[Music]
hi i'm anne marie with speak confident
english and welcome to this week's
confident english lesson where we're
focused on what you should say or what
you should do when you're finished
speaking now I don't mean how to end a
conversation for example if you're on
the telephone and you have to get to a
business meeting or you see your
neighbor at the grocery store and you
really need to go home that's not what I
mean
instead I'm curious if this has ever
happened to you you're in a business
meeting and someone asks you for your
thoughts or asks you for your opinion on
a topic so you start speaking in English
and then you're finished but you don't
know what to say so maybe you do
something like this that's it or I don't
know what else to say or mmm I'm done
have you ever said that in English if
you do it's probably really
uncomfortable you feel silly because
you're done speaking but you don't know
what to say or what to do you don't know
how to tell everyone that you're
finished or that you want someone else
to add their opinion or you want someone
else to start talking this has become a
really common question for my students
in my fluency school course and if they
have that question that I'm sure you
have the same question so in today's
confident English lesson I want to share
with you several ways that we can show
that we're finished speaking we can do
it with our voice and we also have some
fantastic language that we can use as
well now knowing how to show that you're
finished speaking is important for two
reasons number one of course you want to
look natural and confident when you're
finished speaking and when you're done
you want someone else to contribute to
the conversation and that leads to
situation number two a successful
conversation includes taking turns to
take turns means you speak than I speak
you speak the nice be someone else
shares their thoughts it is a true
conversation everyone is contributing
and we need to use language and our
voice to show that it's someone else's
turn that we're inviting them to speak
that we're finished maybe you've been in
a conversation before in English or even
your native language and someone
dominates the conversation they do all
the speaking and no one else can
participate it's super frustrating it's
annoying and maybe you had a really good
idea something to say but you didn't get
the opportunity we actually have a
really good idiom for this in English it
comes from sports from football and if
you imagine a game where someone gets
the ball and they keep the ball they
don't share it with their team they're
running down the field they want to
score a goal but they never share it
with their teammates they don't kick the
ball or throw the ball to anyone else
they hog the ball they keep the ball to
themselves and that's the idiom to hog
the ball it means they keep it to
themselves and they never share we can
use that for talking about conversations
as well if someone is hogging the
conversation they are dominating the
conversation they're not sharing they're
not taking turns so today I want to
share with you exactly how you can
confidently end what you're saying let
everyone know that you're finished and
give others the opportunity to take
their turn in the conversation now the
first way is quite easy and it's
something that you can practice easily
on your own at home and it's using our
voice our intonation we can make our
voice go up which indicates we're still
thinking we're not finished with what
we're saying but then when our voice
goes down it indicates that we're
finished
just that little change in intonation
tells us everything when your intonation
goes up it tells your listeners you're
not finished you have something more to
say your thinking or you want to add
something but when you use your
intonation toward the end of what you
want to say and your intonation goes
down it falls it tells us that you're
coming to a close that you're finished
so if you're speaking in a business
meeting sharing an idea you might say
something like and that's all I have to
say or maybe in a story you finish your
story and say and that was it or and I
ran straight there in all of those
examples my voice falls and that
indicates that I'm finished and that
someone else can jump into the
conversation the second thing that we do
in English often is in the final
sentence we really slow down our speech
and we use some pauses and again when we
do that it indicates that we're
finishing what we want to say for
example maybe I'm telling a story and
the last sentence of my story is and
then that's when I finally realized what
had happened in that example I slowed
down my speech I finally realized
and I used pauses what had happened now
you'll also notice that my voice went
down so I slowed down my speech I used
some pauses and I used that falling
intonation all of that is used to
indicate that that was the last thing
that I want to say I'm finishing my
story now someone else can share their
idea their story or they can make a
comment ask me a question but I'm
finished now those first two examples
are fantastic ways to let your listeners
know that you're finished but maybe you
do that and you do it correctly but
there's still some silence at the end
everyone's still looking at you and
waiting and maybe they're waiting for
someone else to speak but there's that
weird awkward silence a great way to
avoid that and the third tip for how to
show that your finished speaking is to
ask a question at the end this is my
favorite way to keep a conversation
going to show that you're finished and
make sure that there is turn-taking in
the conversation so here are a few ways
that you can do that number one you can
use those tag questions now tags are
those words that come at the very end
that look for agreement from someone or
invite them to participate in the
conversation for example that was a
great movie don't you think that was a
great movie don't you think
but that tag question at the end
indicates that you're done and you're
asking someone else to comment to agree
with you or disagree with you share
their ideas and it takes the
conversation to the next person now
similar to using a tag question is
simply asking someone else what they
think you might be sharing your opinion
you're coming to a close you use that
falling intonation to
you're done and then you say what about
you what do you think what about you
what's your idea what about you how do
you think we should handle this problem
what about you do you have any thoughts
just using those simple questions is a
great way to finish what you're saying
and then give the conversation to
someone else now the last strategy to
show that you're finished speaking is
especially useful and even important
when you're speaking for several minutes
maybe you're telling your colleagues a
funny story about something that
happened on your vacation maybe you're
sharing some of your ideas and a
business meeting or maybe you're
summarizing something important for your
boss and all of those examples you might
have a lot of details to share and
you're speaking for a longer period of
time a really great way to help you come
to a close and let everyone listening
know that you're finishing your thoughts
you're almost done speaking is to use
some language to summarize what you're
saying and English we have so many ways
to do this and here are a few examples
if you're telling a really funny story
about your weekend you might say anyway
that was my weekend or anyway that's
what happened if you're in a business
meeting and you're talking about the
budget of your company you might say
something like so in summary that's why
I think we should increase the budget so
in summary another great example is in a
nutshell we need to fix this immediately
in a nutshell and finally the last
example all in all the meeting went
really well all in all the meeting went
really well so now you have four useful
strategies that you can use in daily
conversations talking to your neighbors
and in professional situations to show
others that you are finished speaking
and so that you can end what you want to
say naturally and with confidence just
as a quick review those four strategies
are using that falling intonation
slowing down your speech and pausing you
can use tag questions or ask questions
to get someone else into the
conversation and finally you can use
language to summarize what you're saying
and show that you are concluding your
thoughts now before we finish today I do
have a challenge question for you
this one is going to require you to
listen and think about what we've
learned in today's lesson I'm going to
share a sentence with you and I'm going
to say it in two different ways in the
comment section below the video I want
you to tell me in each example am I
finished speaking how am I using my
voice and what is it telling you is it
telling you that I'm not finished that I
still have something to say or is it
telling you that I'm done I'm closing my
conversation so here's the first example
I'm going to say the same sentence twice
and you tell me in the comment section
what you think I'm doing number one I
couldn't believe it
I couldn't believe it
number two I couldn't believe it I
couldn't believe it
now in those two examples which one is
for ending my thoughts closing my
conversation and which one is telling
you that maybe I'm just starting my
story or I want to add something else
you can share with me in the comments
below let's try just one more example
number one what a crazy day what a crazy
day and example two what a crazy day
what a crazy day
once again in those two examples in
which one am i starting the conversation
and I want to share more with you and in
which one am i summarizing or finishing
concluding what I want to say thank you
so much for joining me this week I love
having you here every Wednesday if you
found this video useful be sure to share
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and I look forward to seeing you next
week for your confident English lesson