4 Tips for Natural English Conversation Responses - Improve English Speaking

Hello, I’m Daniel.

Welcome to Oxford Online English!

In this lesson, you can learn to respond naturally in conversations in English.

If you simply stare at the other person when they’re talking to you, your conversations

might not go so well.

We’re partly joking, but when you’re speaking a second language, you often need to concentrate

on understanding what the other person is saying.

This means you might forget to respond naturally, but natural responses are important to keep

your conversation going, and also to show the other person that you care about what

they’re saying.

This lesson will show you natural conversational responses which you can use to express interest,

surprise, agreement, confusion, and much more!

When someone’s telling you a story, it’s important to show interest in what they’re

saying.

First, let’s see what not to do.

The other day, I met up with an old friend from high school.

It was great to catch up with him!

Mmm-hmm.

He’s had such an interesting life.

At the moment, he’s working in an orangutan sanctuary in Borneo.

Mmm-hmm.

Next, he told me he’s planning to develop a spaceship which can take humans to Mars!

Mmm-hmm. Of course, you can nod your head and say mmm-hmm or hmm, but that doesn’t sound

like you’re very interested.

There are other ways to show that you’re engaged.

Let’s look at a better way to do this.

I had a chat with my boss the other day and he’s putting me on this great new project.

Really?

That’s great!

So I visited my family last Sunday and we had a lovely barbecue.

Sounds nice!

The exam was really hard, I’m not sure if I’ve passed it.

Is that right? Of course, you can’t be interested in everything that someone

is saying to you.

But, it’s still helpful to show that you’re listening, and that you understand what the

other person is saying.

Let’s see some useful phrases you can use to do this. My car broke down last week, so

I had to get it repaired.

Oh, yeah?

It seemed like it was leaking oil.

I see.

They told me it wasn’t too bad, they could get it fixed easily.

Uh-huh.

Some situations need stronger responses, for example if you hear something surprising.

My sister broke up with her boyfriend.

Seriously?

Yeah, it turned out he was seeing someone else.

You must be joking!

It was her best friend!

No way! In this section, you saw how to show interest,

understanding and surprise.

How many of the responses can you remember?

Take a look, and pause the video if you need more time to read.

I think we’re done here, right?

I don’t think so, actually.

That last episode of Game of Thrones was amazing!

For sure!

I really like Sarah’s new haircut.

It looks great on her.

Absolutely!

People shouldn’t be so negative, especially if they don’t have anything to contribute

themselves.

I couldn’t agree more! Of course, sometimes you might NOT agree with the other person.

How could you respond then?

I’m glad Eric got the promotion to be our team leader.

He’s such a great guy!

I’m not so sure about that.

I think I’m going to take my husband to a spa.

I’m sure he’ll enjoy it.

You really think so?

The media should stop talking about celebrities getting together and breaking up.

Who cares?!

I don’t see it that way; if people want to read about it, why not let them? In this

section, you’ve seen three phrases you can use to agree, and three phrases to disagree.

Can you remember them all?

Next, how about some language to respond to suggestions?

Great idea!

Whenever you want to make plans with friends, decide on a place to have dinner or plan a

meeting with colleagues, you’ll need to respond to other people’s suggestions.

Let’s see how you can do this. Why don’t we go for a bike ride this Saturday?

Sorry, I can’t on Saturday.

What about Sunday?

Ok, Sunday it is!

It’s Rita’s birthday tomorrow.

How about we buy her a bottle of wine from the team?

I’m not sure if she likes wine.

Maybe we can get her some flowers and chocolate?

That sounds good!

What do you think of this colour for the living room?

I don’t know…

It looks quite dark.

I think it’ll make the room feel gloomy.

Can we try a lighter shade?

Yeah, sure. Here, you saw three phrases you can use to reject a suggestion, and three

phrases to accept.

Can you remember any of them?

Here are the phrases you saw; pause the video if you need more time to read:

You can see that it’s common to use a vague phrase to reject a suggestion, like I’m

not sure or I don’t know.

This is important as a non-native speaker of English: people are often more indirect

when saying ‘no’ to something.

Of course, this depends on the culture you’re in, and the people you’re with.

However, it’s a good idea to remember that if you make a suggestion, and people reply

in very vague ways, they will often be saying ‘no’ to your idea. I’m confused about

what Daniel means…

If only there was some way I could ask him to clarify what he said.

My computer just crashed, I think it has a virus.

You should start it in Safe Mode and run a virus scan.

You’ve lost me.

What’s “safe mode”?

It’s a special way to start your computer, use F8 when you turn on the computer and it

will start the system in safe mode.

Sorry, I didn’t catch that; could you say it one more time?

So, press F8 as soon as you turn on the computer, and when the system starts, you can scan for

viruses.

Okay, so, you mean that I need to turn on the computer, press F8, and then run the virus

scan?

That’s right.

And then what?

It depends what the virus scan shows.

Hold on, are you saying that I might have to do more stuff after that?

This sounds like a huge hassle.

Well, sure.

If you have a virus or other malware, you’ll need to remove it.

I think I’ll just take it to the shop.

Suit yourself!

It’s common not to understand exactly what someone else said, even for native speakers.

Even if you understood, you might need more information.

In these cases, you can use these phrases to ask for clarification. Now, you’ve learned

some natural conversational responses to deal with many different situations in English.

Let’s practice what you’ve learned!

Now it’s time to practice!

We’ll show you some phrases which you need to respond to.

Depending on the situation, there are often different ways in which you can respond.

Let’s do an example together!

Here’s a phrase:

I need to go to the shop to buy couscous.

And here are three possible responses:

Why don’t we go together?

OK, I see.

You’ve lost me.

What’s couscous?

You can respond with a suggestion: “Why don’t we go together?”

Maybe you just want to show you understood, so you say: “OK, I see”.

But, maybe you don’t understand what your friend needs to buy, so you ask: “You’ve

lost me.

What’s couscous?”

For the next phrases, think of responses you would give.

We’ll show some examples on the screen, but of course, there are many good ways to

respond!

Ready?

Here’s your first sentence.

Last weekend I finally bought a new phone, but when I got home and opened the box, it

turned out they had given me the wrong one!

Here’s another one.

Think about how you would respond.

Justin Bieber is the best singer in the world; I can’t wait to go to his concert!

Let’s do one more:

How about we go hiking in the mountains this weekend? To practice, tell us which responses

you would choose, and why.

Let us know in the comments, and you can check that you’re using these phrases in a natural

way!

Want more practice with this topic?

Check out the full version of this lesson on our website: Oxford Online English dot

com.

We also have many other free English lessons which you can watch and learn from.

Thanks for watching!

See you next time!