Full video

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being vague in English sounds the most

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natural because well imagine if we were

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super specific all the time how old are

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you twelve thousand days old yeah that

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would be weird so here are some

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expressions you can use when you don't

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want to be precise exact you want to

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express yourself better by being vague

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[Music]

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you can follow me on instagram twitter

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and facebook at papa teach me and if you

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want extra English practice you can join

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this channel as a member or join my

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patreon page my thingy really hers what

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thingy the thingy the back of my throat

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uvula yes that thingy thingy this is

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what we affectionately call something

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which we don't remember the name of or

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we just want to be vague if you want to

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talk about a part of a thing use bit for

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example I broke the bit of my phone

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which changes the volume I don't know

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the name of this so I'll call it the bit

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of my phone so we have different

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expressions for different things for

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example to be vague about numbers we use

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these when you want to guess huge

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amounts we use the term a ballpark

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figure for example if you had to guess

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the population of London give me a

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ballpark figure how many people live in

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London okay um the population of London

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I don't know a ballpark figure maybe

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four million a guesstimate this is a

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portmanteau which means two words have

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been combined to make one those two

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words are guests and estimate some

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people hate this word like hate with a

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capital H hate this word however you

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might hear it you might want to say it

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it's your choice and you can use it like

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this how much money do you think he

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makes don't know no just like a

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guesstimate I don't know he plays

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football so like a guesstimate a million

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pounds a day and when you give an

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approximate number you can use these

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expressions around about more or less

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give or take number or so number or

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thereabout

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these all mean the same and are used in

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the same way it's an approximate number

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for example I went to sleep around 9

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o'clock last night

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not exactly 9 o'clock maybe a bit before

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maybe a bit after and how many people

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are you expecting at this meeting about

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10 give or take a flight from London to

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New York takes 8 hours or there abouts

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there abouts is an interesting one we

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can use it for numbers we can also use

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it for a place when we don't want to be

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exact about this place we want to say

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well in this area for example I'm coming

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to London now where shall I meet here

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I'm I'll be in Oxford Street or

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thereabouts all day just call me when

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you're near in Oxford Street or in that

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general area so let's practice I'll ask

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you some questions answer me in the

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comments using those expressions number

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1 how tall do you think I am

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number 2 how much do you think I weigh

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number 3 what time did you wake up today

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number 4

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ballpark figure how much money do you

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think the Queen has and number 5 if you

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took the IELTS test right now what kind

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of score do you think you would get 4

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things concepts and ideas if someone

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asks you to describe something by

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comparing it to something else this is

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how you do it it's blah blah blah or

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something like that it's a kind of sort

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of blah blah blah blah blah blah that

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kind of thing for example my favorite

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English food is a Yorkshire pudding now

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when I describe this I have to compare

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it to other things

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umm Yorkshire pudding it's it's a kind

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of savory pancake it's it's like a

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pancake but a different shape and less

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sugar that kind of thing so practice

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tell everyone in the comments what these

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things are

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remember compare them to other

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using those expressions what is an arepa

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borscht locum what is so made what is

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back so what is Majorca and what is

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canola remember to be vague in your

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comparisons adjectives but again it's

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not the exact thing you want to be

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imprecise a bit vague kind of sort of

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you can use those with adjectives to

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describe something example what color

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are my eyes honestly it depends on the

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weather in the summer my eyes are kind

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of blurry or bluey greenish and in the

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winter they're more greenish so they're

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not exactly 100% blue and not exactly

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100% green and maybe you noticed that

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for adjectives you can add E or ish to

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the end to make that adjective not exact

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it's the room clean clean ish oh you

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make music what type of music do you

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make yeah it's like poppy drum and bass

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II a bit metal ish well that sounds

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terrible it is oh you went on a date

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last night what was the guy handsome and

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exactly I mean handsome so practice what

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color are your eyes

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what color is the sky in your country

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today and describe the type of music

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that your favorite musician or band

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plays for actions you will hear this a

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lot and it sounds natural to do example

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wow you got a really good mark for your

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test how did you do that I don't know I

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just kind of studied really hard I just

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sort of I just kind of saying that

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sounds natural and you will hear it

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often however this is a much more

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informal way of speaking so don't use it

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for interviews and don't use it for

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formal conversations but definitely not

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for writing so tell me how did you find

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my youtube channel where you

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just sort of searching for English

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lessons and found me let me know thanks

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for watching go be vague and I'll see

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you in the next class

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[Music]

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[Music]

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you