(upbeat music)
- Hello everyone and welcome back to English With Lucy.
Today we're going to be discussing the word goodbye
and why you need to stop using it.
Believe it or not, we hardly ever say goodbye.
It's something that just doesn't roll off the tongue
and it sounds quite formal.
You might see it written down or hear it in films,
but on a general day to day basis, you won't hear goodbye.
In this video,
I am going to give you loads of alternatives to goodbye.
I'm going to give you casual and slang ones
that you can use with friends and family,
and I'm also going to give you more formal ones,
more old-fashioned ones,
and ones that you can use in business situations.
I will also try to differentiate
between American and British English as I know
some of you find that really interesting and helpful.
So this video is perfect for improving your vocabulary,
but if you want to improve your listening
and pronunciation even further,
I highly recommend the special method
of combining reading actual books
with listening to audio books.
Let me explain this method.
Take a book that you have already read in English
or a book that you would like to read in English.
I've got loads of recommendations
in the description box down below,
and read that book
whilst listening to the audiobook version.
It sounds excessive, but it works.
Reading alone will not help you
with your pronunciation in English
because most frequently, how a word is written
does not correspond with how a word is pronounced.
Look at they're, there and their, for example,
they are all spelled differently,
but all pronounced in the same way.
Reading a book alone will not show you that.
However, if you then introduce an audio book,
you will start to learn these differences
and you will start to learn the pronunciation of words.
If you listen to a word, as you read it,
your brain will start to make the connections
and next time you see that word,
you'll know how to pronounce it,
and next time you hear that word,
you will know how to spell it.
It is such an effective method
and the best part is that you can get one free audiobook,
that's a 30-day free trial on Audible
if you click on the link in the description box and sign up,
then you can download one of my audio book recommendations.
Give it a try, it works.
Right, let's get started with the lesson.
I'm going to begin with casual ways of saying goodbye.
The first one I think most of you will know it is bye.
Bye on its own is really frequently used.
It's just so easy to say
and it's a word you can say with a smile.
Bye, bye.
Number two, and it's an extension of that
is bye-bye or buh-bye.
Now we use this in a different situation
to just bye on its own.
And it's important that you know this,
bye-bye is a little more cute
and little more childish and infantile.
It's something you'd likely say to a child, bye-bye.
However we do use it sometimes
if we're trying to be very cute or friendly,
bye-bye, see you.
That brings me onto my next one, which is see you later.
See you later, we often say see ya instead of see you.
See you later.
This is one that we say if we already have plans
to see someone again in that same day.
If we don't have plans, we can say number four
which is, see you soon.
If you want to be really casual, you can use number five
which is just see ya and that is very, very informal.
Now, number six is a little bit more advanced.
You will look really good
if you use this around a native speaker.
This one is, I'm heading off!
This is a good way to start to leave an event
that you do want to be at anymore.
To head off is a phrasal verb meaning to begin to leave,
to head off.
Saying, oh, I'm heading off, I'll see you soon,
is a great way to start the goodbye process
which we all know can be a little lengthy.
A shortened down version of that,
number seven, is just I'm off, right? I'm off, see you.
That's very casual again.
Another one that we can use which is very British,
is I'm going to make a move or I've got to make a move.
To make a move is to leave.
I need to make a move.
In America, they're more likely to say,
I'm going to make tracks or I've got to make tracks
and that means to drive away.
You're making tracks with your car.
All of these phrases are normally preceded with, right.
You say right, as you're getting up, right, I'm off.
Right, I'm going to make tracks.
Another one, again, very British
is, oh, I've got to get going, I've got to get going.
Practise that one on your own a couple of times
because I've got to get going, I've got to get going
is quite a tongue twister, twister.
Oh! I can't believe the word tongue twister
was a tongue twister for me, that is hilarious.
(laughing)
Okay, number 11 is I must be going.
Oh, what's the time? I must be going, I must be off.
A very American one is I've gotta take off,
I've got to take off.
In British English, take off is really for clothes,
to take off your clothes and to take off as an aeroplane,
an aeroplane takes off.
But in America that means to leave as well.
14, very, very casual is have a good one
and that means have a good day,
but it's very warm and friendly, have a good one.
And the last one, number 15 is talk to you later,
talk to you later.
It's a bit of an extension of, see you later.
Talk to you later implies that you might send a text
or make a phone call to them later that day, right.
Let's talk about formal professional and old-fashioned ways
of saying goodbye in English.
The first one is very American
and it's used in business or service situations.
It's, have a great day, you have a great day.
And I was so surprised when I went to the USA
because everyone wanted me to have a great day.
And on the first couple of times
I'm just like, oh that's nice.
And then just when I realised that everyone said it,
I realised that no one really wanted me to have a great day.
The British version of this would be, have a lovely day
and that is slightly more sincere.
We don't use it as often so it sort of means more.
An alternative to this is take care, or you take care,
or you take care now, and that's quite warm and friendly.
If you want to say goodbye to somebody
that's going on a journey or is driving away,
you can say have a safe journey
or have a good journey, that's British,
and in American English, they're quite likely
to say, drive safe or you drive safe now.
Number five, more formal, it was nice to see you
or it was nice seeing you.
Either or, nice to see or nice seeing.
If you've just met the person for the first time,
it was nice to meet you, it was lovely meeting you.
Nice and lovelier, interchangeable of course.
The next one, very, very posh.
This is very old-fashioned is farewell.
You might see this one in books and movies set in the past.
We don't tend to use it now,
but I think it's important for you to understand it.
Another old-fashioned one is, tara.
Now this is slang but it's very old-fashioned,
so I put it in this list.
Older people might say tara
to you which means goodbye, obviously,
'cause it's in this video.
And another one is tata or tata for now.
And again, very old-fashioned and a little bit posher.
The last one,
if you want somebody to keep in contact with you,
you can say stay in touch,
and that's a nice way of ending a conversation.
That's the end of this lesson, I hope you enjoyed it
and I hope you learned something, I really hope you did
because I gave you a lot of vocabulary there.
Don't forget to download your free audiobook.
The link is in the description box along with my audiobook
and book recommendations.
And don't forget to connect with me
on all of my social media.
I've got my Facebook, I've got my Instagram,
and I've got my Twitter.
And I shall see you soon for another lesson.
Audiobook that you have already read in any--
I have not thought of crazy frog in like five years.
Just, wow.
A long time ago, wasn't it?
Right, let's get started with the lesson.
I'm going to begin with casual phrases.
(laughing)
So casual, I can't even say the R.
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