Conversational English - How to emphasize your point

Hi, my name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson, I'm going to show you how to sound more like

a native speaker in English, and it's by using what we call "identical pairs". Now, what

are identical pairs? These are expressions where one word is repeated twice, and why

do we do that? We do that in order to emphasize what we're trying to say, okay? Let me give

you an example of what we mean so that you can understand exactly how to use these expressions.

So here are eight of them that I've written on the board for you. The first one is "over

and over", okay? When we say that somebody did something over and over, or I had to explain

it to him over and over, it means I had to explain it to somebody repeatedly, again and

again is another expression, which we'll see, which also means repeatedly. Now, why don't

we just say, "I had to explain it to him again"? You can say that, and of course, everybody

will understand you. "I had to explain it to him again" means I had to explain it to

him a second time, right? But when we say, "I had to explain it to him again and again",

it means that we had to do it several times, repeatedly. And you say that sometimes when

you're a little bit annoyed, or when you want to show a little bit more emotion about what

you're expressing, okay? Let's look at some of the other ones.

Next one, "round and round". "We went round and round." This means, as you can probably

imagine, in circles. Now, what do you mean by saying, "We went round and round"? It can

be physically, that you were driving round and round the area because you couldn't find

a certain address, or it can mean that you're going round and round in a discussion, and

the discussion isn't getting anywhere, it's not leading to any conclusion. So it can be

physically or mentally, that you're going round and round, okay?

Next one, "He went on and on." Now, "on and on" means without stopping. It means talking

at length. "The professor went on and on lecturing us about the benefits of finishing our education."

All right? So when we say that somebody went on and on, we're kind of saying that he talked

too long, or she talked too long. "He went on for a long time." Okay?

Next one we had already mentioned, "again and again", it means repeatedly. The next

one is "little by little", okay? Gradually. "Little by little" means that gradually you

came to understand something. So, for example, you could say, "I improved my English little

by little." Or, "The plants grew little by little, and eventually, I had a beautiful

garden." So it means gradually. All right?

Next expression, "all in all". So what does that mean? "All in all" means that when you

consider everything, or when you take everything into account, you come to some conclusion.

So, for example, "All in all, I think we should buy this house." What does that mean? It means

after considering all of the different factors, you believe that you should buy that particular

house, or sign that deal, or so on. Okay? Next example, "day after day". What does that

one mean? Well, "day after day" means every day for a long time. So, for example, "Day

after day, he worked to support his family." Okay? He worked hard to support his family.

When we say "day after day", we're trying to show that it goes on and on, and it happens

one day after the other. Okay?

Next one, "word for word". "Word for word" means exactly or precisely. "Can you tell

me word for word what she said?" Okay? So you want to know exactly what somebody said,

or precisely what somebody said. So when we use this expression, when we want to do that,

we can say "word for word". Okay? So, here are eight identical pairs which you can use,

and if you listen carefully now, you'll see that in many different contexts, English speakers

do use these identical pairs quite frequently. So, listen for them, and for you to start

using them, the best way is try to find some opportunity today to use one of these expressions

in writing or in speaking. All right? And if you'd like to do a quiz on this or many

other aspects of English, please go to our website, www.engvid.com.

Thanks for watching.