AVOID Repeating These 6 Everyday Words in Daily English Conversation (+ Free PDF & Quiz)

Hello, everyone. And welcome back to English with  Lucy. Today, I have a vocabulary video for you.  

Please. Sorry, I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm  sad, and I'm fine. These are words and  

phrases that we find ourselves saying over  and over again. They're incredibly common,  

but we don't want to repeat ourselves all  the time, over and over. So in this lesson,  

I'm going to provide you with 30  alternatives for these words and phrases.  

I'm going to really help you enrich your  vocabulary. Before we get started, I would like  

to remind you that I have just launched my British  English pronunciation course based on my accent,  

modern received pronunciation. I will teach  you to sound natural when speaking English.  

You will learn to speak clearly and you  will feel more fluent and more confident.  

We'll go through every sound in modern received  pronunciation in detail, looking at mouth shape  

and tongue position. Lift your tongue so that the  tip makes gentle contact with the underneath of  

your upper front teeth. I will be I'm right there  with you leaving you time to copy and analyse my  

movements and my sounds. All of the vowel sounds,  

all of the consonant sounds, you will master them  all. You will leave the course with the ability to  

understand any phonetic transcription that you  will find in an English dictionary. You'll be  

able to look up any word and immediately know  exactly how it's pronounced. We will also analyse  

connected speech, rhythm, word stress, syllable  stress, intonation, and we will of course,  

take a good look at the notoriously difficult  sounds like the glottal stop, the dark L,  

and the linking R. When I was writing this course,  I knew that I wanted to provide my students with  

an outstanding pronunciation tool. So I hired  two lecturers in linguistics from prestigious UK  

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to finally share this with you and to welcome you  through the doors of Epiphany Language Studios.  

If you are interested in taking the pronunciation  course, go to epiphanylanguagestudios.com or  

click on the link in the description box. I'll see you in the pronunciation course.  

Don't forget that as always, there is a free PDF  for this lesson. It's got all of the vocabulary,  

definitions, and examples. You can download it  by clicking on the link in the description box,  

entering your email address, and it will be sent  straight to your inbox. First we have, please,  

please. I find myself saying please all the  time. It's part of my culture. It even annoys me.  

Now here, I'm going to be focusing on saying  please when asking somebody to do something.  

One really nice alternative is, would you mind?  Would you mind? Would you mind passing me the  

salt? We also have a slightly more complex  version. I'd appreciate it if you could. I'd  

appreciate it if you could. I'd appreciate  it if you could let me stay the night.  

Another one may be slightly more casual is, would  you be able to, would you be able to, would you  

be able to pick me up from the station? We also have number four. This is quite posh.  

I don't suppose you could. I don't suppose  you could. I don't suppose you could lend  

me your bicycle? Or we have a really nice one,  number five. I wonder if. I wonder if you might.  

I wonder if you might. I wonder if you  might be able to postpone the meeting?  

These are all really nice ways of avoiding  saying, please, over and over again.  

Next, we have five alternatives for sorry. I have  made a video on sorry before, but I think it's so  

important, I have to say it again. In England, we  say sorry again and again and again. I am so sorry  

for how much we repeat sorry. Sometimes I  bump into inanimate objects like the sofa,  

and I say, "Sorry," to the sofa.  Let me know if you do that too.  

One really nice way of avoiding sorry is to  say, "It was thoughtless of me," or, "It was  

careless of me." It was thoughtless  of me to call you so late.  

Another one, quite strong. I owe you an apology.  I owe you an apology for my awful behaviour.  

A very serious one, one you might say after  misbehaving at work is I take full responsibility  

for my actions. I take full responsibility for  my actions in that board meeting. Another quite  

simple one is, I apologise, or even better, I  sincerely apologise. That really means something,  

sincerely, honestly. I sincerely  apologise for forgetting your birthday.  

And then the last one, number 10, this one's quite  dramatic. I hope you can find it in your heart  

to forgive me. I hope you can find it in your  heart to forgive me for breaking up with you. I  

didn't mean it. Now, we have some alternatives for  I'm fine or I'm good, that very common response to  

how are you? A really positive one is I  couldn't be better. I couldn't be better.  

This means that you feel as good as possible.  You physically could not feel any better.  

Sometimes we leave off I, so we  just say, "Couldn't be better."  

Alternatively, if you're not feeling great, you  could say, "Could be better." I could be better.  

One that's slightly less positive. It's kind of  in the middle. I've been worse or been worse. This  

means you're not the best you can be, but you're  also, you have felt worse in the past. This next  

one is lovely. It's one that my grandparents use  a lot. It is I'm as fit as a fiddle, as fit as a  

fiddle. And this means I'm really good, especially  focusing on health. I feel very healthy.  

Another sort of average one, not too bad, thanks.  Or just not bad. I really like not too bad because  

this implies, I'm not great, but I'm also not too  bad. So I'm okay. And then we have the last one,  

I'm doing well. I'm really doing well.  Thanks. You will also hear people say,  

"I'm doing good. Thank you." This is informal  in this context. Some people say, "No,  

that's not grammatically correct." It depends  on the context. Also, it's so commonly used  

now that I feel the language has evolved. All right, next section. I have some very good,  

although a bit sad, alternatives for saying, "I'm  sad." We have, I'm gutted, I'm gutted. And this  

is a very British expression. It's slang and it  means I'm very sad or I'm very disappointed. I'm  

gutted that you can't make it tonight. I'm so sad  and disappointed that you can't make it tonight.  

You can't make it is that you can't come to  an event. You say, "Oh, I can't make it. I'm  

sorry. I can't come." We also have, I'm absolutely  devastated. This means so sad. So disappointed.  

I was devastated when I didn't get  into my first choice university,  

but it turned out okay in the end. To turn out  okay means that everything was fine in the end.  

One that you can use if you're feeling  depressed is, I'm feeling really down, low.  

You can also say low. I'm feeling really down.  I'm feeling really down about the breakup. I'm  

feeling very depressed about the breakup. If you  really want to explain to somebody that actually  

you could use a bit of a hand,  you're really not feeling good.  

I'm not doing so good. I'm not doing so good. Or  I'm not doing so great. Really listen to somebody  

if they tell you that they're not doing  so good or they're not doing so great.  

We also have, I'm a bit down in the dumps. If  you're down in the dumps, it means you are feeling  

sad and depressed. For those last three, if anyone  uses them with you, really listen to them and look  

after them because they are definitely trying to  explain that they're having a hard time. The first  

two were more about disappointment. The last  three, a real expression of emotional feeling.  

Next, we have alternatives for, I'm tired. I'm  tired. We have a lot of slang ones here and a  

couple of phrasal verbs. We have, I'm absolutely  exhausted. Exhausted. This means very, very tired.  

We also have a phrasal verb,  I'm worn out. I'm worn out.  

If something is worn out, it means it has been  used too much and can't be used anymore. Like  

shoes when the soul gets thin, they are worn out.  Well, we can use this to describe people as well.  

If you're worn out, you've been used too much.  You can't be used anymore. You're too tired.  

We also have a very British slang word. It  is I'm knackered. I'm completely knackered.  

The K is silent here, knackered. And in Cockney  rhyming slang, you can say, "I'm cream-crackered."  

I'm cream-crackered. If you've never heard of  Cockney rhyming slang, search it. It is so much  

fun. Number 24, we have another that comes from  a phrasal verb, I'm done in. I'm totally done in.  

This one is very slang, very informal. And lastly,  we have, I'm completely drained, drained of my  

energy. That's one my mum says a lot at the end  of the day, "Oh, I'm completely drained."  

Or she also says, "I'm completely sapped," as  well. Sapped or drained. She's very dramatic.  

I love her. And then the last five, we have  five not boring ways to say that you are bored.  

We have, I'm bored to death or I'm bored to  tears. I could cry, I'm so bored or I could die,  

I'm so bored. I love these. They're so dramatic.  We also have, oh, it's like watching paint dry.  

There is nothing more boring than watching paint  dry. So if you're in a really boring lecture  

and your friend says it, you're watching this,  it's like watching paint dry. It is so boring.  

We also have, I'm bored stiff. I'm bored stiff.  I'm so bored that my body has gone rigid. A phrase  

that we can use to describe somebody who is boring  is, a total bore. He is a total bore. I went on a  

date last night, but he was a total bore. And the last one, a bit of a snore,  

he's a bit of a snore. This new class is a bit  of a snore. A snore, something that's boring,  

slang again. All right, that's it for today's  lesson. Don't forget that you can download your  

PDF for free for this lesson. Click on the link in  the description box and to your email address and  

it will be sent straight to your inbox. And don't  forget to check out my new pronunciation course  

on epiphanylanguagestudios.com, new language  platform. I am so excited to share that with you.  

Don't forget to connect with me on all  of my social media. I've got my Facebook,  

my Instagram, and my mailing list. We've  also got the Epiphany Instagram and Facebook  

as well if you want to check that out. I  will see you soon for another lesson.