Speak Better English with Harry | Episode 534

Struggle to find the right word in English? You can still sound fluent. In this episode, you’ll learn how to sound more natural when speaking English. You’ll discover how native speakers talk when they don’t know the exact word or want to keep things general. These words are simple but very common in everyday conversations.

This lesson is perfect for intermediate and advanced learners who want to feel more confident in real-life situations. If you often stop or hesitate when you can’t find the right word, this video will help. Build fluency. Speak more easily. Understand native speakers better.

Transcript

 
Hi there. This is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry, where I tried to help you to get a better understanding of the English language, to help you with your conversation skills, your business English skills, interview skills, whatever your goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do.

 
Just get in touch www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson. And we'd be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. And in this particular advanced English lesson today we're going to take a look at must know words and expressions. Natural English what will help you to improve your spoken and written English?

info@englishlessonviaskype.com

 
So we're going to talk specifically about vague language okay. And vague means language, which is not so clear or not so certain, but it forms an important part of the English language. Let me give you a very quick example. When I say I'm almost finished, I'm not telling you exactly when I have finished or when I will finish, but I've almost finished.

 
So almost can be used to describe vague language. It doesn't mean we don't know what we're talking about sometimes. We mean we might not want to give somebody the exact answer. So we're looking at language that will be described as vague language and how you can use it. So we've got ten types of expressions and vague language. So I'll go through them with you.

 
The first expression is an expression give or take. Now when we use that expression give or take we are being a little bit vague. So again, if we go back to my earlier example of somebody asking when will you be finished this work? So you've got some workmen in your house and they're doing some decorations for some painting or wallpaper.

 
Could you give me an idea when you might be finished? I'll be finished probably in a few hours, give or take a few minutes. Okay. So they're not going to be committed. So give or take. So when we use give or take we are making a suggestion and approximation. When will the dinner be ready. To be ready in a couple of hours give or take a few minutes.

 
So again mum or dad not being very, very specific because they know what the children would be like. Is dinner ready yet? I'm hungry. I'm starving. Is dinner ready yet? So give or take. Yeah. Okay. So I'd be ready in 20 minutes, give or take a come to your party. Of course. I'll be there around 9:00, give or take a few minutes.

 
So you could be there a few minutes early or a few minutes late, give or take. Number two, this word stuff. Now stuff is one of those words that can mean anything. You can have lots and lots of stuff in your room means things that you don't really need, or lots of boxes and somebody's your friend or your mother.

 
Your father might say, isn't it about time you got rid of some of that stuff in your room? I know, no, they're all my old things. My old Lego, my old books. I want to keep them. They could be worth lots of money in the future. So I want to keep my stuff. That's my stuff. Or brothers and sisters.

 
Siblings are always fighting. He touched my stuff. They're not saying specifically. He touched my books. He touched my music. He touched my clothes. He touched my stuff. So it's a general word that includes everything. But it's a vague word. We're not being so specific, but it's a word that is used in the English language a lot. Have you any old stuff that you would like to get rid of?

 
So somebody asked you, well what did you give to the charity shop? Some suits and shirts, stuff like that. Okay. So when you use that expression, stuff like that, it's incorporating or including everything. You're not being overly specific. You don't want to go on forever and tell them every item of clothing that you gave to the charity shop, but you're going to give some indication.

 
So ah shirts and trousers, shoes, stuff like that. So a general collect all everything together, stuff like that. Number three again very similar to the second one, something like that. So if your boss is asking you to prepare a business plan and you want him to be a little bit more specific, well, what would you like me to include in the business plan?

 
Well, you know yourself the the plans for the next year, you know, the projections, the sales forecasts, something like that. Yeah. You you know what to do. You can based on the previous years and we can change it for this year and make I'll read it. And then if there's anything else that has to be changed, I'll come back to you and you can make the changes.

 
So something like that or what are you preparing for dinner? I'm not so sure, but I'll have a look in the the fridge, in the freezer, see what I've got. Perhaps it will be a vegetarian dish. Or maybe a mix vegetarian or something else. Something like that. Yeah, okay. But I'm sure it would be appetising. Now, in the next one, we've got this suffix I ach ish, and we use that a lot in this vague language.

 
So lots of words you can add on the I s h. For example. What colour was it? Black ish. Yeah, not exactly black but black ish. So we're not certain. But black ish. Can you remember what it looked like? Yeah, it was black ish, but I'm not quite sure. So you go into a shop and you can't see the particular code that you, you saw the previous week, and you're trying to explain to the sales assistant what which one it was.

 
And they asked you, what can you describe it at was sort of black ish. Yeah. Okay. Or if somebody wants to describe the person they met, can you give me the size of the person or the age? Well, I think he was 40 ish. It's very hard to be specific, but 40 ish means he could he could be 41, 42, 43.

 
He was 40 ish. What's the weather like? It's not raining heavily, but it has been raining, so it's it's damp ish. Yeah. So you need to have a coat or a jacket because it feels a little bit chilly. So it's not really raining at the moment, but it is damp ish, so it doesn't feel so comfortable. Okay, so you're looking at a new apartment.

 
It's in the centre of the town, the old town. And when you walk around the apartment, if it feels cold, I mean, you're describing it to your friend. I'm not so sure I'm really interested. It was damp ish. I couldn't say for certain. It didn't look, I couldn't see anything on the walls, any signs of damp, but to me it was damp ish.

 
So black ish, 40 ish, damp ish. So that a suffix is added on to the end of the word will help you to use that vague language that I've been discussing the vague language to to talk about. Now, when we talk about colours, we use this issue a lot. As I said before, blackish or bluish, you know, reddish, greenish.

 
Any of those you can add on I, s h and with some colours you can also add the letter Y for it was yellowy or greeny. Okay. In some dictionaries you get the description of it was a bluey tie. I don't usually use bluey, I more prefer it much more prefer to use bluish rather than bluey. But it does.

 
They do use it in other books and in dictionaries. So you have the choice with some to use. Blackish or reddish brownish greeny yellowy. Okay, now we don't say black or white, but we do say yellowy or greeny or whitish or bluish. Yeah. Okay. Or blackish. So you just pick and choose which colours you're going to use and be very careful.

 
Some very easily use ish and others will more easily use the -y. Like yellowy or greeny. Your bluey okay. Number five. He looks sort of. Or kind of. So again, if we're giving a description of somebody one not so sure because perhaps we didn't get a very good look at him. So he looks kind of old, sort of heavy, kind of old fashioned that way.

 
He was walking all the way. He was dressed. So again, we've been a little bit vague with our description if you're trying to describe a price. So let's say you're looking to buy a home and you're trying to describe to a property agent what you're looking for. He might ask you, well, what's your your price region, what is your high or your low levels where you'd be comfortable to buy.

 
So you might be, oh, somewhere in the region of some of you. You don't want to go below a certain level, and you certainly don't want to go above it. You might ask somewhere in the region of 200,000 or somewhere in the region of 220,000. So you're not being absolutely precise, but you're giving a rough indication to the property agents that he'd be able to perhaps search and look out for and identify property that you might be interested in.

 
Okay. Or if you're asking about salaries and your son is looking for a new job, or your daughter looking for a new job, and you're asking them, well, what sort of salary do you want? Somewhere in the region of 25 or €30,000 to start off with. And hopefully over time I'll be able to get some increases and some promotions somewhere in the region off or indeed, how many people were at the concert?

 
Well, there might have been 10,000 or 15,000 somewhere in the region of 20,000 people who were at the concert, or somewhere in the region of 20,000 people were on the streets demonstrating against the government's recent plan. So we're not being exact. We're using approximations. So we can use this vague language. Again, if somebody is trying to explain to you a particular view or a particular point, then they can use an expression like something along those lines.

 
Okay. So you're making a presentation perhaps to the staff, and your boss wants you to include details of the new budget, details of the new targets, details of the new company that you're going to acquire. So you're asking him, well, what specifically do you want me to say? And he said, well, you can use your own words, but something along those lines, tell them about our plans.

 
Tell them about what this acquisition will mean, tell them how long it will take or something along those lines. But use your own words. Be comfortable with it. So he's giving you plenty of opportunity, plenty of scope, and you have the chance to use your own words. But he wants you to incorporate some specific information. So something along those lines that would be perfect.

 
Now we all have this situation when we forget somebody's name and we can see the person, we can picture them, we can see the outline of them. But for some strange reason, we've just forgotten their name. So we have to be quite vague, you know, to the person who works in administration on the fourth floor, you know, she's really, really helpful.

 
She's always there if you have a problem, what's her name? So we use that expression what's her name or what's his name? So we can't be absolutely certain. David to Declan now I know begins with a D what's his name? Yeah. Okay. Oh, Mary, Margaret, you know, you know, what's her name? You'll know. Or when you see it, it's always really, really helpful.

 
So we use that that expression. What's a name? What's his name? Because we just we've forgotten for a minute or two and we can picture them, but we don't have the name on the tip of our tongues. So if you're changing your apartment or you're having a redecoration or you you want to use to have a, as we often say, spring clean, somebody might ask you, well, what are you doing?

 
I'm getting rid of a few bits and pieces. Now, that could mean everything in your apartment or everything in your room or just some pieces of furniture. But we use this catch all expression. Add to some bits and pieces. Yeah. Did you go down to the the charity shop or did you go to the car boot sale? I did, it was really interesting.

 
I'd never been to one before, but I, I got a few things, just a few bits and pieces. So you don't want to be specific. You don't want to go through item by item. Maybe you want to keep it a little bit private. So you just use this expression just some bits and pieces. What are you going to donate to the the charity shop?

 
Just some bits and pieces. Things that I no longer need. Things I found in the attic, things I found in the basement. Things I found buried in the back of my wardrobe that I never used. Just some bits and pieces. I might as well give them away because I like to declutter every now and again. And then finally, this word thing or thingy.

 
Yeah, again. When we're trying to get something to open a bottle of wine or to fix the shelf on to the wall, or to hold up the the lamp or, you know, and you can't think of the exact words you said, I could you pass me that thingy we use for opening the wine? You mean the the bottle opener?

 
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the thing. Oh, can you pass me that thingy we use to make as straight lines on the wall? Oh, yes. You mean the the plumb line? Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. Or, you know, the, the thingy for measuring the, the length of the shelf or. You mean that the tape measure. Yeah. Yeah.

 
That thing. So when we can't think of the exact thing that we want, then we use the word thingy. And it's not that we don't know the word. We've just momentarily forgotten it. So we use the word thingy. Yeah. That thingy. So we use the word thingy all of the time. Okay, so these are ten particular expressions. Phrases are words that we would consider to be vague language.

 
It's not that there isn't a word for them. It's just good at times to use them because it's natural English and we use it all the time. So let me give them to you once more. Number one, give or take one, but not being exact about the time that we're going to finish or that the exact time something's going to be ready, give or take a few minutes, give or take or stuff like that.

 
We want to be more general. I yeah, I'm just going to throw away some clothes, you know, stuff like that. Like those trousers that I no longer wear, the suits or the jumpers. You know, those old Christmas presents I got. No, I never wore them. So stuff like that or something like that again. Stuff like that or something like that.

 
And then we've got this suffix -ish blackish in colour, bluish in colour. He was 40 ish. She was 30 ish. The weather, it's damp-ish. And again you can with colours. You can also use yellowy greeny or bluey but not whity or blacky. So blackish. Yeah but yellowy reddish brownish bluey. Okay. And then if we want to be just to be vague when we're describing something, he's kind of or looks sort of like.

 
Yeah. So we're a little bit uncertain about the specifics, but we can broadly describe the person kind of short sort of heavy. Okay. Or when we talk about price of things somewhere in the region of somewhere in the region of or describing what we might use in a document or the, the, the words you might use in a presentation, something along those lines would be perfect.

 
Something along those lines was just what we're looking for. We can't remember a person's name. I, you know, what's her name? What's his name? I'm redecorating. I'm going to get rid of some things in my house. Some bits and pieces, bits and pieces. And then finally. Yeah. That thingy. The thingy we used to open the bottle. Yeah. The thingy.

 
Okay, so all vague language that you can practice. Now these, you're going to have to be very, very careful how you use them. Try to understand them. First of all, try to put them into written sentences to see that you can understand them, match them against the examples of I've given. And then try to use 1 or 2 of them in your conversations.

 
And as always, come back to me if there are any problems, I'd be very happy to help you. Okay, this is Harry thanking you for watching and listening. And remember, join me for the next lesson.