Improve Your Spoken English: 10 Everyday Phrases for Uncertainty

Hi there. This is Harry. And welcome back  to Advanced English Lessons with Harry,  

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

And in this particular advanced English lesson  today we're going to take a look at must know  

words and expressions. Natural English will  help you to improve your spoken and written  

English. So we're going to talk specifically about  vague language okay. And vague means language,  

which is not so clear or not so certain, but it  forms an important part of the English language.

Let me give you a very quick example.  When I say I'm almost finished. I'm not  

telling you exactly when I have  finished or when I will finish,  

but I've almost finished, so almost  can be used to describe vague language.

It doesn't mean we don't know  what we're talking about.

Sometimes when we might not want  to give somebody the exact answer.

So we're looking at language  that will be described as  

vague language and how you can use it.

So we've got ten types of expressions and vague  language, so I'll go through them with you

The first expression is an expression, give  or take. Now when we use that expression,  

give or take. We are being a little bit  vague. So again if we go back to my earlier  

example of somebody asking when will you  be finished this work? So you've got some  

workmen in your house and they're doing some  decorations for some painting or wallpaper.

Could you give me an idea when you might  be finished? I'd be finished probably in  

a few hours, give or take a few minutes.  Okay, so I'm not going to be committed.  

So give or take. So when we use give or take,  we are making a suggestion and approximation.

When will the dinner be ready? Ah,  it’ll be ready in a couple of hours,  

give or take a few minutes. So  again, mom or dad not being very,  

very specific because they know what the children  would be like. Is dinner ready yet? I'm hungry.  

I'm starving. Is dinner ready yet? So give or  take. Yeah. Okay. So I'll be ready in 20 minutes.

Give or take. I'll come to your party. Of  course. I'll be there around 9:00, give or  

take a few minutes. So you could be there a few  minutes early or a few minutes late, give or take.

Number two. This word stuff. Now stuff is  one of those words. It can mean anything.

can have lots and lots of stuff in your room.  Means things that you don't really need,  

or lots of boxes. And somebody's your friend  or your mother. Your father might say,  

isn't it about time you got rid of  some of that stuff in your room?

no, no. They're all my old things. My old  Lego, my old books. I want to keep them.  

They could be worth lots of money in the  future. So I want to keep my stuff. That's  

my stuff. Brothers and sisters. Siblings  are always fighting. He touched my stuff.

they're not saying specifically.  He touched my books.

He touched my music. He touched  my clothes. He touched my stuff.  

So it's a general word that includes  everything. But it's a vague word.  

We're not being so specific,  but it's a word that is used

in the English language a lot.

Have you any old stuff that  you would like to get rid of?

So somebody asked you, well,  what did you give to the

charity shop?

Some suits and shirts, stuff like that. Okay, so  when you use that expression, stuff like that,  

it's incorporating or including everything.  You're not being overly specific. You don't  

want to go on forever and tell them every item  of clothing that you gave to the charity shop,  

but you're going to give some indication,  shirts and trousers, shoes, stuff like that.

So a general.

collect all everything together, stuff like that.

Number three. Again, very similar to  the second one. Something like that.

so if your boss is asking you to prepare  a business plan and you want him to be a  

little bit more specific. Well, what would  you like me to include in the business plan?

Well, you know yourself the the plans for  the next year. You know, the projections,  

the sales forecasts, something like that.  Yeah. You you know what to do. You can,  

based on the previous years. And we can change it  for this year and make I'll read it. And then if  

there's anything else that has to be changed, I'll  come back to you and you can make the changes.

So something like that.

Or what? Are you preparing for dinner? I'm not  so sure, but I'd have a look in there. The fridge  

in the freezer. See what I've got. Perhaps it  will be a vegetable and dish. Or maybe a mix.  

Vegetarian or something else. Something like that.  Yeah, okay. But I'm sure it would be appetising.

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Now, in the next one, we've got this suffix I ach  ish, and we use that a lot in this vague language.  

So lots of words you can add on the I s h. For  example. What colour was it? Blackish. Yeah,  

not exactly black but black ish.  So we're not certain but black ish.

Can you remember what it looked like? Yeah,  it was black ish but I'm not quite sure. So  

you go into a shop and you can't  see the particular coat that you,  

you saw the previous week, and you're trying  to explain to the sales assistant what which  

one it was, and they ask you, what can you  describe it that was sort of black ish.

Yeah. Okay.

Or if somebody wants to describe  the person they met, you

can you give me

the size of the person or the age? Well,

I think he was 40 ish is very hard  to be specific, but 40 ish meanings,  

he could it could be 41, 42, 43. He was 40 ish.

What's the weather like? It's not  raining heavily, but it has been raining,  

so it's. It's damp ish. Yeah. So you need  to have a coat or a jacket because it feels  

a little bit chilly. So it's not really  raining at the moment, but it is damp ish,  

so it doesn't feel so comfortable. Okay.  So you're looking at the new apartment.

It's in the centre of the town, the old  town. And when you walk around the apartment,  

if it feels cold, I mean, you're describing  it to your friend. I. I'm not so sure.  

I'm really interested. It was damp ish. I  couldn't say for certain. It didn't. Look,  

I couldn't see anything on  the walls, any signs of damp.

But to me it was damp ish. So black ish, 40 ish,  

damp ish. So that a suffix is added  on to the end of the word will help  

you to use that vague language that I've been  discussing the vague language to to talk about.

Now, when we talk about colours, we  use this issue a lot. As I said before,  

blackish or bluish, you know, reddish,

greenish any of those you can add on I  s h and with some colours you can also  

add the letter y for it was yellowy or  greeny. Okay. In some dictionaries you  

get the description of it was a bluey  tie. I don't usually use bluey. I more,

Prefer to much more prefer to use bluish  rather than blue. But it does. They do  

use it in other books and in dictionaries, so  you have the choice with some to use blackish  

or reddish. Brownish. Greeny. Yellowy.  Okay, now we don't say black or white,  

but we do say yellowy or greeny or whitish  or bluish. Yeah. Okay. Or blackish.

So you just pick and choose which colours you're  going to use and be very careful. Some very.

easily use ish and others were more easily use  the y like yellowy or greeny or bluey. Okay,

Number five. He looks sort of all kind of.  So again, if we're giving a description of  

somebody one not so sure because perhaps  we didn't get a very good look at him.

So he looks kind of old,

sort of heavy,

kind of old fashioned. The way he was  walking or the way he was dressed.

So again, we're being a little  bit vague with our description.

If you're trying to describe

price. So let's say you're  looking to buy a home and  

you're trying to describe to a property agent  what you're looking for. He might ask you,  

well, what's your your price range and what  is your high or your low levels where you'd  

be comfortable to buy. So you might be, Oh,  somewhere in the region of.... So if you...  

you don't want to go below a certain level,  and you certainly don't want to go above it.

You might say, Ah, somewhere in the region of  200,000, or somewhere in the region of 220,000.  

So you're not being absolutely precise,  but you're giving a rough indication to  

the property agent's so that he'd be able  to perhaps search and look out for and  

identify property that you might be interested  in. Okay. Or if you're asking about salaries  

and your son is looking for a new job,  or your daughter looking for a new job,  

and you're asking them, well,  what sort of salary do you want?

Somewhere in the region of 25 or €30,000  to start off with. And hopefully over time  

I'll be able to get some increases  and some promotions somewhere in the  

region off. Or indeed, how many  people were at the concert? Well,

there might have been 10,000 or  15,000 somewhere in the region of  

20,000 people who were at the concert  or somewhere in the region of 200,000  

people were on the streets demonstrating  against the the government's recent plan.

So we're,

not being exact. We're using approximations  so we can use this vague language.

Again, if somebody is trying to explain to  you a particular view or a particular point,  

then they can use an expression like  something along those lines. Okay.  

So you're making a presentation  perhaps to the staff. And your  

boss wants you to include details of  the new budget, details of the new

Target's details of the new company that  you're going to acquire. So you're asking,  

well, what specifically do you want me to say?  And he said, well, you can use your own words,  

but something along those lines, tell them  about our plans. Tell them about what this  

acquisition will mean. Tell them how long it  will take. Or something along those lines.

But use your own words. Be comfortable with  it. So he's giving you plenty of opportunity,  

plenty of scope, and you have the chance to use  your own words. But he wants you to incorporate  

some specific information. So something  along those lines that would be perfect.

Now we all have this situation when  we forget somebody’s name and we,

Can see the person, we can picture  them. We can see the outline of  

them. But for some strange reason,  we've just forgotten their name. So

We have to be quite vague. I you know that  the person who works in administration on  

the fourth floor, you know, she's really,  really helpful. She's always there. If you  

have a problem. What's her name? So we use  that expression. What's her name or what's  

his name? So we can't be absolutely  certain. It's a David. It's a Declan.

Not I know begins with a D. What's his name?  Yeah. Okay. Oh. Mary Margaret, you know,  

you know, what's her name? You'll know. Or when  you see, it's it's. You should always really,  

really helpful. So we use that that  expression. What's a name. What's his  

name. Because we just we've forgotten for  a minute or two and we can picture them,  

but we don't have the name  on the tip of our tongues.

So if you're changing your  apartment or you're having a

redecoration or you, you want to use to have a,

as we often say, spring clean.  So many might ask you, well,  

what are you doing? I'm getting  rid of a few bits and pieces. Now,  

that could mean everything in your apartment  or everything in your room, or just some  

pieces of furniture. But we use this catch all  expression out to some bits and pieces. Yeah.

Did you go down to the the charity shop  or did you go to the car boot sale? I did,  

it was really interesting. I'd never been  to one before, but I, I got a few things.

Just a few bits and pieces.

So you don't want to be specific. You  don't want to go through item by item?

Maybe you want to.

Keep it a little bit private.  So you just use this,

expression, just some bits  and pieces. What are you  

going to donate to the the charity  shop? Just some bits and pieces.

Things that I know longer need. Things I  found in the attic, things I found in the  

basement. Things I found buried in the back  of my wardrobe that I never used. Just some  

bits and pieces. I might as well give them away  because I like to declutter every now and again.

And then finally this word sing or singing? Yeah.

again, when we're trying to get something  to open a bottle of wine or to fix the  

shelf onto the wall, or to hold up the the  lamp or, you know, and you can't think of  

the exact words you said, I could you pass  me that thingy we use for opening the wine?

You mean the the bottle opener? Yeah,  yeah, yeah, that's the thing. Oh,  

can you pass me that thingy we used to  make as straight lines on the wall? Yes.  

You mean the the plumb line? Yeah. Yeah,  that's exactly what I mean. Or, you know,  

the, the thingy for measuring the length of  the shelf or. You mean the the tape measure.

Yeah, yeah. That thing. So when we can't  think of the exact thing that we want,  

then we use the word thingy. And it's not that

we don't know the word. We've just momentarily  forgotten it. So we use the word thingy.

Ah, yeah, that thingy. So we use  the word thingy all of the time.

Okay, so these are ten particular expressions.  Phrases are words that we would consider to be  

vague language. It's not that there isn't a word  for them, it's just good at times to use them  

because it's natural English and we use it all  the time. So let me give them to you once more.

Number one, give or take one one, but not being  exact about the time that we're going to finish,  

or that the exact time that something is going to  be ready, give or take a few minutes, give or take

or stuff like that, we want  to be more general. I yeah,  

I'm just going to throw away some  clothes, you know, stuff like that.

Like those trousers that I no longer  wear, the suits or the jumpers. You know,  

those old Christmas presents I got. No,  I never wore them. So stuff like that

or something like that again, stuff like that  or something like that. And then we've got this,

suffix I s h blackish in colour,  bluish in colour. He was 40.

She was 30 ish. The weather. It's damp  ish. And again you can with colours.  

You can also use yellowy greeny or bluey  but not white or black. So blackish. Yeah,  

but yellowy reddish. Brownish bluey. Okay.  And then if we want to be just to be vague  

when we're describing something,  he's kind of or looks sort of like.

Yeah. So we're a little bit uncertain about  the specifics, but we can broadly describe  

the person kind of short sort of heavy. Okay. Or  when we're talking about price of things somewhere  

in the region of somewhere in the region of or  describing what we might use in a document or the,  

the, the words you might use in a presentation,  something along those lines would be perfect.

Something along those lines was  just what we're looking for.

We can't remember a person's name. I, you  know, what's her name? What's his name?

I'm redecorating. I'm going  to get rid of some things in  

my house. Some bits and pieces. Bits  and pieces. And then finally. Yeah,  

that thingy. The thingy we used to open  the bottle. Yeah. The thingy. Okay. So.

All vague language that you can practise.  These you're going to have to be very,  

very careful how you use them. Try to  understand them first of all. Try to  

put them into written sentences to see that  you can understand them. Match them against  

the examples of I've given. And then try to  use 1 or 2 of them in your conversations.

And as always, come back to me about any  problems and be very happy to help you.

me. Okay, this is Harry thanking you for watching  

and listening. And remember,  join me for the next lesson.