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Speaker 1: Have you ever been in this situation. You're venting to

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a friend about having a long and tough day, and

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your friend's response is something like, yeah, I hear you.

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That little phrase I hear you has nothing to do

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with your friend's ears. Let's check it out.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from

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New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.

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Speaker 1: All right, thank you, Jan and thanks everyone. It's Michael

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here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.

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And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode nine fifty one.

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Does I hear you mean I can hear you? Thanks

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for joining me today. So let's talk about those moments

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when someone is telling you about a bad day, a

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tough situation, or something that's just not going well. You

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want to respond in a way that shows you care, right,

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that you're listening, that you understand. There are actually a

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bunch of phrases like that in everyday English that help

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you sound more natural when someone is complaining, venting, or

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just needs to feel heard. That's what we're going to

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look at today, and let's start with the one we

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just heard. I hear you. This one is so simple

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but powerful. Imagine your coworker says, oh, I'm so frustrated

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with this project. Nothing is going right. You can say yeah,

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I hear you. You're not trying to help them fix

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the issue, You're just acknowledging their feeling. I hear you

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is a conversational way to say, yeah, I get what

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you're feeling. Like last week, we had a few minor

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earthquakes here, but nonetheless they freaked me out. And when

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I told my neighbor that, she said, yeah, I hear you,

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they freaked me out too. In situations like these, saying

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I hear you is like saying I totally understand how

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you feel. A similar phrase is I get it. Keep

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in mind that get has a number of different meanings

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and uses in English, and in this case, get means understand.

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Like one of your friends says her boss made her

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work another weekend in a row. You can show your

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support or sympathy with, uh, I get it. That's so frustrating.

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Sometimes people say I totally get it, and you don't

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need to say anything else. That's how natural it is.

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The next one is tell me about it. We use

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tell me about it when we want to show that

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we not only agree with someone's complaint, but we feel

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the same thing. Like your friend says, Oh, the weather

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is so gross. It's been raining all week. Yeah, tell

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me about it. I haven't seen the sun in days.

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You're not literally asking them to tell you more. You're saying, yeah,

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I know, I feel the same. Like when your coworker

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mentions that the boss is in a bad mood again today,

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you can reply with, tell me about it. He didn't

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even say good morning when he came in. Again, tell

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me about it doesn't mean give me more details. It

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just means yeah, I totally get it, and I've had

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that same experience. Another one of these phrases is you

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can say that again. When you tell someone you can

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say that again. You're saying I totally and completely feel

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the exact same way as you do. Like if your

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coworker says something like, man, the traffic going to work

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this morning was horrible, you can reply with you can

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say that again, it took me twenty minutes just to

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pass the shopping mall. Or like at a restaurant, when

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your friend complains, Hey, what happened to our waiter? I

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think he took our order and went home without telling

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the chef, you can reply with you can say that again,

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and keep in mind the intonation. The stress is on

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the word that you can say that again. So let's

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recap thinking about the intonation. I hear you, I get it,

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tell me about it, and you can say that again.

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These are all part of natural, everyday English, especially when

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you're trying to show empathy and connect with someone. You

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don't need to give advice. Sometimes just showing you understand

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is enough. And keep in mind the best way to

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remember English like this and any other word or phrase

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in English, is to take that word or phrase, write

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it in a sentence that's true for you or true

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in your world, and then memorize your sentences. That's how

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you build fluency. Thanks for listening. Remember learning another language

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is not easy, but it's not impossible, and I'm here

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to help you on your journey.

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Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please

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visit Myhappy English dot com show your support for Happy

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English by leaving us a review. Get English, Get Happy,

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Happy English.