Stop saying “OK" | Use these alternatives to sound like a native

- How was your day today?

- Okay.

- How was your lunch today?

- Okay.

- What's the weather like today?

- Okay.

- Fast forward.

How was your day today?

- Very good, actually, I went to the gym.

I had four calls so amazing, very productive.

- How was your lunch today?

- It's very pretty healthy, actually.

I ate chicken wrap

with a rice so it was good.

- What about the first one? (laughs)

- The first one was terrible, actually,

or was it was your idea by the way. (laughs)

(Marina laughing)

- And do you like the weather today?

- Yeah, it's good.

It's not warm, not hot so it's fine.

- You see how emotional you get

and how many details you get from a conversation

when you avoid saying, okay.

(upbeat music) Hey guys,

let's talk about replacing the word, okay.

The word that I use all the time,

the word that you probably use all the time,

and this word has actually 10 different meanings

in the Cambridge dictionary,

which means there are 10 different aspects of it.

And we can think about this word in 10 different ways.

And we can think about alternatives that we can use

to replace this word in our speech.

So if you've ever noticed that you're replying,

okay, okay, okay every single time,

then continue watching this video,

it's gonna be very useful.

Meaning number one, we use okay to agree with something.

And sometimes we can just say yes, yep, yeah.

This is what a lot of native speakers use.

Can you give me your phone number?

Yeah.

And you go with the phone number.

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) - Another expression that I

really like is sure thing.

I think it's very American,

very kind of native speaker-ish.

Can you finish by tomorrow?

Sure thing.

(dramatic music) - Sure thing.

(upbeat music) - Another expression

that you can use sounds good to me.

When you wrap up the meeting, you can say,

hey, do you wanna meet next week again?

And you're like, sounds good to me.

Again, this is an alternative to okay.

(tender music) - Sounds good to me.

(upbeat music) - You could have said okay,

but sounds good to me, is kind of,

it tells the other person that you are excited about it.

Sounds good to me, because okay

can be a little like passive.

Do you want to meet next week?

Okay. Like, okay. (laughs)

Okay. (laughs)

Sometimes they won't even like ask you back whether

you actually want to do this or not.

So sounds good to me is a lot more affirmative

in this case.

Sometimes you agree, but you agree 100%

and you say my thoughts exactly.

Marina, this dress suits you really well.

And if I say, okay, (laughs)

again, it's a little passive.

Like, okay. (buzzer buzzing)

Whatever. (laughs)

But if I say my thoughts exactly

(bell ringing) that means yes.

When I was buying it, I was like, oh my God,

this is such an amazing dress.

Thank you so much.

- My thoughts, exactly.

(upbeat music) - Another phrase

that you can use is why not?

Do you wanna go out tonight?

Why not?

- Why not?

(upbeat music) - Sounds like a plan.

I love using this phrase.

Again when you are agreeing on something,

going somewhere together,

or doing something together,

you can say sounds like a plan.

That means you agreed on the terms.

You agreed on the timing, et cetera.

- Sounds like a plan (audience laughing)

(upbeat music) - Okey-dokey

or you can say, okey-doke.

Very informal, very nice.

I like it.

Okay do you wanna meet up for breakfast on Sunday?

Okey-dokey let's do it.

- Okey-dokey.

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The second meaning of the word, okay,

is actually giving permission.

If somebody asks you,

can I borrow your phone?

You can say, okay, (buzzer buzzing)

but you can also say other phrases and words.

You can say, sure.

Sure, grab it.

- Sure.

(upbeat music) - You can say absolutely.

Absolutely is actually when you owe something

to someone and they ask for a favor

and you're like, you've been waiting to do this favor.

So for example,

I borrowed one of my friend's car

and then he wants to borrow mine.

And I say, absolutely, please borrow my car

because I've been waiting for you to ask me for this.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

(upbeat music) - Certainly.

Can you lend me some money?

Certainly.

- Certainly.

(upbeat music) - All right is also

another word that you can use.

Let's look at an example.

Can I take a rain check and our meeting this weekend?

All right.

I don't know if you remember guys,

but in one of my videos,

we actually talked about having a rain check on something.

That actually,

that's an idiom.

You can't really translate it, I don't know,

maybe it translates to some languages.

This actually means

that you can not accept the invitation right now,

but you would be willing to do it a little later.

So when somebody says,

can I have a rain check on our meeting this weekend?

That means can we actually cancel it and

reschedule for a later date, sometimes later?

And you say, all right,

or you say, okay, if you agree fine,

- Can I take a rain check?

(upbeat music) - Fine by me

is also another expression to replace okay

when you agree with something.

- Fine by me, you?

- Fine by me.

(upbeat music) - And the last one

is also one of my favorites.

It's by all means.

That means you absolutely agreed, by all means

borrow my car, take my money,

take whatever you want. (laughs)

By all means.

- By all means.

(upbeat music) - The third case

of using okay is actually asking for permission.

When we say, is that okay?

We're asking for permission,

but we can also use other phrases.

We can say,

is that all right?

- Is that all right?

(upbeat music) - Or another one

that I really, really like,

is it fine by you?

So you're kind of running it by something.

Is it fine by you that I skip our meeting tomorrow?

Another phrase, going to work out.

I want to change our logo.

Is it gonna work out?

And a very formal replacement for okay, is acceptable.

I wanna take a week off work.

Is that acceptable in this company?

So it's like, you're asking your boss.

Another circumstance where we use okay all the time

is when we talk about ourselves.

I'm okay today.

I am fine.

So couple of words

that would help you replace, okay in this case are

not that bad.

- Not that bad. (inhales)

(upbeat music) - Good enough.

- Good enough.

(upbeat music) - Fine.

- Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine.

(upbeat music) - And all right.

(dramatic music) - All right.

(upbeat music) - So all of them

are pretty basic and easy to remember.

Another interesting usage of the word okay

is actually changing the subject.

So an example would be when you start a phrase

with a word, okay and then you introduce something else.

Like for example, you were talking about starting a company

and you're talking to your friend and your friend is like,

okay, here's what you need to start a company.

Because before that,

you actually decided that you're gonna start a company.

So with this, okay

you are introducing a new topic in the conversation.

You're introducing, like, a new paragraph

in the conversation?

The word okay in this case can be replaced by now.

Now, let's talk about our plans for the weekend.

(intense music) - Now,

let's talk about your father.

(upbeat music) - All right.

All right, let's talk about starting the company

and please pay attention that in this case,

it's like an introductory word in the sentence.

So we have to put a comma after it.

- All right, let's talk about clothing.

(upbeat music) - Check it out,

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Look here.

Look here, this is what you need to start a company.

You need to incorporate.

You need to start a bank account, et cetera, et cetera.

So these are the words that can replace okay

when you're introducing something else in your conversation.

We went through five most common usage,

examples of the word okay,

and we learned how to replace them.

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for watching this video up to the very end

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