How to Give Bad News: 6 Easy English Expressions

Hey, there. My name's Ronnie, and sometimes you might have to give people some bad news,

and that's never easy. It doesn't matter how well you can speak English, how fluent you

are in English, sometimes your job will make you give people bad news. So, for example,

if you're at work, and maybe you work in the HR department, or you have employees that

help you out, or friends at your job. So, any work situations where you're speaking

to other people, sometimes you have to break some bad news to people.

Relationships. Maybe you hate your girlfriend, but you kind of have to be nice to them and

break... Break up the relationship maybe nicely. Not just a text. "I hate you. Bye." That's

the easy way. I don't recommend that.

If you work in the healthcare field, sometimes you've got to give some bad news to people.

Some people have... People who are not really well, they have maybe some terminal illness,

or some people have died. And it's hard, it's really difficult, but the more you do it,

the easier it becomes. We become, unfortunately, desensitized to a lot of this. Sometimes you're

going to have to tell your family, or your friends bad things. "Mom, I smashed your car."

So, we do have ways to make this a little bit easier. And in English, we have an expression

that says "soften the blow". So, it could be a blow, like a bomb goes off, like you

blew me up, or a blow is like... If you punch someone, they... So, to make something soft

means to make it less hard. Yes, it does, ladies and gentlemen. So, if you want to make

something softer, you make it less harsh or less aggressive. So, how to soften the blow

when you're telling people some bad news. And this is the best thing. You know, I got

to be honest with you, but your dog is just the wrong colour. If you tell the person honestly,

straightforwardly, directly, it helps them a lot. You don't want to come into a room

and, you know, like, "Oh, hey, I like your new shoes. I hate you, I hate you, I hate

you, I want to kill you. Oh, yeah, I like... Yeah, that's a nice dress. Yes, good, good.

And I hate you." Oh, so don't we say "beat around the bush"? Don't talk about other things.

As soon as you sit the person down, be direct with them. But make it a little bit nicer.

This is hard for me to tell you, but I'm sorry, you can't live here anymore. Your pet hamster

is just running all around the place and causing terrible, terrible things to happen to my

cat. Again, telling people how honest you are about things, for some reason it's very

comforting. "I'm not going to lie." So you're being, like, super, super honest about it.

We have another expression called "sugar coat". Mmm, so sugar is a very sweet thing, it's

very delicious. Right? So, you're going to say, "I'm not gonna sugar coat it." Now, maybe

you're looking at this board and you're saying, "Gonna? Ronnie, what does 'gonna' mean?" "Gonna"

is the short form of "going to". So, "I'm not gonna lie", "I'm not going to lie", "I'm

not gonna sugar coat it", "I'm not going to sugar coat it", but bam, then you hit them

with your news. "I'm not gonna lie, but I really don't ever want to talk to you again."

And people are like, "Oh, okay, fine, thank you." And exit room. Bye, you're gone.

When you're telling people bad news in a healthcare situation, "Wow, I'm sorry to have to tell

you this." And again, you're being genuine, you're being real with the people, you're

being direct. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but your grandpa's, you know, he's not

going to make it." "Oh, okay." And then you wait for the feedback. There's no easy way

to say this. Then you tell them the bad news. The more direct, the faster, it's easier.

"I'm afraid I've got some bad news. I'm afraid I've got some bad news." You have to be genuine

with the people, and when you're telling them the bad news, try and be a bit friendly and

helpful with them. Don't just leave, maybe say, "Do you have any questions?" or "If I

can help you, please let me know." But it's always nice to be helpful to people.

So, I hope that nothing bad happens to you where you have to actually use these, but

it's good to know these expressions. And to be honest with you, I just don't want to do

this anymore. Yeah, bye.