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  • Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • Are you ready to sound more fluent in English?

  • Let's talk about it.

  • Today you are going to learn five quick and easy phrases that are kind of like a shortcut

  • to sounding fluid.

  • When you use these expressions, other English speakers will feel very comfortable, it will

  • seem very natural, and they are quick and easy ways to level up your English.

  • To help you with this lesson, I have created a free PDF download with all of these five

  • expressions, a lot of sample sentences, a lot of ideas and tips for using them, so make

  • sure you check out the free PDF.

  • You can download it by clicking on the link in the description below this video.

  • This is my gift to you.

  • I hope you enjoy the PDF worksheets.

  • Yes, you can do it.

  • All right.

  • Let's get started with the first expression.

  • That is a quick and easy way to sound fluent phrase.

  • Number one is gotcha.

  • Gotcha can be used in two different ways.

  • Let's start with the first one.

  • The first one is just to show that you understand.

  • For example, if your friend went on a date and that date was terrible, everything went

  • wrong and your friend says, "You know what?

  • I don't think I'm going to go on a second date with him."

  • You might say, "Gotcha."

  • And that simply means, "I understand.

  • We are connecting on a deep level because I understand what you mean.

  • I wouldn't want to go on a second day with him either.

  • Gotcha."

  • The second way to use Gotcha is to surprise someone usually with some kind of trick.

  • So let me give you a quick example.

  • On my husband's birthday in the morning, we said, "Happy birthday, it's your birthday."

  • And then I said, "Oh no, I forgot to buy you a present."

  • And he said, "I guess it's okay.

  • Everyone forgets sometimes."

  • And then I said, "Gotcha, here's your present."

  • So I tricked him.

  • This is a very light and silly way.

  • It's not a serious situation.

  • But I said, "Gotcha, I tricked you."

  • He believed that I didn't get him a present so I can use this fun expression and say,

  • "Gotcha."

  • Quick and easy phrase number two is never mind.

  • Never mind.

  • This often means, forget about it or it doesn't matter, and usually we use this when something

  • is too long or complicated to explain, or we just don't want to talk about it anymore.

  • Let me give you two examples.

  • My mom and I were at a cafe looking at a chocolate cake and a chocolate chip cookie.

  • I said, "Hmm, which one should we get?

  • Chocolate cake.

  • That looks so good.

  • Oh, that chocolate chip cookie, that also looks good."

  • And I said, "Never mind, let's get both."

  • So here I didn't want to go into a long explanation.

  • Which one should we get?

  • Let's talk about the pros and cons.

  • Never mind.

  • Let's just get both of them.

  • Or have you ever been in this situation where someone asks you for directions?

  • So the other day my friend asked me, "Hey, where's the nearest grocery store?"

  • And I tried to explain to her and I said, "Never mind, just use Google Maps.

  • It's a lot easier."

  • So I didn't want to explain to her how to get to the grocery store.

  • It would be much easier and much more simple to just look at Google Maps.

  • So I said, "Never mind, don't listen to my explanation.

  • No, it's too confusing.

  • It doesn't matter.

  • Forget about it.

  • Forget what I said.

  • Just look at Google Maps.

  • Never mind."

  • Quick and easy phrase to sound more fluent number three is gotta go or gotta run.

  • Let's talk about the full expression first.

  • The full grammatical expression is I have got to go.

  • I have got to run.

  • But we don't really use it like that.

  • This just means I need to leave, but we often reduce this to I've gotta go.

  • So we make a contraction with I have, I've, I've gotta go, or I've gotta run, but sometimes

  • we cut out the verb have completely and just say I gotta go, I gotta run.

  • And a quick little pronunciation tip is that in American English, a T that is surrounded

  • by vowels often changes to a D sound.

  • So listen carefully when I say that phrase.

  • If I say, "It's already six o'clock.

  • I gotta run."

  • Gotta run.

  • It's exactly like a D sound.

  • So if you want to up your American accent, you can include this pronunciation when you

  • speak.

  • I gotta go, I gotta run.

  • It doesn't mean that you're going to exercise and run.

  • It just means I need to leave probably quickly.

  • I gotta go.

  • I gotta run.

  • Quick and easy fluent phrase number four is no worries, no problem.

  • This is kind of like a two for one deal.

  • Two phrases in one.

  • So this is just another informal way to say you're welcome.

  • But we often use this in light situations.

  • So for example, if you've helped someone at work, maybe you proof-read an email that they

  • were going to send, or you looked over their project, they might say, "Thanks so much for

  • helping me get my project done."

  • And you say, "No worries.

  • It's my pleasure.

  • No worries.

  • It's my pleasure."

  • Or if it was pouring down rain and you gave someone your umbrella for the afternoon, they

  • could say, "Thanks so much for letting me borrow your umbrella."

  • You can use this great phrase.

  • "No problem.

  • No problem."

  • Or, "No worries.

  • No worries."

  • Excellent way to level up your fluency in English.

  • Quick and easy fluent phrase number five is for real.

  • For real?

  • So this phrase can be used in a positive or a negative way, depending on your tone of

  • voice.

  • So let me give you some examples.

  • Take a look at this sentence.

  • When the sales associate told me that the computer costs $4,000, I said, "For real?"

  • Can you tell by my face and by my tone of voice, I'm shocked, surprised, and maybe I

  • want to verify, "Really?

  • Is it really $4,000?

  • That's really expensive."

  • I'm not asking them to actually give me an answer because the price is right there.

  • It's a fact, it's $4,000.

  • But I'm showing my surprise by saying, "For real?

  • That's really expensive.

  • For real?"

  • So we call this a rhetorical question.

  • It means when you ask a question, but you don't expect a response.

  • It's just kind of a figure of speech.

  • So if somebody says, "Yeah, that computer's $4,000," you might say, "What?

  • For real?"

  • But we can use this in a positive way too.

  • So let's imagine that I looked at the computer, it's $4,000, way too expensive.

  • I go to the next store, and at the next store, the sales associate says, "Yeah, this computer

  • $400."

  • I might say, "For real?

  • That's a great deal."

  • Can you tell hell in the tone of my voice that it's something positive?

  • I am responding with positive surprise.

  • $4,000.

  • Nope.

  • $400, what a deal.

  • We might even call it a steal.

  • What a steal.

  • So you can use for real in this type of positive surprise as well.

  • If your friend tells you some positive news like, "I'm going to have a baby," you might

  • say, "For real?"

  • You're not asking them, "Wait, are you lying to me?"

  • No, this is a rhetorical question.

  • You're not asking for a response.

  • You're simply showing surprise or shock, but in that positive way.

  • I know I said that we're going to be studying five quick and easy expressions, but I couldn't

  • help myself.

  • I want to give you a bonus expression.

  • So our bonus quick and easy fluent phrase is what's that.

  • What's that?

  • This is a nice informal way to ask, "I didn't understand what you said.

  • Can you repeat that please?"

  • But it's very quick.

  • You can just say, "What's that?

  • What's that?"

  • Let me give you an example and then we'll talk about some pronunciations so that you

  • don't mix it up with another phrase that is almost exactly the same.

  • So if I'm talking with one of my students and I just don't understand what the students

  • said, maybe their pronunciation was incorrect or maybe they were talking too quickly, or

  • maybe there was some noise, I might say.

  • "What's that?

  • What's that?"

  • It's just a way to ask, "Hey, can you repeat that thing you said, because I didn't understand

  • it.'

  • There was some noise or maybe your pronunciation, I'm not sure what happened, but you can just

  • say, "What's that?

  • What's that?"

  • Notice how I'm emphasizing both words.

  • What's that?

  • What's that?

  • What's that?

  • Because if you go into...

  • Let's say you go into a bakery and...

  • I'm thinking about chocolate right now, I guess.

  • Let's say you go into a bakery and you see a dessert that you really want, but for some

  • reason the one that you want doesn't have a label on it.

  • So you might ask the person who works in the bakery, "What's that?

  • What's that?"

  • You're simply asking.

  • What's the name of that thing.

  • This is different than I don't understand.

  • Do you want to hear that pronunciation difference?

  • What's that?

  • What's that?

  • You're emphasizing that, because you're pointing to that dessert and in this way you're using

  • it in the very normal way.

  • What's that?

  • What's that thing?

  • But if you want to use this phrase to say, "I didn't hear what you said, please repeat,"

  • you need to emphasize both words.

  • Listen when I say it.

  • What's that?

  • What's that?

  • What's that?

  • They both have equal emphasis.

  • What's that?

  • What's that?

  • You can often use this if there's a bad connection.

  • Maybe you're having a phone conversation or a Zoom call or something like this, and the

  • connection starts to cut out a little bit, you might say, "What's that, I didn't hear

  • what you said.

  • What's that?

  • What did you say?

  • What's that?"

  • It's a great thing to use in those types of situations where you can't understand, but

  • maybe there's just a technical problem.

  • All right.

  • I know that I had just had one bonus expression, but I decided to add 50 more quick and...

  • Gotcha.

  • Not really.

  • I was just joking.

  • Well, I gotta run.

  • We've got to finish this lesson and it's time for me to move on with my day.

  • But before we go, I have a question for you.

  • Tell me in the comments, what would you say if your boss told you, "I need you to work

  • late this weekend?"

  • Which one of these phrases would you use?

  • There's a couple options.

  • You can use a couple of these phrases in this situation.

  • What would you tell your boss in this situation?

  • I need you to work late this weekend.

  • Well thank you so much for learning English with me.

  • Don't forget to download the free PDF so that you can learn all of these five quick and

  • easy phrases to sound more fluent plus the bonus expression, and at the bottom of the

  • free worksheet, you can answer Vanessa's challenge question.

  • You'll have a chance to use what you've learned.

  • So thank you so much.

  • And I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

  • Bye.

  • The next step is to download the free PDF worksheet for this lesson.

  • With this free PDF, you will master today's lesson and never forget what you have learned.

  • You can be a confident English speaker.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for a free English lesson every Friday.

  • Bye.

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

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