This is the Business English Podcast, episode 533.
How to show hesitation with I suppose and I guess.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
I'm feeling pretty good today, Aubrey.
Yeah, what about you?
How are you feeling?
Yes, I'm great.
I have a question.
What is your favorite band?
Ooh, that's tough.
I guess Creedence Clearwater is still my favorite.
Nobody can take over Creedence Clearwater.
It has been.
It's been my favorite for a long time.
I do like Creedence Clearwater.
It reminds me of my dad.
I know I've said this before.
Me too. that's so funny.
Something about like men born in the fifties and the forties or something.
Love that band.
I, he, my dad also introduced that band to me.
So that's kind of fun.
Yeah.
I love that.
I love that you said, I guess, cause we are talking about, I guess and I suppose today, and the different ways that we use these, and we use them a lot at work.
Yes.
So we got a great question from a YouTube follower.
Um, the name is Oh five J seven.
Um, And the question is very straightforward.
What about I guess and I suppose?
So we love those direct questions.
Absolutely.
Right.
I can see them hearing both.
Like, OK, what's the difference?
When do we use these?
But I kind of love this.
Like, I'm just going to throw it out there.
Exactly.
Guys, if you don't know that we have a whole other podcast, well, we have two other podcasts.
We have All Ears English.
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Absolutely.
But especially if you work in English, that podcast will be so helpful as well, because often, when I'm planning all your English episodes, I'll be thinking like, oh man, everyone who listens to Business English also needs all of this vocabulary, right?
I know.
It's hard sometimes to choose where an episode should be featured, right?
Because We want everyone in our entire audience to hear all the episodes.
And we have to subscribe to all the shows.
That are on both.
Or we'll ask questions that are probably sent in by All Ears English listeners on Business English or vice versa.
So we've got to be hearing both.
Yeah, that's the tricky part.
Sometimes if you send us a question, if you're a listener of All Ears English, we may feature it over on Business English sometimes, if it fits better in that context.
So subscribe to both.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
All right.
Where do we go from here then?
So the question was very direct.
Well, these are very similar.
It's a very slight nuance, right?
I guess is slightly more informal and casual.
It often sort of shows a hunch or a lack of strong information.
And then, I suppose, is ever so slightly more formal sort of polite or resigned implies, you know, a careful conclusion or reluctant acceptance based on some reasoning.
But it is quite slight.
They're often used very interchangeably.
Yep.
And I would agree.
It's slightly more formal, slightly less common, I would say, I guess is everywhere, right?
Yes.
Yeah.
I suppose it's a little more rare, for sure, but they both are used in two different ways.
The same two different ways agreeing with reservation, and The other way is expressing reservation about a statement.
Someone is making a statement being made.
So we're going to talk about both of those and give examples for how we use both.
Got it.
So let's start with the first example where you're agreeing, but you're showing reservations.
Right?
Exactly.
It implies that either you don't really agree or are very hesitant for some reason, right?
So first let's do a little mini role play to show how this would look with I guess, because we're often using it as a response to what someone else said.
All right, here we go.
So should we send the proposal today?
I guess.
It's probably ready.
You don't sound convinced.
Yeah, it could probably use some work still if we have time.
Yeah, so...
You've given me some cues, right, which are really important.
It's important information because now we're going to go and work on the proposal a bit more.
Yeah, this is interesting because often we do want to be just like upfront, more direct, like I don't think it's ready.
But sometimes we feel for some reason like we can't, right?
And so we might be like, I guess, or I guess so.
But then the other person's recognizing like okay, if you're saying I guess there's definitely hesitation there.
But I agree with what you're saying, Aubrey.
Most of the time you're going to want to say what you think, right?
It would save time, right?
This conversation would be shorter if you just said, no, it's not ready.
Yeah, and I think coworkers will start to get annoyed with you if you're always saying yeah, I guess I suppose
Just say what you think, right?
It's not ready.
So say that, right?
But today we're talking about these two phrases and how they work.
So let's do another mini role play, Aubrey.
Yes, this is for I suppose.
I'll start us out.
Do you think we should loop the finance team in now?
I suppose.
They'll need the numbers sooner or later.
Sounds like you're unsure.
Yeah, but I think you're right that we should give them a heads up.
Yeah, and we do use this vocabulary this way sometimes, because when we're having a conversation with a coworker, we often don't really know what we think about something right?
We're sort of talking it out.
Like, let's talk this back and forth.
We might say, I guess, I suppose, and figure it out as we go.
Now that's a really good point.
So you might start off by saying, I suppose, and then, through the conversation of talking to each other, you decide no or yes, right?
Exactly.
Either you get convinced or you get convinced one way or the other.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's kind of like a temporary answer in some ways.
I mean, I'm a person that thinks out loud.
Like I like to talk through things, right?
I mean, we're verbal people here, Aubrey, right?
We're language teachers.
It makes sense.
It's so true.
You might say like, I suppose that could work.
And then I'm going to like give the pros and cons and talk it out and then we'll decide.
Yes, you got it.
Okay.
So we talked about that being the first bucket being what we just said, agreeing with reservation.
Then there's another bucket which is expressing reservation's.
Well, what is the tell us about the second bucket?
So expressing reservation about a statement you're making.
Okay.
So first with, I guess, again, we'll do a little mini role play.
I'll start us out.
Okay.
I guess we won't know until next quarter if our marketing strategy worked.
True.
I'm hopeful though.
Okay.
So we're just using it to.
I'm making a statement, but I'm sort of expressing reservation, because I could just say more confidently that We won't know until next quarter if our marketing strategy works.
And I add, I guess, with a little hesitation, a little uncertainty.
Yes, because we can't be certain about everything all the time, right?
Okay, I suppose.
Let's see what this looks like now.
All right, I'll start us again.
I suppose we should send the prototype to the client.
What do you think?
Do you think it's ready?
Yeah, I think so.
It would be good to get their feedback and then we can make any requested changes.
So we use these both very similarly just to express uncertainty, hesitation, reservation, right?
When we first say it, we're being collaborative.
We're letting the person we're talking to know, I'm not really sure.
I need your input.
Right, right.
Exactly.
So good to speak up in that moment, because maybe the person isn't sure about what they're saying.
As you just said Aubrey,
So say what you think, right?
Yeah.
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All right, role play time.
We've got a lot of mini role plays, but this is the final king of all role plays.
Right, exactly.
Here we go.
So what's the scenario here?
What are we doing?
We're at work.
We're coworkers.
We're talking about a product demo and when it should be scheduled.
Ooh, important stuff.
Here we go.
I suppose we should push the product demo to next week.
What do you think?
I guess.
The team still needs time to finalize the visuals.
I can tell you're frustrated.
I think we're both worried the client might lose momentum if we delay again.
You're right.
I guess we should check with them before we decide.
I suppose they might prefer for us to just make the decision.
It's a tough call.
You can see how this is quite common vocabulary, because often you don't have all the answers or you don't want to make it look like you have all the answers when you're collaborating.
When you do need input from someone else.
So we do?
We use this vocabulary to show that uncertainty, to show that we haven't decided yet or we don't feel like we have all the answers.
Exactly.
So I open it up by just making a statement right that I'm maybe I'm not sure about.
I suppose we should push the product demo to next week.
What do you think.
I'm going to ask you if I was sure about it I would just say.
We're going to push the product.
I think we really think we should.
We probably had a deadline this week, right?
And you're seeing something that indicates it's not going to be ready.
So you're sort of saying like, I suppose we should push it to next week.
And maybe I would then say, nope, I've got time.
I'm going to have it done this week.
You don't know.
So you're kind of giving that vocabulary to open it up to allow me to provide input.
Yeah.
But instead you said, I guess the team still needs to finalize the visuals, right?
Right.
And this is interesting.
As I said that, I felt like I would say, I guess so, in order to agree, right?
So it's interesting.
But I guess I did this intentionally.
Now that I think about it, because then you say I can tell you're frustrated.
So I probably would have been like, I guess.
So someone else is missing a deadline.
I'm frustrated about it, right?
I guess.
The team still needs to finalize the visuals.
Like someone, there's a bottleneck.
I'm being held up and I'm frustrated about it.
Yeah, interesting.
And then you said, you're right.
I guess we could check with them before we decide, right?
Making a suggestion here.
I suppose.
And you could say, I suppose so.
We'll often add that.
It's interesting.
We add the so to either I guess so or I suppose so to be sort of more encouraging.
I guess by itself, it's a little more like showing frustration often.
Yes, I guess.
Or I guess.
Yeah, 100 percent.
And I think just is a little bit of a liability with these words, too.
We need to be careful with I guess, especially I guess it's very casual.
Right.
And yeah, I think just don't like.
Know the right time to use it, I guess.
Oh, my gosh.
Here we go.
I guess.
Well, that's interesting because where you used it right there is perfect, because there's no implication of frustration.
Right.
Sometimes you're implying uncertainty, frustration, whatever it is you're implying.
If you don't want to imply that, you would probably use different language.
Yes, for sure.
So mix it up.
Be confident.
If you feel like you know the answer, state the answer, right?
But if you're ready to be collaborative and throw out an idea, this is a good tool to use, I guess, and I suppose
Right, Aubrey?
And there are these chunks that we use some of them with.
I often will say I suppose we'll never know, or I guess we'll never know as a response.
If someone's asking me something and This is funny when I'm playing volleyball, actually and the ball will like be about to hit the line and maybe it was going to go out, and someone goes for it and someone will be like that was out.
Someone else is like, that's in.
I'll be like, I guess we'll never know.
And that, like there are these chunks, we use that with especially, like you were saying, in everyday conversations where they're very interchangeable.
I suppose it's slightly more formal.
But when it comes to your conversations at work, that's when you do need to be more careful, because you don't want to imply something you don't mean.
Right.
You don't want to be seen as indifferent.
Right.
You don't want to be seen as unprepared.
So as long as you feel like those things aren't going to happen, it is OK to use this to collaborate.
Right.
And if you are certain, you wouldn't want to say this.
You don't want to show uncertainty all the time when, if you are certain, save time.
Be direct and be certain.
Right.
Yeah, for sure.
Maybe that's another episode for another day, how to show that you're certain but you don't have blind spots, that you think you know everything, either right?
Right.
That's kind of a fine line to walk to not be like the know-it-all who thinks they know everything and is not accepting input, but also not being uncertain all the time.
Yeah.
It can be kind of a red flag, I think, in a company if someone is just like very confident about what they're saying, because that to me i see that as have you really thought about this like, have you thought about all the other possibilities?
Right, it's a good point right yeah, yeah so.
So that's the other piece, so we'll get into this more on the show guys, make sure you're hitting follow on the show.
Um, what is that other episode aubrey, that our listeners could go check it out?
491.
Can you use the word guess at work?
We taught some amazing phrases, venture a guess, a wild guess that we do use in business English.
So go check that one out.
All right.
And that's a wrap for today.
Good stuff on the show today, Aubrey.
And we'll see you back here very soon.
All right.
Yeah.
See you next time.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
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