- Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy.
Today I've got a very special guest.
- Harry.
- Real English with Real Teachers.
- So, we are lacking a member of the gang, aren't we?
on the Real English with Real Teachers channel.
- Charlie had a skiing accident,
- Bedridden, yes, he can't get out of bed.
And I saw a picture of his x-ray.
- Urg.
- It's not for the fainthearted.
- No, not for the fainthearted.
Okay, so you guys might have seen my video
about five tips to help you improve
If you haven't seen it already,
and in that video, I asked you guys
if you wanted to see something about interjections.
But really, to show interjections,
you need a partner, someone else as well.
So, I thought I've got Harry here,
- What is an interjection?
- Well, an interjection is a word or phrase
that a speaker can use to show feeling
- Yeah, it's normally used in spoken English,
it can be used in written English as well,
like in stories if the author wants to show
We use that a lot in British English, don't we?
- We use it a lot, we really do.
And the thing is, if you want to improve your conversation,
you really need to know how to use interjections
- Absolutely, absolutely.
- Yeah, 'cause they're different in different languages.
So, today I've picked out my top ten interjections
that native English speakers use
and I want to help you understand them
and hopefully, be able to use them.
Okay, so the first interjection
that we're going to talk about is hmmm.
Now, what does hmmm, when would you use hmmm?
- Hmmm, perhaps when you are going to think about something.
- Yes, you would use hmmm to show
that you are thinking about something.
So, it could be great if you get asked a question
and you want to buy a bit of extra time
And it's something that I mentioned in my previous video
because a lot of speakers will say, ehhh, ehhh.
- Yeah.
- Like that but we tend to say hmmm,
And this is simply because having your mouth open
in front of someone else is considered impolite in English.
- Yeah, yeah, close the mouth.
Yeah, especially for students who are doing
like the IELTS and the Cambridge speaking exams.
- Yes.
- To get that, yeah, like Lucy said,
buying that extra time to think,
say a British sound, not ehhh, ehhh, ehhh,
say hmmm, that's an interesting question, hmmm.
- Hmmm, yeah, yeah and you just sound more native overall
by not saying ehhh and you say hmmm.
- Yeah. - It's very, very polite.
- It's very polite, yeah, yeah.
And jeez, I mean, where do you think
- Hmmm, probably our friend Jesus.
- It comes from the word Jesus
and it normally is used to expression shock
- So, I can say it in two different ways.
If I was to say, jeez, what would I be showing?
Probably that someone did something
- Yeah.
- The third interjection that we have chosen for you
- Phew.
Can often be teamed with the hand on the forehead.
- Phew.
- We would use the phew interjection to show relief
that you are relieved about something.
So, maybe I'm running for the bus
and then I see that it hasn't arrived
or maybe it's delayed, I would say, "Ah, phew."
- Yeah, you know, yeah, so you're very relieved about it.
- So, Lucy and I had real problems with the trains today
and I thought I was going to miss it
and I was going to be late for the lovely Lucy
and then I manged to catch the train
- But the funny thing was I was on a similar train
So, actually we were both delayed,
Oops.
- Oops.
- This one, I think, is quite international.
- Yeah.
- Spanish people tend to spell it ups, like.
- When you do something clumsy.
When you do something by accident,
something you didn't want to do.
- We can sometimes say oops-a-daisy
and that's quite a common British, I would say,
probably quite a British English expression.
- Oops-a-daisy, yeah.
We will probably find someone in the comments
that says no, I'm American and I use it all the time.
if you are American and you use that expression.
- Ahem.
- Well, it's to show that you're clearing your throat
Maybe you have to interrupt someone.
- Okay, so if I was talking your.
- Ahem.
We were just discussing that we use it a lot
to show agreement, that we agree with someone.
- Mmm.
and Harry will be mmm, agreeing along with me.
- Mmm, it's because you're very agreeable, mmm.
We would also use it if we see something delicious,
- Yeah, with a different intonation, a bit longer.
- Mmm.
- Would you say it if you saw someone
and you thought they were attractive?
There are lots of different ways.
on the body language with that one.
- Yeah, absolutely, agreed.
- But if you want to show that you're agreeing with someone,
without interrupting them and saying yes, yes,
- Yeah, you could use that in a meeting,
in like a business meeting, mmm.
how would you show that you disagree?
With my students, if they're saying something wrong.
- Mhm.
Or if I think, yeah, they've made a grammar mistake
- Mmm, okay, so we're showing a doubt,
we're showing that we don't agree with someone
if we go mmm, in like a sort of questioning tone.
- The one I said which is mmm/mm-mm.
- The next interjection today is yikes.
- Yeah.
- We would say yikes to show negative shock
at something, normally negative.
- So, when I saw Charlie's broken bone,
yikes, that looks painful, yeah.
- That is a good example to say yikes.
Yeah, yeah, something you think,
that's a bit disgusting, yikes.
Now, the next one that we're going to talk about
and it's something I say all the time,
so much so that I actually have to cut it out
So, I know I'm going to say something,
so I'll say so, next we're going to talk about,
and actually it's not best practise to say so that much
but it could be really useful for you
if you're doing a speaking exam
'cause it does again, buy you a little bit of extra time.
- So, I think it's really good.
It's a way of leading from one idea
or one step in a conversation to the next
or to create intervals between your diction
- Exactly, so, I think it's a really good one to use.
- Yeah, the next one today is gosh.
And when would we say this one?
- Well, we would often say oh my God
but sometimes it's good not to mention God
and instead we substitute it with gosh,
which can then be cut down to just gosh
- Yeah and I guess traditionally,
people were very careful not to be blasphemous, right?
- Exactly, not to use God's name in vain.
so people would say oh my gosh.
- Because if they said oh my God,
- Yeah, don't speak bad about the God,
- Yeah, so oh my God isn't really frowned upon
nowadays in Britain, it might be in America though.
They're a little more religious over there.
- Yeah.
- Okay guys, that is it for our lesson on interjections.
I hoped you liked it, I hope you learned something.
Don't forget to check out Harry's channel,
Real English with Real Teachers
and we've done a couple of videos together.
One's just gone live over there
So, minimal pairs are really important,
especially if you want to avoid embarrassing situations.
- Yes, absolutely.
that one word is a very nice word, like beach,
- Yes, don't forget to connect with me
I've got my Facebook and my Instagram
and I will see you soon for another lesson.
(kissing)