STOP FREEZING in English when you CAN'T REMEMBER a word! Improve English Conversation

- Hello, everyone.

And welcome back to English With Lucy.

It's so annoying when it happens,

you are talking freely and happily in English,

and then (dramatic music) everything stops.

The world stops, your mind stops,

and most frustratingly,

your conversation stops.

You've blocked.

You can't find that perfect word.

You may even feel that you do actually know that word

deep in your head,

you just can't remember it.

Perhaps, you don't even know it at all.

You're reaching for it,

but it's just too far away.

What can you do?

When I was actively learning Spanish,

this happened to me all of the time.

I can still feel the anxiety in here.

I'm now fluent in Spanish.

And although it happens with much less frequency,

it does still happen,

especially if I'm feeling a bit rusty.

If you feel rusty in a language,

it means that you haven't practised enough

and you've regressed slightly.

I mean,

I still get word block in English

and that's my mother tongue.

It happens to almost everyone.

Today,

I am going to help you with your blockages (laughs)

and give you five things that you can use to fight

against this.

five things that you can do when you can't remember a word.

Number one,

this is potentially the most exciting segment for me.

And I can't believe I haven't taught this to you before,

because although these aren't real words,

they are very commonly used.

They are called placeholder names.

So you can use placeholder names or unknown name terms

in place of the word or phrase or name

that you're searching for.

Now in English,

we have loads of these and we use them all the time.

My mum is constantly forgetting words and she comes up

with the most amazing placeholder names to replace

the words that she is lacking.

So just to be clear,

these are words that replace a word that we can't think of,

we can't remember, or we don't know.

So firstly,

we use lots of extensions of thing.

We can say thingy, for example.

And we typically use this to refer to a thing

that we don't know the name of.

"The doctor gave me a thingy

to help me deal with my stress."

I might be referring to a stress ball or some fidget toy

or something.

I don't know the word.

So I use thingy.

I just think it's worth noting,

this is all an informal speech.

We wouldn't use this in academic text or in exams

or in a business meeting.

Well, you might, it depends on the corporate vibe.

Another very popular one is thingamajig,

thingamajig.

This can also refer to people.

So if you can't remember someone's name,

"Did you talk to thingamajig last night?"

Did you talk to unknown person last night?

Thingamabob.

Thingamabob is almost exactly the same.

It can refer to objects or to people.

"Have you spoken to thingamabob recently?"

I can't remember their name,

I'm hoping you know who I'm talking about

and can say their name for me.

Or, "My hairdresser gave me a thingamabob

to help hold my hair in place."

He gave me some hairspray,

I'm guessing.

We also use some extensions of what as well,

watchermacallit.

A watchermacallit is very popular.

"Did you pick up a watchermacallit at the shop?"

This could be anything, can of tomatoes,

a watermelon.

Who knows?

Depends on the context.

We also use whatsitsname.

Whatitsname.

Watchermacallit seems to be more for things

rather than people.

Whatsitsname can be people or things.

"Did you see any whatsitsnames at the shop?"

Now we do have a few specifically for people.

Whatshername or whatshisname?

There is another one, or two actually,

'cause it's masculine and feminine

that my mother uses a lot and therefore I have always

used a lot.

But when I started using it with my fiance,

he was quite surprised.

He thought it was quite rude.

It is whatsherface and whatshisface.

If we can't remember the name of someone

"Oh, did you see whatsherface?

Whatsherface?"

Or, "Oh, whatshisface was there last night."

And I remember Will being really shocked

like, "Where did you learn these strange words?"

But my mum uses them all the time.

So maybe note these ones down,

but be careful who

you use them with. (laughing)

Finally,

we use a lot placeholders with doo,

doo.

And it just goes to show that it depends on the family

because in my family, we never use placeholders with doo,

but in Will's family, they do use doo all the time.

The one that they use a lot is doodah,

doodah.

And this refers mainly to people, but also to things.

So I think Will's mom told me once, "Oh doodah got engaged."

I was thinking, "Doodah?

Who's doodah?"

But no, doodah is a name used when you can't remember

the person's name and you expect the other person to know

who you're talking about.

Doodad is the same thing,

normally referring more to things.

"Can you go into the garage

and see if there are any doodads?"

And hopefully your speaking partner will understand

what you're talking about.

Now, number two is more of a general recommendation

and this segment is sponsored by Lingoda.

It is study every day to try and avoid becoming rusty

as I did with Spanish.

Taking a class every day is a great way to avoid

that rustiness problem.

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What are you waiting for?

Number three is try to describe the word using simple terms

or generic terms.

Oftentimes, we over-complicate things by wanting to find

a very, very specific word.

And as a result,

we put a stop to our conversation flow and in the end

make everything really awkward whilst we're trying

to desperately think of something.

That can wait.

You can make a mental note and search for that word later.

I think it's better to just search for a simple word

that is good enough in the moment.

For example, imagine you can't remember the word puppy.

You could just say baby dog.

It's not overly correct,

but it will do.

Or if you can't remember the word paediatrician,

you could just say a doctor for children.

That leads me on to number four.

If it's a little more complex,

you could try to describe the purpose or the use

for something or someone.

For example,

if you wanted someone to pass you a pencil sharpener,

but you can't think of the word,

you could say, "Oh, can you pass me that thing

that's used for making pencils pointed?"

I've just said the use.

And it's very clear what I would like.

Another example, say,

I've met someone and they are really nice

and they are a librarian and I'm trying to describe them

to someone but I've forgotten the word librarian,

I could say, "They work in the place where

you can borrow books."

Librarian, very clear, very obvious.

The final recommendation, number five,

is to use approximations.

This is when you use phrases such as,

it's like, it's sort of, it's kind of,

it's kind of like, it's sort of like.

An example is the word jumpsuit or romper

in American English.

If I don't know the exact word for that,

I would say, "It's kind of like a dress,

but with trousers as well.

So hopefully even if you didn't know what a jumpsuit

or a romper is,

you might now understand it because I've described it

as a dress but with trousers or shorts.

Now using three, four and five instigates

a great learning opportunity.

The chances are that your speaking partner

will know the words that you are searching for

and they can help you as well.

You can set this off by saying at the beginning

of a conversation, "By the way, if I use the wrong word,

feel free to correct me.

Don't feel rude to interrupt me."

I always said this in Spanish and it was amazing

how much people genuinely wanted to help me.

And it was really nice when we could laugh

at my mistakes together,

'cause let's face it, when you're learning a new language,

it isn't easy to make jokes in that language.

So a really nice way to have a laugh is to laugh at yourself

and your language mistakes.

I think it also makes the other person feel more comfortable

as well.

Right.

That's it for today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it

and I hope you learned something.

If you have any more ideas or recommendations for overcoming

language block,

please leave them down below in the description box.

No, don't put them in the description box,

put them in the comments section.

The description box is mine.

The comments section is yours.

Also feel free to share any funny language block moments

you've had,

times where there is just a word that is

impossible to describe.

Don't forget to check out the Lingoda Language Sprint.

The link is in the description box,

along with all the dates and you can use my code, SCHOOL15

for a €10 discount on your deposit.

Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.

I've got my Facebook, my Instagram, and my Twitter.

You can now sign up to receive emails from me.

The link is down in the description box as well,

Very exciting.

And I have my new vlogging channel.

It's not so new anymore.

My vlogging channel,

I'll be uploading a vlog very, very soon

If not already, who knows?

I will see you soon for another lesson.

(blows a kiss)

(upbeat music)