How to ask someone to wait in English | Speak English with Harry

hi, there this is Harry and welcome back to my  english lessons where I try to help you to get a   better understanding of the english language  how to use expressions and phrases improve   your vocabulary help you with business english  conversation english whatever problems you might   have you can come here and certainly help you  you can look at these and download them on amazon   music on spotify or indeed you can watch them  on our youtube channel and if you have somebody   that you know that you think would be interested  in what i have to say and to help them well, of   course, give them my contact details and as always  you can get me on www.englishlessonviaskype.com   and i'm always happy as i said to hear from you  so what are we going to talk about today well   we're going to look at certain ways to  tell somebody to wait w-a-i-t okay just   to get the right spelling of that weight if  we're talking about how heavy we are that's   w-e-i-g-h-t oh he's put on a bit of weight it's  w-e-i-g-h-t but if you're asking somebody to wait   wait while i finish w-a-i-t so as always i'm going  to go through the options with you and i'll come   back and explain them to you one by one so we  can use hold on hang on just wait until or till   wait a second or wait a minute just a moment  or just a second let me think bear with me   something will have to wait or someone will have  to wait all in good time not so fast okay and a   lot of the time when you're using these you have  to use a certain intonation in your voice and i'll   try and explain that to you in the examples that  i give you so let's take them one by one and try   and explain them so hold on let's take the first  two hold on and hang on together because often   they are used uh synonymously when we're talking  about telephone calls if you want to call somebody   and they say oh look can you just  hold on for a minute so they're   asking you to wait because they either finishing  another call or they're sending a message or   they want to give some instruction to  somebody say look can you hold on for just   a minute yeah or uh hang on for a minute i'll be  with you straight away don't hang up just hang on   so they don't want you to put the phone down they  just want you to wait so hold on or hang on yeah   now we don't use them all the time when we're  talking about telephone conversations because   if you call into somebody's office unexpectedly  and they're in the middle of some something they   might put their hand on say just hold on for  a moment i just finished this email or can you   just hang on for a few seconds and i i'll be with  you don't don't go yeah because i want to talk to   you so they gesticulate or they gesture to you to  take a seat somewhere and hold on or hang on and   then they will come back to you so hold on hang  on are they using it in terms of the telephone   call when somebody's speaking say well just hold  on until i finish this or if you can hang on for   a minute i'll i'll i'll get back to you very  very quickly okay or when somebody comes into   the office or comes into the room it's just well  just hold on for a minute hang on i'll be with you   soon okay hold on and hang on just wait until so  wait until or wait till until or till you can use   either of them ever exactly there the same meaning  okay so yeah you want to talk to your children   about something and they are saying oh look dad i  need to know now and i have to sign this form and   just wait until i get home yeah just wait until  i have a chance to talk to your mom just wait   till i have a chance to read the document so  you don't understand why they're in a rush and   of course our children are always in the rush they  want something done like that okay but you're just   asking them please just wait until i get a chance  to read it wait until i get a chance to discuss it   with you wait until i get a chance to finish what  i'm doing now because i'm very busy and i look   at it when i have time i'll sit down i read the  phone carefully and of course yes we can discuss   it and decide whether you can go or whether  you cannot go okay so just asking somebody to   wait until you have time wait until  you have looked at the document wait   until you discuss it with somebody else okay  and then we have wait a second or wait a minute   a very very common way of asking somebody to  wait uh you can say it with a little bit of um   extra emphasis by saying oh just wait a second  yeah wait a second so you're really getting a   little bit frustrated with somebody because  they they're going on an honor at something   you say no no no wait a second we haven't agreed  that yet so let's not jump the gun let's not get   ahead of ourselves so wait a minute yeah that's  that's not what i said no that's not what i say   so if you're a little bit annoyed with somebody  that either they've taken what you've said out of   context so they are paraphrasing he said no no  wait wait wait wait a minute that's not what i   said what i actually said was blah blah blah blah  blah so you can ask somebody to hold on until you   get a chance to explain them exactly what you said  exactly what you meant so they are not taking it   out of context and they're not going to misquote  you later on okay or you take the steam out of it   it's just wait a second yeah i'll be with you  now yeah okay so somebody's ringing on your   doorbell and maybe you're just finishing getting  dressed or something so you you shout is just   wait wait a second wait a minute i'll be i'll  be with you okay so you don't want the person to   go because perhaps you're expecting that delivery  from amazon or whoever it might be so you you rush   to the door and you you you you take the package  okay so you're asking somebody wait a minute   wait a second it doesn't matter whether it's  the second or minute we're not really counting   the seconds and we're not counting the minutes but  it's a it's a form of words we use asking somebody   to wait okay let me think okay so when we use the  expression let me think we want to give ourselves   that time to think so we're sitting there saying  hmm yeah well let me think about that yeah so you   want the person to wait you don't want to rush  into a response because it might be the wrong one   you don't want to give a very quick answer because  you want time to consider it so let me think yeah   and so you sit there and yeah okay well and then  you give the response to the person or indeed you   if you want them to wait a little longer you might  say well let me think about that for a day let me   think about that for a while and i'll get back to  you so in that context you're going to ask them   to wait not just a few seconds or a few minutes it  might be a few hours it might be a day yeah let me   think indeed just let let me sleep on it so let  me go home let me rest overnight and i'll think   about it while i'm at home and i'll give you  a reply tomorrow so let me think can be delay   something for a little bit delay something for a  little bit longer i also said before just a moment   or just a second so when we were talking about  wait a second or wait a minute we can also say   wait a moment and again moment second minute  they're they're interchangeable they're not   really a period of time it could often it could  be five minutes and you say to somebody okay just   uh wait a minute or wait a second and five  minutes later you're still waiting so you know   often it has no reference to the particular  time we just use it as an expression to get   somebody to wait wait a minute wait a second  uh just a moment just a second exactly the   the same meaning bear with me so bear with me  a little bit more formal so if you're trying   to explain something and somebody's trying to  interject or somebody's trying to interrupt   to say something say no no just bear with me  for a moment i want to finish what i'm saying   and then perhaps it'll become a little bit clearer  and then of course if you have any questions or   you have anything to add then i'd be very happy  for you to add something in so bear with me means   please just wait give me an opportunity to explain  it i might not be as good as you as at explaining   things or might not be as quick as you are in  explaining things so if you could just bear with   me or this is a little bit complicated so it does  need a little bit more explanation so please bear   with me whilst i take you through this particular  example so you go through it bing bing bing bing   bing if you're doing a powerpoint presentation  and you explain exactly what you want to explain   and hopefully that will take care of some of the  questions that your audience might have so just   bear with me for a moment bear with me for five  minutes bear with me while i finish this email   whatever it might be you're just asking the person  to to wait for a little while so you're being   quite polite bear with me something or somebody  will have to wait so you're up to your eyes as we   all are from from time to time and somebody's  pressing you for a delivery date somebody's   pressing you for a submission date somebody's  pressing you for responsibility look somebody else   will have to wait i can't answer all of these  at the same time so who is the most important   so we have to put a little bit of priority in  them somebody will have to wait or the report   is just going to have to wait yeah you'll have  to tell the boss that i'm not going to be able   to complete it by today because i don't have the  information yet it's the end of the month okay   next expression is all in good time well it's a  really nice way to ask somebody to wait people   are ringing you saying oh look when are we going  to get this you promised we'd have it a couple of   days ago when do you think we can have a reply  all in good time now again you're not being   very committed in terms of when in fact you're  being very non-committal all in good time could   be anything could be a day a week whatever they're  all in good time but what you really mean is   you're doing your best you'll get it completed  when you can and when you know you'll come back   to them and you'll give them a deadline okay  we're like just going to take me another day   or another hour whatever it's going to be but  all in good time and then finally not so fast   okay so if we want somebody to slow down if we  want somebody to to wait and somebody's come on   come on they're pushing and pushing and pushing  say okay not so fast let's just take our time   let's go through one by one and let's see what  happens so your son has had a bit of a problem an   argument at school an argument with a friend and  he's sitting there and he's a bit excited so he's   running through the reasons why this happened you  say okay look hold on hold on not so fast just   take it one piece at a time let me um absorb what  you're saying and let's try and sort this problem   out i'm sure it can be sorted out so not so fast  take your time and it'll be a lot clearer to me   and it'll be a lot clearer to you so not so  fast meaning slow down wait take your time   okay so they're all expressions and ways in which  you can ask someone to wait so let me give them   to you again to hold on or hang on as i said you  can use those in relation to telephone calls just   wait until or wait till no difference between  until until wait a second or wait a minute or   just a moment or just a second exactly the same  it's all about split timing okay uh let me think bear with me a little bit more formal bear  with me something or somebody will have to wait   all in good time and not so fast okay so I said  all expressions where you want to ask somebody   to wait well hopefully you have not to wait  too long to get the answer that you want and   if you've enjoyed that and you think somebody  else will enjoy it as I said at the beginning   just pass the details on them  I'm always happy to hear from you   always happy to help you and always happy to  be there if there's something you want me to   include in the next podcast okay thanks  for listening and join me again soon

Channel: Learn English with Harry

Views: 1,354

Keywords: ask someone to wait, english with harry, how to ask someone to wait in english, how to tell someone to wait, tell someone to wait in english, common ways to tell someone to wait, how do you politely ask someone to wait, Formal and polite ways of asking someone to wait, English phrases for Asking someone to wait, ways to say wait in english, spoken english, speak better english with harry, ask someone to wait in english, speak english with harry

Id: FOnh6G3hD8M

Length: 12min 56sec (776 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 09 2021