STOP saying "WHAT?": Advanced English Lesson

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

I was thinking about going, but I don't know.

What do you think?

What?

Let's talk about it.

When you're learning English and hey, sometimes as a native English speaker, there will be

times when you won't understand what someone else says and you'll want them to repeat themselves.

But it's rude to say, "Huh?

What?"

So in today's lesson, you're going to learn some wonderful alternatives when you want

someone to repeat themselves so that you can accurately understand what they're saying.

To help you with this lesson, I've created a free PDF worksheet so that you will never

forget what you've learned.

Plus, you can answer Vanessa's challenge question at the end of the PDF.

You can download it with the link in the description.

All right, let's get started with eight casual phrases for when you want someone to repeat

themselves, but you don't want to say, huh?

What?

Let's start.

Phrase number one is, sorry?

Oh, this is so polite, and it is a great one word alternative instead of saying, what?

When you say, sorry, this is extremely kind.

And it just means, hey, I didn't understand what you said.

Maybe the environment is too noisy.

Maybe there's a rooster crowing in the background, or maybe you just didn't get a word that they

said, or the topic was too complicated.

Great.

What can you say?

Sorry?

And you'll notice that we say the word sorry in front of a lot of the next expressions

too.

Let's go to number two.

Sorry, what'd you say?

Oh, this is excellent, especially if you weren't paying attention completely.

Maybe you were working on something.

You were looking at your phone.

You were just off in Lalaland.

You can use this great expression.

Sorry, what'd you say?

Sorry, can you say that again?

I often use this phrase when my husband is trying to tell me something, but I'm playing

with my two kids and we're being loud together, or maybe they're being loud, and I just didn't

hear what he said.

Maybe I could have said, huh?

What?

But that's not very polite.

Instead, I can say, and I often do, sorry, can you say that again?

Excellent.

What was that?

Oh, what was that is a great question to ask when you just didn't catch what someone was

saying.

Maybe it's a little bit surprising, some kind of information.

They're talking, they're talking, and then they say, "Oh yeah, and then I'm getting married

next weekend."

What was that?

Oh, you want them to repeat themselves, but you want to ask them in a nice way.

Excellent phrase.

The next three phrases are used in extremely casual situations, so I don't recommend using

these at work.

You can use them with friends, with family you feel comfortable with, and they're often

used regionally in the US.

The first one is, come again?

When you ask someone, come again, it's because you maybe didn't hear them.

But more likely you heard them correctly, but you were kind of surprised by what they

said, so you want them to repeat it.

You can say, "Okay.

Yeah, you did say that."

Let me give you a quick example.

If you're talking with your good friend and then your good friend mentions, "Oh yeah,

I'm moving to Japan next week."

Come again?

This is shocking information.

You had no idea that your friend was going to move to Japan.

So you want her to repeat herself, and you can use this great phrase, come again?

You're not moving to Japan.

No, you can't move to Japan.

Stay with me.

It's a great phrase to use.

A similar phrase that's also casual is, how's that?

We often use this in the similar situations when we either don't understand, or we want

someone to repeat themselves for clarity.

You might ask, how's that?

And to make it even more casual, you can say, do what?

This is something that I use often.

I'm not sure why.

Maybe it's something that's common in the South of the US where I live, but it's when

you want someone to repeat themselves.

But I use it when someone says something that I'm surprised by.

You're moving to Japan?

Do what?

It doesn't mean that they're doing something, but it just means that you're surprised by

what they said.

Along with, do what, we have, say what?

It just means they said something that you want them to repeat.

Maybe you didn't understand, or maybe it was a little surprising and you might answer with,

say what?

No, you can't move to Japan.

Don't move to Japan.

Say what?

The last casual phrase is, sorry, one more time?

I use this phrase if I'm in a noisy restaurant and I've already asked someone to repeat themselves

a couple of times, or maybe I just wasn't paying attention and I feel a little bit bad

that I'm asking them again to repeat themselves.

So if you've already said, sorry, can you say that again?

Sorry, I didn't hear you?

Sorry, one more time?

This is like your final request.

Sorry, one more time?

Very nice.

All right.

Let's go to some professional expressions that you can use instead of, huh, what, when

you want someone to repeat themselves.

Sorry, I didn't catch what you said.

Sorry, I didn't catch what you said.

This verb, to catch, means that we can imagine a word is running away and you can't catch

it.

You can't understand it.

We often use that word catch when we're talking about conversations and maybe missing a word

or missing a phrase.

This is a great question that you can use.

Sorry, I didn't catch what you said.

Can you repeat that, please?

Excellent.

Can you run that by me again?

Can you run that by me again?

We often use this if someone said something long or confusing.

Maybe you're talking about a technical concept in your business and it's just long and confusing.

There's lots of parts.

Well, you could say, can you run that by me again?

I want to make sure I understood everything.

Can you run that by me again?

Could you rephrase that for me?

Could you rephrase that for me?

The word rephrase means that you're saying the same thing, but with different words.

And this is excellent, especially for English learners.

But hey, really for everyone.

Because sometimes the way that someone explains something is confusing, or maybe they use

a word that you just don't know yet, or it's something that you're not familiar with.

Great.

How can you understand it?

You need to have that rephrased for you.

So you can use this question, can you rephrase that for me please?

Excellent.

When you say, do you mean?

This is a great question to make sure you actually understood exactly what they're talking

about.

You can use this in general situations, but it's great to use in professional situations

if there's some kind of lingo that's specific to your field and maybe you're not completely

familiar with it.

So if someone uses a word, when you say that technical word, do you mean?

And you can explain it a little bit more.

You can rephrase it and they'll say, "Oh yeah, that's what I mean," or they might say, "Oh

no, I meant this."

And it's a great way to kind of check for clarity.

You can even use this in daily life.

If your friend says, "Hey, let's meet up at the park," you could say, "When you say park,

do you mean Central Park?"

If you're in New York City, there's a lot of parks, so you need to check for clarity.

You could ask, "When you say park, do you mean Central Park?"

And they might say, "Oh no, I meant this other park."

Great.

Well, now you know what they're saying?

Could you be more specific, please?

Great.

This is often used in a professional situation if someone's giving a lot of hypothetical

ideas and you need to know how this will apply to the company, how this will apply to your

specific situation.

So great.

You can ask, can you be more specific, please?

Another common professional word is, can you elaborate on that?

Elaborate, wonderful word, and this means to give more details.

Instead of just saying a couple simple things, I need to know exactly how this will fit into

our company or into the situation we're talking about.

Can you elaborate on that?

Oh, lovely.

I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

Oh, when you say the full phrase, I'm sorry, it just kind of levels up the politeness.

You can say, sorry, can you repeat that?

That's no problem.

But if you want to kind of level up the politeness, you can say, I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

And it means you really care what the other person has to say, and you want to know what

they're saying, so you're asking them to repeat themselves.

Do not feel bad asking this question.

It is excellent and important, and it shows the other person, I really care.

I'm sorry, can you repeat that please?

Let's say someone says something a little confusing, a little long, maybe something

that you're not exactly clear about, but you don't want to ask them to repeat themselves.

Well, you can check your understanding by saying this phrase, let me make sure I understand

this right.

You're going to rephrase what they said with your own understanding.

Let me make sure I understand this right.

You're going to call the marketing department tomorrow and then get in touch with the client.

You're going to rephrase what they just told you, and you're not asking them to repeat

themselves.

It's just another alternative instead of making them repeat.

Our final professional phrase before we talk about two that you need to be very careful

with is, just to clarify.

This is similar to our previous expression where you're going to be the one rephrasing

what they said.

You want to check that you understood everything correctly, and maybe there are some parts

that you didn't get completely.

You can use this phrase, just to clarify, you're calling the marketing department, not

me, right?

You want to make sure that the action that you heard is what's actually going to happen.

Warning!

Warning!

Warning!

Be very careful.

The next two phrases that I'm going to share with you are commonly used, but they have

two distinct differences.

One can be used in a polite way, and one can be extremely rude.

So make sure that you listen carefully to the differences between how you say these

expressions.

The first one is, I beg your pardon?

Oh, okay.

This is kind of old fashioned English, but people definitely still use this in daily

life if it is with a positive tone.

No negativity in your face.

No negativity in your voice.

Someone says something quickly and you just didn't catch it and you say, I beg your pardon?

Okay.

In a professional situation like that, very neutrally.

It's okay.

But sometimes this phrase can be extremely rude.

If someone says, "Oh yeah, I ate the last piece of cake."

You could say, "I beg your pardon?"

Oh, do you see my face?

Watch again.

I beg your pardon?

You're not trying to be polite really.

You're trying to express shock.

What?

What did you say?

You ate the last piece of cake?

But I want the last piece of cake.

Could you have at least shared it with me?

I beg your pardon?

Oh, so you want them to repeat themselves, but you're kind of angry about the situation.

So make sure if you use this expression, use it with the right tone, in neutral tone, or

this angry tone if you want to convey that.

And if someone says it to you, now hopefully you can pick up which tone they're using so

that you can understand their real meaning.

The final phrase, one that you need to be very careful using is a simple one, excuse

me?

Okay.

So same as our previous expression, there's two distinct tones that you can use when you

use this phrase.

The first is very neutral.

If someone says something that you just didn't catch, it was too fast, maybe it's a noisy

environment, you can say, "Excuse me?

Excuse me?"

Okay, this is a little more neutral, and you're just asking them to repeat themselves.

But it is very easy to say this in the wrong way.

Because we often use this when we're a little bit angry, shocked, and you want someone to

repeat what they said, but only because you feel lots of negative emotion building.

So you might say, "Excuse me?

Excuse me?"

When someone tells you, "I ate the last piece of cake.

Sorry," you can say, "Excuse me?

You eat the last piece of cake?

Uh, that was my birthday cake.

Excuse me?"

Do you see how there is a tone of anger, of frustration and annoyance in my voice when

I say it?

So in my opinion, I think it's better to use one of the other phrases that we just talked

about if you want someone to simply repeat themselves.

But I want to make sure that you are empowered with the knowledge that someone might be using

this towards you or other people around you with that tone of annoyance.

And it sounds polite, excuse me, but it is not polite and it's showing lots of anger.

Congratulations on learning many great alternatives to saying, "Huh?

What?"

I hope you feel empowered to use these in your own personal life.

Don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet.

You can click on the link in the description so that you never forget these phrases, so

that you can use them in the right situations, and so that you can understand them when other

people use them.

Well, now I have a question for you.

Let me know in the comments below, which of these expressions will you use the next time

that you don't understand someone?

Practice using the phrase in the comments and I can't wait to see which one you chose.

Well, thank you so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday

for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

Bye!

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Bye!