How to Use Words Like 'So', 'Okay', and 'Well' - Discourse Markers (AJ #15)

Hello.

This is Jack from ToFluency.com and this is Ask Jack, the free series where I answer your

questions about learning English and the English language.

We have a great question today from Milan from the Czech Republic.

Here it is.

Milan from the Czech Republic asks, " How can we use discourse markers like ‘so’,

‘well’ and ‘okay’?"

Words like ‘so’, ‘well’ and ‘okay’ are examples of discourse markers.

So, what I’m going to do is introduce what this means, give you some examples and then

talk about how you can use them.

Firstly, Discourse Markers are used very commonly in everyday English, both in written and spoken

English, and the ones that you use when writing might be different to the ones that you use

when speaking.

But, what they do is they help us control communication.

They help us change topics.

They help us think about things and they also help us join things together.

Three common ones in spoken English are ‘so’, ‘okay’ and ‘well’.

I use ‘so’ all the time in my videos.

We also have things like ‘by the way’, ‘however’, ‘oh’ and also, 2 very common

ones: ‘you know’ and ‘like’.

Now, except for ‘however’, these are all used in spoken English.

However is used in both spoken and written English.

So, let’s have a look at some examples now.

The first example is “So, let’s look at some examples now.”

And, this is something I say in all my videos and I’m using so to change the topic to

introduce something new, to change direction.

But, we can also use ‘so’ when we are giving a summary, “So, remember that we

need to do this.”

Another example, “Well, I think it was in about 1905.”

We’re using well here to help us think and to give us time to get the correct sentence

out there.

We can also use well when we have a conflicting view or we’re putting a different argument

across, “Well, I’m not so sure about that.”

So, this is a way to introduce an opposing argument or something that contradicts what

someone said and sounding more polite.

So, I’ve given you a few examples here, so and well.

But, there are so many ways and so many different types of discourse markers.

That has given you an introduction to discourse markers.

Now, there are many others and I encourage you to research other ways that you can use

these discourse markers.

But, when it comes to using them in natural conversation, my advice is to do it when it

feels right to you.

This is the same advice I gave when talking about using relaxed pronunciation, using ‘gonna’

instead of ‘going to’.

So, use Discourse Markers in the same way, when it feels right to you.

Don’t try to force it to sound like an advanced speaker.

Instead, just wait until it feels normal.

Now, my task for this video is this.

What I want you to do is to watch lots of videos this week, listen to podcasts, anything

that has audio with English and listen to these discourse markers.

So, notice how people use them.

Notice how often we use them during natural conversation.

And then, leave some examples below this video.

Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.