Speaker 1: Have you ever been in a conversation in English and
suddenly thought, wait, I didn't catch that. Maybe someone was
speaking too fast, Maybe they used a word you didn't know.
Maybe you understood the words but not the meaning, And
at that moment you freeze. You don't want to say
the wrong thing, you don't want to look confused, you
don't want to interrupt. Well, here's the good news. Checking
understanding and getting clarification is a natural part of a
conversation in any language, even English. And today I'm going
to show you how you can do that.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: Alrighty, 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 one thousand and two,
How to Check Understanding. And before we jump in, I
want to talk a moment about the phrase can you
repeat that? We've all said that at one point in time, right,
And while can you repeat that is not wrong, it's
not very helpful. Why Well, because if you ask someone
to repeat something, most likely they will do that for you,
and they will say the exact same sentence at the
exact same speed a second time. And that's not what
you want, because if you didn't catch it the first time,
you probably won't catch it the second time either. So
instead of just asking for a repetition, it's often better
to ask for clarification. And here are a few phrases
you can use to do just that. Let's start with
could you run that by me again? This is a
commonly used phrase in both daily conversation and in a
business situation. Could you run that by me again doesn't
just mean please repeat that. It means explain that again
so I can understand better. Like a friend is explaining
how to get to their house and they say, oh,
take the second left after the gas station, but not
the first gas station, the one after the bridge. You
could say, could you run that by me again? It's
friendly and natural. Or at work, if you're in a
meeting and your manager says, oh, we need to leverage
cross functional alignment to optimize performance, you might say, sorry,
can you run that by me again? That's signals you
need a clearer explanation. Sometimes it's helpful to repeat the
information you heard in order to check your understanding, and
you can do that with this next phrase, which is
just to make sure I understand. This one is powerful.
It shows you're engaged and trying to confirm the meaning
of what you just heard. Like when you're making plans
with friends to go out for dinner, you can say
something like, Okay, just to make sure I understand we're
meeting at six not seven. Right. By repeating something you heard,
you're showing that you're listening and just want to confirm.
Here's another example, like at work, if your boss says
something like I need this report finalized by Thursday afternoon,
but I want a draft by Wednesday, you could say, okay,
just to make sure I understand you'd like the draft
on Wednesday and the final version thursday. Is that right?
So this phrase just to make sure I understand doesn't
signal confusion, It signals responsibility. That's a big difference. A
more basic way to check your understanding is by simply
repeating a few words that you did catch in the conversation.
And you can do that with the phrase did you say,
followed by the words you heard? So again, like when
you're making dinner plans, you can say, wait, did you
say seven o'clock? This does two things. First, it shows
that you were listening, which native speakers do all the time. Second,
and most important, repeating what you heard like this will
cause the other person to rephrase what they said, and
when they do, you'll have a better understanding of the conversation.
Another way to do this is to use the phrase
so what you're saying is followed by the words you heard.
This is what we call paraphrasing. You repeat the idea
in your own words to confirm it. Like if your
roommate or your partner says we can save money by
cutting unnecessary subscriptions, you can reply with, so what you're
saying is like we should cancel some of the TV
services we're using. Right. That checks you're understanding. Or if
a friend says I'm not upset, I'm just disappointed, you
might respond with, so what you're saying is you expected
something different? Right? That keeps the conversation clear. And did
you notice in those last two examples I threw in
the tag question right. Native speakers use that one little
word all the time as a quick and easy way
to show that we're paying attention and to check our understanding.
So when you're having a conversation about making dinner plans
and you want to confirm the time time, All you
need to do is say something like we're meeting at
seven right, or even just seven right. Using right like
this keeps the flow of the conversation going while confirming understanding.
Let's recap for a bit. Instead of just saying can
you repeat that? Try doing one of these things. First,
ask for a clearer explanation with could you run that
by me again? Next, you can confirm understanding with just
to make sure I understand or so what you're saying is.
You can also repeat a few words you did here
with did you say, and even follow those words with right.
These phrases don't make you sound weak. They make you
sound like you're in the conversation. You're engaged, and keep
something in mind. Even native speakers use these phrases all
the time. Clarifying doesn't mean there's a problem with your English.
It just means you care about understanding correctly. So here's
your challenge. The next time you don't understand something in English,
don't panic, don't stay silent. Use one of these phrases.
That's how you build confident, real world fluency and keep
in mind. The best way to remember English phrases 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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