Linking Words to Tell Better Stories in English

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1. 0:00There's a simple way to tell better stories in English, whether you're telling your friend about your last vacation, explaining why yesterday was so stressful,
2. 0:10or describing to your team how you handled a similar problem at work last year. And all of this starts with just a few extra words, some linking words and phrases.
3. 0:23These are words like then or phrases such as as it turns out.
4. 0:28These words and phrases help us to connect different parts of our story, making it easier for your listener to follow what happened and when.
5. 0:38Let me show you exactly what I mean, and I'm gonna use a story of what happened recently.
6. 0:43I just had one of those total and super annoying panic moments while I was running errands a few days ago.
7. 0:51I had gone grocery shopping and put everything in the car and then stopped at the dry cleaners to pick up a few things.
8. 0:58And when I reached into my purse to pay, my wallet wasn't there.
9. 1:03I had that immediate, oh my gosh, total panic moment, my driver's license, my debit cards, everything was in that wallet. And I had no idea where it went.
10. 1:13I knew I had just used it at the grocery store.
11. 1:17So I raced back to the grocery store, asked the cashier if I'd left it, checked the service desk, and spent 20 or 30 minutes wandering around the parking lot,
12. 1:29searching through my car, and nothing.
13. 1:32I think I spent more than an hour trying to figure out what had gone wrong or where I had left it. Eventually, I gave up and went home.
14. 1:43I brought all the groceries into my kitchen, started unpacking and putting everything away, and that's when I saw it.
15. 1:50My wallet was right there in one of those grocery bags. As it turned out, it was with me the entire time, and I still have no idea,
16. 2:00no memory of putting it in there. All right, so there are three phrases in that story I want you to notice, specifically the words eventually, that's when, and as it turned out.
17. 2:12Each of these is a linking word or phrase that had a specific purpose.
18. 2:18One of them allowed me to show you that the search was over, another drew attention to the moment I found my wallet, and the final one introduced a kind of surprise.
19. 2:29Phrases like this give your listeners signals, so they can easily follow you through the story.
20. 2:36And once you become familiar with just a few linking word examples, they become so much easier to use in the moment,
21. 2:45helping you move from one part of your story to the next without having to think so hard about how to connect everything. In a recent lesson,
22. 2:54I shared the past tense verbs that we often use in storytelling, and.
23. 2:59We looked at how verb tenses help your listener understand when events happen. Today, I want to build on that skill and show you how you can guide your listener
24. 3:10through those events using linking words and phrases. Now, you've already heard how my story of losing my wallet ended,
25. 3:19but I wanna go back to the beginning before I realized that my wallet was missing, and I want to look at a few natural ways that we can set the scene
26. 3:30of a story using linking words.
27. 3:32So let's start with it all started when.
28. 3:36If I were telling you my story from the very beginning, I could say it all started when I stopped at the grocery store while I was running errands. I paid for my groceries, put everything in the car,
29. 3:48and headed to the dry cleaners.
30. 3:49That first phrase gives you a clear starting point, and your listener knows exactly where the story begins. Now,
31. 3:57another useful way to begin is to tell your listener when it happened.
32. 4:02So you might start with that morning, that afternoon, or that evening.
33. 4:07For my story, I don't remember exactly when it happened, maybe midday.
34. 4:12It doesn't really matter. So instead, I could say, "That day.
35. 4:17That day, I had a bunch of errands to run, I started at the grocery store, and then went to the dry cleaner." These phrases are particularly useful
36. 4:26when the time of day helps your listener to imagine the situation. And there's one more that I want to include here,
37. 4:35the words at first. This one works a little differently.
38. 4:39We often use it to describe how things were at the beginning, particularly when something changes later. For example, at first,
39. 4:48everything seemed fine. I'd paid for my groceries, put everything in the car, and headed to the dry cleaners. But when I reached into my purse,
40. 4:57my wallet was gone. Those words, at first, prepare your listener for a change. They tell your listener that, "Okay,
41. 5:06yeah, things began one way, but they didn't stay that way.
42. 5:11Something happened." Now, with all of this, there's one very important thing I want you to know right now.
43. 5:17You don't need to use all of these expressions at the beginning of your story.
44. 5:22You just want to choose the one that fits most naturally into the story that you want to tell.
45. 5:28So before we move on to the next list of linking words and phrases, think about a story you might want to tell someone.
46. 5:36Maybe you had one of those mornings where everything seemed to go wrong.
47. 5:41The kids were running late for school, you couldn't find your keys, and you had somewhere you absolutely needed to be.
48. 5:48Or maybe you've got a team meeting today, and you know that you want to make a recommendation in that meeting, and it's based on an experience that you had last year,
49. 5:58and you want to tell the story of that experience.
50. 6:02How would you start one of those stories? Again, review what we've discussed here and choose one to help you begin.
51. 6:10And I wanna challenge you to go one step further.
52. 6:14Don't just think about it. I want you to do something more.
53. 6:18I want you to actually practice saying it out loud. Do it multiple times, and I really do mean say it out loud.
54. 6:26Learning language is one thing.
55. 6:28Learning new words and phrases is certainly helpful.
56. 6:32But if you don't practice saying it out loud, that information just stays right here.
57. 6:37I want you to get comfortable expressing new words, putting words together in a sentence, and hearing yourself say them.
58. 6:44That practice of saying things aloud and getting comfortable with them is important to your overall English fluency and confidence.
59. 6:53And I know that from more than 20 years of teaching adults all over the world, and as a language learner myself. Now, not only am I a language learner,
60. 7:04but I'm super introverted and I love having the opportunity to think in advance or prepare everything I want to say, but that's not how conversations work.
61. 7:16We don't often have the luxury of preparing everything in advance.
62. 7:22So if you want your words and structures in English to feel more natural and to come easier while you're speaking, that practice is essential.
63. 7:33It's why I put so much emphasis on practical language and speaking practice in everything I do at Speak Confident English. Now,
64. 7:42if you want to know more about how you can implement those strategies, I recommend starting with my free training called How to Get the Confidence to Say What You Want in English.
65. 7:54You can get all of that and so much more at my Speak Confident English website.
66. 7:58I'll make sure to leave a link in the notes below. But for now, let's get back to storytelling. You've given your listener a starting point.
67. 8:06So what happened next? Now, there's one word that you're already using in English to go from one event to
68. 8:13the next in your story. You're already using the word then. For example, in my story, I shared that I paid for the groceries, put everything in the car,
69. 8:23and then stopped at the dry cleaners. So now let's build onto that.
70. 8:28Let's expand your vocabulary for how to easily move from one event to the next. Another option is after that.
71. 8:37These two expressions, then and after that, often work in the same situations, so you can choose whichever sounds the most natural in your story or whatever
72. 8:47word you think of at the time. For example, after that, I went straight back to the store to see if I had left my wallet there. Now, of course,
73. 8:57sometimes you may want to add a little more detail about that period of time between two events,
74. 9:05and that's where you could use a little later or shortly after that.
75. 9:10For example, I asked the cashier if she'd seen my wallet, but she hadn't.
76. 9:15And a little while later, I was wandering around the parking lot looking for it.
77. 9:20The purpose of those words a little later is simply to tell your listener that some amount of time passed.
78. 9:27It's not really important what I did during that time.
79. 9:30I just want you to know that it was at a later moment.
80. 9:33It wasn't just one thing and then immediately another. Now, once again, just like with all linking words and phrases, you don't need to use a new one for every next event.
81. 9:45We just use a few here and there to help move our listener through the story with us. So before we continue, I want you to go back to the story you started to think about just a few moments
82. 9:57ago. You've got your beginning, and then what happened next?
83. 10:02Which one of these linking words or phrases could you use to help you make that transition in your story? Once you've got that in place, it's time to think about something else.
84. 10:14Sometimes something happens that totally changes direction or is completely unexpected.
85. 10:22So when these turning points happen, how do you make sure that your listener really notices those important moments?
86. 10:31That's when we can use something like but then. For example, at the dry cleaners, everything seemed to be going as planned.
87. 10:41But then when I reached into my purse, I realized my wallet wasn't there.
88. 10:46Those words, but then, they tell your listener that something changed.
89. 10:52What happened next in the story wasn't what you expected. Now, in moments like this, you could also use suddenly or all of a sudden.
90. 11:02These are particularly helpful when something is not only unexpected, but it often happens quickly. For example, I could say I was standing there at the dry cleaners and all of a sudden I
91. 11:13realized my wallet was missing.
92. 11:15This language helps us to emphasize just how unexpected that moment was. And there's one more that we can use for moments like this. In fact,
93. 11:24I used it when I told this story at the beginning.
94. 11:28I used that's when. I had shared that after I got home, I started unpacking my groceries and that's when I saw it.
95. 11:36My wallet was right there in the grocery bag. When we use that phrase, it helps us point to a particular moment or highlight an
96. 11:45important turning point in the story. And actually, that makes me think of one more expression I want to share before we move on,
97. 11:54the words just as. This phrase works just a little differently.
98. 11:58It's helpful to use when something happens at the very same moment that you're doing something else or just about to do
99. 12:08something else. For example, I could say that just as I was about to pay at the dry cleaners, I realized that my wallet was missing.
100. 12:19Those two things happened nearly at the same moment. Now, of course, not every story has a dramatic unexpected moment, but if there is one, if there's some kind of turning point,
101. 12:31these expressions help you bring attention to those important moments.
102. 12:36So again, think back to the story that you've been working on.
103. 12:40Did anything unexpected happen that you want to highlight in your story?
104. 12:45Was there a moment when the situation changed unexpectedly? If so, how could you use one of these linking phrases to help you bring focus to
105. 12:55that moment? Now, to help us get ready for the next list of phrases, I want to go back to a very particular moment in my story.
106. 13:05I told you that I spent almost an hour searching in the grocery store in the parking lot.
107. 13:12What I didn't know was my wallet was right there in my car the entire time. I never really lost it.
108. 13:21I wanna go back to those words I just used. What I didn't know was, with these words, I'm telling you that there's something I didn't know at the time.
109. 13:32There was this hidden truth that I discovered later after I got home, and that can be another very useful storytelling skill,
110. 13:43showing your listener that what you knew at the moment and what you found out later was very different.
111. 13:49Another really useful phrase for this kind of discovery is as it turned out. And this is one that I used at the beginning of this video.
112. 13:59I said, "As it turned out, I'd had my wallet with me the entire time." Now, because of the way I told my story, you know that I was worried.
113. 14:10I had left it somewhere, maybe at the grocery store, maybe I dropped it in the parking lot. But then when I used those words, as it turned out, I introduce you to the discovery that I made.
114. 14:23It had been there the whole time. Now, while we're thinking about this, there are also times when you want to tell your listener that there were two things happening at the same time,
115. 14:35and that's where the word meanwhile is really helpful. In fact, I can go back to my story and change a couple of words to show that two things were true at the same time. Number one,
116. 14:47I was walking around the grocery store in the parking lot looking everywhere for my wallet, and meanwhile, at the same time,
117. 14:54it was sitting there inside my car in one of the grocery bags. That word, meanwhile, helps shift the listener's attention to that second thing that was
118. 15:05true at the same time. In fact, those very words at the same time are another great linking phrase.
119. 15:12And for this one, I'm gonna change the story. Let's use another example.
120. 15:17I might be explaining to a friend that our flight had been canceled.
121. 15:22I was on the phone talking with the airline trying to book another flight, and at the same time, or meanwhile,
122. 15:30my husband was looking for a hotel just in case we couldn't leave until the next morning. In this example, we're both trying to solve a problem at the same time.
123. 15:41I'm looking for another flight while my husband is looking for somewhere to stay.
124. 15:45This kind of language helps your listener to follow things that are happening at the same time, especially when different people are involved.
125. 15:55So now, once again, go back to the story that you've been working on.
126. 15:59Was there something you discovered later in the story?
127. 16:04Or maybe there were two things happening at the same time, a problem that you and someone else were both trying to solve.
128. 16:12If so, could you use some of these linking words or phrases to help you make those connections in your story? Now, so far,
129. 16:22we've looked at how to begin telling your story, how to move from one event to the next, how to highlight something that was a surprise or unexpected, a major turning point,
130. 16:34and how to share information that maybe you discovered later. So now, let's talk about how you finish your story. Of course,
131. 16:43how you finish depends on what exactly do you want your listener to know?
132. 16:48Do you wanna explain what finally happened in the end, tell them about some result, or share what you think about that experience now, now that you've had time to reflect on it? In each case,
133. 17:00we can use a different linking word or phrase to help us show what we're trying to do. So let's start with the word eventually.
134. 17:09This is a word that you heard me use at the very beginning when I told you my story the first time. I said, "Eventually,
135. 17:16I gave up and went home." What it tells you is that a period of time passed and I ended my search, even though my story wasn't really over yet. And of course,
136. 17:28another useful word is one you're likely already using, the word finally.
137. 17:33This is a great word to use when something happens after a long wait or after some difficulties. For example,
138. 17:42I had searched everywhere for my wallet, then I went home, started unpacking, and I finally found it.
139. 17:50This word really emphasizes that long search or difficult process. Now,
140. 17:57if you want to explain a final result of an experience or a story, that's where you could use in the end. For example, in the end,
141. 18:07I hadn't left my wallet at the grocery store after all.
142. 18:11It had been with me the whole time.
143. 18:13This is a great phrase to use when you want to show how everything turned out in the end or the final result.
144. 18:20And there's actually one more that I wanna talk about, the phrase looking back.
145. 18:25Sometimes after you finish telling someone your story or about what happened, you want to share what you think about that experience now, your reflection on it.
146. 18:35And looking back is a great way to introduce that reflection.
147. 18:40For example, if I do that with my own story, I might say, "Looking back, I must have been really distracted that day. I have no idea why.
148. 18:48I don't remember what I was thinking about, and I have no idea how my wallet ended up in a grocery bag.
149. 18:55But my reflection is, my realization at this moment is that when looking back on that experience, yeah, I must have been extremely distracted.
150. 19:06That's not the kind of thing I usually do.
151. 19:08So now I want you to go back to your story and think about the ending.
152. 19:12How did it end?
153. 19:13And is there anything that you want to say about that experience now?
154. 19:18Is there a realization or a reflection that might be useful to bring your story to a close? Now, to put all of this together, I want you to remember one very important thing.
155. 19:29You do not need a linking word or phrase in every sentence of your story, and you don't need to learn all the examples that I've shared with you here.
156. 19:38Think back for a moment to the first version of my story.
157. 19:43I only used three linking words and phrases. That's it.
158. 19:47It's all I needed to help both of us move through that story together. Now, if in this lesson, there were some examples that you already recognize,
159. 19:57you already use them consistently, that's fantastic.
160. 20:01This is a great opportunity to expand your vocabulary and add new language for stories that you tell in the future.
161. 20:09So I would choose a few, two or three, that you wanna add into your active vocabulary.
162. 20:16Try using them in a story today.
163. 20:19You can even share your example with me in the comments below. Now, don't forget that if you want to continue building your speaking confidence with me, I have a free training to get you started.
164. 20:30It's called How to Get the Confidence to Say What You Want in English.
165. 20:35It's designed to help you get more comfortable speaking English aloud and build up your confidence and fluency.
166. 20:43You can get that free training at my website, speakconfidentenglish.com, and I'll leave a link in the notes below. As always, if you found this lesson helpful,
167. 20:51don't forget to subscribe or follow wherever you're listening or watching from today. Thank you so much for joining me, and I look forward to next time.