﻿Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to my lessons where I tried to help you to
speak better English, we can do that when if you listen to my podcast or you can watch my YouTube,
so make sure that you subscribe to the channel. So what we're trying to do is to give you the
opportunity to speak better English that you can speak to your colleagues, you can speak to
your friends, you can make those business calls, or complete those all-important job interviews,
whatever it takes whatever you need grammar, phrasal verbs, we can help you with those. So what
am I going to talk to you about today? Well, today the important part of this, we're going to look at
ways to say that I am shocked in English. So when we are shocked, we are also surprised. So
ways in which we can say shocked in English. So there are a number of ways to
express being shocked. Of course, you can just have an expression on your face, or
you don't have to say anything, and people will immediately know by the look on your face,
that you're somewhat shocked by what you've seen, or what you've heard or what somebody has
said to you. But there are lots of expressions and words that you can use. So what I'm going to do,
I'm going to go down through them one by one, then we'll go back to them and give you some
examples. So let's start. I'm speechless. I'm lost for words. I'm flabbergasted.
I'm gobsmacked, astounded. So I am astounded, staggered. I was or I am staggered,
stunned, startled, I was startled and taken aback. Now, a few of those are a little bit more
formal than others. And I'll explain those as we go through them. And then my jaw dropped, so…
what else? I jumped out of my skin. Okay. And finally, there were some raised
eyebrows, raised eyebrows. So all of those are these ways in which we can say shots or
English ways to say shocked. So let me go through them one by one. So the first one,
I'm speechless? Well, when we talk about speech, speeches. How we talk,
we can make a speech, a wedding speech or a speech at the presentation. And when we are speechless,
it means we can't say anything. Now, we couldn't be speechless, because we've lost our voice.
We can't speak at all. But when we are shocked, you know, usually we go. And because of that
intake of breath, it's very hard to get the words out. So this is where it comes from.
I'm speechless, or I was speechless. So some news you get that really shocked you. So you
heard that your your boss was leaving the company, and he'd been working there for
as far as you knew 20 years. And so he was one of these, as we call them, company, guys, somebody
who would never leave or never go anywhere else. But you heard him leaving, and he's going to go
and live in the country. He's going to spend his time fishing you Oh, my God, I'm speechless.
I just don't know what to say. I thought he would be here until he died. So you're speechless. Okay,
then the second one, I'm lost for words, again, something similar when we're speechless.
We can't find the words to say. So another way to express it would be to say, I'm lost for words,
that this could be a shock or a surprise that's either positive or negative. Yeah. So you can be
lost for words when you hear some bad news, you can be lost for words when something positive
happens. So for example, it's your birthday, let's say it's your 30th, or 40th, or your 50th,
one of those special birthdays with a zero. And when you come home, you open the door and say hi,
hi, I'm back. And you open the door into the living room. And surprise and all of your friends
are there, there's a big streamer across the wall, which is telling you happy birthday. And then
everybody starts congratulating you and they make presentations and gifts. And you're standing there
looking around at all your friends. And yet your last four words. And that's exactly what you say,
is, um, last words, I just I wasn't expecting this up. That's not what I was expecting at
all. In fact, I thought I was just going to have a quiet evening. In fact, I really wanted
to forget about it. But I'm so happy that you're all here. So your last four words.
The next is I'm flabbergasted now here, you're very careful with the pronunciation and
just check on the spelling. We'll put it up on the screen. flabbergasted, flabbergasted,
very, very British English word and it usually is there to describe and somebody is really
surprised by whatever they've seen, or whatever they've heard. Yeah. So for example, if you're
sitting at home one morning and you hear the postman coming and this letter falls
through the letterbox and you go and you pick it up and you don't recognise the type of envelope
which your name is on it. So you go inside, you sit down and you open the envelope. And
you, ‘Oh my God.’ And then you try to explain to your wife or partner that I've won. I've won the
first prize in that competition that I said I would enter, but I didn't. I'm flabbergasted I,
I don't know what to say also flabbergasted being really, really surprised by the news you've
received in the envelope, you're, you're just gonna start mumbling and muttering and it just
can't get the words out. You're flabbergasted. So that's really good news. Because obviously
you get a prize or you've won something that is bound to be good news. There's either going
to be a monetary prize, or a holiday or a new car, whatever it might be. But yeah, you never
expected to win it. You never expected to be in that position. So when you do get the news and
your name, and those details appear, and that and the envelope when you open it, well, of course,
you're going to be absolutely surprised. And the word flabbergasted, flabbergasted.
Next word is sort of an opposite in the sense of not so formal words. So it's quite an informal
word. Okay, so when we say, gobsmacked. And a gob is a very, very slang word for your mouth. Now,
so this is your garb. So if somebody tells you to close your garb or shut your gob, it means that
not to say anything, so when you're gobsmacked, it's like somebody's putting their hand
smack over your mouth. So when
you can't say anything? Yes. So again, when you get a surprise or
something happens that you weren't expecting or some news that somebody has told you that Yeah,
I'm totally gobsmacked, totally gobsmacked. So you're telling your friends in the bar
the next night or two nights later you never guess what happened? I mean, I was
just sitting in my office doing something and my boss called and said he wanted to talk to me and
he hands you this envelope and you think you're going to get sacked? Yes, if I will.
I don't know what I was going to see. But when I opened the envelope, I got that promotion. Yeah.
And I'd almost forgotten about it because it's so long ago since I spoke to him. And there it is.
and black and white. I was completely gobsmacked. Yeah, really, really good news. But yeah, I just
didn't know what to say to know whether to thank him or whether to shake hands. In fact,
I could have even hugged him. I was so happy. So I was completely gobsmacked. Now, the next few are
very, very similar. Some of them are formal. Some of them are more informal. So let me give them to
you quickly. astounded, a little bit more formal? I'm astounded. Yeah, I'm astounded by the reaction
of the party members. So it could be a debate on television and you've got two politicians arguing
what's right and what's wrong. And do they agree or don't agree. And of course, if you listen to
politicians, they never listened to each other. They just tried to make the point. And then
they cut across each other and you have this and one turns to the other side. Well,
I'm absolutely astounded that your party would take this position. So astounded,
quite formal way to say yeah, I'm really surprised or as I said before, I'm gobsmacked, so astounded,
I'm astounded that you would take that position. I'm astounded that the government would see
it appropriate to close down these bicycle lanes when everybody's trying to encourage people to
have more exercise. I'm astounded by whatever you happen to hear, astounded, staggered, again,
staggered. When you stagger, you're not able to keep your balance. So when somebody is staggered,
they're a little bit off balance or they are caught off-balance by what somebody has said
on the news that I'm staggered by the news. I mean, you see these sort of headlines, you're just
staggered, you know? Yeah. So something about a robbery that the bank in the centre of the city
was robbed the night before, and the robbers got away with 10 or 20 million in cash, but something
like 40 million euro of jewellery taken from some safe deposit box and so absolutely staggered that
people would have that amount of jewellery sitting in a safety deposit box in a bank. I mean, it's
just amazing what people collect. Really, really staggered when I saw the story. So something not
bad news. It's not necessarily good news, but it's news that is very, very surprising. So well. I'm
staggered, staggered by what I've seen, staggered by what I've heard, staggered by the enormity of
this particular headline, the enormity of the robberies and everything else is really really
staggered. The next three are also quite commonly used, some of them informal. Stunned, would be a
little bit more formal, startled, a bit neutral, taken aback is a little bit more informal.
Taken aback means somebody sort of stops you in your tracks by what they say it's not physically
or I was taken aback by the reaction I got when I suggested that we should all return to
the office on the first of September, I got such an amount of abuse, I was really taken aback,
startled, not so much. So exciting. But you could be startled by something that you weren't
expecting. So perhaps you're sitting there as we might be, and you're daydreaming and you're maybe
looking out the window, and somebody comes in and says something to you, and you don't hear them,
and they come a bit closer, and they maybe tap you on the shoulder. Oh, my God. Yeah. You startled
me. Yeah. So when somebody startled you, you're usually not focusing. You're not paying attention.
Because perhaps you're, you're daydreaming, as I said, looking out the window, or thinking about
your round of golf at the weekend, or thinking about your fishing trip or whatever you're doing.
Your mind isn't on something else. You don't hear the door opening, you don't hear the person say,
Excuse me. And when they come up to your wall, you're startled. Okay.
stunned, yeah, is a little bit more, as I said, it's a little bit more formal to be stunned,
is again, neither negative nor positive, it's more neutral. I'm, I was stunned. Just mean, if you
were if you stun somebody, often with an electric shock, this is what the police forces us somewhere
they have these called taser guns. So they you fire at somebody and then electric volt hits them,
and that will sort of effectively knock them unconscious or certainly knock them to the ground.
So they are stunned, literally stunned. So when you're stunned, somebody stops you in your tracks,
and you can't think for a minute and it oh my god, what was that? So you're, you're you're,
you have to think and then put yourself in the position and see what happened,
what somebody said to you. So you can be a little bit stunned. So they would all be connected with
shock. And surprise. Okay, so the next expression is my jaw dropped. This is our jaw,
the jaw bone. So the lower jaw and the upper jaw. So when we say my jaw dropped, I mean,
your mouth opens. So such was the shock, such were the words or whatever you had seen that you
would your mouth opened with surprise, thinking something might come out like some words, but
just been surprised by that type of whatever you saw on the internet, whatever you heard, whatever
somebody told you, whatever you read, whatever it might be, it was a jaw-dropping moment, my jaw
dropped. So we use that as an expression. So again, you're talking to your friends,
and you're talking about all the things that had happened the week before and maybe haven't
seen your friends for a couple of weeks. And they and you say all awkward I tell you what I mean,
I met Michael, you know, we haven't seen Michael for such a long time. I haven't seen him more,
I think since we left University, but when he told me where he is working and the salary,
he's earning, my jaw dropped, I just didn't think he was capable. And suddenly, I didn't even think
those sorts of salaries were available around here, but my jaw dropped. Okay. Okay, the next
expression is I jumped out of my skin, okay, or you jumped out of your skin, literally or the skin
on your body. So usually, if you get such a shock, or such a scare, something happens to you Oh,
and you, we say I jumped out of my skin. Yeah, I almost jumped out of my skin. Normally, when
looking out the window, or you're sitting on a park bench or you're somewhere and you're not
paying attention, your mind is on something else. And a stranger or somebody you know comes up to
you tapped on the shoulder or says excuse me, and they get a bit a little bit close to you.
They're closer than you had expected. And you get a bit of a fright and you almost or you do
jump out of your skin. Okay, and then finally, we can use that were raised eyebrows. Okay, so…
Well, I can go a bit of a go like that I can raise my eyebrow gel. So when we raise our eyebrows,
we usually raise them with a little bit of shock. Yeah, what was that? So you can just
have that facial expression. So raised eyebrows, but when we say that were raised eyebrows,
it means that people around you were shocked when they heard whatever you had to say.
So for example, you're sitting in the boardroom or the meeting room. All your colleagues are there,
people are sitting there and people are expecting the same old type of things to come out. Oh yeah,
the sales this week. That law and the sales next month, KPI, blah, blah, blah. So everybody's
gone through the normal thing. Nothing's out of the ordinary. But when it comes to your turn,
you say, Well, look, I think this is probably the best time to tell you that I'm leaving the company
next week. There were really raised eyebrows. When you said that people were looking at your
thinking, that's such a good place. To mention it, why wouldn't you have mentioned it to the
boss on your own? So you're sitting down, you're telling everybody that people that are so there
were really raised eyebrows. So that means people were shocked. People were a little bit stunned.
People were taken aback by what you had said. Okay, so raised eyebrows. Okay, so those are
the type of expressions we use or ways of saying we are shocked. But there are other ways in which
people can say they are shocked. They can use words like, Oh my god, yeah, you'd often hear
that. And that would be a way of expressing a certain amount of shock here. Oh, my God is quite
a common way. Or if you are a fan of ‘Friends’, the TV series, and one of the girlfriends that
Chandler had was a girl with long black hair, and her favourite expression was oh my god. Yeah. So
you have your watch friends here. You'll hear that all the time. Yeah. So there are different ways to
use other words, to express that type of shock and horror. And, you know, some people might just say,
what was that? Yeah, that could be a way of using it. So there's some varieties of it
or what? And they don't complete it, because the next word is going to be quite rude. So
what’s that? Meaning what was that? Oh, who said that? Or what's happened there? Or just something
a little bit less excitable? Like, would you look at that? Or just simply? Oh, my, yeah, that's not
really strong. So some of these shock expressions or expressions of shock are not so strong, but
you hear them all the time. Let me give them to you again. Oh, my God, or Oh, my, what was that?
Or would you look at that? Or was that? Okay? You can guess what would come after that? Or there's
another one very British English. Crikey. Yeah. And spelt C-R-I-K-E-Y. Crikey. With an exclamation
mark. And often, when you're writing these, you would use the follow them with an exclamation
mark. So when people read it, they know that there's a certain amount of shock or surprise,
okay, all right. So different ways to say I'm shocked or surprised. Hopefully,
you've enjoyed those, hopefully, you can understand them and you can put them to some use.
And if you want to contact me, well then you can do so on www.englishlessonviaskype.com
Very happy to hear from and as I said, if you want to listen to the podcast,
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channel. Okay. Well, thanks for watching and thanks for listening and join me again soon.