Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English.
Back in July I did a lesson on 10 smart words to use at work and it immediately
became the most popular lesson that we have here on YouTube.
So because I know that you love that kind of lesson and I know that you want to
have a variety of language that will allow you to communicate professionally,
sound confident and clear in your English and be able to respond to any
situation with the right vocabulary.
I want to give you 10 more smart words that you can be using at work today.
And at the very end, I'm going to share with you my favorite word on this list.
The reason I love it is it takes this really complex idea,
this complex feeling that we all have,
and it makes it super simple. So be sure to stick with me to the end.
All right. Before we start with our list for today, I want to clarify one thing:
When I did the last lesson,
I noticed that a lot of people tried to use all of the different words that I
shared in one example sentence or in a couple of sentences,
and I want to caution you,
these words are best used sparingly.
What that means is to only use them occasionally.
If you listen carefully to native speakers, including myself,
you'll notice that in spoken communication,
we actually keep our language very simple.
When someone uses too many idioms or too many high level words,
too much advanced vocabulary,
it doesn't sound natural and sometimes they even sound a little bit arrogant and
I don't want you to do that.
So the words that I'm going to share with you today are fantastic for growing
your vocabulary and giving you a variety of words that you can use:
Both a combination of simple everyday language and these more high-level complex
words. But again, I want you to just use them sometimes,
not all the time and not in every sentence.
And that is the perfect introduction for our first word today,
which is the word adept.
Adept means that someone is highly skilled,
they're an expert or they're well trained in something very specific and for an
example I want to help you become more adept in your English speaking skills.
Number two is the word ambivalent and this is a word I actually use a lot
because it's often true for me. When you are ambivalent,
you are uncertain between two options usually because you have conflicting or
contradictory emotions about something or you really just don't care.
Here's a super common example in my house. My husband might ask me,
what do you want for dinner, Italian or Korean? And I'll say, hmm,
either one. I'm pretty ambivalent. In other words, I don't really care.
They both sound good.
Number three is to deviate,
which means to stray or go off course you're going away from the plan.
In a business meeting you might hear someone say,
the deadline for this is tomorrow,
so now is really not the time to deviate from our strategy.
Let's stick with the plan and then we can reevaluate once we meet the deadline.
Number four fiasco. I love the way that this word sounds.
If something is a total fiasco, it's a complete,
utter failure. It's chaos, it's messy,
everything went wrong.
This is definitely something you probably want to avoid at work.
You don't want things to become a fiasco,
but sometimes they happen. For example, you might say,
this partnership has become an absolute fiasco. It's time to give it up.
Number five is another really fun one. Flabbergasted.
Have you heard that one before? Flabbergasted.
If you walk into work tomorrow and your boss asks you to come into the office
and immediately gives you a promotion that you can't believe and a great pay
raise, you probably would feel a little bit flabbergasted.
You would be surprised, astonished,
and even a little bit speechless. Another example,
I was flabbergasted watching him explode at the meeting yesterday.
That was absolutely inappropriate. Number six,
impeccable. Impeccable is flawless.
There are no errors, no mistakes.
Everything is perfect and in line,
it's a great word to use in compliments. For example,
you might know someone who is an impeccable dresser,
which means they always look perfectly put together.
Their clothing is smart,
it looks great and it fits them really well.
You might know someone who's an impeccable presenter,
lecturer or public speaker, they speak flawlessly.
Seven is another great one. Honestly, this list today is so much fun.
Number seven is the word kibosh.
To put the kibosh on something means to put a stop to it immediately.
For example,
if you have a strategic plan and you start to deviate from that strategic plan
and as a result it creates a fiasco.
You might need to put the kibosh on it. Number eight: egalitarian
have you heard this one before? What do you think it means? Egalitarian.
It means that everything is equal or there is equality for all people.
I recently heard someone describe their workplace as an egalitarian workplace
and I asked them, why is your workplace egalitarian? And they said, well,
we're all on a first name basis.
It's hard to know who the boss really is. We all have the same office.
There isn't any status in our office.
What do you think about that?
Would you want to work in an office place like that?
Share your thoughts in the comments below,
but now let's move on to the next one.
Number nine is zealous.
Zealous means to be enthusiastic about something.
Sometimes even so enthusiastic that it becomes fanatical.
You become a fanatic about something.
Do you know anybody who is a zealous public speaker?
They're the kind of speaker that gets everyone excited and energizes the
audience or do you know anyone who's really zealous about following the rules?
They want to do everything exactly right. And finally,
we're at number 10 my favorite on today's list because it takes this really
complex idea and it expresses it perfectly in a small expression that combines
one word and one number.
It is actually the title of a book that was written in 1961 by Joseph Heller.
The book is Catch-22.
Have you ever heard this expression before?
It's a Catch-22 or I'm in a Catch-22 situation.
What this expression means or what it describes are those situations when there
is no good option, there's no escape.
You have to make a choice, but none of the choices are good choices.
There is no winning here.
In English,
we have an idiom that means the same thing to be between a rock and a hard
place. Or you'll also hear people say something like,
damned if you do, damned if you don't. Again,
there's no good option. Here's a really simple example.
I'm in a bit of a Catch-22.
I can't find anyone to cover my shift at work,
but if I cancel my doctor's appointment,
I can't get another one for two months. I don't know what to do.
I'm totally stuck. As you can see in that situation,
there's no escape. There's two bad choices,
and at the end of the day you've got to make, it's a Catch-22
now you've got 10 more smart words to use at work,
so it's time to put them into practice. Of course,
my two favorite words on this list are Catch-22 in flabbergasted.
So my first question is,
have you ever been in a Catch-22 situation?
What was it and what did you do?
Tell me about it in the comments and be sure to use Catch-22.
The second thing I want you to do is choose your favorite new word from this
list and use it in your own example.
Doing that will help you immediately add it to your vocabulary so that you can
start to use it in daily conversation. With that,
thank you so much for joining me. If you loved this lesson,
be sure to give it a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribe to this channel so you
never miss a future lesson.
You can also share it with friends or colleagues on Facebook or by email.
And finally, if you missed it,
be sure to check out the first video I had on this topic,
which I shared in July, and I'll give you a link to it in the notes below.
Have a fantastic week and I'll see you next time for your Confident English
lesson.