This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 450, How to Use Verses and Whereas in Professional English.
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Find your current English level with our five-minute quiz at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. hey there michelle how are you today hey i'm good lindsay how are you good glad to be recording on business english but michelle i have an important question to start off our day you ready okay all right all right so who do you think would win in a singing competition between you and your partner oh if i was having a singing competition versus dan um i would win Okay, yeah.
He would win in a lot of other things. But I think I'm better in singing, whereas he is actually better in art with his hands.
So he would win in kind of a painting competition, and I would not even be allowed in the competition.
But singing, I think I would take that one.
You would take the cake. You would take the cake.
Love it. We all have to have our talents, right?
Exactly. Exactly. So, Lindsay, I was using a couple words there that. that we are going to really be focusing on today.
Lindsay, did you hear what they were? I did.
I heard the word versus in there. We're getting into some building blocks of English when it comes to... When our listeners are getting into the B2C1 level, we need to be able to articulate words like versus and whereas.
Yes. Yes. So... Yeah, why is this important, Lindsay?
I believe this idea was from you. Yeah, this might have come from an open conversation club.
So when you join one of our courses, you are invited automatically to our bonus speaking opportunities like open conversation club, where we come together, we speak as a group.
And I think I might have heard someone use these words.
And, you know, often I will correct students when they make mistakes.
So we clear up any grammatical mistakes, but it's basically where we're comparing things.
We're comparing a few different things, right?
Concepts, ideas, concepts, results, right?
Whatever it may be. So we're going to go through whereas and versus today.
Should we start with whereas? Yeah, let's start with whereas.
So what is this all about, Michelle? Tell us.
Okay, so whereas is a subordinating conjunction.
Okay, so that means it's contrasting in between two clauses.
Okay, so for example, our profits for December were really high, whereas May's were disappointing, right?
So we're contrasting two ideas, December and May.
So and we have two different clauses that's connected by whereas.
Yep. And the other reason why we like to build this skill for our business listeners that we want to use more complex sentences we want to articulate come we don't just want to use complex sentences we have complex ideas yeah it's not that we want to use them is that we need to articulate what we know right right right right right and what about the second example yeah my strengths lie in social media whereas Marcy is better when it comes to sales yeah these are complex points and profound ideas, right?
And that goes back to what I said in the beginning about Dan, like my strengths versus Dan.
So I said, oh, I would win. And I'm more strong, more musically inclined, whereas Dan is better with, you know, like art with his hands.
It's very important because you're not just going to say, oh, I'm better at music, period.
You're going to highlight some of the strengths, right?
Exactly. Yeah. So it's a really good tool for that as well.
And it can also be used to start a sentence.
Lindsay, do you ever hear it like that? Sure.
Here we go. Here's what that would sound like.
Whereas my team is almost done with the report.
Stacey is Stacey's. is still a bit behind so we do we mean stacy's team right steam team is still a bit behind stacy always underperforming stacy um um it also to me is a little bit more formal sounding um like so this is really good for writing um it can be conversational as well for sure but a little elevated it's good for meetings legal situations things like that um and sure anything else you want to point out for this one before we move into i do yeah i think it's good that we're highlighting that we can start a sentence with whereas i think it is a bit more formal a bit more up level more rare we would hear it a little less often usually we see whereas in the middle of the sentence but it's good to know that we can put it in there it sounds very high level yeah Yes, I agree.
I like it too. So let's move on to versus.
So versus, that's a preposition. And it shows contrast between nouns.
So things like ideas. So Lindsay, could you do an example for us?
So it's our company versus the company across the street.
One of us will win the account. Yes. yeah so anytime we're talking about a matchup right you know the world cup you know brazil versus france right um yeah this also expresses complex ideas different sides of the idea of the competition right right right right exactly so this is just one way we're highlighting it but we're going to get more into it but yeah definitely when you think of two teams competing um against each other you would use versus where whereas whereas oh michelle I love when that happens so it goes that just there goes to show you how common this is and how it is really conversational so the versus is used for more competition whereas whereas isn't really about that it's not really competitive it's not one versus the other right Right.
Totally. Exactly. Right. We would never say it's Brazil, whereas France.
No. Right. So but you would say our company's softball game is tonight.
It's us versus the dragons. Excellent. Very common with sports and competition.
Love it. So good. And I think that's probably the one our listeners are most familiar with, Michelle.
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OK, we are back to dig further into this.
So we know that versus is probably a bit more conversational, wouldn't you say?
Yes, exactly. So since versus is, you know, a little more common, we just sounds a little more go team go.
There are a lot more idioms and other uses with it. um and we're gonna share some of those as well so this is good for legal cases right you you might hear yeah brown versus the board of education oh brown yeah and and sometimes versus the state right yeah and an important note here for our listeners if you are into supreme court rulings which have all come out at the end of june often what you hear is brown v board of ed exactly for the big big cases that we all know that our landmark decisions have changed our lives it's usually v right?
Which means versus. Okay. That's how you're going to hear it.
Yeah. Right. And yeah, that's, and so Lindsay, when you see it written out, I mean, yeah, people don't always write out versus first of all, how do you spell versus the whole word?
Okay. Yeah. Spelling V E R S U S. All right.
But the way people normally write it is just a lowercase V lowercase S period.
Or sometimes just V I've seen, you know, I've seen both.
Um, yeah. Yeah. But if you're writing, you know, an official like in the Supreme Court papers, I'm assuming.
Well, actually, I don't know how they write.
It's a good question. Legal jargon is a little different.
But but if you're writing a letter to someone or a report, you probably write out V.R.S.U.S.
Don't you think? probably i would think but yeah yeah who who knows really um right yeah but i mean just in general you will see it not written out v like okay if you're gonna see for um a sport right i don't think they would spell out versus no right it would be v or vs Because it's going to be on a TV commercial or on a big billboard or something.
Right. Right. Yeah. Right. Right. Right.
Right. Exactly. Or here's another one. This is very common.
You might hear the battle of good versus evil.
Right. Yeah. And the interesting thing is with with this with these sayings, we wouldn't say V. It's really just kind of true cases where we hear the V. Isn't it?
Yeah. That is really interesting. Yeah. You don't even you don't even say. say v for the sports or you would think that that would be the legs formal so but you know you're not going to say like the knicks v pace no we don't do that it's just reserved for a big supreme court decision that's really interesting i don't know what that's about but anyways good to know Good to know.
Yeah. But so you might hear something like in the battle of good versus evil, good will always prevail.
I'm thinking of a movie trailer, right? Sure.
Of course. Or us versus them. I mean, this is used to describe a mentality, right?
The us versus them mentality. When we talk about human psychology, our politics right now.
So we could say this, their us versus them mentality often means they isolate themselves from potential business partnerships.
Right. Yeah, really interesting. So also, sometimes you can see verses going where whereas is you just have to change up the grammar a little bit, but it is pretty conversational and people do it.
So, for example, we're going to give you two two different ways that you could hear it. sarah loves her job whereas don struggles with his right or saying the same thing we could say this sarah loves her job versus don who struggles with his now michelle don't you think that uh what matters here is pausing Quite a bit.
Yeah. You need to have that space. Yeah.
But so you can see that in this way they can be used in the same kind of way.
So we're not talking about Sarah and Don being in a competition on a wrestling match or something like that.
It's not just that it's connecting these ideas, saying one person does this, one person does that.
It doesn't have to be only in that sports competition way.
It can also be used to compare or contrast.
I mean, really to contrast, you know, larger concepts.
So they can in some ways be used in the same way.
It's the grammar. And like, I would say, I would say you can fit versus into whereas. easier than you could fit whereas into versus.
Did that just make sense? Yeah. Again, you can't see Lindsay whereas Michelle.
You're going to be in a competition for whatever.
I agree. For sure. You're saying that maybe versus is a little more versatile?
Versatile versus is more versatile. Yeah, I mean, I would say, listen, I'd have to I just I just started thinking about that in particular.
So I would have to think a little more deeply about it.
But in general, to me, it seems a little bit more versatile.
You could plug it in. I mean, I'm just looking at our above examples.
Let's see. OK, so my my strengths lie in social media, whereas Marcy's Marcy is better when it comes to sale.
I could say my strengths lie in social media versus Marcy's.
Whose strengths are better in social. So you could use it.
Yeah. And I want to do an important call out here, too, as we're talking about these complex sentences.
If you're taking the IELTS exam, this is one of the secrets to scoring a seven or higher when it comes to grammatical structures, grammar. the secret is the answer is not to go to the back of your textbook and memorize all the grammar structures past perfect no that is not the way that would take you years to understand those instead you add in these little strategies that do get you the high score we show you all of this over on the ielts energy podcast so open up your search bar type in ielts energy if you are taking the ielts anytime this is one of the strategies using complex sentences all right so And it also, of course, helps us articulate what we actually want to say, Michelle, right?
For sure. Definitely. I mean, would you say you use one or the other more or?
I would say, oh, that's a good question.
I mean, I think versus is more commonplace.
And as we said, it's more versatile. It's more everywhere.
It's around sports and competitions and things.
So I'd probably say versus. But I like whereas because it sounds high level.
It sounds smart, articulate. I would have said that I probably use versus more, but then remember I used whereas and I didn't even realize it.
So I'm wondering if I'm going around saying whereas all the time.
I don't know. The point is we're giving our listeners lots of options today.
That's what I love. That's what I love. So should we do a role play, Michelle?
Go into a quick role play here? Let's do it.
So here we are, coworkers going over a presentation.
Okay. All right. Here we go. Yes. okay so this slide looks great whereas this one needs some work i see what you're saying well what do you think about the blue versus the green for the background hmm i like blue it shows a peacefulness whereas the green seems a little more neon and loud to me that's true hey are you going to the team olympics today yes i can't wait marketing versus finance that should be fun definitely oh it sounds like an adult field day or something yeah yeah well a lot of companies have uh softball teams or things like that yeah you put different departments against each other to see who's more athletic that's fine i wish we could do that we can't unfortunately uh but anyways all right so let's go through this role play michelle here so first you said okay so this slide looks great whereas this one needs some work so a very important business skill comparing one slide to the other articulating what we need to keep working on right and then you said well what do you think about the blue about blue versus green for the background right so it were one against the other you couldn't say about blue whereas green right we're just talking about two options here no but here's whereas in here so it says you said i like the blue it shows a peacefulness whereas the green seems a little more neon and loud so you are comparing the blue is peaceful whereas the green seems loud okay yes exactly and then we switch over to talking about this olympics and i say uh marketing versus finance that should be fun yes exactly i love it So we just we want to look at the grammar here and understand that the construction is different.
Right. When we can use versus versus whereas versus versus whereas.
But you do most sentences often outside of the sports and the competition can be both can be used.
Right. So it's just a matter of making sure we're constructing the sentence correctly.
All right. Yes, exactly. All right. So don't.
I hope this doesn't make you feel like you're in a tough spot and we broke it down for you.
But if you want to know more about tough spots, episode 442 we did, are you in a tough spot at work?
How to communicate it. So listen over to that.
And I think that's really, yeah, go ahead, Michelle.
You had an idea. Go for it. No, no, no. I just said, I was going to ask if you had anything you wanted to say before we got off.
Yeah, I mean, I think that's it. Our listeners are high level B2C1 professionals.
You all have great business ideas, but it's how to put it into words is where you may feel misunderstood at different times, right?
And maybe you feel like people don't know your true expertise.
So this is one tool versus and whereas to start to show your true expertise, the complexity of your thoughts, okay?
Exactly, exactly. Yeah, really good stuff.
This was fun. Thanks for this idea, Lindsay.
I think we cleared it up today. We did. All right, Michelle, we'll see you very soon.
Have a good one. All right. Bye. You too.
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