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  • You're learning with nine to five English - business English for the workplace

  • Hi Tim here with another

  • nine-to-five English lesson

  • Today we're going to learn how to make generalizations in English

  • don't you hate it when people say things like

  • Americans are rude. I mean not all

  • Americans are rude and people in other countries are rude, too. It's simply not helpful to say

  • Something is true of a whole group of people

  • When it's negative like that, it feels wrong

  • But it can be helpful to describe a group of people as long as we're clear that it's not

  • Everyone we're talking about

  • we call this a

  • generalization

  • for example many of my friends work in finance

  • I'm making a generalization

  • about my friends and

  • It doesn't have to be people if I say

  • Most of our online sales come from Europe. I'm

  • generalizing about sales

  • Let's try making a few

  • generalizations like this

  • Listen to each example then repeat it for yourself

  • Ready, let's get started

  • Very little of our business comes through online sales actually

  • Many of the customer concerns are about delivery times

  • Most of the people i've talked - like the new website on

  • The whole our employees are pretty happy with their jobs

  • Did you hear that expression on the whole

  • That's a useful phrase. That means in general

  • you're not talking about everything or

  • everyone

  • just overall or

  • mainly

  • besides phrases like on the whole you can make this type of

  • generalization with words like most and

  • little

  • now we don't only generalize about how much or how many

  • we also

  • generalize about what happens

  • For example, you might say something like the department budget is normally reviewed by our manager

  • that word

  • normally tells us that it doesn't always happen, but

  • It usually does

  • let's practice some examples of

  • generalizing about things that happen

  • Remember to repeat the examples after you hear them

  • Generally speaking. We see higher sales in the summer months

  • Nine times out of ten customers. Give us great feedback

  • Normally our new employees go through a training program

  • In most cases we finish our projects ahead of schedule

  • So besides normally you can use expressions like in most cases and

  • Generally speaking and the other expression we heard is

  • Nine times out of ten. That sounds pretty exact. Doesn't it?

  • But it really just means in most cases

  • We don't really mean exactly ninety percent of the time

  • This leads me to talk about how often

  • something happens

  • that's something we can generalize about as well and

  • It's very important. Which words you use you want to be

  • Somewhat accurate for example, are you late for work usually?

  • sometimes

  • or

  • rarely

  • these are

  • frequency words

  • If you don't use a frequency word

  • Then you are

  • suggesting that something always or

  • never happens and

  • That might not be true

  • Let's try some of these expressions for generalizing about how often something happens

  • Once again, repeat the examples after you hear them

  • People don't usually buy something on their first visit

  • More often than not we run out of paper before the end of the month

  • It's pretty rare that people complain about our service

  • Our staff meetings often lasts more than 90 minutes

  • You probably already know the word often but what do you think more often than not

  • means

  • It actually just means more than 50% of the time

  • We also heard the adjective rare that's made from the word

  • rarely meaning not often

  • some other frequency words have adjective forms such as

  • usually which becomes

  • usual but others such as

  • often don't

  • Okay, so we've practiced some expressions for generalizing

  • about how many about how things happen and

  • how often

  • But how does this sound in a?

  • conversation

  • Let's listen to a short

  • dialogue between

  • justine, and andy they're talking about andy's customers and

  • products

  • Let's listen

  • So, where are your customers located

  • Most of them are in Canada and the US and are they happy with your products? Well, it's pretty rare that we get any complaints

  • That's pretty simple, right

  • When justine asks about the location of andy's customers

  • he says that most of them are in canada and

  • the US

  • he's

  • generalizing about how many

  • Then he says that it's rare that they get complaints about their products. That's

  • generalizing about how often something happens

  • Makes sense, right?

  • Now it's your turn to practice

  • Will repeat the dialogue but this time we're going to be out the second speakers words

  • You will have to say those parts

  • yourself

  • Remember to say that most of the customers are in Canada and the US

  • Then say it's pretty rare to get complaints

  • So, where are your customers located

  • And are they happy with your products

  • Alright that's all for this lesson

  • we've learned some great ways to generalize about how many about what happens and

  • About how often things happen

  • We'll be back soon with some more

  • useful English expressions

  • Until then so long and happy learning

You're learning with nine to five English - business English for the workplace

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