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Hey there I’m Emma from mmmEnglish!

We gotta talk.

Too many of you have been telling me

that you’re worried about joining English conversations.

You’re worried about getting stuck,

forgetting your words,

feeling embarrassed about making mistakes.

Does that sound like you? Do you want to get

unstuck with me today?

I’m sharing twenty-seven really useful expressions

to help you get yourself out of trouble

when you need to and help you to feel more confident

about joining English conversations in the first place.

There’s something that my students often forget,

that every confident English speaker,

whether they’re native or non-native,

uses the strategies that I’m sharing today

to help them communicate.

That’s right,

native English speakers use these techniques

all the time. It’s a natural part of communicating.

We don’t always know what we want to say

and it doesn’t always come out perfectly either.

What confident English speakers know how to do is

quickly get themselves out of trouble if they need to.

If they get stuck in the conversation

they know how to fix it.

And there are plenty of English phrases and expressions

that will help you in these situations.

So when you get stuck or when you can’t find

the right words or you forget what you wanted to say

and you start feeling your confidence slipping away

or the heat rising up in your neck,

maybe you freeze. Has this ever happened to you?

The thing is and I’m sorry to be the one to say this,

the thing is this experience is never going to end.

So it’s something that you need to learn to live with right

And just become more comfortable with.

And when that happens, you’ll be able to get yourself

out of trouble quickly and automatically.

So let’s focus on the expressions that you need to get

unstuck in English conversations

so that you can move past the problem

and keep talking.

Okay imagine that you’ve just

run into someone that you know, perhaps a colleague

or a professor at your university

and you’ve started chatting in English.

Things are going pretty well, you know, but suddenly

you don’t really understand what they’re saying.

Now this could be because they’re using words

that you don’t recognise.

Maybe because you don’t know a lot about this topic,

perhaps it could be because their accent is a little

different to what you’re used to so it’s a bit tricky.

So in these situations, you could say:

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

“Could you repeat what you said?”

“I’m sorry. I’m not following you.”

So we use this expression when we don’t understand

what someone means, when it’s a little unclear

or you’re a little confused.

I don’t think I understood your question.

Can you repeat that?

What about when you are talking with someone

but suddenly you forget your own words

or you forget what you’ve been talking about after you’ve

already started talking, right?

It’s the worst because the other person is looking at you

They’re waiting for you to continue.

Their full focus is on you and you’ve lost your words.

It’s just awkward silence.

This does happen to everyone.

Sometimes things are just so bad,

the best thing to do is just hit the reset button.

Now I’m gonna talk about that in a minute but firstly

what can you say when you forget your words?

Listen to what I say but also watch how I say it.

It’s really important.

What’s that word again?

It’s on the tip of my tongue.

We use this idiom to describe that really familiar feeling,

you know, when we’ve lost a word but it’s

so, so close in our minds, it’s like right there.

We just can’t get to it,

you know, you’re trying to remember that word.

I’m sorry, I’ve had a mental blank.

I can’t remember the word in English.

Now at this point, the person that you’re talking to

will probably try and help you to remember

or remind you of the word.

You could even say

“I have no idea how to say this in English!

Maybe you can help me

if I explain what I’m trying to say.”

But even if you can’t find the word, don’t let it stop you.

Simply say something like

“That’s so annoying. Nevermind…”

And then change the topic.

You could say:

“Let’s move on.”

This will help you to change the topic and keep

moving forward in your conversation.

Now sometimes it’s not just a word

that you’ve forgotten

but you’ve completely forgotten what you were talking

about at all

and I really hate that feeling.

You start panicking because

you don’t know where you’re going in the conversation

right? You’re lost.

Maybe you’ve been completely tongue-tied

so you need to restart. You need to hit that reset button.

You just need to explain what’s happened

and probably have a laugh as well,

you know, you should always say these ones

with a smile on your face because remember

this happens to everyone.

Hang on. Let me start over!

Let me try that again.

Oh man! I completely lost my train of thought there…

I’m so sorry,

I’ve completely forgotten what I was talking about.

Hopefully, it’ll come back to me in a few moments.

Now this is a great signal or a great conversation cue

to tell the other person that they should try and

take over the conversation

while you’re trying to think of what you wanted to say.

Hopefully, it’ll come back to me in a moment.

Now if you suggest that you’re thinking or you need that

extra time, the other person should interject.

Honesty is really important in conversations.

When you explain what’s happened

then everyone else understands, right?

If someone is listening to you speak and then

you somehow get stuck,

well all of the expressions that we just went through

are going to help explain what happened

and then give clues to the person who’s listening to you

so that they can help you out.

A teeny, tiny, little reminder,

a conversation is not a test.

The other person is not there to challenge you

or to make you mess up or to make fun of you.

They’re going to help you to keep

going in your conversation

if you give them the right clues.

If you help them to understand what’s happening

then they can help you to find the right word

or to change the topic.

This is a completely normal part of English

conversation and let’s be honest,

it’s going to happen to you a lot on your journey towards

English fluency and it’s gonna happen to you

once you’re fluent too

so it’s a really good thing that you’re here and you’re

getting the tools that you need

to have successful conversations even if you mess up.

There are plenty of times when you just don’t know what

to say, right?

Because you’re not prepared or you’ve never

thought about this topic or question before.

You just have no idea what to say, right?

So you need to buy some time.

You need a little bit of extra time to think about

your answer

and there are tons of different expressions

that we use in English when this happens.

Let me think about that for a minute.

That’s an interesting question, let me think…

That’s tricky… I’ve never been asked that before.

I’m not sure! Give me a second to think about it.

Give me a moment to think about

how to explain that in English!

All of these sentences will give you some extra time

just a few seconds so that you can

take a deep breath. You can get your thoughts in order

and you can think about what you need to say next.

If you’re in a group, you could even direct the question

towards someone else.

I need some time to think about that.

Does anyone else have an answer ready?

You’re sending the question on to someone else.

Another really common situation

especially when you’re at work is when someone

asks you to share

an opinion or an idea about something but

may catch you off guard.

You don’t have anything ready to share with them about

this topic, right? You don’t know what to say

so you freeze. You start searching for words

but in that moment it feels like every English word

has escaped from your brain

and gone somewhere else.

So in this situation, you can try to return

the question to them.

I’ve never thought about that before. What about you?

That’s tricky…

I’ve never been asked a question like that before.

What do you think?

Or even more casually, you could say:

“What’s your take?” Or “What are your thoughts?”

Now this does two things.

The other person is going to start talking, right?

So you’ll have some time to think about your answer

while they do that

but if you don’t already have an opinion about

this topic or some ideas that you want to share,

you can get some ideas from what they’re saying.

They’ll inspire you to think about something, you know,

maybe you’ll agree or disagree with what they’ve said.

Lastly, you might find yourself in a situation

where you’re talking but you notice the face

of the other person changing.

They don’t seem to be understanding you.

That’s okay!

It might be your fault but it could also be them.

So if you feel like this is happening,

you could say a few different things.

Am I making sense?

This is a great question to ask if you want to check

and allow them to ask a question to you,

you know, have a break to check with you.

I don’t think I’m being very clear, am I?

Let’s try that again.

Sorry I think I’m confusing you.

What I’m trying to say is…

Now this expression allows you to rephrase

your ideas in a different way to help the other person

to understand you.

It’s really, really useful. Try and remember it.

So there you have it,

twenty-seven practical expressions to help you

when you get stuck in English conversations.

you know where to find me. I’ll see you in there!