Learn Roughly Five New Ways to Stay Broad in English

This is an All-Ears English Podcast. Learn roughly five new ways to stay broad in English. Welcome to the All-Ears English Podcast. Downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer and Michelle Kaplan, the New York Radio Girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allyearsenglish.com/subscribe. Do you ever want to give an approximate answer instead of citing an exact number? Today, find out how to do this so that you can stay broad while also being clear in English. Have you ever walked out of a meeting thinking, "I kind of said that better." You understood everything, but your response came out short or unclear, not quite like you. Maybe your ideas are strong, but your English doesn't show it yet. You forget words you know. You can't explain things naturally and fast conversations leave you quietly catching up. That gap can be frustrating, but it's also very specific and very fixable. Our two-minute fluency quiz helps you understand where that gap is, and whether your level is B1, B2, or C1. When you know your level, progress feels lighter and faster. Take the quiz now at allyearsenglish.com/fluencyscore and move closer to speaking English the way you think. One more time, go to allyearsenglish.com/fluencyscore Hey, Lindsay, how are you? A, doing great Michelle. How's it going for you? Good, yeah, it's been so nice to get back to recording. Guys, we were on a little break and now we are happy to be back. But Lindsay, approximately how many episodes do you want to record today? I would say we should record roughly five or six episodes today, Michelle. What do you think about that? I think that's a good idea. All right, we'll go for it. So guys, today we are going to teach a very functional vocabulary to help you give out information without being completely concrete. And guys, we know that a lot of you listening to the Allyearsenglish podcast are really also listening to learn for the workplace. So this is a really great topic for business, but also could be for anything in your regular life. So whether you're here to learn about business, regular life, regular English, we got you covered. We got you covered exactly. And so just real quick, Michelle, why would we want to be vague here? It's essentially being a little vague. I don't know if vague is the right word, but broad. Broad in what we're saying. Maybe we don't-- why would we want to be broad in our answer? Right. Well, I mean, sometimes we can't give numbers or information that is 100% accurate. So we want to use words to show that there is some wiggle room. We don't want to be totally stiff. And this is for those moments, I can't say, OK, I can't tell you, we will be finished in 20 minutes. Yeah. But oh, I know, 20 to 30, roughly 20. So today's examples, actually, we're going to do our business oriented. Yep. And we've been touching on this already, Lindsay, but we have this whole other podcast. I know. Lindsay, you want to tell us about it? Yeah, it's crazy. Maybe some of our listeners don't know, but we have another show called Business English from all of yours English guys. To find this show, all you have to do is open your search bar right now, type in Business English, and you'll get it. You'll see the yellow that will come up, and you'll know it's us. Hit follow on that show. We do publish there three days a week, and we focus really very much on our listeners who do use English at work, whether it's once a month, and that conference, or that presentation, or whether it's every single day, or whether you aspire one day to work in English. So go check out that show. All right. Absolutely. So let's get started. So the first one we threw out was approximately, I asked you approximately how many episodes. And this is kind of for me for asking the question in that way. It kind of showed a little bit of respect also. Like it showed that I am willing, and I am open to whatever, like I have time. And it's okay if we want to record five. We want to record six, right? Yeah. I think this words a little more formal, so that's why it's good for work, right? I mean, you might not ask your friend, like, approximately how many people are coming to the party, right? Because that feels a little too formal for the friendship world, right? Do you agree with that? I guess you could get away with it. But you could, I mean, we're going to get to another word that I think that would be more appropriate for that. The third word down on this list, I think might be the best. But yeah, this means just about or basically. So, yeah, for example, there are approximately 10 charts we still need to get through before the end of the day. Yeah, or we should re-evaluate these figures in approximately three months. Okay. So great to use if you're a manager, you're making a presentation. Really, anytime you're at work, it's fine. This is good. This is up-leveling, making your English a little fancier. Okay. Yeah. The next one is roughly, and this is the same as approximately, a little less formal sounding, but not by much. Yeah, I like this one. I wish I used it because I tend to use about, right? About, or about five people coming, which is super common, and it's just, it's nothing, right? It's just, it's everywhere. I wish I used roughly a little bit more often because it sounds more interesting to me. So. Maybe I would love to. No, for it. No, you're as resolution. Did you ever say the first example? No. No. Okay. There are roughly 250 corporate employees, and we need to get holiday bonuses to all of them. Okay. Or we will be done at roughly 9.30. Nice. And then there's one more. Well, there's a few more. But we'll give our listeners one more before we go for a break. It is around. How is this one different, Michelle? So this one is less formal than the other two for sure, but it could also be used for work. But Lindsay, this is the one where I was thinking. If you're saying, if you don't want to say approximately how many people are coming to the party for your friend, you might say around how many people are coming or this would go with what you said about about, right? Yeah. How many people are coming around? How many people are coming? Sure. Both would work. Our meeting will be over at around four. Yeah. You could do that. You don't need the at in every case. What's another example? There are around 20 new patient forms to finalize. Yeah. Around or around. Or about. Also work really well. Right. I'm really. I'm going to add about to this list. Yeah. Love that. Yeah. That's good stuff. So yeah. So here we have. We started with three approximately roughly and about or around. And we're going to have a lot of people. And we're going to do one more after the break and talk through. Oh, wait, oh, wait, actually, we have a special one too. Okay. Stay tuned for that. All right. All right. Michelle, we're back with a break. And now you have our listeners attention. So what is this special one? Oh, it's coming up. Well, this isn't a special one. It's a next one. Okay. Okay. So this one is nearly nearly is like almost. Right. So this is not this is different really from roughly or approximately. This is more about we're very close to this. So for example, we nearly tripled our revenue from last year. Or she nearly beat the record almost almost did something. Right. Mm-hmm. Okay. So now here's the here's the special one. This is one that has to do with years. So it doesn't have to be just with the years, but I think that's the most common way. Okay. So it's circa. Yeah. Yeah. This is a special Michelle. Why? And it is a special one. We see this a lot. I feel like you see plaques on building. Yeah. Right. Say like circa 1775 or something when the building was was built. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it says, yeah, I'm just looking at the AI overview here just to give a little more context. A Latin word meaning around or approximately used before a date to indicate an estimated time. Yeah. So yeah, you will, yeah, exactly. You might see it on a plaque, whatever it may be. Also on a plaque, do you ever see like EST? Yeah. Established. - Stablish. - Stablish. - Mm-hmm. - So similar. Whenever I see EST though, even though I know it means established, I still think estimate. (laughs) And I'm always like, "Made it here." (laughs) - That's funny. - It just seems weird to me. So it says, "Sirca, their company has been around since circa 1980." - Yeah. - Or we established the scholarship, "Sirca 2005." So it's just a fancy way of saying around that time. - Yeah. - We did this, right? - And you're not gonna say this, you're not gonna say this all the time. Like Lindsay said, you might see it on a plaque. You could definitely use it in a presentation, things like that, but I don't think that it's something that I would say to my friend. It doesn't come up as often, but it is a special one that's good to know. - Yep. - Or categorizing items. Like if you go on, I like to go on historical tours, and they might say, "Oh, this furniture is circa early 1800s or something." Like that, that's kind of fun. By the way, ghost tours are the best ways to get history, to learn history about things. It's amazing. - Yeah. I did one in New Orleans. Where did you do one again? - A bunch of places. We just did one in Rome. - Right. Oh, you did one in Rome. - We did one in Rome, which was super cool. And I've done one in, actually, I think, South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, and a few other places. But yeah, I highly recommend ghost tours, if you guys are traveling. Random tip. (laughing) So let's do a role play and put these together. So here we are meeting about an upcoming conference. - Yeah, here we go. - Okay. - Okay, so how many people will be there? - I heard there will be nearly 1,000 attendees. - Wow. So how many bags should we make? - Roughly 400, I'd say. - That sounds about right. I heard each day ends around four, so maybe we can also organize some extra activities for potential clients. - Good idea. There are approximately 30 companies I have my eye on. - Yeah, and this conference is huge. How long have they been holding it? - Oh, wow. I don't know. I'd say it started somewhere circa 2000. I think you're right. Wow. - Hmm. - Okay. All right, so planning a conference, something our listeners might end up doing in English, right? - Hmm. - Or planning to meet at the conference. - So I said first, there will be nearly 1,000 attendees. And I could have said about 1,000 attendees. - Yeah. - I could have said approximately 1,000 attendees, right? - Yeah, and I think just the difference is, you could have said approximately, and it's 1,050, or it could be 1,100, but nearly is like 950, you know, some less than 1,000. - Almost, almost. - Almost, right. - Yeah. - Yeah, so that's the difference there. And then I said how many bags should we make? So maybe we're doing like a gift bag or a promotional bag. You said roughly 400, I'd say. - Good. - And then you said, that sounds about right. I heard each day ends around four, right, four PM. So maybe we can organize extra activities. - Right. - And then you said, good idea. - Yeah. - And just to go back to the last one, I could have said, I heard each day ends at about four, but be careful there, guys. 'Cause if you use about, you do need the app. You can't say I heard each day ends about four. That would be weird, right? - Right, we need that. - We need that. - Yeah. - Yeah, what about CERCA? Did you use the CERCA? - CERCA, yes. You said, I'd say it started somewhere, CERCA 2000. - Yeah. - Yeah. - And this is fun to slip in some times. - Yes. - You're not gonna, it's definitely points to like a more articulate speaker, right? Makes you seem like a more articulate speaker when you use it. It's the special one of the episode. So of course it does. - It's the special one. (laughing) - So, but yeah, these are just all really useful. If for, you know, because very rarely in life are we just, this is this and this is that there's so many times in business and regular life, there's just wiggle room. There's just room to move around and things can change and this language just gives you the opportunity to express that but also not shy away from giving numbers or information. - Yeah, flexibility. You don't wanna get locked into something. And I think that is the bonus for today, wiggle room. I actually love that expression. - Yeah, it's so fun. - Yeah, I mean too. - Wiggle room. - Right, yeah, you add a little wiggle room for this and that and maybe if you're making a budget, you round up to give yourself wiggle room. But guys, write down that phrase and start to use it. It's a great one. - Maybe we'll do a whole episode of that. - Yeah, maybe that was in the same place. - It's own episode, yeah, I love it. - All right, what's another business English episode? Or what is an episode over on business English? - Yeah. - I wish I should check out, make the journey over there. - Yeah, so guys, if you wanna hear more business English episodes go on over to that podcast. And episode 524 was, "Who assigned what? How to know in English?" So another really good one. - Yeah, what's the final takeaway for today, Michelle? I mean, I think you kind of said it earlier. It's that we do want to be, we don't wanna get locked in to having to give exact amounts of things because life is never exact. - That's what I've learned. - Right. - And there is a time when it does need to be exact, you know, text season and going over-- - Sure, yeah, text. - Specific numbers and all, you know, there's definitely a time and place for that. But these are the words to use when you're not in that kind of situation and you do wanna have that wiggle room and guys, stay tuned, hit follow because we will do an episode, a whole episode on wiggle room coming up. - All right, good stuff today, Michelle. I'll see you next time on the podcast. You have a good rest of your day. - All right. - You too, bye guys. - Bye. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two-minute quiz, go to allhearsenglish.com, forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time. (upbeat music)