CONCLUSIONS – How to finish speaking in English

Do you know what "in a nutshell" means? What about "the bottom line"? They both have in common that they announce a conclusion. In this English class, I will teach you some common expressions we use in speech that tell the listener that we are about to conclude what we want to say. You will learn "to sum up", "all in all", "in a nutshell", "the bottom line is", and "for these reasons". I will also explain some expressions that are useful in writing but sound strange in speech. Last but not least, test your knowledge by taking our quiz at the end of this video.
http://www.engvid.com/conclusions-how-to-finish-speaking-in-english/

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I'm going to teach you a little bit about speaking. I'm going to teach you some expressions that can really help you if you're giving presentations, if you're taking the TOEFL, if you're taking the IELTS, or just generally for business English and also in university classes. Okay? So these are all going to be expressions you can use when you speak.

Now, the expressions I'm talking about specifically are expressions you can use after you've finished talking, just to, sort of, conclude. Okay? So these are ways to say, "In conclusion."

So I have here two expressions: "In conclusion", "thus". Okay? I don't know if you've ever seen these expressions before, but if you've written an essay, you've probably seen these. These come at the very end of an essay. In speech, we don't really use these. Okay? "In conclusion" and "thus", they're very, very formal, and so they sound a little strange. Okay? If you are a university professor, yeah. Maybe you'll use this. But for most people, they're not so common. So when we speak, we don't really use these. We use these in writing, not speaking. Okay?

So I want you to imagine this. Imagine I am giving a speech. I'm giving a presentation, and I'm talking about why dogs are great pets. Okay? So imagine this. I've told you first, dogs are very loyal. They're man's best friend. Maybe I've talked a little bit about how cute dogs are, how they're so obedient, they listen to their owners, and how they really help people. You know, they help people who are blind. They help people who are lonely. They help people, you know, for herding sheep. There are a lot of things that dogs do. So imagine I give a whole presentation about dogs. Now, at the very end, I really want to just say one more time how great dogs are. Well, I can use any of these expressions to show that.

So for example, "to sum up". Okay. So I've just talked a lot about dogs. At the very end, I might say something like, "To sum up, dogs are great pets." Okay? I might also say, "Yeah. You know, dogs are loyal, so they make great pets." I might say, "In a nutshell, dogs make excellent pets." I really do like this expression, by the way. It's a common idiom. And it's pretty interesting because "nutshell" -- I don't know the history of it, but "in a nutshell" means pretty much the same as "in conclusion".

We can also say "the bottom line". "The bottom line is dogs make excellent pets." If I've given a lot of reasons -- you know, dogs are clean; they're cute; they're smart. "For these reasons, dogs make excellent pets." And finally, "All in all". It's like from that Pink Floyd song, "All in all, there's just another brick in the wall." "All in all", again, means "in conclusion". And we use it a lot in speech. "All in all, dogs make wonderful pets." Okay.

So these expressions are very, very useful for when you're doing presentations, in business meetings. If you ever take the TOEFL or IELTS, you can use these if the examiner asks you a question. To finish off your answer, these are all wonderful expressions.

So all in all, use these expressions. They're great. In a nutshell, these expressions mean the same thing as "in conclusion" and "thus". The bottom line is, don't use these expressions; use these when you're speaking to finish off your answer or to finish what you're saying. Okay?

So I invite you to come visit our website at www.engvid.com. There, you will find a quiz where you can practice all of these expressions. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thank you for watching this video, and until next time, take care.