Casual and Professional English for 5 Common Situations

hi there I'm Drew Badger and I help

guide english learners all over the

world to speak in confidence and fluency

in this video we're going to focus on

connecting more casual and

conversational speech with more maybe

professional kind of speech and show how

may be in the same situation you can use

different vocabulary to express

different things but again in a more

casual or more professional way in our

first situation will describe something

that's possible or will probably happen

or is likely to happen all of these

words probable possibly and likely these

are ways of describing maybe eighty

percent ninety percent of the way that

something is likely to occur and again

to occur or something is likely to

happen these are just you know their

regular ways of expressing this but

typically there may be more used for a

professional environment so you can use

these in an everyday conversational

sense but often native speakers are much

more likely to use I bet so you bet

something will happen when you think it

is probably likely so both of these

phrases are exactly the same they have

the same meaning but often it's just may

be faster to say it so if you're saying

yeah I bet it will rain if we go to the

park because we are usually so unlucky

with weather so I bet it will rain or I

bet my friend will be late again today

because he is always late now contrast

this with something you might see in a

textbook like you know my friend will

probably be later my friend will most

likely be late because he is often late

to meetings with us so these are both

correct English but again native

speakers when you're talking in a casual

casual and conversational way or a

casual and conversational situation

people would just say I bet so I bet

something will happen I bet it will

happen next if I am at an office and I

am explaining to someone that I am doing

something right now maybe creating

something I'm not finished with it yet

but I'm in the process of doing that

thing right now so I am attempting to

finish my project or I am in the process

of completing my project or am in the

process of starting my project in the

process of and attempting to do

something you can use these in

conversational speech but instead of

using these which again you would use

more in

professional setting we often use I'm

trying to do something so I'm trying to

get to the airport so people say oh what

do you want to do oh I'm trying to get

to the airport so this is a conversation

way of saying I want to do something or

I am attempting to do something but

again it's faster to say this and if you

contrast these two in a conversational

situation if I say to my friend oh I'm

attempting to get to the airport right

now he would say well why are you

speaking like that that's a quite formal

way of expressing yourself so I would

normally say I'm trying to get to the

airport but trying to this is a really

common thing if you listen for this this

word trying native speakers will often

use this to kind of soften their

language so they don't say I'm going to

the airport usually we say I'm trying to

get to the airport so I'm moving in some

way I'm in the process of doing

something but we describe this as trying

to do something to try to do something

next we're going to look at let's say

and let's just save these are related

but their meanings are different so

let's cover them individually the first

one is let's say now this is a

conversational way of expressing

yourself to talk about giving an example

in a more professional environment you

might say for example and then go into

an example of something so we are

thinking about maybe offering some new

products for the company for example we

might introduce you know a new hand

cream and something like this but you

could also say in a more casual

environment instead of saying yeah I

went to you know maybe I'm talking to a

friend of mine and I say let's say I

want to go to you know whatever so I'm

like trying to trying to give an example

of a place I want to go for vacation so

you might say oh where do you want to go

I'd say let's say I don't know Hawaii so

I'm just using that as an example I say

for example so I'm describing it as an

example and I say we're going to talk

about Hawaii right now so let's say I

want to get to white and like I'm

explaining here's the thing I'm you know

trying to give an example of so i might

not actually be trying to get to Hawaii

but I'm explaining that in a

conversational way so as an example I

want to go to Hawaii let's say I want to

go to Hawaii how do I get

so let's say so for example as an

example how do I get there now let's

just say this is related but it's still

a different meaning let's just say is

often used as a way of summarizing

something so maybe I want to give an

explanation of something but then at the

end i might summarize that and for maybe

a business meeting i might be giving a

presentation and say in summary we're

going to do XY and z so I give a long

maybe 20-minute presentation and then at

the end I speak for one more minute and

say okay we're going to summarize what

we've just talked about today in summary

we're going to do this but if I say

let's just say typically this is in a

more casual conversational situation

where I'm describing something and then

I want to just say all right well let's

kind of forget about this long way of

explaining it and let's just say this so

i can describe for as an example let's

say i'm talking about a friend of mine

who is really sick so he had maybe some

heart problem and a headache and all

these other things and i'm trying to

describe a really long thing in detail

to explain what is actually happy with

him but maybe the person is getting

bored or whatever and I say okay let's

just say he's really sick so let's just

say like let's agree to say that he's

really sick so in this way I'm not

really giving an example I'm trying to

give a summary in some way but make it

kind of easier to save the final the

final thing I'll mention about let's

just say is that you'll often hear

people when they want to express

something one way but not use it maybe

in that same language now this is kind

of a tricky idea but often let's say

you're maybe talking in front of your

children and you don't want to hear you

don't want them to hear something you're

talking about so I'm maybe talking about

like let's say i'm at my friends so

again i'm using let's say so let's say

i'm at my friends house i'm giving an

example so let's say i'm at my friends

house and he has a daughter that's two

years old and I'm talking about some

girl that I met and I say oh we had like

a really great time and like I'd like to

go into detail or describe maybe what

happened but I say well let's just say

the evening was very

good and he understands what I'm talking

about so again it's that same way of

taking something but you're summarizing

it in kind of a different way or using

different language for that so instead

of giving a long detailed thing it's

almost like let's forget about all that

stuff I just said but here is the same

thing in a slightly easier way let's

just say next we have a quite simple an

interesting one typically people will

use Y in conversations and why is a

typically good word to use why there's

certainly no problem with using it in a

professional or an academic or even a

casual situation but typically people

will kind of make their language a bit

softer as I explained in videos where to

make your language softer really just

means you're not trying to say exactly

what you want to say in a forceful way

so you're kind of saying it in a way

that you know maybe you're not being

direct especially if you have maybe a

criticism of someone or you're trying to

give them some kind of helpful feedback

say maybe you might not want to wear

that dress so I wouldn't say wow that

dress is ugly like nobody wants to hear

that and the person is just going to get

mad at me so if I say maybe you might

not want to do that so this is a case

where I'm saying well you're not I want

to say something directly but you know

for political reasons you know we're

people dealing with each other so we

have to kind of change our speech make

our speech a little bit softer so it's

really about speaking in a less direct

and less straight forward way so in this

case you can use the word why but if you

if you talk to someone you say why did

you do this like if you're asking

someone especially in that situation why

why does this happen or why do you do

this and in that way you're you seem

like you're kind of accusing someone so

a lawyer might say why did you do this

and like you're sitting there with

someone in your you're talking with them

and you're really asking them some

questions and being kind of direct with

that or quite direct with that but in a

conversational way people will often use

how come so how come you're always late

how come you're always late instead of

why are you always late so notice how

it's the same thing I'm asking the same

question but how come becomes a slightly

kind of may be nicer and softer way of

expressiveness so how come

how come you're late but I can you know

again use this for not just describing

things to other people or saying things

to other people i could say how come it

always rains when we go to the park how

come it always rains when we go to the

park so i could say why does it always

rain but again if you want to sound more

casual and conversational how come how

come and finally whatsoever whatsoever

this was asked recently and i decided

i'll just put it in this video because

it seems like a good thing to cover

whatsoever it just means at all so i

don't have a problem with him whatsoever

i don't have a problem with him at all

now typically you will hear at all maybe

in a more kind of professional or

academic situation but in a casual

conversational way you can just say

whatsoever I don't have a problem

whatsoever with that person or I don't

care whatsoever with you know whatever

we decide to do for dinner so I don't

care about whatsoever just means at all

so there's no like chance or no thinking

or no worry at all like I don't have a

problem whatsoever with what people are

talking about whatsoever whatsoever well

that's it for this video I hope you have

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fantastic day and I'll see you in the

next video bye bye