Have you ever listened to a coworker
in a business meeting and thought, Hmm, I'm pretty sure that's wrong. In
other words, you had some doubts, some uncertainty about what
your coworker was saying, but in the end you didn't say anything
because you didn't want to be rude. I'm Annemarie with
Speak Confident English. This is exactly where you want to be
every week to get the confidence you want for your life and work in
English. In this video today, I want to help you know exactly how to
express your doubt or uncertainty in English for four reasons. First, you can stop someone else from making
a terrible decision with the wrong information. If you have doubts
about a decision someone is making, or you know that someone is using
incorrect information to make that decision, it's important to
step in. In this video today, you'll learn how to do that
and do it politely. Secondly, you may read or hear something that you
doubt is true. And in today's lesson, you'll learn several phrases and
idioms you can use to express those doubts. The third reason this is important is
you might hear me or another English teacher share some wonderful
new expression phrase or idiom, or maybe a grammar point. And you're
not exactly sure how to use it. By expressing doubt, you'll be able to get the clarity you
need so that you can use what you're learning correctly and with
confidence. And finally, the fourth reason today's video is
important is you may need to make a choice about something and you're
feeling some doubt about it. You're just not sure what
the right decision is. As you go through that process, you might want to share
those doubts with others, or you may want to request
more time to think about it. In today's Confident English lesson, you'll get 11 phrases and idioms you can
use to express doubt and uncertainty. As we go through the lesson today, I will give you practical examples of
how to use the phrases or idioms you're going to learn. If you want more examples, I recommend visiting the lesson I have
on the Speak Confident English website. And you can get a link to
that just below the video, the first several phrases
or idioms on our list today, all deal with sharing your doubts
or uncertainties about something you've read or heard. For example, if you're in a business meeting and you
hear someone say something that you're just not sure about,
you might respond with. I'm not a hundred percent sure
about that. With that sentence, you're not directly
disagreeing with them. Instead, you're simply stating that
there is a little bit of doubt. You would like more clarity or
more information. For example, I'm not a hundred percent sure those
budget projections are accurate, or I'm not a hundred percent sure this
article or what I heard on the radio today is accurate. A similar phrase that we can use
is 'there some doubt in my mind about...' There's some doubt in my mind, I actually love this one because I
have a student who uses it often to let me know that she's uncertain
about something I've shared. And she needs me to clarify
that particular grammar
point or expression that we're working on so that she can use
it correctly. One example is Annemarie, there's some doubt in my mind
about how to use the third conditional. Now, if you've got some
doubt about the third conditional as well, you're not alone. In fact, I just recently did a lesson on this
topic and I'll share a link to it just below this video. Another example, there's some doubt in my mind about the
statistics they cited in that article. I'd like to see where they got their data. Our third phrase is I
have some doubt about, I have some doubt about
something you said, I have some doubt about something I heard. This one is perfectly
polite in a discussion, especially when you ask someone
to clarify what they've just said. I have some doubt about what you just
said. Could you clarify it for me? Our fourth phrase to express doubt or
uncertainty on something you've read or heard is I'm not sure about, I'm not sure about that. I'm not
sure about these data projections. I think we need to review them. All right. Before we continue with
some decision-making idioms
that we use to express doubt and uncertainty. Let's
pause here for a moment. I want you to choose one of those first
four phrases and write down your own example sentence. Is there something you've heard someone
say recently or something that you've read that you have a bit
of doubt about? If so, go ahead and write it down
using one of those phrases. And then when you're ready, let's go
ahead and continue with our next group. Now I want to focus on several
idioms we have in English that we use when we have doubt in the
decision-making process. The first one is I'm of
two minds about this. To be of two minds about something. We use this to express that
we're undecided or that we
don't feel certain about something that has two sides. For example, if you've been offered a job
promotion and it sounds fantastic, but it comes with so
much more responsibility. And as a result, you're going to
have to work much longer hours. You may be weighing the pros and
cons of that decision and in doing so you might say I'm of two
minds on whether I should take this promotion. Of course, the
promotion means a higher salary, but it also means I'll
be working so much more. The second idiom is I'm on the fence. To be on the fence about something. Think about sitting on a fence
and how precarious that is. It would be so easy to fall
on one side or the other. Similar to being of two minds about
something, when you're on the fence, you're undecided, you
could fall either way. You may be undecided because you can't
choose between those two options. They both seem fantastic,
or they're both terrible. And there doesn't seem to be a good
choice going forward. For example, I'm on the fence on whether
we should sign this contract. In my Fluency School course, my students get into some in-depth
discussions with each other on a variety of topics. For example, whether social media does more
harm than good. If you're not sure, if you see both positives
and negative social media, you might be on the fence with that issue. The third idiom on our list today
is I'm up in the air on this. I'm up in the air. To be up in the air on something
means that a decision is not yet settled. It isn't decided. For example, the contract is still up
in the air. In other words, that situation isn't finalized or settled. Perhaps your client still has
several questions and they need some clarification before they sign
that document. Another example, for most of us are 2021 vacation plans are up in the air. We have
no idea when, where, or even if we'll be able
to travel this year. Idiom number four is to
have second thoughts. We often use this one when we've
already made a decision and we immediately regret or
feel unsure about that decision. For example, maybe you've signed papers to buy a
house that is an enormous decision to make, a huge commitment. And the moment that you've signed all
those papers, you might immediately think, Hmm, was this the right
choice? In that moment, you might say I'm having second thoughts. Our final idiom for expressing doubt
or uncertainty in the decision-making process is to get cold feet. We often say I got cold feet. We just talked about
having second thoughts, that moment of feeling some uncertainty
about a decision that you've made. If you have second thoughts
about something and do change your mind, then you've gotten
cold feet. For example, initially I planned to take the job offer, but at the very last minute I got
cold feet and I turned it down. Have you ever gotten cold
feet about something? Have you ever planned to make a decision? And you did everything you needed
to do to make that decision. And at the very last moment
you had those second thoughts. And in the end you changed
your mind. If you have, I want you to share your example
with me and use that idiom. You could even use both idioms
to have second thoughts. And those second thoughts
led into getting cold feet. Now to finish today's lesson,
I have two more idioms for you, and these are both used when
you need more time or you want input from others to help
you make that decision. The first one is to sleep on it, whether you simply want
more time to think, or you truly want a good night's
sleep so that you wake up with a clear remind and the ability to
make the best decision. You might tell someone
I want to sleep on it, or I need to sleep on it. If someone is pressuring
you to make a decision, you might also respond by saying,
let me sleep on it. In other words, you're requesting some time to think
about it so that you can feel good about your final decision. And our last one for today
is to put some feelers out. That's kind of a funny one. And what it means is you're going
to ask other people for input. If you're a team lead
or a team supervisor, you may need to make a big decision. And before you do so you want to
get input from your team members. So your boss might ask you,
okay, what's your final decision. And you might respond with, I'd like to put some feelers
out before I make that decision. You want to find out
what other people think, what their pros and cons are to
help you make the best decision. And with that, you have 11 ways to express doubt
and uncertainty in English so that you can get the clarity you
need to make great decisions. If you enjoyed this week's
lesson, be sure to let me know. And you can do that in
three ways. Number one, give this lesson a thumbs up
on YouTube and number two, be sure to subscribe to this channel. So you never miss one of my Confident
English lessons. And number three, if you know someone who is also working
to have more confidence in their English skills, be sure to share
this lesson with them. And you can do that by email or
Facebook, have a wonderful week. Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next
time for your Confident English lesson.
