By Robby Kukurs
If you are new here please read this first.
If you read this blog or any other website dedicated to foreign English speakers and their language improvement, I’m sure of one thing – you wouldn’t find much advice on how to express yourself during times when you’re annoyed, angry, agitated or arguing with someone.
Well, there might be a certain amount of phraseology and vocabulary given, however, there’s one thing I can say for sure – it would be still somewhat toned down and wouldn’t really resemble the kind of English language you’d be facing in real life.
And it’s kind of understandable because English teachers probably don’t want to be teaching too much of the bad language. Especially considering that cursing and using profanities tends to be one of the first things you’d pick up when learning a foreign language, so I would imagine that people just assume that cursing, swearing and expressing your anger or dissatisfaction is something that foreign English speakers are familiar with anyway, so it’s not really worth focusing on.
Well, I tend to disagree!
Being familiar with and being able to USE something in real-life spoken English are two different things altogether!
The only way you’ll be able to use such expressions yourself is if you repeat them and learn them by way of spoken English practicing, there’s no other way around it.
And if you think that you’ll never need such expressions anyway because you’re a nice person – think twice my friend. There comes a time when even the nicest person needs to blow off some steam and get the negative emotions out of their system, let alone having a confrontation with another English speaker.
And do you know what happens when you are having that argument having never actually practiced the related phraseology yourself?
Well, it’s pretty simple – during the heated conversation all of a sudden you find yourself unable to say a word because the added adrenaline rush will make you even more prone to saying something wrong, so some prior practicing is definitely advisable here!
So without further ado let’s look at a number of relevant English phrases that will definitely come in handy in extreme situations such as arguments and confrontations with other English speakers.
Get the hell out of here! – I wish you don’t have to use this phrase too often in real life, as the situation that would merit such a phrase would be pretty intense indeed. It’s useful, however, to have this phrase in your active English vocabulary as you never know if you’re going to face someone who’s being aggressive towards you or totally unreasonable. And don’t forget that the proper way to pronounce this phrase is by merging the last four words into one like this: “Gera hellahrahere!”
Leave me the hell alone! – another self-explanatory phrase, and as you can imagine, you can always swap the word “hell” with another curse word of your choice such as “heck” or even the F word. This phrase can be used when the other person has, for example, hurt you enough to deserve such harsh words, but they haven’t necessarily done something that would make you not to want to see them again. Speaking of which…
I don’t ever wanna see you again! – I would imagine this phrase would be typically used in a heated argument between a couple. That said, there’s no reason why it couldn’t be said in a different type of scenario, for instance, when you have a row with a person who you thought was your friend, but then they did something really nasty to you…
Which part of “shut up” did you not understand? – this definitely isn’t a nice thing to say to another person, and I for one thing can’t remember when I would have used such a phrase in real life. I do, however, understand that not everyone is the same and you may be a bit more straightforward when confronting people. So this phrase with a little bit of a sarcastic touch is something you’d use when talking to someone from a position of authority. “Shut up”, of course, can be replaced with any phrase you would have used previously in the conversation with the person in question.
Will you just shut up for once? – I guess we all know that annoying co-worker who just keeps talking and talking all the time? Well, if you ever have a situation when an argument with such a person is inevitable, just use this phrase, there’s a chance that it will shut them up, at least for a while!
What the hell are you talking about? – this would be the perfect kind of a response to somebody repeatedly accusing you of something you didn’t do. Obviously, you wouldn’t snap at someone with a phrase like this one immediately; however, if the person just keeps at it, you may have no other choice but to do it!
Who the hell do you think you are? – if someone is making ridiculous demands from you – or even worse – they’re threatening you – and there’s no other way of getting the situation resolved other than resorting to being rude, this English phrase is definitely something you may consider using.
Get the hell out of my way! – I hope you will never have to experience anything like this, but you never know when an argument may become a little bit physical. Imagine yourself in a situation when the person you’re having the disagreement with is trying to block your way out of the room. Well, you would then force your exit out and at the same time exclaim – “Get the hell out of my way!”
That’s it, I’m done with this! – you can use this phrase whenever you’ve come to a point where you can’t continue with the current situation, so you’re making the decision to put a stop to it, at least for now. And bear in mind, you don’t necessarily have to have an argument with someone to use this expression, you can also use it on your own! Imagine yourself doing a really tough assignment, and you suddenly feel so overwhelmed that you just can’t handle it anymore. If that’s the case, you can just say it out loud – “That’s it! I’m done with this!”
Obviously, these phrases can be adjusted and changed ever so slightly, as it will quite naturally happen anyway. The most important thing of it all, however, is to make sure you repeat them a good few times so they become part of your active vocabulary!
Robby
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!