This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 438, Option vs. Choice in English.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Hey, Michelle, I'm doing well.
How are you? I'm good, thanks.
Lindsay, are you good at making tough choices, tough decisions?
Oh, it's a it's a good question.
Michelle, I would say I'm pretty good at it.
I usually try not to make us like a snap judgment decision.
Right. I try to take time to think it over in the background.
Right. And in the foreground, I'll take like conscious time to think through it and then also let it simmer as I'm doing other things.
What about you, Michelle?
I'm not so great. Do you, do you like when you, um, do you tend to, Dan always jokes that I pull everybody about my decision.
Do you ask other people?
Oh yeah. I'm, I'm someone that processes things out loud.
I don't really internally process things.
I need to talk through it.
I need to get other people's, uh, take on things, their perspective.
And then it doesn't mean I'll do what they say, but it means I'll consider it.
Right. Yeah. Some people don't want to hear what what other people think.
And if you start to tell them, then they get a little bit upset, you know, but I am definitely, I don't get upset with, you know, I'm happy to hear what other people think and their opinions.
Um, but yeah, definitely.
I'm the big poll taker.
I love it. So today we're going to answer a listener question that is going to be useful for business and life.
I love it when we get these episodes that are great at work work and outside of work in our daily lives, Michelle.
Yeah, this is huge.
This is a really good one.
This comes to us from YouTube from Hossain Soltani, 3242.
Would you like me to read the question?
Sure. Go for it, Michelle.
Let's do it. So, Hossain asks, Hello, thank you so much for your great podcasts.
I really enjoy listening to them.
Thank you so so much. Um, and then says, uh, anyway, is it possible to talk about the difference between option and choice?
Thanks. Wow. Good one.
Thank you for the question and for the nice feedback.
Really appreciate you listening.
And yeah, this is, we're going to tackle this one today, but before we do guys, we want to remind you to hit the follow button wherever you are listening to the business English podcast. Yes, guys hit follow.
So you don't miss a single episode.
episode we publish three episodes a week and you don't want to miss any of them so hit that follow button right now all right michelle i'm glad our listener asked this question because it is really good it is quite nuanced and when i think about this before seeing what we've researched here uh i i wouldn't know how to answer this question yeah no it is right you know we okay well the The the basically we kind of sometimes mix these up a little bit, but there are definite ways that divide them.
So an option is one of many possible things you can decide on.
Right. The choice is generally what you choose.
Right. So you choose from options.
So a choice is the result of deciding on options or the action of making the decision.
options um well what about choices then you have choices you have options wouldn't that be like similar right i mean that's the thing is a lot of times we say choices right like oh give me some choices but really if you think about it lindsey a choice is the decision right right or maybe it's both it's like it could be right yeah kind of like two meanings right right exactly yeah we do kind use it in this overlapping way.
Let's do some examples.
Okay. Yes. So, let's start with options.
So, I would say that options are the easy ones, right?
Right. So, there are too many options.
I can't decide. And we could also say there are too many choices.
I can't decide, right?
That one could be interchangeable.
Yeah. Here are your options for the slides, black and green or or blue and red?
Or do you want to hear our options for layouts so you can decide?
Yeah. I mean, honestly, I think you could say all three of those with choice.
Hopefully, this is not busting our theory of the case here.
But it seems like to me, option is a little more formal.
Does it seem like to you, right?
Like, if we run choice through all these examples, here are your choices for the slides.
Do you want to hear our choices for I suppose here are options.
I feel like there's a level of formality and professionalism happening with options versus choice.
I don't know. Yeah.
I think that... Let me see.
There are too many options.
Yeah. I mean, I guess I see what you're saying.
But options to me, I don't know.
That That doesn't sound, that doesn't feel formal to me.
I don't know, just my options.
Okay, let's keep going and see what else we have when it comes to choice.
Yes, go for it, Michelle.
So I would say overall choice is more versatile, right?
So choice is the noun form of the verb to choose, right?
So you choose a choice, right, Lindsay?
You choose a choice.
That'll be a soundbite from today's episode.
You choose a choice.
So Lindsay, what's an example here?
it's time to make a choice.
Right. Where we have a tough choice to make.
So we wouldn't say it's time to make an option.
No, right, right, right, right.
The choices made from the options, right?
Yeah. So I mean, sometimes people do use choice.
This is goes back to what you were saying, Lindsay.
I mean, like, what are my choices?
Or what are my options?
And I'm, my dad always always jokes about, you know, my niece, she's, she's going to be nine and that she, once he'll say like, Oh, what, like, Oh, what are we going to eat?
And she'll say, what are my options?
Um, yeah. So, so of course, yeah, sometimes they're interchangeable, but I definitely wouldn't use option as a decision.
Option is only one of the possibilities.
Yeah. Yeah. I think a choice is definitely more versatile.
Right. Because you would never, so we've just given the example, we have a tough choice to make.
Like you said, we would never say we have a tough option because it doesn't function as that meaning.
Right. Exactly. It only functions as one of many things that we are going to make a choice on.
Right. Yeah. I love that.
Okay. That's clear.
I think. Yeah. Yeah.
So we're going to go over a little more in just a second.
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So what are some contexts where we can expect to hear this?
Because a big part of getting ready for English for our listeners is preparing to listen, preparing to hear something, right?
Exactly. So what we're going to do is we're going to go over some common ways that you might hear it.
So we're going to start with choice this time.
So one thing that you might hear pretty commonly is, what choice do I have?
Or I had no choice, right, Lindsay?
Yeah, when there's something that you just don't want to do or have to do, but you must do it, right?
It's required. You had no choice.
I know I should have said yes, but I felt like I had no choice.
Right, right, right.
So sometimes, yeah, you feel, do you ever have somebody ask you to to do something and you know there there is really no real choice here right you have no choice but it's just a formality of being asked sure yes absolutely depending on your relationship with that person or the context for sure you had no choice so that is a chunk that our listeners should be ready to hear right right right right um or or here's another one it's a blank choice choice.
So you put an adjective there.
So, Ooh, that's a tough choice.
You wouldn't say that's a tough option here.
You're emphasizing the actual decision that needs to be made.
Right. The many options.
Does that make sense?
Yep. Totally. Not a potential solution, not a potential set of choices.
You're saying this is a decision that you have to make.
I love it. Okay. Yeah.
Yes. Now let's go over to options.
Some of the common ways that you're going to hear this being used.
Lindsay, what's the first one?
Let's explore all our options.
Okay. So for example, let's explore all our options before we make a final decision.
Exploring your options.
Maybe what kind of context would you hear that in, Michelle?
Maybe moving, deciding on a neighborhood.
True. Could be that.
Or I mean, for the workplace, maybe you're shopping around to get quotes notes on something for you know maybe office supplies or anything that it could be you're trying to make some decisions and so you're getting you're collecting information um yeah but you wouldn't say explore i don't know i wouldn't say explore explore all our choices because i feel in this situation it's more about the chunk right yes yeah this is definitely a chunk.
This is a chunk. Yes.
We're exploring our options.
Let's explore our options.
Yeah, we don't say explore our choices.
It just doesn't work that way.
But here's our choices, right?
They are like, if you're saying it differently, you could say, oh, these are the choices we have. We could do that.
We could do that. Right.
They are choices. Yes, exactly.
Or here we go. Keep my options open.
So this is another huge chunk.
You wouldn't say keep my choices open.
It would would sound strange.
Exactly. So what does that mean to keep your options open?
Don't burn your bridges, right?
So I love that expression too.
Maybe you're interviewing and maybe you, you know, I don't know, maybe you didn't get hired for a job, but you want to maintain a relationship with the hiring manager.
So next year when another position opens, maybe they think of you, right?
So for example, I felt like the interview went well, but let's keep our options open and and see the other applicants okay this example is from the other side right right right so or i hear like i feel like we hear this a lot with dating you ever hear this oh yeah yeah keep your options open there's many fish in the sea right right you might hear like a grandparent or an aunt telling that to the kid right uh when they're dating in the dating world right right i think think maybe there's an argument to be made that online dating leads to that mentality oh yeah there's so many other fish in the sea i
could just swipe left or right or i don't know what way yeah do you know which way you is the swiping way i don't know um but yeah exactly there's so many options um now because of online dating so yeah definitely different or what's one more chunk that you hear a lot and another yeah exhaust our options so this is when we've gone through everything that is a possibility and there are no more possibilities you know we've exhausted our options yeah so this is huge so i mean this is good for connection you know just talking about different choices or that need to be made so again when just to give
a little bit more context again the choice can be the final thing, right?
The result of the options.
But also a lot of times we use it to talk about options as well.
However, option is not used to talk about a result.
Option is only the possibilities, right?
It's not the end game, whereas choice is a little little bit more versatile and you will hear it used many, you know, in different ways.
Yeah, I love that, Michelle.
That's a good summary.
And then the other piece is there are chunks.
There are chunks where you can't interchange choice and options.
So sometimes you can, sometimes you can't.
Let's go through a role play, Michelle, and see this in action.
Okay. Okay. So here we are hiring managers and we are going through our list of applicants.
applicants all right here we go okay so we have a tough choice to make yes let's review our options okay so there's applicant 222 applicant 451 and applicant 472 do you think we should keep our options open and keep interviewing honestly we've exhausted our options i know i i know it's a lot i I feel like we have no choice.
We just have to pick at this point.
Yeah. We have some good options.
We can find someone.
Difficult. Yeah. That's a hard thing for companies when they've, maybe they don't love all of the options, but it's exhausting to keep interviewing, right?
Maybe someone could grow into a role, that kind of thing.
right right right right exactly um so you said we have a tough choice to make right so the choice is that end goal that's being made from the options in this decision here right the decision we have a tough decision to make could go in there instead too right you could have said decision as well yeah but not option we can't say we have a tough option to make because again option is not not the, the moment of making the choice, right?
Yeah. It's the many possibilities, right?
Right. It's not the end goal.
It's not what we decide in the end.
So, and then what did I say?
Let's review our options.
And again, these, you could also say, let's review our choices, I suppose.
However, this feels good professionally.
I think this is where the formality comes in.
we're talking we're thinking about candidates let's review our choices I guess I don't know if I would use choices when it comes to candidates though because there's something about choices that makes it a little bit commodified and we're talking about candidates people here right right yeah I think options would be the best here I do still think that in general choices feels to me like the end game.
Um, but I know that people use it, Oh, here are our choices and here, you know, the things to decide to choose from.
Um, but sometimes I feel that options sounds, uh, more natural.
I don't know. Sure.
Yeah. I like that. I like that.
What's the next one, Michelle?
What did we say? Okay.
And then I use a chunk.
Do you think we should keep our options open and keep interviewing?
Okay. So again, this is a chunk.
We wouldn't say they keep our choices open.
This is a chunk. That's a chunk.
Very important. And then I said, honestly, we've exhausted our options.
This is another chunk.
Okay. We've talked to everyone.
We've interviewed maybe like a hundred people.
We, uh, there's no more options.
Okay. This is it. Yeah.
Um, and then I kinda, I guess I, you know, I'm like, all right, fine.
Lindsay, you're right.
Right. And I say, I feel like we have no choice.
Right. I'm saying, you know, there, there is no good decision to be made when none of these are good, but I guess I'm pretty tough here.
Yeah. You're pretty tough.
High standards. Right.
And then I said, yeah, we have some good options.
We can find someone.
And just to be more specific, I might say, we can find someone from this pool of options or from this group, right?
From these three, basically from these three choices.
Okay. It is a really good question because when you dig in, you think, wow, there are some ways we could interchange option and choice and there's some ways we really can't, right?
Yeah. So, I mean, I'm just looking at this one.
Yeah, we have some good options here at the end.
Could we have said we have some good choices?
That would sound I think, yeah, I think you could get away with that.
I think, I do think what I said earlier, when you're talking about like longer term decisions and maybe you're talking about hiring someone, if you, okay, you go to McDonald's, you have choices for lunch. You can get a Mc, whatever, McFlurry, McBurger, Mcwhatever, right?
Those are choices because it's kind of a commodity.
It's just what you're going to eat for lunch. But when it comes to selecting someone you're going to work with, it becomes a little more formal, a little more drawn out of a path and get like there'll be repercussions based on who you choose.
So that's why I might elevate my language.
There is an aspect of elevated English with options, I think, elevated or slightly more formal.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.
Because you're at McDonald's here, your choices.
Right. Yeah, totally.
Totally. Or, you know, when you go on a trip, sometimes in the itinerary, people can, you know, it's your it's your choice of what to do.
They might say that, you know, this afternoon is your choice.
You can get off the boat on like on a cruise or you can stay on the boat and have lunch. I don't know.
Right. And but there in that context, it is more if you say it's your choice, it's still kind of it's the decision.
It's the result of the choosing.
Tricky. Special note to our listeners.
If this is still unclear, send us a follow up question and we'll we'll attack this from a different angle.
That'd be a nice challenge for us, Michelle.
Yeah, we you know, I mean, to me, this is what it comes down to.
You know, I think the most important thing, if you are unclear, the most important thing to realize is that the option the word option is only for possibilities.
possibilities okay yes choice is a little bit more murky it can kind of go and you know maybe technically it is oh the decision but we don't always use it like that right so remember that options are possibilities they're not going to be the end goal and then also really try and work with these chunks um to to really see how it would be used so um yeah i mean this was definitely a a great question, a tough one, a very nuanced question.
But, you know, we gave you some guidelines today for how you can get started with it.
Excellent. Good one, Michelle.
I love it. And guys, go check out episode 431 of Business English.
That is hot takes and unpopular stances.
Excited about that one.
Yes, yes, exactly. All right, Lindsay.
Well, this was a fun episode.
Thank you to our listener for that question.
And guys, don't stress out about this.
Remember the the most important pieces that we told you and go with the chunks.
All right. All right.
Sounds good, Michelle.
We'll talk to you very soon.
Have a good day. Bye.
Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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