Hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish!
We gotta talk.
Too many of you have been telling me
that you're worried about joining English conversations.
You're worried about getting stuck,
forgetting your words,
feeling embarrassed about making mistakes.
Does that sound like you? Do you want to get
unstuck with me today?
I'm sharing twenty-seven really useful expressions
to help you get yourself out of trouble
when you need to and help you to feel more confident
about joining English conversations in the first place.
Before we get stuck in, I've got some fantastic news
from our friends at Lingoda
who are offering us an exclusive discount available
only to mmmEnglish students.
I'm assuming that you already know about
the Lingoda Language Sprint, right?
It's basically the same as the Lingoda marathon,
they've just changed the name.
So The Sprint challenges you to accelerate
your English speaking skills, your confidence
and your fluency by attending a certain number of
classes within ninety days.
Now, if you attend all of your classes,
Lingoda will give you up to a hundred percent
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Now, there's two ways that you can participate.
The Sprint,
which is fifteen classes a month for three months.
If you complete all of these classes,
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Or The Super Sprint which is thirty classes a month
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Now you can do The Sprint in English, business English,
German, French or Spanish.
I did the Spanish version earlier in the year
and man it was tough
but it was easily one of the best things that I ever did
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They have small group classes, native teachers
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The next Sprint starts on January the 29th
and to secure your place, you need to register
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Use the link in the description below and add this code
to get a cool ten euro discount at the checkout.
But Lingoda are giving us an exclusive discount
here at mmmEnglish. If you register early,
as in before the end of the year,
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Like I said, this is a special offer that's only available
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So if you want to give your speaking skills a huge boost
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There's something that my students often forget,
that every confident English speaker,
whether they're native or non-native,
uses the strategies that I'm sharing today
to help them communicate.
That's right,
native English speakers use these techniques
all the time. It's a natural part of communicating.
We don't always know what we want to say
and it doesn't always come out perfectly either.
What confident English speakers know how to do is
quickly get themselves out of trouble if they need to.
If they get stuck in the conversation
they know how to fix it.
And there are plenty of English phrases and expressions
that will help you in these situations.
So when you get stuck or when you can't find
the right words or you forget what you wanted to say
and you start feeling your confidence slipping away
or the heat rising up in your neck,
maybe you freeze. Has this ever happened to you?
The thing is and I'm sorry to be the one to say this,
the thing is this experience is never going to end.
So it's something that you need to learn to live with right
And just become more comfortable with.
And when that happens, you'll be able to get yourself
out of trouble quickly and automatically.
So let's focus on the expressions that you need to get
unstuck in English conversations
so that you can move past the problem
and keep talking.
Okay imagine that you've just
run into someone that you know, perhaps a colleague
or a professor at your university
and you've started chatting in English.
Things are going pretty well, you know, but suddenly
you don't really understand what they're saying.
Now this could be because they're using words
that you don't recognise.
Maybe because you don't know a lot about this topic,
perhaps it could be because their accent is a little
different to what you're used to so it's a bit tricky.
So in these situations, you could say:
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."
"Could you repeat what you said?"
"I'm sorry. I'm not following you."
So we use this expression when we don't understand
what someone means, when it's a little unclear
or you're a little confused.
I don't think I understood your question.
Can you repeat that?
What about when you are talking with someone
but suddenly you forget your own words
or you forget what you've been talking about after you've
already started talking, right?
It's the worst because the other person is looking at you
They're waiting for you to continue.
Their full focus is on you and you've lost your words.
It's just awkward silence.
This does happen to everyone.
Sometimes things are just so bad,
the best thing to do is just hit the reset button.
Now I'm gonna talk about that in a minute but firstly
what can you say when you forget your words?
Listen to what I say but also watch how I say it.
It's really important.
What's that word again?
It's on the tip of my tongue.
We use this idiom to describe that really familiar feeling,
you know, when we've lost a word but it's
so, so close in our minds, it's like right there.
We just can't get to it,
you know, you're trying to remember that word.
I'm sorry, I've had a mental blank.
I can't remember the word in English.
Now at this point, the person that you're talking to
will probably try and help you to remember
or remind you of the word.
You could even say
"I have no idea how to say this in English!
Maybe you can help me
if I explain what I'm trying to say."
But even if you can't find the word, don't let it stop you.
Simply say something like
"That's so annoying. Nevermind..."
And then change the topic.
You could say:
"Let's move on."
This will help you to change the topic and keep
moving forward in your conversation.
Now sometimes it's not just a word
that you've forgotten
but you've completely forgotten what you were talking
about at all
and I really hate that feeling.
You start panicking because
you don't know where you're going in the conversation
right? You're lost.
Maybe you've been completely tongue-tied
so you need to restart. You need to hit that reset button.
You just need to explain what's happened
and probably have a laugh as well,
you know, you should always say these ones
with a smile on your face because remember
this happens to everyone.
Hang on. Let me start over!
Let me try that again.
Oh man! I completely lost my train of thought there...
I'm so sorry,
I've completely forgotten what I was talking about.
Hopefully, it'll come back to me in a few moments.
Now this is a great signal or a great conversation cue
to tell the other person that they should try and
take over the conversation
while you're trying to think of what you wanted to say.
Hopefully, it'll come back to me in a moment.
Now if you suggest that you're thinking or you need that
extra time, the other person should interject.
Honesty is really important in conversations.
When you explain what's happened
then everyone else understands, right?
If someone is listening to you speak and then
you somehow get stuck,
well all of the expressions that we just went through
are going to help explain what happened
and then give clues to the person who's listening to you
so that they can help you out.
A teeny, tiny, little reminder,
a conversation is not a test.
The other person is not there to challenge you
or to make you mess up or to make fun of you.
They're going to help you to keep
going in your conversation
if you give them the right clues.
If you help them to understand what's happening
then they can help you to find the right word
or to change the topic.
This is a completely normal part of English
conversation and let's be honest,
it's going to happen to you a lot on your journey towards
English fluency and it's gonna happen to you
once you're fluent too
so it's a really good thing that you're here and you're
getting the tools that you need
to have successful conversations even if you mess up.
There are plenty of times when you just don't know what
to say, right?
Because you're not prepared or you've never
thought about this topic or question before.
You just have no idea what to say, right?
So you need to buy some time.
You need a little bit of extra time to think about
your answer
and there are tons of different expressions
that we use in English when this happens.
Let me think about that for a minute.
That's an interesting question, let me think...
That's tricky... I've never been asked that before.
I'm not sure! Give me a second to think about it.
Give me a moment to think about
how to explain that in English!
All of these sentences will give you some extra time
just a few seconds so that you can
take a deep breath. You can get your thoughts in order
and you can think about what you need to say next.
If you're in a group, you could even direct the question
towards someone else.
I need some time to think about that.
Does anyone else have an answer ready?
You're sending the question on to someone else.
Another really common situation
especially when you're at work is when someone
asks you to share
an opinion or an idea about something but
may catch you off guard.
You don't have anything ready to share with them about
this topic, right? You don't know what to say
so you freeze. You start searching for words
but in that moment it feels like every English word
has escaped from your brain
and gone somewhere else.
So in this situation, you can try to return
the question to them.
I've never thought about that before. What about you?
That's tricky...
I've never been asked a question like that before.
What do you think?
Or even more casually, you could say:
"What's your take?" Or "What are your thoughts?"
Now this does two things.
The other person is going to start talking, right?
So you'll have some time to think about your answer
while they do that
but if you don't already have an opinion about
this topic or some ideas that you want to share,
you can get some ideas from what they're saying.
They'll inspire you to think about something, you know,
maybe you'll agree or disagree with what they've said.
Lastly, you might find yourself in a situation
where you're talking but you notice the face
of the other person changing.
They don't seem to be understanding you.
That's okay!
It might be your fault but it could also be them.
So if you feel like this is happening,
you could say a few different things.
Am I making sense?
This is a great question to ask if you want to check
and allow them to ask a question to you,
you know, have a break to check with you.
I don't think I'm being very clear, am I?
Let's try that again.
Sorry I think I'm confusing you.
What I'm trying to say is...
Now this expression allows you to rephrase
your ideas in a different way to help the other person
to understand you.
It's really, really useful. Try and remember it.
So there you have it,
twenty-seven practical expressions to help you
when you get stuck in English conversations.
I hope that they give you the confidence to join
more English conversations and they help you
to keep your conversations going for longer.
If you enjoyed the lesson, make sure you give it a like
and share with your friends.
And also don't forget to check out The Lingoda Sprint.
It's an awesome opportunity to regularly practise
your conversation skills with native teachers
and others. Use the link in the description below
to check it out.
If you have any questions about this lesson
or you have any special lesson requests
then add them to the comments below
and if you want to keep practising with me
you know where to find me. I'll see you in there!