Learn phrases and verbs related to communication. To butt in. To butt out. To make eye contact. To bicker. To gossip. Useful vocabulary that will help you describe communication in English. Plenty of examples.
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Speak better English with Harry - Episode 341
communicating vocabulary
Harry
phrases and verbs related to communication
Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to another podcast episode where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the use of English. I help you to improve your vocabulary, the use of expressions, phrasal verbs, small talk phrases in English. If you enjoy this and you want to share it with a colleague or a friend, please give them the details.
What are we going to talk about?
In this lesson, we’re going to talk about communication. And in particular, we’re going to talk about vocabulary about communicating.
Phrases and verbs related to communication. Some of the expressions we’re going to use now are going to be a mix between the verbal and the nonverbal.
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First,
to make eye contact
Meaning: to try and communicate with them without using words
As I said, some ways of communicating are verbal, and others are nonverbal. So to make eye contact is a non-verbal way of communicating. We can use our eyes to tell somebody exactly what we want. We can indicate with our eyes looking left, looking right, or we raise our eyes to heaven.
We are telling somebody perhaps that we don’t believe what we’re hearing, or we’re a little bit shocked when we open our eyes wide.
Example:
She slowly raised her eyes and made eye contact with me.
Next
to come into contact with
When we come into contact with somebody, we do it by meeting them face to face, in the reception area, in an elevator, in the street, in a coffee house, wherever it might be. We come into contact with people every day of our lives.
We can come into contact with other things, not just people. We can come into contact with, unfortunately, the virus. So we have to be very careful now washing hands, wearing face masks.
Or you could just simply meet your friends in the coffee shop and you say,
-Ah, you never guess who I met last week.
-We haven’t seen him for ages. How did you come into contact with him?
The doctor may ask you when he’s examining you,
I’m not sure how you came into contact with that. Tell me where you’ve been.
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Next, we have the verb
to gossip
Meaning: to talk to other people about something that you’ve heard, maybe relating to some other person who’s not with you at the time or something that will be of interest to them
Example:
It’s hard to believe, but men are more likely to gossip about celebrities.
We also have a noun
gossip
Meaning: a casual conversation about the personal or private affairs of others
Example:
Well, what’s the gossip? What are they doing? Who met who first? Who asked who out first?
phrases and verbs related to communication
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Next
to butt in
Meaning: to interrupt
Example:
Do you mind if I butt in here?
So you can butt in very carefully and very considerately and very politely.
We can also use it in the context where your interruption is not really required or not welcomed. So somebody might say,
Please don’t butt in. I don’t need your help. Please don’t.
Or parents might be having a discussion, and the children are trying to ask something,
Please don’t butt in. I’m trying to have a conversation with your mother.
The Americans have another expression, which is
to butt out
When they don’t want you to be there, or they don’t want you as part of the conversation. They say,
Look, just butt out.
Meaning go away and leave us alone.
to overhear
Meaning: to hear something when we are not intending on listening to a conversation
It’s not a deliberate act, but either the people don’t know that you are connected, or they don’t know that they’re speaking perhaps a little more loudly than they should, and you overhear the conversation.
You’ll never guess what I overheard when I was having lunch.
I overheard something really quite strange when I was sitting in the cafe, waiting for Michael to join me.
phrases and verbs related to communication
to have a row
Meaning: to have a deep argument with someone, usually with some shouting, some screaming, some raised voices
Example:
There was a lot of shouting from downstairs. Adam’s parents were having a row.
The next one we have is
to witter
This is quite an old-fashioned word. You don’t hear it so much.
Meaning: to talk and talk without any real sense of purpose
Example:
She always witters about the old times; everybody’s heard the story a hundred times.
Your aunt Mary always witters once she’s had a glass of wine. There’s no stopping her.
to grumble
Meaning: to be annoyed or angry about something and mutter in discontent
The big ogre in some of these fairy tales grumbles.
Example:
At the beginning of the pandemic, many people grumbled about wearing face masks.
They used to grumble when they had that job because the pay was so poor.
phrases and verbs related to communication
to bicker
Meaning: to argue or fight about things that are not important
Example:
Children used to bicker about who got the window seat.
Bicker is what children do.
The last one is
to chat up
Meaning: to try to start an informal conversation with someone, especially if they are interested in them physically
That girl looks quite attractive. Why don’t you go and chat her up?
You never guess what happened to me. Somebody started chatting me up when I was sitting in the bar.
So these are all phrases and verbs related to communication. Let me give them to you one more time,
- to make eye contact (with)
- to come into contact with something
- to gossip
- gossip
- to butt in
- to butt out
- to have a row
- to overhear
- to witter
- to grumble
- to bicker
- to chat up
Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed this particular podcast episode.
If you want to contact me, you can do so on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.
Very, very happy to hear from you. If you or any of your colleagues, friends or family would like one-to-one online English lessons, please, contact us. As always, thanks for listening. Join me again soon.
More information
For more information on English grammar rules, English collocations and English idioms, check out the links below:
English collocations with SPEAK
English idioms related to DREAMS
You can always study English advanced level at Learning English with the BBC.
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