Don’t you love words and phrases that express exactly what you want to say? Adapt them to your situation:

!. And as always, thank you for being an Xfinity customer.

2. Pleasure in small doses

3.Give the gift of career help and personal growth this year.

4. Totally worth it.

5. Cherish the day. -Stephen Sondheim

6. Accomplishing something worthwhile is my goal.

7. He needs his space.

8. I’m moved almost to tears.

9. New omicrom cases, confirmed in the state, indicating “explosively fast” spread, health officials say. Seattle Times, Dec. 16, 2021

10. Anquish and gratitude as tornado slashed through Amazon warehous. Investigators want to know why six people died. Seattle Times Dec. 16, 2021

11. Stop feeling broke.

12 … argues there is a bigger villain.

13. We (kinda) gift you a box of See’s candies.

14. You enrich my life.

Colloquial Phrases Ripped from Broadcast and Print Media

You’ve probably already know this: As languages expand to greater populations, their vocabulary exponentially grows.

And you know this: Human beings enjoy variety.

So, add these colloquial phrases to verbal communication for variety, succinctness, and to signal that you are ahead of the curve and current.

It’s some kind of calling.  – CNBC Nov. 3, 2021 in answer to the query, “Why are you so passionate about your work?”

…. she said.    …. , he said.  First heard from a new female broadcaster on 3:00 am MDT (Denver) /5:00 am EDT (New York) following a verbal fluff where two or three words were mispronounced to the point of nintelligibility. Heard 4 days later on November 4, 2021  from the seasoned broadcaster who was back from vacation.  Goes to show you, the best sometimes mangle words.  Example: “enveerocle…  environmental ecological  advice, she said.”   No fluffs or slurring followed this error and fix.  Ack, the broadcasters regained discipline and focus to get to the articulation expected of their profession.  Even at dawn’s break.

It is not on my radar. DW newscast Nov. 2, 2021. That’s another way of saying, “I didn’t notice.”

Plan smart, grow smart.  This Week in Agribusiness, Oct. 31, 2021

Understand your opportunities and goals.  This Week in Agribusiness, Oct. 31, 2021

Our company has an R&D engine.  This Week in Agribusiness, Oct. 31, 2021. Research and Development. 

Search for new experiences.  Bloomberg, Oct. 29, 2021  Executive for  a mammoth cruise company described his company’s 500,000 customers.

Cash on the sidelines.  Bloomberg, October 29, 2021, Executive for investment company described why the stockmarket is surging due to many people having cash in reserve. Sideline in sport means off the playing field.   Cash was in the bank because of no vacations, cut in work related driving,(gas), and clothes not purchased for work and school from home in 2020 and 2021.  Now these people want their money to work for them.

Let this begin. Bloomberg, Oct. 29, 2021

Let’s start with the why. Bloomberg, Oct. 29, 2021

Colloquial words and phrases heard on cable media and seen in print media this past week. Spice up your communication.

1. Fingers crossed. As in “Fingers crossed that we get rain.” ABC 10/10/2021
2. Stay in the game
3. Sadly. As in “Sadly, it is not a typical year.”
4. The timeline. As in “The timeline for finishing college has slipped from 4 to 6 years.” CNBC 10/11/2021
5. Make it a part of your plan. (Ag Weekly 10/10/2021
6. Good to be with you.
7. I appreciate and value your insights. CNBC 10/11/2021

English Communication: Why so many words for the same thing?

Roberta (from Italy) asked me, “Why does English have so many words for everything? ‘Smart,’ ‘Clever,’ ‘Brainy,’ ‘Intelligent’– in Italian we just say ‘Intelligente!’

It’s true, English has a lot of words!  Experts count at least 250,000. (Other experts say half a million, a million or even a billion. It is all in how you count them!)

No matter how you count the number of words in English, this is significantly higher than most other languages–likely more than any other language.

Why so many words?  The answer is in English’s long and complicated history of invasion and conquest.  Of different cultures (and their languages) colliding, borrowing, and merging.  And the answer is in the rapidly expanding vocabularies of all the sciences, technology, and even slang and colloquial phrases in popular culture.

Don’t worry, though– you don’t need to memorize all quarter-million (or more!) words to be a proficient English speaker.  And when it comes to words with synonyms (words with the same or similar meanings, like ‘smart’ and ‘intelligent’), you can often communicate what you need to say if you know just one or a few of the words.

On the other hand, there are a few types of words in English that have hundreds of synonyms–especially adjectives like ‘good’ and ‘bad.  For example, ‘really good’ can be expressed with words like excellent, wonderful, amazing, incredible, and many more.  With words like these that are so, so common, you probably want to be able to use a few and recognize many.

Here are other synonyms which mean “really good:”

• Awesome –
• Fantastic –
• Cool
• Hot

Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos  for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercises.

Contributing editor: Amber McKinney