Speaker 1: I think you're gonna like this lesson. I assume you've
heard a lot of this vocabulary before, but I reckon
maybe you haven't used all of it. In that case,
I guess you may need to grab a notebook.
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, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight thirty five,
All the Ways We Can Think. Hello, and welcome. Thanks
for joining me for another episode of the Happy English Podcast.
I'm your English teacher, Michael, and I'm so glad you're
here with me today. I want to talk about something
that we all do a lot, and that's thinking. But
not just thinking, I mean the different ways we talk
about how we think in English. You know, English has
a ton of words for expressing thoughts, opinions, guesses, feelings,
and assumptions. So today we're going to break those down
in a fun, simple way so you can use them
in your own English conversations. Let's kick things off with
the most common one. Think you've probably heard this a
million times. I think it's going to rain. She thinks
the movie was boring. When we use think, we're usually
giving our opinion. It's kind of neutral. You've got a
little information, maybe a feeling, and your form an idea,
like I think I'll stay home tonight. Jim thinks we
should take Root eight instead of the Highway. You've considered something,
and you use think to show where you've landed. Now,
if you want to take it a little deeper, more emotional,
more personal, you can use believe. Believe is stronger than think.
It's not just in your head, it's in your heart too,
Like when you get serious in the office, I believe
we should tell Jack the truth about his performance at work.
Or I've done some research and I believe this strategy
will work well. And did you know our friend Dora
believes aliens are controlling the government Cocade Dora. Next up,
let's talk about guess. Now. Guess is the total opposite
of belief. When you guess, you don't have much info.
You're kind of like throwing a dart in the dark
and hoping for the best. Like I didn't study for
the test, so I just guessed most of the answers,
or after a job interview, your friend Eddie says, Ah,
the company never called after the interview. I guess I
didn't get the job. I think he made a good
guess there. How old is Jack? I guess he's around forty,
but I'm not sure. We use guess a lot in
casual conversations when we're not so confident. All right, Next,
and in a similar way as guess, we've got assume
This one's a little tricky. When you assume something, you're
accepting that thing as true even though you really don't
know for sure. Like when your friend says he struck
out with the woman at his workplace, you can tell
him you shouldn't assume she's not interested. Maybe she's just shy.
When we went out for dinner last week, I assumed
the restaurant was still opened, but it closed early. Be
careful with assume. People don't always like it when you
assume something about them. Like you invited some friends to
go to the park and one of them, Karen, didn't
reply to your invite. But then she showed up and
you say, I assumed you weren't coming, so I'm surprised
to see you, And then she says, didn't you read
my reply. Oops. Now there's a more formal cousin of assume,
and that's presume. Presume sounds a little more educated, a
little more business like we presume things when we have
some evidence but still not full proof. You'll hear this
one on those TV police or legal dramas, or you'll
see it in formal writing, like I presume you're the
new manager. Or when I asked her if she would
like to make me an offer on my car for sale,
she didn't answer, so I presumed she wasn't interested. Okay,
switching gears, let's talk about figure. This one's cool because
it feels very American. When you figure something, it's like
you ran the idea through your head real quick and
then came to a decision, Like I figure, if we
leave it five point fifteen, we'll get to the airport
around six. Joe hasn't called yet, so I figure he
was busy. You thought about it, and now you're figuring
it out. It's super conversational. Now let's take a little
road trip to the southern US and meet The word reckon.
Reckon is kind of old school casual. It means I
think or I believe, but it's got a casual country
kind of vibe. Like you reckon it'll rain later. Yep,
I reckon it'll rain later, and then later after that.
You know what, the car isn't as bad as I
thought it was. The repair guy reckons he can finish
the job in an hour. What do you think you reckon?
Jack's gonna show up to work on time today. So
if you want to sound a little charming, a little southern,
try reckon sometime. So yeah, that's a lot of different
ways to think in English. 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,
do you want to get more practice using your English,
then you should join my podcast Learner's Study Group. There
you can make new friends, join us for live group
lessons every week where we practice these podcast lessons together.
Plus you get access to the pdf, transcript and audio
download for every Happy English podcast in the past and
in the future. And on top of that, each episode
has exercises where you can practice this English point with
speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more, just
visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson eight
thirty five. 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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