DON'T USE I'm shocked in English | Learn MUCH better ways to express yourself

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back  to my lessons where I tried to help you to  

speak better English, we can do that when if you  listen to my podcast or you can watch my YouTube,  

so make sure that you subscribe to the channel.  So what we're trying to do is to give you the  

opportunity to speak better English that you  can speak to your colleagues, you can speak to  

your friends, you can make those business calls,  or complete those all-important job interviews,  

whatever it takes whatever you need grammar,  phrasal verbs, we can help you with those. So what  

am I going to talk to you about today? Well, today  the important part of this, we're going to look at  

ways to say that I am shocked in English. So  when we are shocked, we are also surprised. So  

ways in which we can say shocked in  English. So there are a number of ways to  

express being shocked. Of course, you can  just have an expression on your face, or  

you don't have to say anything, and people  will immediately know by the look on your face,  

that you're somewhat shocked by what you've  seen, or what you've heard or what somebody has  

said to you. But there are lots of expressions and  words that you can use. So what I'm going to do,  

I'm going to go down through them one by one,  then we'll go back to them and give you some  

examples. So let's start. I'm speechless.  I'm lost for words. I'm flabbergasted.  

I'm gobsmacked, astounded. So I am astounded,  staggered. I was or I am staggered,  

stunned, startled, I was startled and taken  aback. Now, a few of those are a little bit more  

formal than others. And I'll explain those as  we go through them. And then my jaw dropped, so…  

what else? I jumped out of my skin.  Okay. And finally, there were some raised  

eyebrows, raised eyebrows. So all of those  are these ways in which we can say shots or  

English ways to say shocked. So let me go  through them one by one. So the first one,  

I'm speechless? Well, when we talk  about speech, speeches. How we talk,  

we can make a speech, a wedding speech or a speech  at the presentation. And when we are speechless,  

it means we can't say anything. Now, we couldn't  be speechless, because we've lost our voice.  

We can't speak at all. But when we are shocked,  you know, usually we go. And because of that  

intake of breath, it's very hard to get the  words out. So this is where it comes from.  

I'm speechless, or I was speechless. So some  news you get that really shocked you. So you  

heard that your your boss was leaving the  company, and he'd been working there for  

as far as you knew 20 years. And so he was one of  these, as we call them, company, guys, somebody  

who would never leave or never go anywhere else.  But you heard him leaving, and he's going to go  

and live in the country. He's going to spend  his time fishing you Oh, my God, I'm speechless.  

I just don't know what to say. I thought he would  be here until he died. So you're speechless. Okay,  

then the second one, I'm lost for words,  again, something similar when we're speechless.  

We can't find the words to say. So another way to  express it would be to say, I'm lost for words,  

that this could be a shock or a surprise that's  either positive or negative. Yeah. So you can be  

lost for words when you hear some bad news, you  can be lost for words when something positive  

happens. So for example, it's your birthday,  let's say it's your 30th, or 40th, or your 50th,  

one of those special birthdays with a zero. And  when you come home, you open the door and say hi,  

hi, I'm back. And you open the door into the  living room. And surprise and all of your friends  

are there, there's a big streamer across the wall,  which is telling you happy birthday. And then  

everybody starts congratulating you and they make  presentations and gifts. And you're standing there  

looking around at all your friends. And yet your  last four words. And that's exactly what you say,  

is, um, last words, I just I wasn't expecting  this up. That's not what I was expecting at  

all. In fact, I thought I was just going to  have a quiet evening. In fact, I really wanted  

to forget about it. But I'm so happy that  you're all here. So your last four words.  

The next is I'm flabbergasted now here,  you're very careful with the pronunciation and  

just check on the spelling. We'll put it up  on the screen. flabbergasted, flabbergasted,  

very, very British English word and it usually  is there to describe and somebody is really  

surprised by whatever they've seen, or whatever  they've heard. Yeah. So for example, if you're  

sitting at home one morning and you hear  the postman coming and this letter falls  

through the letterbox and you go and you pick it  up and you don't recognise the type of envelope  

which your name is on it. So you go inside,  you sit down and you open the envelope. And  

you, ‘Oh my God.’ And then you try to explain to  your wife or partner that I've won. I've won the  

first prize in that competition that I said I  would enter, but I didn't. I'm flabbergasted I,  

I don't know what to say also flabbergasted  being really, really surprised by the news you've  

received in the envelope, you're, you're just  gonna start mumbling and muttering and it just  

can't get the words out. You're flabbergasted.  So that's really good news. Because obviously  

you get a prize or you've won something that  is bound to be good news. There's either going  

to be a monetary prize, or a holiday or a new  car, whatever it might be. But yeah, you never  

expected to win it. You never expected to be in  that position. So when you do get the news and  

your name, and those details appear, and that and  the envelope when you open it, well, of course,  

you're going to be absolutely surprised.  And the word flabbergasted, flabbergasted.  

Next word is sort of an opposite in the sense of  not so formal words. So it's quite an informal  

word. Okay, so when we say, gobsmacked. And a gob  is a very, very slang word for your mouth. Now,  

so this is your garb. So if somebody tells you to  close your garb or shut your gob, it means that  

not to say anything, so when you're gobsmacked,  it's like somebody's putting their hand  

smack over your mouth. So when  

you can't say anything? Yes. So  again, when you get a surprise or  

something happens that you weren't expecting or  some news that somebody has told you that Yeah,  

I'm totally gobsmacked, totally gobsmacked.  So you're telling your friends in the bar  

the next night or two nights later you  never guess what happened? I mean, I was  

just sitting in my office doing something and my  boss called and said he wanted to talk to me and  

he hands you this envelope and you think  you're going to get sacked? Yes, if I will.  

I don't know what I was going to see. But when I  opened the envelope, I got that promotion. Yeah.  

And I'd almost forgotten about it because it's so  long ago since I spoke to him. And there it is.  

and black and white. I was completely gobsmacked.  Yeah, really, really good news. But yeah, I just  

didn't know what to say to know whether to  thank him or whether to shake hands. In fact,  

I could have even hugged him. I was so happy. So  I was completely gobsmacked. Now, the next few are  

very, very similar. Some of them are formal. Some  of them are more informal. So let me give them to  

you quickly. astounded, a little bit more formal?  I'm astounded. Yeah, I'm astounded by the reaction  

of the party members. So it could be a debate on  television and you've got two politicians arguing  

what's right and what's wrong. And do they agree  or don't agree. And of course, if you listen to  

politicians, they never listened to each other.  They just tried to make the point. And then  

they cut across each other and you have  this and one turns to the other side. Well,  

I'm absolutely astounded that your party  would take this position. So astounded,  

quite formal way to say yeah, I'm really surprised  or as I said before, I'm gobsmacked, so astounded,  

I'm astounded that you would take that position.  I'm astounded that the government would see  

it appropriate to close down these bicycle lanes  when everybody's trying to encourage people to  

have more exercise. I'm astounded by whatever  you happen to hear, astounded, staggered, again,  

staggered. When you stagger, you're not able to  keep your balance. So when somebody is staggered,  

they're a little bit off balance or they are  caught off-balance by what somebody has said  

on the news that I'm staggered by the news. I  mean, you see these sort of headlines, you're just  

staggered, you know? Yeah. So something about a  robbery that the bank in the centre of the city  

was robbed the night before, and the robbers got  away with 10 or 20 million in cash, but something  

like 40 million euro of jewellery taken from some  safe deposit box and so absolutely staggered that  

people would have that amount of jewellery sitting  in a safety deposit box in a bank. I mean, it's  

just amazing what people collect. Really, really  staggered when I saw the story. So something not  

bad news. It's not necessarily good news, but it's  news that is very, very surprising. So well. I'm  

staggered, staggered by what I've seen, staggered  by what I've heard, staggered by the enormity of  

this particular headline, the enormity of the  robberies and everything else is really really  

staggered. The next three are also quite commonly  used, some of them informal. Stunned, would be a  

little bit more formal, startled, a bit neutral,  taken aback is a little bit more informal.  

Taken aback means somebody sort of stops you in  your tracks by what they say it's not physically  

or I was taken aback by the reaction I got  when I suggested that we should all return to  

the office on the first of September, I got such  an amount of abuse, I was really taken aback,  

startled, not so much. So exciting. But you  could be startled by something that you weren't  

expecting. So perhaps you're sitting there as we  might be, and you're daydreaming and you're maybe  

looking out the window, and somebody comes in and  says something to you, and you don't hear them,  

and they come a bit closer, and they maybe tap you  on the shoulder. Oh, my God. Yeah. You startled  

me. Yeah. So when somebody startled you, you're  usually not focusing. You're not paying attention.  

Because perhaps you're, you're daydreaming, as I  said, looking out the window, or thinking about  

your round of golf at the weekend, or thinking  about your fishing trip or whatever you're doing.  

Your mind isn't on something else. You don't hear  the door opening, you don't hear the person say,  

Excuse me. And when they come up to  your wall, you're startled. Okay.  

stunned, yeah, is a little bit more, as I said,  it's a little bit more formal to be stunned,  

is again, neither negative nor positive, it's more  neutral. I'm, I was stunned. Just mean, if you  

were if you stun somebody, often with an electric  shock, this is what the police forces us somewhere  

they have these called taser guns. So they you  fire at somebody and then electric volt hits them,  

and that will sort of effectively knock them  unconscious or certainly knock them to the ground.  

So they are stunned, literally stunned. So when  you're stunned, somebody stops you in your tracks,  

and you can't think for a minute and it oh my  god, what was that? So you're, you're you're,  

you have to think and then put yourself  in the position and see what happened,  

what somebody said to you. So you can be a little  bit stunned. So they would all be connected with  

shock. And surprise. Okay, so the next  expression is my jaw dropped. This is our jaw,  

the jaw bone. So the lower jaw and the upper  jaw. So when we say my jaw dropped, I mean,  

your mouth opens. So such was the shock, such  were the words or whatever you had seen that you  

would your mouth opened with surprise, thinking  something might come out like some words, but  

just been surprised by that type of whatever you  saw on the internet, whatever you heard, whatever  

somebody told you, whatever you read, whatever  it might be, it was a jaw-dropping moment, my jaw  

dropped. So we use that as an expression.  So again, you're talking to your friends,  

and you're talking about all the things that  had happened the week before and maybe haven't  

seen your friends for a couple of weeks. And they  and you say all awkward I tell you what I mean,  

I met Michael, you know, we haven't seen Michael  for such a long time. I haven't seen him more,  

I think since we left University, but when he  told me where he is working and the salary,  

he's earning, my jaw dropped, I just didn't think  he was capable. And suddenly, I didn't even think  

those sorts of salaries were available around  here, but my jaw dropped. Okay. Okay, the next  

expression is I jumped out of my skin, okay, or  you jumped out of your skin, literally or the skin  

on your body. So usually, if you get such a shock,  or such a scare, something happens to you Oh,  

and you, we say I jumped out of my skin. Yeah,  I almost jumped out of my skin. Normally, when  

looking out the window, or you're sitting on a  park bench or you're somewhere and you're not  

paying attention, your mind is on something else.  And a stranger or somebody you know comes up to  

you tapped on the shoulder or says excuse me,  and they get a bit a little bit close to you.  

They're closer than you had expected. And you  get a bit of a fright and you almost or you do  

jump out of your skin. Okay, and then finally,  we can use that were raised eyebrows. Okay, so…  

Well, I can go a bit of a go like that I can raise  my eyebrow gel. So when we raise our eyebrows,  

we usually raise them with a little bit of  shock. Yeah, what was that? So you can just  

have that facial expression. So raised eyebrows,  but when we say that were raised eyebrows,  

it means that people around you were shocked  when they heard whatever you had to say.  

So for example, you're sitting in the boardroom or  the meeting room. All your colleagues are there,  

people are sitting there and people are expecting  the same old type of things to come out. Oh yeah,  

the sales this week. That law and the sales next  month, KPI, blah, blah, blah. So everybody's  

gone through the normal thing. Nothing's out of  the ordinary. But when it comes to your turn,  

you say, Well, look, I think this is probably the  best time to tell you that I'm leaving the company  

next week. There were really raised eyebrows.  When you said that people were looking at your  

thinking, that's such a good place. To mention  it, why wouldn't you have mentioned it to the  

boss on your own? So you're sitting down, you're  telling everybody that people that are so there  

were really raised eyebrows. So that means people  were shocked. People were a little bit stunned.  

People were taken aback by what you had said.  Okay, so raised eyebrows. Okay, so those are  

the type of expressions we use or ways of saying  we are shocked. But there are other ways in which  

people can say they are shocked. They can use  words like, Oh my god, yeah, you'd often hear  

that. And that would be a way of expressing a  certain amount of shock here. Oh, my God is quite  

a common way. Or if you are a fan of ‘Friends’,  the TV series, and one of the girlfriends that  

Chandler had was a girl with long black hair, and  her favourite expression was oh my god. Yeah. So  

you have your watch friends here. You'll hear that  all the time. Yeah. So there are different ways to  

use other words, to express that type of shock and  horror. And, you know, some people might just say,  

what was that? Yeah, that could be a way of  using it. So there's some varieties of it  

or what? And they don't complete it, because  the next word is going to be quite rude. So  

what’s that? Meaning what was that? Oh, who said  that? Or what's happened there? Or just something  

a little bit less excitable? Like, would you look  at that? Or just simply? Oh, my, yeah, that's not  

really strong. So some of these shock expressions  or expressions of shock are not so strong, but  

you hear them all the time. Let me give them to  you again. Oh, my God, or Oh, my, what was that?  

Or would you look at that? Or was that? Okay? You  can guess what would come after that? Or there's  

another one very British English. Crikey. Yeah.  And spelt C-R-I-K-E-Y. Crikey. With an exclamation  

mark. And often, when you're writing these, you  would use the follow them with an exclamation  

mark. So when people read it, they know that  there's a certain amount of shock or surprise,  

okay, all right. So different ways to  say I'm shocked or surprised. Hopefully,  

you've enjoyed those, hopefully, you can  understand them and you can put them to some use.  

And if you want to contact me, well then you  can do so on www.englishlessonviaskype.com  

Very happy to hear from and as I said,  if you want to listen to the podcast,  

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channel. Okay. Well, thanks for watching and  thanks for listening and join me again soon.