English Vocabulary You Should Use (but probably don't)

Hi there, this is Harry, welcome back  to advanced English lessons with Harry,  

where I try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language.  

We help you with expressions and phrases,  vocabulary, and everything else connected  

with English. And anything that you're looking  to help you to improve your situation your job  

prospects or just simply to improve business  English or conversational English. Well,  

you've come to the right place, if you have any  problems, very happy to help you. I'll give you  

the address at the end of this particular lesson.  If you need to contact me, then you can do so.

So in this advanced English lesson,  we're looking at expressions and  

phrases and words about thinking, okay,  everything connected with thinking,  

so I'll give you them. And then I'll give  you an example as to how you might use  

them. We've got 10 in total. So  I'll go through them one by one.

And as I said, at the end of the  lesson, you'll get the address,  

if you need to contact me, then you  can use that. Okay, let's get going.

Number one, a rational thinker. But when  we refer to somebody as a rational thinker,  

they think everything through logically, it's not  irrational, they think it through logically they  

see what the implications are, and then they make  the decision, then they plan. So rational means  

something that is well thought out something that  will work perhaps and may not always work. But  

it's done in a very logical way very rational,  not somebody just thinking off the top of their  

head. So they give it a lot of thought, a lot of  consideration and a lot of planning. So somebody  

could be described as a very rational thinker who  takes a bit of time before he gives an answer. But  

he doesn't like to give quick answers, because he  likes to consider the situation from both sides,  

and then give his view or opinions and  therefore he could be described by colleagues,  

and classmates or family as a rational  thinker. He never makes quick decisions.

Number two, on a whim, when we do something on  a whim, we usually do it without really thinking  

or considering. I just woke up one morning, and  thought, it's time I had a holiday. So I booked  

a holiday I left the next day. And it was the  best thing I ever did. I just did it on a whim,  

I don't know, I must have been dreaming about  it. But when I woke up, and I told my wife,  

just get the bags packed, we'll go to the airport,  we're heading off for the weekend. And we really  

enjoy yourselves. And I don't usually do things  on a whim, but I thought it would be a little  

bit spontaneous this time. So to do something on  a whim is to do it very quickly. Without thinking  

without having any planning, you just get this  notion in your mind. and off you go you do it  

on a whim. People can resign from their jobs on  a whim, they have a row with somebody or they're  

just not they haven't been feeling happy in the  job for a long time. So do you suddenly decide,  

That's it. I've had enough I'm going to  do... I'm going to travel for six months,  

or I'm going to just give up working for a while  and then I look for something that really really  

suits me. So they go in and they hand in  the resignation. And the boss says, Well,  

this is very quick. Yeah, I know. I've done  it on a whim. But I really think it's the  

best thing for me, okay to, to resign to hand  in your resignation, do something on a whim.

Number three is gut instinct. Well, a  gut is another word and it's a slang  

word for a stomach. So it's the feeling  we have deep inside. We've all had that  

feeling from time to time when something  isn't right. We have a gut instinct,  

something tells us we're not sure why is there's  no perhaps rational thinking behind it. But it's  

just a feeling we have we shouldn't go here.  We shouldn't go there. We shouldn't answer  

this. We shouldn't answer that we shouldn't  apply for this job or that job. It's a gut  

instinct that you have something tells  you that is not right. Something tells  

you that it would be the wrong decision to make  so you make the decision based on gut instincts.

Number four, a spontaneous decision. Well,  it's something similar to on a whim when we  

make a spontaneous decision. It's very,  very quick. No planning, no thinking,  

no pre thought about it. We just do it. What made  you do it at just a spontaneous decision that came  

into my mind when we were sitting there having  coffee, I just thought you know, that's what I'd  

like to do. That's exactly what I'd like to do.  So he sold his car, got the cash and gave it to  

a charity. It's a spontaneous decision. You know,  if I want a car, I can rent a car. I don't need  

it. I go every day to work either on foot or by  bicycle or their metro is a great system. And  

if I need to drive somewhere outside the city,  I can rent a car I don't need it. And anyway,  

I want I've always wanted to do make some  charitable act, some donation this was the  

best thing that I could think of a spontaneous  decision, something very quick, very sudden.

Number five, to know subconsciously Well, when we  have a subconscious thought, it's something that  

is there, but we're not so sure how it came into  our mind. But we just know that it's the right  

thing to do. So we know subconsciously. Okay, so  we've decided to change the way we do our work,  

we've decided to change how we approach  different people, how we approach situations,  

so it wasn't a conscious decision, you just didn't  sit down, some day and said, Right, this is it,  

I'm going to deal with my boss in a different way.  That would be a very conscious decision. But when  

you do something, subconsciously, something tells  you inside some message comes into your mind,  

a good way to deal with that boss to get on better  with him would be would be to approach him in  

a slightly different way. So subconsciously,  that's what you do just something tells you,  

you might even say a little bird tells you  that this would be the best way to do it.

Number six to weigh up. And usually we  weigh up the options or the choices that  

we have weigh up means to balance one against  the other, perhaps we've got two options,  

we have to consider, perhaps with more than two  options, so we weigh them up means we weigh up,  

we look at the pros and the cons, the positives  and negatives, the pluses and the minuses. And  

then we come to a conclusion or a decision.  Once we've weighed up what our options are.  

We could be weighing weighing up the options  to accept job A or job B, we could be weighing  

up our options to decide on college A or  college B, university A or university B,  

whatever the decision is that's in front  of us, we want to weigh up all of those  

positives and the negatives. To try and work  out what is the best for us, to weigh up.

Number seven, deep down again, a bit like your gut  instinct deep down inside of us. We know what to  

do. Yeah, we think about a problem for a long,  long time. We weigh up the options for a long,  

long time. But really deep down, we know the  decision we have to make, it might not be a good  

decision. But or it might not be, it might not  be an easy decision. But at the end of the day,  

we have to do it. So for example, you've got  somebody in your team that just isn't working  

out. So you weigh up the pros and cons what  he or she is good at what he or she is bad  

at. You try to find something that's going  to help you to make the decision you don't  

like having to tell people that they're not  really fitting into your team, it's not an  

easy decision to sit somebody down and tell them  I think you should look for another position. No,  

it's not easy at all. So you look for all  of the options before you come to it. But  

deep down inside, you know, that's the best  decision to make for you for the team and  

funnily enough for the other person because  they're not really happy either. So deep down.

Number eight is good phrasal verb to mull over.  And just for the pronunciation M U L L. Mull  

over. When when you mull over something,  you think about it for a period of time,  

could be hours or days. There's no specific  period allotted for this but to mull over  

means to think about it. So, in a situation, leave  it with me. Let me mull it over for a few days,  

perhaps over the weekend. I'll give you my answer  on Monday. So Thursday evening or Friday, you  

have this particular situation presented to you  by your colleagues or your boss or somebody and  

you want a bit of time to think about it. Leave  it with me for a few days. I'll mull it over,  

or talk to my partner about it. And I'll give  you my answer on Monday. To mull something over.

Number nine, to think twice about something,  to think twice about something. This means  

that we don't give a quick knee jerk reaction,  somebody asked us to do something, somebody makes  

a suggestion. And we give an instantaneous  response. No, that's not the situation. The  

situation here is to think twice about something.  I really would like to say yes. But you know,  

I've given it some thought and I don't think  it's for me. So they think twice. Yeah, sometimes  

people seem to have have second thoughts. It  means exactly the same. Your first reaction,  

perhaps us to say yes. But when you think it over  and you think twice about something, you realise  

that it's not really what you want. So you turn  it down, sometimes regrettably, but, you know,  

things happen for a reason. So to think twice  about something means just to give it a little  

bit more time, and you'll probably come up with a  better solution a better fix for you rather than  

that knee jerk. Something that you do at a whim,  okay, something to think twice about something.

And then finally, number 10. To have a hunch.  Well, a hunch is a feeling inside. There's no  

logical reasoning for this. There's no information  written down. You just have a general feeling.  

I have a hunch that he's not going to turn up  today. Why do you say that? I don't know. I mean,  

he's usually here at eight at 8:15 at the latest.  But sure, it's nine o'clock now, nobody's heard  

from so perhaps he's sick. But I have a hunch,  he's not going to turn up. And you were right,  

he didn't turn up. Or you have a hunch that the  board are going to make some announcements. And  

you've seen people coming and going for the last  couple of weeks. And you just got a funny feeling  

that this is not the normal practice for them,  meetings behind closed doors. So you have a hunch  

that something's going on. You're not sure  what it is. Nobody has said anything to you.  

But you have a hunch you have this feeling that  something's going to happen. And yes, of course,  

the next week, there's an announcement that  they're going to merge or they're going to  

be taken over or something seriously going  to happen to the business, to have a hunch.

Okay, so we've got 10 ways, 10 different adverb...  coll... sorry sorry, advanced collocations that  

will help you to talk about different situations  when you're thinking. So advanced words and  

phrases connected with thinking. So let me give  them the 10 of you... 10 of them again to you.  

Number one, rational thinker, a rational thinker,  somebody who thinks rationally. Number two,  

something on a whim, like here's something you  do suddenly without planning. A gut instinct,  

some feeling inside something tells  you it's a gut instinct. Number four,  

spontaneous decision like on a whim, something  very quick, very sudden. Number five,  

to know subconsciously. Deep down, you know,  it's not a conscious decision. Weigh up,  

weigh up the options. Number seven, deep down.  You have this particular feeling. Number eight,  

to mull over something to think about it for a few  days whenever mull over. Number nine, think twice  

about something. Yeah, give it a second thought.  Make sure you're making the right decision,  

think twice about something. And then finally,  number ten, to have a hunch about something.

Okay, so 10 particular advanced vocabulary and  phrases that will help you to discuss and think  

about and plan about different situations and  these can be used in your English. As I always  

say, you have to practice them. You have to  try and drop them into your conversation,  

see how you use them. If you need  any additional help, come back to  

me at www.englishlessonviaskype.com. Very happy  to hear from you, very happy to help you. Very  

happy to give you some other examples if you  need them. Okay, this is Harry saying goodbye.  

Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening,  and join me as always for the next lesson.