English Topics - English you say without thinking

584,102 views ・ 2015-02-07

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Alisha: Hi, everybody! Welcome back! I'm joined today again in the studio by…
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Michael: Michael. Hey, everybody!
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Alisha: And today we're going to be talking about our favorite English that we use without
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even thinking about it, so these are things that we just say, we say just so often they
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come really really naturally to us. So they might be kind of helpful for you to hear about
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some of the things that we like to say. So I guess I'll start us off for this one. The
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first one that I've picked, I think I think I picked really simple phrases this time around.
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The first one that I've chosen is the phrase I know. I know. I like to use this to agree
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with my friends a lot, so if my friend gives me some some kind of interesting information,
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I go "I know" or "I know!" Something just to show that I'm listening to them, and that
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I agree, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm already, I don't know, like, like I've
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learned the information or something like that it's it's an agreement phrase that I
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like to use with my friends. it's just something that, yeah.
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Michael: Yeah yeah that's this funny you said that because before you explain like the tone
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and gave an example of how you say it, I thought of it on the opposite side. To me, it sounded
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like a kid who's like I know, I know, mom. I'm giving them like you need to do this and
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this and this I know, I know, you know, I'm trying to think, I mean these are gender roles,
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you can say i thowever you want but I'm trying to think I know yeah hmm I don't know I've
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ever said it like that.
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Alisha: Really? Oh, maybe it is a gender thing maybe it's more common among women than it
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is among them but I feel like it maybe it's just in a movie or maybe it's because it where
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I'm from that people will say like if you watch the last video for example dude I know
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that kind of yeah but that your point about kids saying that, it's so funny, like when
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you get in trouble, I know, I know. saying it like that it has a different meaning. it's
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another exercise in intonation, maybe this word I know but this phrase really okay cool
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so there's one what's your what's your first one?
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Michael: So my first word is not really a word, it spelled a couple different ways,
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it's Pshhh… So this is something I didn't realize that I do a lot or say a lot or whatever
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but it's a sound that English speakers make that shows disapproval. so I don't know, like,
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okay, for example, the kid who's talking to a parent and then the parent says you know
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you need to do your homework, and I know, I know, but no seriously you need to get into
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a good… Pshhh! Mom, whatever! yes it may be the same as, like, whatever.
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Alisha: Yep! she's good there are a lot of variations on Pshhh never whatever you don't
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want to hear what the other person is saying, you can use she or I seen another one that
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I like to use pffffft, that one's harder to say though it's not so natural. I think Pshhh
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good, any any sort of PP kind of sound him that just any sort of just nonsensical phrase
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said like that means I don't want to listen to what you're saying. yeah, that's a great
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one. that's a great one! I use that all the time, too!
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Michael: I wish, I wish I didn't use it as much as I did, but, yeah, I suppose so.
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Alisha: I see what you mean okay all right uh well onward I guess my next word is anyway.
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Anyway, I like to use to transition between two things to transition between ideas. I
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also like to use it when I'm I've been talking for way too long and I need to make an exit
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from the conversation. usually, I use anyway with kind of a dot-dot-dot feeling anyway,
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and I don't finish any, I don't finish saying anything after that. it's just sort of is
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my just a little slide out of it out of the conversation.
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Michael: Anyway… Anyway, so I use this word a lot, actually. I'm glad you said that, actually
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some of my students asked me, they said, you know, what are some good words that connect
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to ideas or something like that, like a beginning you know like first, second, these kinds of
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words, and I never noticed this before it actually relates to this question, that a
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lot of the things that you look up that are transition words, we don't ever use in speech,
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it doesn't sound natural but you have to use synonyms, you have to switch it up if you're
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writing. Speaking, I say anyway almost every their sentence, maybe I do it too much, well,
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not that much but a lot a lot I realized even typing, even business emails, I say it all
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of the time like it's kind of like well, yeah, anyway. Maybe because I go on tangents a lot,
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so for me I use it not not as much as the anyway dot dot dot, I usually do the anyway
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back to what I was saying blah blah blah.
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Alisha: that's a good point about it being used for transitions so a lot of my students
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are the same way they'll pick like a really really formal almost business-y term to use
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to transition in their speech and doesn't really sound so natural, but something like
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anyway or like you said well, or so, it's much better to use in conversation I think
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cool okay. Anyway.
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Michael: Anyway. Seriously. So seriously this is another one always the intonation, this
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is this is our our thing is intonation, I guess, but seriously can be said in a lot
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of different ways. For me, maybe the most common is the same as when you say really?
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Just kind of like seriously? Okay, like, did that actually happen no way really yeah anytime
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you anytime you go up like that it's just it's a rhetorical question, you don't actually
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want an answer just like wow, same thing as wow. And then there's also the when someone
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does something stupid and you just look and seriously? You know, but that's less common,
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that's you know kind of ...
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Alisha: Really?
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Michael: Seriously?
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Alisha: no, really! I mean I I use it the way that you just described it to do just
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to like if I see I don't know somebody who is walking on the street in front of me and
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maybe they stop and they don't have any consideration for the people behind them on the street,
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I might go seriously?
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Michael: Oh! you're right, you're right, you're right!
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Alisha: Like, oh! Is this really happening? Did you just make this decision? I, so, I,
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maybe, I use it when I'm talking to myself more not so much, I don't necessarily. Yeah,
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those are fighting words.
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Michael: Yeah, those are fighting words, so no, you're right, I think maybe driving, the
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same thing, yeah. Seriously? Or I mean, are you are you kidding me? Well, I don't want
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to say the bad version of it, but this is what I'm thinking I'm driving like are you
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kidding me seriously you're right you're right but it's usually to yourself because otherwise,
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it's pretty aggressive
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Alisha: That's true, yes, don't say it to the other person. But, yeah, you're right,
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in terms of when you're talking to your friends and you want to ask, did that really happen
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to you? Seriously? Yeah, it's super useful. Okay, my turn? Okay, last one for me. My last
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one is when I use all the time in a number of situations, I've chosen: I don't know.
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This is great for, of course, when you don't know the answer to something but I think when
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you don't know the answer to something like you know math question or whatever, it's better
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to say I don't know but when you use the the contracted, dunno. Form of don't know, it
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just shows kind of that you're, it's not a serious issue, it's not something you need
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your overly concerned with, I don't know, I don't have an answer, I don't have an idea,
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it's kind of like saying you know what do you think or just this is all I've got, you
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know. So I don't know, do you use it?
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Michael: No, that’s, that's a really good one. The same thing is anyway, I type this
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a lot I say well I say idk, which is the acronym for it. I would never say IDK out loud, don't
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say IDK, that sounds kind of stupid, I'm sorry, in my opinion. But you say I don't know. I
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don't know, I don't know. I say that all the time because I think it's it's just a nice
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way to be humble, really, because maybe you do know or you think you know, but it's a
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nice way to be like I'm not sure, you know, what do you think? it's a nice thing, it tones
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down your tone, you don't sound as authoritative as aggressive you say. I don't know what do
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you want to eat Chinese food tonight? yeah I mean I don't know we can we can eat whatever
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you want what do you think?
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Alisha: Yeah, it's like a really nice soften or like that if you want to introduce you
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know like an offer, if you have an idea about something but you're not sure how the other
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person feels, you can just say I don't know, what do you want to do? I don't know what
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do you want to do?
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Michael: But that's usually the thing that I don't know what do you want to do? I don't
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know what do you want to do okay just make a decision, we're gonna go to youtube, and
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we're gonna watch some videos in EnglishClass101.
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Alisha: Wow nice! Anyway... Okay, so that's some English that we use without thinking
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about it all the time. I think that they're pretty useful phrases and they're a little
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bit fun, too. If you have some English that you like to use from time to time, or that
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you just find comes out of your mouth without thinking about it, please leave us a comment
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and let us know what it is, and...
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Michael: Yeah, so also, this is this is a tough one because if you use it without thinking
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about it, it's hard for us to realize what those words are, so if there are any words
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you hear English people say and you're curious, also leave that in a comment anyway you can,
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and anyway I think that's that's about all we have, anything else?
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Alisha: I think that's all! So give them a try and we will see you again next time when
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we have more fun stuff to talk about. Thank you. Bye!
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