Hi everyone. It's Jennifer with a short
but useful lesson on how to get your point across in very few words.
I bet you've seen the abbreviation ETC. Do you remember what it stands for?
Et cetera. So if you're reading aloud and you come across this abbreviation, that's how you should say it. Et cetera.
"Et cetera" is Latin and it means "and the rest" or "and others."
For example, in my lesson on the parts of speech, we study nouns, verbs,
adjectives, etc.
So I'm not going to take the time to list all the parts of speech.
But I know that you know what I mean.
I use etc. to refer to all the rest that should be included in that list.
Do you know other expressions similar to etc.? Let's look at them one by one.
I said that in writing the abbreviation for "et cetera" is etc.
Remember this abbreviation requires a period and we also use a comma before it (in a series). Look again.
In my lesson on the parts of speech, we study nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
In speaking, we say etc. at the end of a short list to imply that the list goes on.
In informal conversation, you may hear people say "et cetera" a couple times
to imply that the list goes on for quite a number of other items.
Here's an example.
So here I'm assuming that you know what other items go on that list without me mentioning them.
Another way you can continue that kind of list of similar things is by saying "and so on."
Or "and so on and so forth."
Another variation is "and the like." We can use it to refer to people or things.
Consider this example.
So I'm referring to people like teachers and coaches, but I'm not going to take the time to add to the list.
Speaking informally, you'll hear these additional ways to continue a list without actually naming all the items.
Most of the expressions that I'm sharing can change slightly in meaning if you change your tone.
Your tone of voice can be neutral or it can imply that you're annoyed or
bored by what someone has said.
Consider my earlier example about the teacher giving a talk to a group of students who didn't cooperate.
I'll say the sentence twice.
First with a neutral tone and then with annoyance.
The teacher made a speech about listening to one another, working together, and so on.
Did you hear a slight difference?
Note how it changes even more if I repeat "and so on."
The teacher made a speech about listening to one another, working together, and so on and so on.
If I really want to refer to someone's words as not being important, I can use blah blah blah.
Blah blah blah is for informal use. It can be very rude because you are saying that someone's words are
boring, silly, stupid, or unimportant.
We can even add that little gesture.
You'll hear plenty of examples of blah blah blah in TV shows and films. As I said, it's for informal conversation only.
Please use it with caution.
The most similar expression to blah blah blah is
yada yada, which can be said twice or even three times: yada yada yada.
Again I'm implying that the words left out were empty,
unimportant, or even boring, and that's why I'm not taking the time to repeat them.
You might hear yada yada in the middle of a statement when someone wants to skip over unimportant details.
For example, I really don't want to bore you with the details of my daily routine.
I can be a creature of habit, so I may talk about the predictability of my day like this
Do you remember all the expressions we covered in this lesson? Here's another quick look at them.
Why don't you take one new expression from this lesson and create an example?
You can answer one of the following questions in the comments.
Do you remember the lectures your parents used to give you when you were younger? What did they tell you?
What kinds of promises do politicians make when they campaign?
What would I find in your kitchen drawers or your medicine cabinet?
Remember this is not about saying a complete list. It's about finding a quick way to refer to all the items.
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As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!
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