Ways to say "Said"

Talking about your plans in English

Here are some useful phrases to talk about your future plans.

Asking about plans

• What are your plans for (… summer)?
• Have you decided (… where you're going on holiday)?
• What are you up to (… in summer?)
• Are you going to Majorca again for summer?
• When you talk about your plans, use the present continuous tense:
• I'm thinking of going to …
• We're planning to go to…
• He's hoping to go to…
• I'm toying / playing with the idea of…

Other useful phrases

• I've got my heart set on…
• I've been dying to go to… (ever since I heard about it from my neighbour)
• I'd love to go to Australia, but it's too far / expensive
• I can't choose between Morocco or Tunisia.
• I'm torn between Italy and France.

When your plans aren't yet certain

• It looks like… (we're going to Cyprus)
• As long as we can get our visa in time, we'll be going to the USA
• We're not 100% sure, but we might be going to Egypt
• It's a toss-up between Greece and Spain.
• We're on the waiting list for a villa in Tuscany.

When your plans are all arranged

• You can use the present perfect tense to announce your plans:
• We've decided to go to Greece.
• We've settled on Spain, after all.
• They've opted for a camping holiday in France.
• We've booked a weekend in a boutique hotel in Paris.
• Or use the going to future to talk about your intentions:
• We're going (to go) to the Algarve for two weeks in July.
• She's going to stay in a B&B in the Lakes with some work mates.

"Get "

Vocabulary and Phrases for Making Presentations in English

Overviews

After you give your opening statement, you should give a brief overview of your presentation. This includes what your presentation is about, how long you will take and how you are going to handle questions.

For example, a presentation to sales staff could start like this:

• "Welcome / "Hello everyone."

Opening statement

• "As you all know, this company is losing its market share. But we are being asked to increase sales by 20 – 25%. How can we possibly increase sales in a shrinking market?"

E.g. Overview

"Today I am going to talk to you about how we can do this. My presentation will be in three parts. Firstly I am going to look at the market and the background. Then I am going to talk to you about our new products and how they fit in. Finally, I'm going to examine some selling strategies that will help us increase our sales by 20%. The presentation will probably take around 20 minutes. There will be time for questions at the end of my talk."

Useful language for overviews

• "My presentation is in three parts."
• "My presentation is divided into three main sections."
• "Firstly, secondly, thirdly, finally…"
• "I'm going to…
• take a look at…
• talk about…
• examine…
• tell you something about the background…
• give you some facts and figures…
• fill you in on the history of…
• concentrate on…
• limit myself to the question of…
• "Please feel free to interrupt me if you have questions."
• "There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation."
• "I'd be grateful if you could ask your questions after the presentation."

The main body of the presentation

During your presentation, it’s a good idea to remind your audience occasionally of the benefit of what you are saying.

• "As I said at the beginning…"
• "This, of course, will help you (to achieve the 20% increase)."
• "As you remember, we are concerned with…"
• "This ties in with my original statement…"
• "This relates directly to the question I put to you before…"

Keeping your audience with you

Remember that what you are saying is new to your audience. You are clear about the structure of your talk, but let your audience know when you are moving on to a new point. You can do this by saying something like "right", or "OK". You can also use some of the following expressions:

• "I'd now like to move on to…"
• "I'd like to turn to…"
• "That's all I have to say about…"
• "Now I'd like to look at…"
• "This leads me to my next point…"

If you are using index cards, putting the link on the cards will help you remember to keep the audience with you. In addition, by glancing at your index cards you will be pausing – this will also help your audience to realise that you are moving on to something new.

Language for using visuals

It's important to introduce your visual to the audience. You can use the following phrases:

• "This graph shows you…"
• "Take a look at this…"
• "If you look at this, you will see…"
• "I'd like you to look at this…"
• "This chart illustrates the figures…"
• "This graph gives you a break down of…"
• Give your audience enough time to absorb the information on the visual. Pause to allow them to look at the information and then explain why the visual is important:
• "As you can see…"
• "This clearly shows …"
• "From this, we can understand how / why…"
• "This area of the chart is interesting…"

Summarising

At the end of your presentation, you should summarise your talk and remind the audience of what you have told them:

• "That brings me to the end of my presentation. I've talked about…"
• "Well, that's about it for now. We've covered…"
• "So, that was our marketing strategy. In brief, we…"
• "To summarise, I…"

Relate the end of your presentation to your opening statement:

• "So I hope that you're a little clearer on how we can achieve sales growth of 20%."
• "To return to the original question, we can achieve…"
• "So just to round the talk off, I want to go back to the beginning when I asked you…"
• "I hope that my presentation today will help you with what I said at the beginning…"

Handling questions

Thank the audience for their attention and invite questions.

• "Thank you for listening – and now if there are any questions, I would be pleased to answer them."
• "That brings me to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your attention. I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have."
• It’s useful to re-word the question, as you can check that you have understood the question and you can give yourself some time to think of an answer. By asking the question again you also make sure that other people in the audience understand the question.
• "Thank you. So you would like further clarification on our strategy?"
• "That's an interesting question. How are we going to get voluntary redundancy?"
• "Thank you for asking. What is our plan for next year?"
• After you have answered your question, check that the person who asked you is happy with the answer.
• "Does this answer your question?"
• "Do you follow what I am saying?"
• "I hope this explains the situation for you."
• "I hope this was what you wanted to hear!"
• If you don't know the answer to a question, say you don't know. It's better to admit to not knowing something than to guess and maybe get it wrong. You can say something like:
• "That's an interesting question. I don't actually know off the top of my head, but I'll try to get back to you later with an answer."
• "I'm afraid I'm unable to answer that at the moment. Perhaps I can get back to you later."
• "Good question. I really don't know! What do you think?"
• "That's a very good question. However, we don't have any figures on that, so I can't give you an accurate answer."
• "Unfortunately, I'm not the best person to answer that."

What can you say if things go wrong?

You think you've lost your audience? Rephrase what you have said:

• "Let me just say that in another way."
• "Perhaps I can rephrase that."
• "Put another way, this means…"
• "What I mean to say is…"
• Can't remember the word?

If it's a difficult word for you – one that you often forget, or one that you have difficulty pronouncing – you should write it on your index card. Pause briefly, look down at your index card and say the word.

Using your voice

Don't speak in a flat monotone – this will bore your audience. By varying your speed and tone, you will be able to keep your audience's attention. Practise emphasising key words and pause in the right places – usually in between ideas in a sentence. For example "The first strategy involves getting to know our market (pause) and finding out what they want. (pause) Customer surveys (pause) as well as staff training (pause) will help us do this."

Don't forget – if you speak too fast you will lose your audience!

English idioms of emotion

Here are some emotional idioms to tell people whether you're happy, sad or angry.

:-)

All these idioms mean that you are absolutely delighted!

• over the moon: "He was over the moon when he heard the news."
• thrilled to bits: "She was thrilled to bits with her new bicycle."
• in seventh heaven: "They were in seventh heaven when they learned they'd won a cruise."
• on cloud nine: "When I got the job, I was on cloud nine for several weeks."
• jump for joy: "We jumped for joy when we got the mortgage."

:-(

These idioms mean you are feeling sad.

• down in the dumps: "When she left him, he was down in the dumps for a couple of weeks."
• feel blue: "She felt a little blue when she lost her job."
• beside yourself (with grief, worry): "When her son went missing, she was beside herself with worry."

Annoyed because you have missed an opportunity

• sick as a parrot: "He was as sick as a parrot when he realised he had thrown away his lottery ticket."

:-V

These idioms mean that you are very angry.

• see red: "Don't talk to him about his boss – it just makes him see red!"
• hopping mad: "She was hopping mad when she found out her daughter had disobeyed her."
• in a black mood: "Be careful what you say – she's in a black mood today."

Less angry idioms.

• cheesed off: "I was really cheesed off when I lost the competition."
• to not be on speaking terms: "They're not on speaking terms at the moment after their row."

To be off someone's Christmas card list: "Oh dear. I think I'm off her Christmas card list after insulting her husband!"

• have a downer on someone: "What's John done? You seem to have a real downer on him."
• rub someone up the wrong way: "Those two are always arguing. They just seem to rub each other up the wrong way."

In desperation

These idioms mean you don't know what to do.

• at the end of your tether: "I just can't cope. I'm at the end of my tether with all these bills and debts."
• at your wits' end: "He's at his wits' end. He's tried everything to solve the problem, but nothing has worked."

The alphabet

http://www.esolcourses.com/uk-english/beginners-course/unit-1/the-alphabet/the-alphabet-vocabulary.html

Words for classroom instructions

http://www.esolcourses.com/uk-english/beginners-course/unit-2/classroom-instructions/classroom-instructions-vocabulary.html

Do vs Make

Word of the day

Worn out (adjective):

• Looking or feeling very tired, especially as a result of hard work or physical exercise

E.g. I'm worn out. Going to have a rest and play the piano 

Plurals of nouns 2

Nouns ending in -f or -fe

 

With nouns that end in a consonant or a single vowel plus -f or -fe, change the -f or -fe to -ves:

 

singular	plural
knife	knives
half	halves

 

Nouns ending in -o

 

Nouns ending in -o can add either -s or -es in the plural, and some can be spelled either way.

•  As a general rule, most nouns ending in -o add -s to make the plural:

singular	plural
solo	solos
zero	zeros
avocado	avocados

 

•  Those which have a vowel before the final -o always just add -s:

singular	plural
studio	studios
zoo	zoos
embryo	embryos

 

• Here’s a list of the most common nouns ending in -o that are always spelled with -es in the plural:

singular	plural
buffalo	buffaloes
domino	dominoes
echo	echoes
embargo	embargoes
hero	heroes
mosquito	mosquitoes
potato	potatoes
tomato	tomatoes
torpedo	torpedoes
veto	vetoes

 

• Here are some of the common nouns ending in -o that can be spelled with either -s or -es in the plural:

singular	plural
banjo	banjos or banjoes
cargo	cargos or cargoes
flamingo	flamingos or flamingoes
fresco	frescos or frescoes
ghetto	ghettos or ghettoes
halo	halos or haloes
mango	mangos or mangoes
memento	mementos or mementoes
motto	mottos or mottoes
tornado	tornados or tornadoes
volcano	volcanos or volcanoes

Plurals of nouns 1

Most nouns make their plurals by simply adding –s to the end (e.g. cat/cats, book/books, journey/journeys). Some do change their endings, though.  The main types of noun that do this are:

 

Nouns ending in -y

 

If the noun ends with a consonant plus -y, make the plural by changing -y to -ies:

 

singular	plural
berry	berries
activity	activities
daisy	daisies

 

Nouns ending in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z

 

If the noun ends with -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z, add -es to form the plural:

 

singular	plural
church	churches
bus	buses
fox	foxes

 

There’s one exception to this rule. If the -ch ending is pronounced with a ‘k’ sound, you add -s rather than-es:

 

singular	plural
stomach	stomachs
epoch	epochs

 

'I' or 'me'?

The two personal pronouns I and me are often used wrongly, usually in sentences in which I is being used with another noun. Here are some tips to help you get it right:

• Use the pronoun I, along with other subjective pronouns such as we, he, she, you, and they,when the pronoun is the subject of a verb:

He went to bed.

We waited for the bus.

Clare and I are going for a coffee.

 

In the last example, the pronoun I, together with the proper noun Clare, forms the subject of the sentence, so you need to use I rather than me.

• Use the pronoun me, along with other objective pronouns such as us, him, her, you, and them,when the pronoun is the object of a verb:

Danny thanked them.

The dog followed John and me to the door.

 

In the last example, the pronoun me, together with the proper noun John, forms the object of the verbfollow, so you need to use me rather than I.

• Use the pronoun me, along with other objective pronouns such as us, him, her, you, and them,when the pronoun is the object of a preposition:

Rose spent the day with Jake and me.

 

Me, together with Jake, forms the object of the preposition with, so you need to use the pronoun merather than the pronoun I.

 

An easy way of making sure you’ve chosen the right pronoun is to see whether the sentence reads properly if you remove the additional noun:

 

√ I am going for a coffee	X Me am going for a coffee
√ The dog followed me	X The dog followed I
√ Rose spent the day with me	X Rose spent the day with I

Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive personal pronouns include myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, andthemselves. These are used to refer back to the subject of the clause in which they are used:

 

• I fell and hurt myself.
• Daisy prepared herself for the journey.
• The children had to look after themselves.

 

Possessive pronouns

The personal pronouns mine, yours, hers, his, ours, and theirs are known as possessive pronouns: they refer to something owned by the speaker or by someone or something previously mentioned. For example:
 

• That book is mine.
• John’s eyes met hers.
• Ours is a family farm.