Speaker 1: Seems like these days a lot of folks are busy
and even stressed. How about you? Have you ever wanted
to describe your situation or feeling with something more conversational
than I'm very busy or I'm stressed. I'm glad you
said yes. In fact, Native speakers usually have a few
other ways to talk about stress and being busy that
sound more natural and more conversational. We often explain why
we're busy, or we soften what we say so we
don't sound so dramatic. And that's what I want to
help you with today, talking about stress and being busy
naturally in English.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John In Thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode nine to eighty two,
Naturally talking about stress and being busy. Today, we're going
to look at some very common every day phrases Native
Speakers use to talk about being busy, stressed, or overloaded
without sounding too dramatic or complaining too much. Let's start
with the most basic word busy. Busy just means you
have a lot to do. It doesn't always mean you're stressed.
Like you might say, sorry for the slow reply, I've
been busy this week with meetings and reports, or I
can't grab lunch today, I'm busy catch up on work
I missed yesterday. You could also say this month has
been busy because I'm getting ready to move to a
new house. Busy is safe and polite, and you'll hear
it all the time in daily conversation. Now, Native speakers
often soften the words busy or stressed by adding phrases
like a bit, kind of, or pretty. So instead of
saying I'm busy, you might say I have a lot
going on at school so I've been a bit busy lately,
or I've been pretty stressed these days because my kids'
school schedule just changed. You might also hear I'm kind
of stressed right now. I have a presentation to do
later today and a deadline to meet tomorrow. Even when
people are very stressed, they often soften their language like
this in conversation. To be honest, I think that when
you're stressed, you're stressed. Saying I'm a bit stressed doesn't
mean just a little. It's a softer, indirect way to speak. Next,
let's talk about the phrase I have a lot on
my plate. This is a very common way to say
you're busy with responsibilities or tasks, like I'd love to
help you this week, but I have a lot on
my plate with work and family stuff. Or Jenny has
a lot on her plate right now she's moving in
starting a new job. This phrase sounds honest and very natural. Now,
let's move on to some phrases that sound a little stronger.
One of those is under a lot of pressure. When
someone is under a lot of pressure, there are deadlines, expectations,
or responsibility, like I'm under a lot of pressure at
work because the project has to be finished by Friday.
Or Jack's under a lot of pressure since he just
became the team leader and everyone is watching him. Or
Donna is under a lot of pressure right now. If
this deal doesn't go through, the company could lose money.
This phrase sounds serious but still professional, and it's pretty
common in work situations. Another very common word is swamped.
Swamped means you have too much to do, usually for
a short period of time, like the company president is
coming to visit on Wednesday, so we're completely swamped at
the office right now, or final exams are coming soon,
so the students are swamped with homework and studying. You
might also hear where's swamp this week because two people
are out sick. A slightly stronger word is slammed. Slammed
often describes a short, intense period of work. For example,
I didn't even have time for lunch today. I've been
slammed since this morning, or the restaurant was slammed last
night because it's a holiday weekend. Here's another work example,
customer support has been slammed ever since the new project launched.
Slammed is very common in spoken English. You'll also hear
people say things like I've got a lot going on
right now. This is also very natural and very flexible.
For example, I've been a little quiet lately because I've
got a lot going on at home. Or she's not
ignoring you, she just has a lot going on right now.
If a friend asks about your weekend plans, you can say, hah,
I can't even think about that today. I've got a
lot going on. Using I've got a lot going on
is great when you're super busy, but you don't want
to explain all the details. Another soft natural phrase is
trying to keep up. Basically, the phrase keep up means
to stay at the same level or speed as something else,
and we often use it like this, there's been so
much work lately, I'm just trying to keep up, or
with all these changes at the office, everyone is trying
to keep up. You might also say between work and family,
I'm doing my best to keep up. So let's put
this all together. We use busy for neutral situations, and
we often soften the words busy and stressed with phrases
like a bit busy or pretty stressed. We say I
have a lot on my plate when we're dealing with
many responsibilities. We use under a lot of pressure when
there are expectations about us. And we use swamped or
slammed for short periods when there's just too much to do.
And then I've got a lot going on right now. Again,
it's great when you're busy, but you don't really want
to explain all the details. Using these phrases will make
your English sound more natural and more conversational, so try
one or two of them out this week. That's how
you build fluency and keep in mind the best way
to remember English like this and any other word or
phrase in English, is to take that word or phrase,
write it in a sentence that's true for you or
true in your world, and then memorize your sentences. Hey,
thanks for listening, and remember learning another language is not easy,
but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you
on your journey.
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