hello everyone and welcome back to love
english i'm sabra and today we're going
to be looking at a very important tip to
help you stop sounding underconfident
stop sounding perhaps amateur or
insecure
this tip is going to boost how you will
speak in professional contexts you'll
sound much more like a leader and it
will help you to feel much more
confident don't forget for more videos
and tips you can follow us on instagram
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forget to subscribe so without further
ado everyone let's get
[Music]
started so the first tip and this is
really the most important one is to stop
using filler words
filler words are things such as like
sort of
kind of
basically even obviously
these words are overused and they don't
actually mean anything when they're used
as filler words so they can make you
sound less professional less confident
and also less well educated
well-educated people tend not to speak
like this because you can sound a little
bit well like a teenager i'll give you
an example so we were like uh walking on
the beach and we were like um spending
the day there and chilling and uh yeah
it was uh sort of like fun that's okay
for a teenager i suppose but for
somebody in a professional context that
doesn't sound great
so let's look at how we can stop using
these words we're going to look at
example sentences and how we can improve
these to make them sound more
professional let's start by looking at
the word like this is probably the most
overused one so let's look at where
using like is okay
when we're making a comparison when
we're saying something is similar to
something it's fine to use like for
example here
don't worry about learning to use excel
again it will be like riding a bicycle
like riding a bicycle so we're comparing
that's fine let's look at the next
example i was like quite anxious to get
the project finished on time
what is like doing in that sentence it
actually performs no function so we can
simply remove it
i was anxious about getting the project
finished on time
let's compare them
i was like anxious to get the project
finished on time i was anxious to get
the project finished on time
which do you think sounded better for me
i think the version without like sounds
more professional you're getting to the
point more you don't sound unsure of
yourself you're being direct and concise
so that's an important step towards
sounding more professional and more
confident is removing the word like as a
filler word the next filler phrase is
sort of or kind of these get used a lot
as filler phrases as well
let's look at some examples a person
might say
it's a sort of complex issue
is there a need for sort of there you
could simply say it's a complex issue
however if you want to slightly modify
this if you want to make this a little
less direct you could say
i would say it's a complex issue or it
seems to be a complex issue this is
known as hedging language and it makes
something seem a little less direct so
you could say i would say it's a complex
issue
however being direct is sometimes
important in the business world so it
may be okay to simply remove phrases
such as sort of and kind of so if you're
using a kind of to talk about types of
something then that is fine for example
you could say this is a kind of analysis
this is a kind of computer program
that's fine however if you're just
saying
it was kind of strange to be here or i
was kind of nervous
all of those are simply filler and you
can remove them you could say i would
say or you could say i was quite nervous
or you could just simply remove them by
saying
i was nervous before the presentation
not i was kind of nervous
you know is another filler phrase which
sounds pretty bad as well
let's have a look at where it's used and
how we can remove it you might hear
people saying things like oh you know it
was a tough day or you know she's a
little sensitive or you know this is
something i've been dreaming of for ages
of course if you're chatting casually to
a friend it might be okay to slip into
this kind of chatter however at work
it's much better to be concise and
especially if you're in presentations
and meetings to cut these out
so let's have a look at where we could
remove them it was you know a tough day
instead of saying this you can simply
say it was a tough day or you could say
i found it a tough day or i found it
challenging it was a challenging day
she's you know a little sensitive
here we could simply say
she's a little sensitive or she's
sometimes sensitive you could use your
hedging language if you don't want to be
too direct the next thing we're going to
look at are the ums and the r's and how
to reduce them have a think now how much
do you think you amen are when you talk
be honest with yourself if i'm being
really honest i know sometimes i use um
too much so it's something we all need
to work on so we're in it together on
this one
even politicians such as boris johnson
have been known to use um too much i
think that uh
the best the best the best answer i can
i can give i
of course i've been uh
how does that make the person come
across
well to my mind they sound uncertain
they sound like they're thinking of the
answer like they're not sure what to say
which makes me lose faith in them and
perhaps think they're not that confident
or not that knowledgeable on the subject
so it's much better to try and reduce
them if we can
in fact it's better just to put a pause
than to say um
ah
it's much better just to pause
let's have a look at some examples hmm
that's a tough question and needs extra
thought now i'll try it just with a
pause
that's a tough question and needs extra
thought which one do you think sounded
better
let's have a look at another example
uh i think the final figure will be
approximately ten thousand
i think the final figure will be
approximately ten thousand
so if you need time to think it's better
to simply pause than say um or ah
it just makes you sound like you need a
moment to think but you're not
verbalizing that with a very obvious
sound that shows that you you need to
think
so have a go at just using a pause and
see how that feels my next tip is to
improve your intonation
i've noticed that a lot of people who
speak english as a second language tend
to have a flatter intonation in english
than native speakers have this might be
because you're insecure about your
english perhaps or you're worrying about
whether you're saying the right thing
and so you're not putting emphasis on
the right parts of the sentence and
you're not bringing your tone downward
for emphasis which is what native
speakers do
i've made a whole video on intonation
and how to use it to improve your speech
which is just up here
but just in a nutshell now to tell you
english is mostly a downward tone
language so it's a falling tone language
so many of our sentences end with our
voice being lowered on the final
syllable or the final word
so it's very important to start to mimic
that because you'll sound again more
confident but you'll also sound more
like a native
now your language intonation pattern may
be different to english so it's
important to know that we mostly have
falling tones however we have high
points in the middle of the sentence
so usually we have somewhere where we go
up in the middle and then we will fall
down kind of like a wave
we also put emphasis on key words we
tend to only have an upward tone at the
end of sentences
when we're asking a yes or no question
and there are a few other things as well
such as tag questions i'm going to now
say a sentence with a falling tone at
the end and where in the middle we have
a slight peak so this is the natural
pattern of english intonation let's have
a look at this i'm going to organize a
meeting where we can discuss the
implementation of the new software
i'm going to organize a meeting where we
can discuss the implementation of the
new software so to me that fall at the
end shows that you're finished and shows
that you've made your point confidently
and clearly
if we go up we start to add in an
element of uncertainty
see if you can hear it i'm going to
organize a meeting where we can discuss
the implementation of the new software
let's look at another example here are
our kpis for the next month here are our
kpis for the next month
here are our kpis for the next month
there's something that sounds much more
certain and definite about falling at
the end here are two more sentences that
i want you to try and copy with the
falling tone this project could really
be a success with some outside the box
thinking could everyone please do their
market research for this evening
now let's look at some examples of where
you could put upward intonation so on
yes or no questions is everyone okay
with friday for the meeting is everyone
okay with friday for the meeting
does everyone think this plan is
workable does everyone think this plan
is workable so you'll hear there's that
rise on the last word and this is where
we're asking for interaction we're
asking does anyone have any thoughts so
we're leaving it open up in the air is
like inviting other people to speak but
don't forget you need to have that wave
so you need to peek in the middle and
make sure your voice goes up on the key
words we'll look at the keywords on a
few of our examples i think this project
could be a success with some outside of
the box thinking so success outside of
the box carry more meaning so the voice
was slightly raised on those i really
think this project could be a success
with some outside of the box thinking
here are our kpis for the next month
kpis and next were quite key here so my
voice slightly raised on those
i'm going to organize a work meeting for
the implementation of the new software
on a work meeting again my voice raised
the implementation of the new software
the more you start to listen to english
the more you'll start to hear this
intonation pattern of peaks and dips
peaks and falls and the more you can try
and copy that the better the more
professional and more confident you will
sound okay everybody those were my two
tips for the day i do hope they help you
to sound more confident and more
professional in english please share any
additional tips in the comments below
we'll see you soon on love english
bye-bye