Quick Tips to Improve Speaking

This is the third installment in a series of Quick Tips to Improve Speaking.

Often, students get confused about whether to use many or much as a quantifier. The quick rule is that many is used with count nouns and much is used with non-count nouns. See my previous blog post for more specifics. So, for example, it is grammatically correct to say:

She went to many classes. She learned much information.

However, there’s a better way to say this in English. The fact is, native English speakers are much more likely to use a lot of or lots of as quantifiers, perhaps because you can use a lot of and lots of with both count and non-count nouns. This way, you don’t have to think about what noun you’re going to use after the quantifier; you’ll be grammatically correct no matter which one you choose. So an easier and more fluent way of expressing the ideas above is:

She went to lots of classes. She learned a lot of information.

By getting in the habit of using a lot of or lots of, you can not only avoid using much or many incorrectly but also sound more like a native speaker. It’s really a win-win combination.

Also, think of a lot of as one word with three syllables, rather than three separate words. That’s called “chunking,” which I’ll talk about later as a way of speeding your progress in English speaking. When you hear native speakers, it will sound like they’re saying, “uh-lot-uv” as one single word. The more you can copy this pronunciation, the more fluent you’ll sound. In the same way, lots of should be treated as a two-syllable word … “lots-uv.”

Finally, be aware that both a lot of and lots of are best used in spoken English. They are a bit too casual and informal for written academic English.

This is the second installment in a series of Quick Tips to Improve Speaking.

Another common speaking task in English tests like TOEFL is to make a recommendation. What are the best language strategies for doing this?

First, many people start out by framing their answer as if they were in this hypothetical (unreal) situation themselves. To do this, you need to use the fairly uncommon subjunctive mood in English, which is used to describe conditional or imaginary situations. Here, the rules of subject/verb agreement change, so you would say something like this:

If I were her …

If it were me …

If I were in his shoes …

If you begin your statement this way, talking about what you would do in the situation, you should use the modal would. So you might say:

If I were her, I would take the bus to work.

If it were me, I wouldn’t take a part-time job.

If you don’t place yourself in the same situation, you should use the modal should. So you might say:

In my opinion, people should graduate from college before they get married.

I think that she should major in engineering.

Or you can use a combination of both. For example:

If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t take a part-time job. I think he should focus on his studies.

Finally, you might want to consider how to talk about the consequences of a particular action. Here’s how you do that using the modals would (to express a certainty) and might (to express a possibility):

If he took a part-time job, he would have less time to study. He might actually fail the class.

If he was studying hard, he wouldn’t have time to play video games. He might even get an A.

Notice that in the “if” clause, we use the past tense form of the verb.

Using these simple strategies will help you to make your recommendations much more fluently.

This will be the first in a series of Quick Tips to Improve Speaking.

In many tests of English fluency, you may be asked a hypothetical question … that is, about  a situation that has not actually happened. You might think that because this situation has not yet happened, you should use the future tense, but this is not true.

Let’s say the question is: Which would you prefer, to live in a large city or in a small town? It’s possible that if you already live in one or the other, you might answer something like: I really love living in a large city because it’s so exciting and interesting. But usually you will answer this as a hypothetical question, as if the situation has not yet occurred.

First of all, to start your response, it is helpful to frame your answer with an “if” clause. Although this situation has not yet happened, you use a past tense verb. For example, If I lived in a large city … or If I had to choose whether to live in a large city or small town …  In other words, you do not say something like: If I choose to live in a large city … or If I live in a small town …

Many lower-level speakers use the words can or will in their response, but these do not sound really fluent. We usually don’t say things like:

In a big city, I can go out to a new restaurant every night.

In a small town, I will take lots of walks in the country.

The best words to use are could or would. So, for example:

In a big city, I could go out to a new restaurant every night.

In a small town, I would take lots of walks in the country

What’s the difference? Could implies possibility; would is more definite. You can think of these as forms of can and will that are more appropriate in a hypothetical question.