how far away is the sun? If I had to guess, I'd say 100 million miles. I don't know. Am I right? You let me know in the comments. If I'm right. You could say I wish I knew. That's an interesting piece of knowledge. I wish I knew, but I don't. I wish I knew. I wish I could help you. I wish I could help you with that. I wish I could. Answer that for you, but I can't. I wish I knew, Robin. I wish I knew. You could also say I can't help you with that one. I can't help you with that question. You could say that's an interesting question, but and then use. Any of the. Expressions we just learnt. That's an interesting question, but I have no idea. You could also just say I've never thought about that before, which is probably true. A common way to answer that question now is simply to take out your phone and say, hey Siri, how far away is the sun? Hey, I was actually. Pretty close. It was 149,000,000 miles away and I. Said 100. 1,000,000 miles and I completely guessed. I'm pretty proud of that, so that's a great way to answer. Just ask Siri or Alexa or whoever else. There are two very common idioms that you can use. The first idiom is. Beats me. That beats me, but we commonly get. Rid of that and simply say. Beats me. And that's the same as saying I have no idea. Beats me. The other idiom is I haven't the slightest idea, and the slightest is this much the smallest amount possible, but you're saying you don't. Even have that. So it's another way of saying I have no idea, I haven't the slightest idea. Now instead of slightest, you could say foggiest or faintest and it means the exact same thing. Or you can say I haven't a clue, which also means the same thing, so they're just slight. Changes to the. Same idiom, and they're very commonly used 'cause I haven't the foggiest idea why. I mean, look at me. Now let's. Talk about some more professional expressions that you can use when you're asked a question but you don't know the answer. So let's say your boss asks you how many units of a specific product were. Sold last month. You could reply back and say when do you need to know by. And your boss will likely say an hour 2 hours tomorrow next week and tell you when they need the information now. If they say. Right now, I need it right now. Then you can reply back and say let me get that for you, get that, that being the answer, the information. Or you could say let me find out. Let me look into this instead of let me you could also say I. Will. As a contraction, I'll. I'll find out. I'll look into this. I'll let you know. I'll get back to you. Another way to reply is to say I need to check something and then I'll get back to you. So you're letting the person know that you just need to do something. 1st. Instead of check, you could say I need to confirm something, I need to verify something, I need to look into something and get back to you. You can also specify a specific time or date when you'll have the information. Let me look into this and I'll get back to you by 2:00, by the end of the day, by tomorrow, by next week, and let the person know. Let. Me. Look into it. Now. If you do want to admit that you don't know the answer now, you could say something like. I'm not sure offhand. So offhand is just an expression we use to mean. Right now I'm not sure offhand. Let. Me. Look into this and I'll get back to you by 2:00. Does that work for you? And you can add. Does that work for you? To clarify that getting back to them with the information by 2:00 is acceptable. Your boss will likely say sure, no problem. Or they might say no, no, no. I have a meeting in 10 minutes and I need this information. Well, then of course you say no problem. I'll find out right now and get back to you in a few minutes. Of course, by the deadline your boss just told you. Now instead of saying I'm not sure offhand, which again is just an expression, I'm not sure offhand. You could say I'm not sure off the top of my head. So again, this is another way of just saying right now off the top of my head I'm not sure. Let me find out and I'll e-mail you the information in 10 minutes so you could also. Use in and a time reference. In 10 minutes? In an hour? In 20 minutes. Or you could simply say ASAP. I'm not sure. Off the top of my head, let me check and I'll get back to you ASAP. That means as soon as possible. You can also say ASAP. There's two different ways to say it, ASAP or ASAP. They're both acceptable. I think ASAP is more common though. I'll get back to you ASAP. Look into it. Get back to you. ASAP Amazing job. Now let's keep going and talk about more advanced ways that you can say goodbye to again, help you sound very fluent and natural, and help you understand native speakers. Let's do that now. You can absolutely say bye or goodbye. It's grammatically correct. The problem is that it sounds very formal and native speakers don't really say goodbye. We say goodbye, but then we add on a natural expression. So let's talk about natural expressions you can use in everyday situations like shopping at the grocery store, at a restaurant, or dealing with a custom customer service agent. You can say bye, but then add on, take care, bye, take care. Now you can also say take care and then bye, take care, bye. Or you can simply. Say, take care. Take care. You can say have a good and then whatever the time reference is, have a good day, morning, afternoon, evening, night. Or you can say have a good one which is general to any situation. Have a good one. Bye. Take care. Have a good one. A quick tip is that native speakers commonly combine multiple expressions like I just did. Bye, take care, have a good night. It's very common to use 2-3 or more expressions, so feel free to combine them. Now you can replace the adjective good with a different adjective. Have a wonderful day. Have a fabulous afternoon. Have a fantastic fantastic. Weekend. You can say bye for now, which implies that you're. Going to see. That person again. Bye for now. Or you can say enjoy the rest of and then the time period. Enjoy the rest of your day, your night, your evening, your weekend, your vacation. Enjoy the rest of your evening. Now I created a free lesson PDF that summarizes all the greetings from this lesson. You can look for the link in the description or the comment section and below. Now let's talk about saying goodbye to your friends. The most common is See you soon, See you later. A common one is also. Talk soon. Bye, talk soon see. You later. I'll see you later. Now if you have a future date planned with that friend, you can say see you next weekend, See you tomorrow, see you at the. Party. And reference that next event you can add. Can't wait to to add some excitement. Can't wait to see you next weekend. Can't wait to see you at the party. You can say bye. It was so nice seeing you instead of so nice. You can add. It was awesome. It was amazing. It was wonderful. It was lovely and instead of seeing you, you can add. It was lovely catching up. It was lovely having dinner. It was lovely chatting. So you can add different alternatives to that expression. If your friend is getting into a vehicle, you can add, buy, drive safe buy, have a safe trip be. Well. Now if you don't have a next date planned with your friend, you can add some thing to show you want to see them again. Bye. Let's catch U soon. Don't be a stranger. Keep in touch. This is a very common one. Bye. Keep in touch. Take Care now. Let's talk about some more informal slang expressions. You can use these with your friends, your family, or even with your Co workers. It's long. It's a more informal situation we commonly use. Gotta, got to, gotta. I gotta go. I gotta jet. I gotta head out. I gotta take off. I gotta hit the road. I gotta get going. It's. By 6:00 I got a jet. You can also say catch you later, which just means see you later, catch you later and notice I took you and reduced it to ya. Catch you later, catch you later. Sometimes we just say later later. A fun expression is catch you on the flip side. I have no idea what the flip side is, but catch you on the flip side, Catch you on the flippity flip I'll. Catch you on the flippity flip bye. Some people say peace out. I personally have never said this, but I do hear it a lot from some other speakers. Peace out or simply peace. So if that suits your personality, you can use that one peace. Out one of the most common informal expressions. Is just see ya. So we take see you later. And. We reduce. It to see ya. OK, bye. See ya. Bye. Let's talk about some expressions you can use with your. Husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other, spouse, life. Partner by my love, my love, and we say it in such a nice voice. By my love, I miss you already. I like that one. I miss you already. Even though they're right there. I miss you already. Bye, my love. I miss. You already I miss. You too. Now we can use our pet name for each other. Bye sweetheart. Bye, sweetie. Bye, cuddle bear. Bye, my darling. Or whatever your romantic name for each other is. And if you have young kids, you can use. This really cute expression which goes see you later Alex the Gator. Do you know what comes next In a while? Crocodile, but just use that. One with young. Children, Now let's talk about professional expressions that you can use at work, in a job interview, a networking event or conference by looking forward to seeing you again soon. Looking forward to working. Together, so notice the. Gerund verb we need. You can also use a noun. Looking forward to the conference. Looking forward to the project. If you're meeting someone for the first time, you can say bye. It was a pleasure. It was a. Pleasure meeting you. It was nice talking to you in a job interview. We generally express appreciation. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I look forward to hearing from you. The interviewer will also express appreciation. Thank you so much for coming today. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for your time today. We'll be in touch shortly. Notice that expression in touch. We'll be in touch soon. We'll be in touch shortly. Superiors can add some words of encouragement by keep up the good work, the great work, the amazing work. Or they might say, if you need me, I'm a phone call away by if you need me, I'm a phone call away. You know where to find me. Which is letting you know you can just text me. You know where to find me. I'll be on my. Phone. You know where to find me, or a common one in the office is by my doors always open, and that's encouraging you to come back if you want to discuss anything or if you need help. My door is always open. You're. Doing such a great job now, one of the best ways to understand native speakers and to sound more fluent and natural is to use idioms. There are so many idioms in in English language and right now you are going to learn fifty of the most common that you can use daily. Let's do that now. To. Play something by ear. This is when you make a decision in the moment rather than planning in advance. So let's say you're talking about your weekend. And your husband or your friend says. What do you want to do this weekend? And you might say, let's play it by ear. Let's decide as the weekend happens not in advance. Let's play it by ear. To be all ears. We use this to say that you're ready to listen and you're paying full attention. So let's say you tell your boss you want to discuss something important about the project, and your boss replies, I'm all ears. I'm all ears to wake up on the wrong side of the bed. This is a great one. We've all done. This is when you wake up in a bad mood, you wake up grumpy. So let's say you. Wake up you. Go in the kitchen and your wife, your husband says. Oh, hi, honey. How are you? Would you like some coffee? What do you want for breakfast? And you're grumpy. Don't care. Where's my phone? And you're being grumpy. Well then your wife, your husband can say, well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. And that's just to let. You know you're being grumpy to wing something. When you wing something, you perform a speech or presentation without planning in advance. So you definitely don't want to wing your IELTS exam, right? To. Make a mountain out of a molehill. A molehill is really small. A mountain is really big. So it's when you take a minor problem or issue and you make it seem. Really serious or severe? So let's say you got one question wrong on a test and you're acting like it's extremely serious. Someone could say don't make a mountain out of a molehill. They're letting you know it's really not that bad to be at a crossroads. This is when you have to make a really important decision that could impact your life. Let's say you've been a graphic designer for 10 years, but you're considering going back to school and changing careers and becoming a lawyer or a teacher. So you might say, I'm not sure if I want to be a graphic designer anymore. I'm at a crossroads because that decision will impact your life. To. Rain, cats and dogs. This is when it rains heavily. So let's say your friend in a different city asked you, oh, did it rain last night? And it did. It rained heavily. You can say yeah, it. Rained. Cats and dogs to be on top of. The world. This is when you're really, really happy. So let's say. You got a new promotion. You can say I'm on top of the world to give someone the cold shoulder. This is when you ignore someone and you ignore someone on purpose, usually because you're mad at them, annoyed with them they did something wrong or something to irritate you. So let's say your husband or your wife. Is ignoring you. You might say. Why? Are you giving me the cold? Shoulder. It's another way of asking. Why are you? Mad at me? What did I do? Wrong. Why are you giving me the cold shoulder to sit on the fence? This is when you delay making a decision, usually because that decision is difficult and you don't want to make it. For example, I asked my boss for a promotion, but he's sitting on the fence so he won't answer me. He won't say yes. He won't say no. He keeps just saying, oh, I need to think about it, I'll get back to you. He's sitting on the fence. To hit the nail. On the head. This is when you accurately explain a problem or a situation. For example, you hit the nail on the head when you said we needed to reduce our costs, so you explained the situation accurately to be as fit as a fiddle. This simply means you feel great, you have good health, you're in good shape. So maybe you could say since I changed my diet and I'm eating more fruits and vegetables, I feel as fit as a fiddle. This is a great one to get something out of your system. This is when you do something or you try something simply so you can move on. For example, let's say you've been talking about going skydiving for years and years. You research it, you look at different websites, you talk to people about it, but you've never actually done it. Someone might say just go skydiving so you can get it. It out of your. System. So once you do it. You can stop. Researching it, Stop looking it up and just move on already. I like this one. Speak of the devil. Speak of the devil. This sounds negative because of devil, but it's not at all. This is used when you're talking about someone and they appear exactly as you're talking about them. This has happened, right? Let's say you're talking to a friend about your mutual friend Bob, and you're talking about Bob. Oh, is Bob going to come to the party? Oh, I'm not sure. I haven't talked to Bob. And then your phone rings and guess what? It's Bob. And then you can say speak of the devil. To give someone the. Benefit of the doubt This is when you trust someone when they tell you something. So if a coworker is late and they call you and they say I'm stuck in traffic, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's trust that he's actually stuck in traffic. No pain, no gain. This is a classic one. This is used to say that if you want results, real results, you have to be willing to work hard and get uncomfortable. So I might say, if you want to improve your public speaking skills, no pain, no gain, you have to be willing to get uncomfortable. Hang in there, This is a great one. It simply means don't give up. I know learning a language. Is hard but. Hang in there a penny for your thoughts. This is used to ask someone what they're thinking. So let's say your friend is just staring out the window. And you? Probably are wondering what are they thinking. About you can turn to your friend and say a penny for your thoughts. It's not rocket science. Rocket science is complicated, right? But if we say it's not rocket science, this means it's not complicated. So I could say becoming a confident English speaker is not rocket science. It's not complicated. You just have to practice speaking to let someone off the hook. This is a great one because it means that you don't punish someone one for a mistake or a wrongdoing. So your boss could. Say, I know you came in late today, but I'm going to let you off the hook. I'm not going to punish you. To make a Long story short, this is when you take a long and usually complicated story and you make it very simple by sharing it briefly. So you could say, Long story short, we missed our flight. So there's a long story about why you missed your flight. But you don't. Explain those details you just say. Long story short, we missed our flight. Easy does it, easy does it. This is a way of saying slow down. So if your friend is at the gym and they're trying to do too many exercises with too much weight, you might say easy Does it slow down to go back to the drawing board? This is when you need to start over and create a new plan or strategy because the first one. Failed. So let's say you were trying to solve a computer problem. You came up with a strategy, it didn't work, and then you can say to your team. Well, let's go back. To the drawing board and try again once in a blue moon. This is an event that happens infrequently. For example, I only see Kara once in a blue moon, not very often at the drop of a hat. This is a great one because it means without hesitation or instantly. For example, call me if you need anything and I'll be there at the drop of a hat. It means I'll come instantly if you need anything. So it's a really nice, reassuring thing to say to someone. To add insult to injury, this is when you take a bad situation and it becomes even worse. So let's say you're going out on a first date and your date showed up late. That's already a bad situation. But then to add insult to injury, your date forgot his wallet and you had to pay for both of you to hit the sack. This means. To go to bed. For example, I'm really tired. I'm going to hit the sack. The ball's in your court. This is used when you need to make the next decision or the next step. So I might say we. Offered her. A great promotion. So now the ball's in her court, so it's up to her to decide if she's going to accept the promotion or look for another job or do something else to be. Or to go. Barking up the wrong tree. This is when you look in the wrong place. Or. You accuse the wrong person. For example, if you think I lost your ring, you're barking up the wrong tree. You're accusing the wrong person to get or to have your ducks in a row. This is when. You're well prepared or well? Organized for something specific, so you might say the conference. Was supposed to start. 10 minutes ago they should have gotten their ducks in a row. They should have been organized or prepared to get or have the best of both worlds. This is when you enjoy the advantages of two very different things at the same time. She works in the city, but she lives in the country. She gets the best of both worlds. The lion's share. This is the largest part or most of something. So you might complain. I did the lion's share of work on this project to be on the ball. This is when you're performing really well. Wow, you completed all those. Reports. Already you're on the ball. To. Pull someone's leg. This is when you're joking with someone, so we usually use this to reassure someone you're only joking. Don't get upset, I'm just pulling your leg to pull yourself together. This is when you need to calm down. You regain your composure after being really upset or agitated, angry, annoyed, and then you calm down. So I might say pull yourself together. It was a false alarm, so the alarm made you really agitated and I'm telling you to calm down. So far so good. This is how you. Reply when you want to let someone know that everything is OK until now. How's the project going? So far, so good to be the last straw. This is when you have no patience left for someone's errors or mistakes. So I might say this is her fifth time being late this month. That's the last straw. No more patience. For her mistakes. Time flies when you're having fun. This is used to say that you don't notice how long something takes because it's enjoyable. So you might look at your watch and say, oh wow, it's 1:00 AM already. And then someone could reply and say, yeah, time flies when you're having fun to be bent out of shape. This is used to say you're upset, you're angry. For example, Janice is bent out of shape because she has to work late tonight to make matters worse. Matters in this sense means problems to make problems worse. So I might say I have to work tonight. And to make matters worse, to make that situation even worse, I have an early appointment tomorrow. Don't. Judge a book by its cover, you've. Probably heard this one. It means that you shouldn't judge someone or something on appearance. For example, let's say I'm hiring people and I say I'm not going to hire him. Look at his hair. And then my colleague would say, well, don't judge a book by his cover. Look at his resume. To fall between 2:00. Stools. This is when. Something fails to achieve 2 separate objectives. So let's say you plan to watch a romantic comedy movie. That movie is supposed to be romantic and funny at the same time. A romantic comedy. 2. Objectives. So you could say. That. Movie fell between 2 stools. It wasn't romantic and it wasn't funny to cost an arm and a leg. This is when something is exceptionally expensive. Now, airline tickets are usually expensive, but exceptionally expensive. Even more expensive than usual. I might say my flight cost an arm and a leg to cross a bridge when you come to it. This is used to remind someone that you only need to deal with the situation when it happens. So your friend might be concerned. What if I forget all my words during my IELTS speaking exam and then you tell that friend cross that bridge when you come to it? Worry about that problem when it happens to cry over spilt milk. This is used when someone complaints about a problem or a loss from the past. So let's say I had a party. Weeks. Ago and now I'm complaining. I can't believe Jon didn't come to my party. Well, my friend can say don't cry over. Spilled milk. It was 3 weeks. Ago. Why are you still talking about? It. Curiosity killed the cat. This is used to say that being inquisitive or asking a lot of questions can lead to an unpleasant situation. So let's say your husband or wife is planning you a surprise birthday party and you try to ask a lot of questions. What are we doing? Where are we going? Who's coming? Then your husband or wife can say curiosity. Killed the cat. Just to remind you don't ask so many questions to miss the boat. This is when you lose an opportunity because you were too slow to take action. For example, the application deadline was last week. I missed the boat to be on fire. This is to perform really well. Wow. Your presentation was amazing. You were on fire to spill the beans. This is when you reveal a secret when you shouldn't have revealed a secret. So let's say you're planning a surprise party for someone, and then you tell everyone, don't spill the beans, don't reveal the secret, and finally, to be under the weather. This is when you feel unwell, when you feel sick. I'm a little under the weather. Today you are doing a great job. Think of everything you've learned so far. Now let's focus on how you can share your opinion and do that very professionally and naturally. You're going to learn over 50 opinion words right now. Now let's get started with first sharing your personal opinion. Let's say you're in a work meeting and you have an idea you want to share with everyone. We should hire a marketing expert to build our website. You can absolutely see that, but you can sound more professional, more advanced if you use an opinion word now. There are many different phrases you can use to share your personal opinion. I recommend starting with two to three that you like the most, and then you can add more once you get comfortable with them so you have variety and you're not. Always. Using the same one. Here's the list. In my opinion, as far as I'm concerned, from my perspective, from my point of view, personally, I think that in my view, I'd say that I believe that. I strongly, firmly believe that. I'm convinced that there's no doubt in my mind that I feel that in my mind. It seems to me that, so let's take our idea again. We should hire a marketing expert to build our website. As far as I'm concerned, we should hire a marketing expert in my opinion, in my mind, personally, I think that we should hire a marketing expert so you can use anyone of these. And remember, variety is key. You don't always want to say, in my opinion, you can absolutely use that, but you want to have variety. Now let's talk about agreeing with an opinion. So you're in a meeting and a colleague says we should postpone the conference. Or your colleague used an opinion word and said, I firmly believe that we should postpone the conference. Now let's say that you agree with your colleague. What can you say? Well, again, here's a big list. Start with one to two and add them as you get comfortable. I agree. I agree with you. I think so too. That's a good point. You're right. Definitely. Absolutely. I 2nd that I couldn't have said it better myself. I couldn't agree more. We're on the same page. You hit the nail on the head. So your colleague says from my perspective, we should postpone the conference. And you say I couldn't agree more, we should postpone the conference. You're right, we should postpone the conference. Absolutely we should. Postpone the conference. I agree with you. Now, let's say your colleague shared an opinion that started with I don't think, I don't think we should postpone the conference. Personally, I don't think we should postpone the conference. We have one very specific phrase that you can use when you want to agree with a negative opinion. Do you know what that is in my mind? I don't think we should postpone the conference. Neither do I. Neither do I. You only use this when you're agreeing with I don't think. Neither do I. Now let's talk about disagreeing with an opinion. So you're in a meeting and your calling says, in my mind we should look for a new supplier. Now you don't agree. What can you say? You can say I disagree with you. I'm afraid I disagree. On the contrary, I understand where you're coming from, but I respect your opinion. But that's a good point. However, I see your point, but I have a different perspective, I think. Can I share my opinion? That's one way of looking at it. But have you considered the fact that now the first one I shared, I disagree with you is probably the least commonly used because it sounds argumentative and we generally want to say this softly to someone, so it's way more common to say, I'm afraid. I'm afraid I disagree with you, it makes it a lot softer. Or you could acknowledge that I respect your opinion, but I don't think that's a good idea. I respect your opinion, but I think we should keep our supplier. My personal favorite in this category is I understand where you're coming from, but and then you share your opinion or whatever information you like. I understand where you're coming from. This is another way of saying I respect your opinion. I understand where you're coming from. But. Right now isn't the best time to change our suppliers because it's our busiest time of year. We should wait until Q4. And remember, you can add your personal opinion words as well. From my perspective, in my mind, from my point of view, we should wait until Q4 so you can absolutely combine these different opinion words together. Now let's talk about sharing a general opinion. So something that most people would agree with. Here's a statement. Repetition is key when you're learning any new skill. Now, I personally believe this, but it's not my opinion per se. This is just a commonly held opinion by most people, by many different people. So here are some general opinion words you can use. It's said that it's believe that I've heard that. It's considered that. It's generally accepted that most agree that some say that. It goes without saying that researchers experts suggest that. So I could say it's generally accepted that repetition is key when you're learning any new skill. And personally I agree. And personally I couldn't have said it better myself. So you absolutely can share a general opinion, but then agree with that general opinion using one of the. Phrases you've already learned. Or maybe you want to disagree with this statement. Well, then of course you can use one of the phrases to disagree. On the contrary, repetition isn't that important. I'm afraid I disagree. Repetition isn't that important in my mind. And then you can share your opinion. And finally, let's talk about how to ask someone for their opinion. So let's say I shared a general opinion. Most agree that repetition is key when learning a new skill and I want to ask for your opinion on this specific topic. I can say Do you agree? What's your opinion? What do you think? What are your thoughts? What's your view? How do you see the situation? What's your take on it? What about you? How about you? Has that been your experience? What is your experience been? Are we on the same page? Is that something you would support too? So if you're talking to someone who's currently learning a new skill, it could be really interesting to ask them. Has that been your experience? What are your thoughts on that? Do you agree? I've saved the best for last because one of the easiest ways that you can sound more advanced, more professional, more fluent is by using transition words. They are the secret to really elevating your English. So now you're going to learn fifty of the most common transition words. So what exactly are transition words? Well, transition words are individual words or groups of words, phrases that you can use to organize your ideas and to show connection between your ideas. They're commonly used in academic or formal writing, but you shouldn't limit their use to just that, because you can absolutely use them in your spoken English, and you should use them in your spoken English to sound very advanced and professional. And if you watch to the end of this video, I'm going to share how you can use transition words to expand your ideas and to take a really simple idea and be able to talk on that idea for longer using transition words. So stay right to the end. So let's get started. You're going to learn over 50 transition words in this lesson. Don't feel overwhelmed, just add them to your vocabulary as you go. Our first group of transition words are used to show cause and effect causation. So here I have two separate ideas. I spilled my coffee. I changed my shirt. Now this is where we can use a transition word to combine these ideas together and to show the relationship between them. I spilled my coffee. As a result, I changed my shirt cause and effect. Here are the transition words in this category and they're listed from most formal to least formal, so you can take a screenshot of this consequently. Hence, accordingly, thus for that reason, as a result, therefore and so since, because. Due to. Now the example I gave you, I spilled my coffee. As a result I changed my shirt. This is a casual statement. It might sound a little odd, perhaps out of place, to use a very formal transition word such as consequently in such a common everyday speech. I spilled my coffee. Consequently, I changed my shirt. You could absolutely say it. It's grammatically correct, but but the choice of transition word is just a little too formal. So do not think that formal is the best, and you absolutely should use formal. You should use. Formal When your ideas are more formal, they're more academic. They're more professional in a business context. Let's look at a business context. The project is over budget. We have to cut cost, so again, we'll show our cause and effect. We'll use a transition word to combine these ideas. And because it's a more formal context, I can use a more formal transition word, the project. Is. Over budget. Hence. Consequently. Thus we have to cut costs. Our next group of transition words is chronology. This is how events are related based on when they occur. So think of time. Here are three events. I went to the store. I worked out. I made dinner. Now of course we can add first, second, third, first, next. Finally, that's chronology, and it instantly sounds more organized and more advanced. Advanced when you add the transition words. So let's review the transition words in this category first. Firstly to start to begin at the beginning at the start. Second, secondly, after afterwards, next, then subsequently later 3rd, Thirdly after afterwards, next, then subsequently later, Finally, lastly. Last but not least, now notice that for the 2nd and 3rd events, many of the transition words are the same. You can use after, after for the 2nd and 3rd event, or you can use next, next for the 2nd and 3rd and 4th and 5th event. But you might want to avoid that so you don't sound repetitive using the same transition word again and again, so you can use next, then, then subsequently. Subsequently. Finally, so you can use the different transition words just to show off your advanced vocabulary, our next category of transition words is to show contrast when you have two opposing ideas. Let me. Give you 2 ideas. I love ice cream. I'm lactose intolerant, so can you see how these two ideas? Are. In opposition, I love ice cream. Is. Great. It's a really positive thing, but I'm lactose intolerant. That's negative, and it also means that I can't eat ice cream. So those ideas? Are in opposition. So we can use our. Contrasting transition words. However Although though but I love ice cream, but I'm lactose intolerant. Same thing. The transition words are listed from most formal to least formal. Again, you. Could say I. Love ice cream? However, I'm lactose intolerant. But again, these ideas are quite simple, so you probably want a more simple transition word. Our next category of transition words is addition of similar ideas. I love ice cream. I love cake. It's adding a similar idea because they're both in the same category, which is desserts or sweets. The most common transition words from most formal to least formal in this category are furthermore, moreover, further, additionally, in addition also and I love ice cream and I love cake. Obviously you know that one, so why not try to advance your vocabulary by using. In addition, I love ice cream. In addition, I love. Cake. Now let's talk about generality. This is when things are true most of the time. The most common transition words in this category are in general, generally, Generally speaking, By and large, for the most part, most of the time. More often than not, usually, typically, mostly. So let's take an example our. Meetings are very productive. Now, of course, I'm sure there's one or two meetings that aren't very productive, but most of the time in general, generally speaking, our. Meetings are very productive. Now let's look at the category of examples. There are really only three main transition words, for example as an example for instance. This software. Has really helped us. Now it can make your point a lot stronger or help you expand on your idea by adding an example. This. Software has really helped us. For example, as an example, for instance, it reduced our error rate by 40%. Our next category is emphasis. This category is used to make a point stronger by adding more supporting information. Let's take a simple example. I love pie. Now what If I wanted to make this point stronger? I could say it's my favorite dessert. I love pie. In fact, it's my favorite dessert. I love pie. As a matter of fact, it's my favorite dessert. These are the only two transition words that are commonly used to add emphasis and finally conclusion transition words. Notice I just used a transition word and finally that is a conclusion transition word. Now of course in this category we use these transition words when we want to end what we're seeing, end our speech and our presentation. Here are the most common transition words listed from most formal to least formal. In conclusion to conclude, to summarize in sum, all things considered. Finally, overall ultimately in the end to wrap up, to sum up, All in all, so let's say I'm ending my presentation at work and I want my colleagues to remember one very important fact and that fact is if we want to remain competitive, we have to invest in automation. Now to let my colleagues know that this is the last point I'm going to make. My final point, I'm going to add a conclusion, transition word. Ultimately, if we want to remain competitive, we have to invest in automation. So now you. Have 50 plus transition words to help you communicate your ideas in a very professional and organized way. Before you go, let me share a bonus tip with you. You can use transition words to help you expand on your ideas. So let's take one idea. In general, our meetings are very productive. Now I can pick any category of transition word. To expand on this idea. I could add a contrast. However, they usually run over time, so this is an opposing idea. Now let me give an example of my last point to add emphasis and to expand even more. For example, today our meeting was scheduled to end at 11 and it went until 11/17. So let's expand on this even more. What was the effect of the meeting running over by 17 minutes? As a result, I was late for a meeting with a client. Hmm. Were there any other effects? If there were, I could use an edition of a similar idea. Transition word. Additionally, I had to work through lunch to catch up. Amazing job, you. Did it? Now you have over 300 words that you can use in your daily speech. You can look in the description for links to download PDFs summarizing these words. And do you want me to make more master classes just like this? Well, if you do, then put master class. Put master class in the comments below and of of course, if you found this video helpful, make sure you hit the like button, share it with your friends and subscribe so you're notified every time I post a new lesson. And you can get this free speaking guide where I share 6 tips on how to speak. English fluently and confidently. You can click here to. Download it or look for the link in the description. And this lesson focused on your vocabulary. So why don't you improve your grammar? With. This master class right now.
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Channel: JForrest English
Views: 346,384
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Keywords: Jennifer Forrest, JForrest English, learn english, english grammar, english vocabulary, native english speaker, American English teacher, how to speak English, how to learn English, how to feel confident speaking English, English words, daily English, learning English, esl, ielts, fluent English, how to be fluent english, how to become fluent English, english fluency, fluent in english, jf English, idioms, english phrases, important english phrases, daily speech, fluent, c1, c2
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Length: 68min 30sec (4110 seconds)
Published: Fri Feb 16 2024
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