This mini episode introduces three simple, natural phrases we use when we want to tell people what we think or what conclusions we have come to.
Episode 167 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you three ways to tell people what you think about something or what conclusion you have come to. Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Today I am going to teach you some good, natural ways of telling people what you think or of telling people what your conclusions are. These are constructions that we use when we want to tell people how we think about something or what we have decided about something.
The constructions that I'm thinking of are “It seems that...” It: i-t. Seems: s-e-e-m-s. That: t-h-a-t. And “It seems like...” That’s like: l-i-k-e. And “It strikes me that...” That’s it, strikes: s-t-r-i-k-e-s. It strikes me that.
After all of these phrases, you can use a complete sentence, and that complete sentence is your opinion or the conclusion that you have made after thinking about something or after watching something. Now let's see how these phrases work in larger sentences.
Let's say that you are at a party, and you have brought your friend to this party. Now, your friend did not think that she would have a good time at the party. She did not really want to come to the party. But she came along with you anyway. And after the party has been going on for about one hour, you look over, and you watch your friend. And your friend is having a good time. She's smiling. She's laughing. Maybe she's dancing with somebody. You come to a conclusion about how your friend is feeling about the party. You have an opinion. You have watched her, and now you have a certain way of thinking about what is happening. So you can share your opinion or your conclusion by using one of those phrases.
You can say, “It seems that my friend is having a good time at the party.” It seems that my friend is having a good time at the party. There, you can see that phrase it seems that is followed by a complete sentence: My friend is having a good time at the party. It seems that my friend is having a good time at the party.
Or you could say, “It seems like my friend is having a good time at the party.”
Or you could say, “It strikes me that my friend is having a good time at the party.”
All of those are good, natural ways of telling people what you think or what conclusion you have come to after thinking about something or after watching something.
It seems that, it seems like, and it strikes me that...
Of course, there are many ways of saying this kind of thing. There are many ways of sharing your opinion or your conclusion or of telling people how you feel about something. But these are three very good, very natural phrases you can use when you want to share your conclusions about something.