How to use linking words in English - part 1

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, welcome to the 3 English Experts. I'm Dave, I'm Rebecca, and I'm Birgit. And welcome to this episode. 3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey. So, hi everybody. Welcome to a new episode. And today we'd like to talk about a topic that is not thought about very often. People don't often think about it, but I think it's a good way to up your English when you do it. It's called these linking words, these special linking words you have between sentences. And I'd like to bring in Birgit straight away for her take on why she thinks this is really useful to include in your English, to upgrade. Birgit. Hello. Yeah, thank you, Dave. Yes, it's important because, as you said, people don't think about that. They are not so much aware of it. And it's for bringing linking words into the sentences and also for connecting thoughts. So, we spoke about that in one of our earlier episodes that it's always a good idea to keep your sentences short, one thought, one sentence. And people sometimes feel they can't quite express what they can do in German native language. Of course, they combine a lot of thoughts and that's no problem for them to put them one after the other or even open a loop and then close the loop later. But of course, if you want to do that and you can do that, linking words come in very useful. And that's the clue maybe. And that's when I bring in this issue, race to issue. And when you maybe cannot think of what that means, it would be something like putting ideas in a chronological order or talk about cause and effect and additioning, agreeing. And Rebecca will start off with introducing some of these linking words, what you can use. Yeah. Hi. So, I think I agree with Birgit. It upgrades. It just, it makes your English just sound that bit better. So, I think I'll just to give some examples. So, for example, like and, you know, classic linking word and I bought bananas and apples. Obviously, a nice fancier way of saying and would be furthermore or in addition. Yeah. It just, in a meeting or in a presentation, it just sounds a bit, especially in writing, it sounds more professional. It sounds more sophisticated because there's so many alternatives to because everybody knows because due to or since or as a result of. Yeah. There are so many nicer ways to say because. Same with but, but, but. It's not always such an elegant word. However, you know, just sounds so much nicer than but. However, is a nicer word. So, it just upgrades your vocabulary, makes it sound a bit more elegant, sounds a bit more sophisticated. Obviously, it doesn't mean you have to use it in everyday talk. Perhaps it doesn't matter. But I think, you know, yeah, in a presentation situation, I think I don't want to hear too many buts. However. Yes, exactly. And that's what I feel that people, when I send a list of linking words, they say, oh, oh, I never know how to use them. And but they know them. Of course, they are not really difficult words. However, furthermore, but as you said, it's an alternative. And as I would say, it's think about. Yeah. However, they know still you connect ideas and thoughts and train that a little and then it gets easier. Yeah. It's just a bit more fancy, isn't it? It's like it just sounds a bit nicer and it gives you alternatives. It's always good. People say, how can I be more confident in English? And I always say, well, the more words you have, the more confident you will feel because you're not always searching for one word. You've got four words that mean the same thing. So if you're if you're struggling or you're afraid in a presentation, you're going to have a blank, you know, and you can't remember the word. The more alternatives you have, the less likely that is to happen because you've just got options. So, you know, learning people say, oh, there's so many words. Why do I need to learn all these words? Don't have to learn all of them. But to have a couple for each option is it's just it's just it builds confidence and it helps fluency. And yes, and I feel with these linking words, as I said before, they seem easy, but still people don't remember them. And that's the matter of fact, because they use only this and that. Of course, you hear it all the time when natives speak or in your conversation with other people or in meetings. But to be able, as Rebecca said, to use them yourself, add them on to your active skills, active language. Dave, what do you say? Well, I agree. I mean, it's just the variation, I think, as well, just to vary your English. As we spoke about presentations a few sessions ago, I think obviously the sequential ones like talking about first, next, after that, meanwhile, finally, all these kind of things help you just to structure your presentation and also, of course, explain what's coming next or what you've just talked about or whatever. And I think that helps to pave the way for your listeners. So that's very good. And of course, then the cause and effect words that we talked about before, because, since, therefore, et cetera, et cetera, I think are also very useful in your writing and giving reasons for something. Also, back to presentations, maybe explaining why a trend is trending that way, because, or hence, or consequently, or these kind of words that then explain why something is happening. So I think we want to go now a little bit into some of the things that people get confused with. And so maybe one of them, while we're talking about this sort of phonological one, is that there is sort of a word that you often say is at least, when people actually mean either at last or finally. So this is a common mistake. I often hear that people want, they want to conclude their presentation, for example, instead of saying finally or last, but not least, they forget the maybe the last bit and just say at least. And of course, if you find that out, that actually means minimum. Okay. So it's a false translation and it's a false friend. So that's one situation where you have to be careful with. And the same with at last, because at last is a phrase you can say that, but of course it means, oh, English. Oh my goodness, at last, you know, because this is the most boring presentation ever. And at last I am going to shut up. So it's, you don't say that. So at last, you know, if you're waiting for someone, I said, oh, at last, like you, or finally the food's arrived at last I'm starving, but it's not, you wouldn't use it at the end of a presentation. I've heard that a lot too, Dave. So it's finally, or last, but not least. Last but not least. Exactly. So what were some of the other ones that we had on our list? Negative and positive effect. You had one, David, that was very interesting. Yeah. Okay. So you, the effect could be like, thanks to, okay. So thanks to his hard work, he improved his English immensely, for example. So the thanks to is positive. You could have a, I would say as a more of a negative one with this word due to, D-U-E, to, that's the two words, because it's difficult sometimes to think what due is written as or how it is spelled. So it's D-U-E. Due to is then more the opposite. So a negative form. So often you see this in connection with due to power outage, the computer system went down or whatever. And then you've got because of, and also owing to, owing being spelled O-W-I-N-G. I think they're pretty neutral when you see a list. So they're quite useful. Just a simple thanks to is the positive, due to is a negative, and the because of or owing to are more in the middle, I think is a nice way to remember it. I think owing to is the one that people never know. A lot of my learners, they go, what's that? They've never heard that. So that's quite a nice one, an extra sort of bit of vocabulary to add. And then you could bring in the, oh, like I owe you money, so shouldn't, and then it's kind of clear where it comes from. But I think in my experience, a lot of people don't use or don't know. I've never heard owing to. But you're good to start the sentences and the email with that. Yeah. Owing to a high amount of work, and we will not be able to deliver, or owing to a lack of staff. It's not as common maybe as due to. I don't know, but it is fairly normal. It's quite common. So yeah, maybe not as common as due to, but yeah. Okay. My other pitfall is the classic because. So when you want to say because, you know, we were always taught at school, Dave, that you never start a sentence with the word because. So because should not be written with a big B, basically, ever, because you shouldn't. Yeah, that's an easy way to remember, because it's never got a big B, because it shouldn't be at the beginning of a sentence. You do see natives do this. And then I think, did you go to school? Maybe, I don't know. I can't speak for American English. Maybe they use that more and we don't. But I know that's what we were always taught, that it's just not very elegant to have because at the beginning of a sentence. So because goes in the middle. I'm late because my train was cancelled. Yeah. Now, alternative. So if you want to use because at the beginning of a sentence, you should use something like since or as. So since my train was cancelled, I'm late, or as the train was cancelled, I arrived home late. So you can put it at the beginning, but bigger in German, which is the same. I was just writing by it. You wouldn't start with. I wouldn't start with. Yeah, you would say exactly. Thank you. And that's why I always say to my clients and they go. Yeah, they kind of know they don't maybe think about it, but it's true. I think you wouldn't you wouldn't start with. We wouldn't. We wouldn't know. Not very elegant, is it? It sounds like an incomplete sentence to me. Yeah. So that's just a nice rule. So just remember, because don't write it with a big B. Yeah. Any more things that we hear, any mix ups, confusions with these linking words? I don't know about mix up, but certainly if I go through the list we have here on our desk or everyone has, it's like there are some people don't remember or I haven't even heard of hence. Yeah. And provided that that's for beginners. Yeah, it's not it doesn't come out naturally. So, Dave, will you put a list somewhere in the show notes? Yes, sure. Absolutely. I think that's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my other one is sometimes people don't know how to use them. So so, for example, due to sometimes I hear people say, due to the boss was late. You can't say that. So it's due to the late arrival of the boss. So you have to use it with a noun or you have to say due to the fact that the boss was late. So there's also learning how to how to put them together is not always that simple. I think you have to know how to use them. I think there's also an idea of spelling because spelling often is a is a tricky one in these words. Obviously, nowadays, we have the spell checks and everything else. But what I often see is, for example, the word therefore spelt without the E at the end. And I think people often misspell some of these words, in particular, the therefore example, maybe they don't realise what the word means. So they think it's for as in the word for something. Right. And so an actual fact is got an E at the end. But I guess nowadays with the with the correcting tools, then that's not necessarily a problem. But it's just something to think about how to spell the word. So therefore has got an E at the end. Yeah. And the other thing, linking words to the function they have could also be as an emphasis. Indeed, especially in fact, something like that. People always look out for something yet maybe to stress to make their sentences stronger, to make their arguments stronger. So linking words also come in handy here. And I think we're going to have another episode right on other linking words. This is not all of them. So things like contrasting words. So nevertheless or despite or right. Although, but we're going to talk about that in another episode because there's just so many of them and give some more examples. Right. Yeah. Very good. The Golden Nuggets. OK, so it's the time of the Golden Nuggets. And it's my turn this week. And I'd like to introduce you to a website. The website is YouGlish.com. Of course, this will be linked in the show notes later. YouGlish.com. So you've heard of YouTube and you can see there you. And then you've also got Glish, which maybe you can take it apart and see English in there as well. So that's exactly what it's about. It's a website where you can find out the pronunciation of words. It's really cool. You could, of course, look at dictionaries. It will explain how to say the word phonetically, which is not always easy to read the phonetic. If you don't know how to read the phonetic alphabets, then it's difficult to figure out how to say the word. But this is a very useful tool to come to this website. All you need to do is simply type in the word in the search bar that you're wanting to practise the pronunciation of or find out the pronunciation of it. Type it in and then press send or say it, it says here, and then it will find videos from YouTube where they have these little bits of conversations using that word. Okay, so you can then watch those videos. The good thing is it also has the conversation just around it. So not just that word, but of course, a few sentences before it and also after it. So that's also quite nice to get different types of English. And maybe the other good thing about this is not just for the UK, it's also obviously then you could signal you want the US pronunciation, maybe Australian pronunciation. So you can check for all different types of pronunciations. So that's a really cool tool. And so if there's ever anything that you're not sure about how you should pronounce in English, go to YouGlish.com. And that is where you can check that out and then watch a few videos. And I believe you can also practise saying the words as well. And YouGlish will also say how well you pronounce them. But that's the basics to it. Okay, so thanks for that, Dave. I hope you found this episode interesting. I hope there was something useful today. And our big news is that after all this time, after knowing each other for so long, we have finally met. But not at last. Yeah, not at last. But you can say that. At last we met. Is that negative? No, it can be positive. Actually, now you say that you can say at last. At last we've met. Yeah, we've met kind of like after a long struggle, missing each other. You're real. We are united in the end. Yeah, you can say that actually. So now you've got me thinking it's not always negative. But yeah, so at last we met. And in Valencia, we had a nice weekend together. Yeah. And yeah. And so we've come to the decision that we are going to offer a three English experts workshop in 2025. It's going to be live with the three of us. So people can come along and meet us and work with us for a couple of days somewhere in Germany. And details are still being finalised, but we will be giving you more details very soon. So that's going to be fun. And we're really looking forward to meeting some of our listeners. That would be nice, wouldn't it? Yeah, cool. So next time, next episode, we are going to be doing a bit of mindset. So we're going to be talking about authenticity in languages, how to find your voice. Are you the same person in English as you are in your native language or in any of your other languages? How do you feel as your English self? How to feel more authentic, how to be more accepting of who you are and find your voice, find your English voice. I think that's really important in languages. So that is going to be our topic next time. Thanks for now. Thanks for listening. Take care. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for pressing play today. If you enjoy our podcast, please share with your friends, your family or your co-workers. 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