In this mini episode, you will learn the common and useful phrase “If you say so.”
Episode 487 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the common and useful phrase “If you say so.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, everybody! This is Winnie, from Chongqing, China. And you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 487 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you an interesting and useful phrase. The phrase is “If you say so.” If you say so. That’s I-f, y-o-u, s-a-y, s-o. If you say so.
What does “If you say so” mean, and when do people use it? We use “If you say so” to mean something like this: I don’t agree with you, but I will accept your opinion. Or, I will accept your argument. I will accept what you are saying. When we say, “If you say so,” it suggests that we disagree with somebody, but we’re not interested in arguing. Or, we are not interested in discussing the thing anymore.
When we say, “If you say so,” we are saying, “Okay, okay. I know this is what you think, this is what you believe. Let’s just stop talking about this. I will accept what you are saying.”
I guess “If you say so” can sound a little bit blunt or even impolite, but it doesn’t always sound that way. Like many things, it depends on your tone of voice: If you say something in a friendly way, it will often sound more friendly. And if you say something in a harsh or angry way, it will often sound very negative. That’s just the way everything works.
Let me give you an example of a situation where you might hear someone say, “If you say so.”
Imagine that two friends are having a discussion about a certain movie. They have seen this movie together, and now they are discussing it. They’re saying what they think about the movie. The first person says, “I didn’t really enjoy that movie very much. I guess I didn’t really like it.”
The second person then starts arguing. The second person says things like, ‘What do you mean? That movie was great. I thought that movie was brilliant! It was one of the most important movies of the last several years!”
Now, the first person sees that this could turn into an argument. And the first person is not interested in arguing about this. The first person says, “Well, if you say so.” And that means, “Okay, I heard what you said. I don’t really agree with it, but I’m not going to argue anymore. I will just accept what you are saying.” In other words, it means, “Okay, you don’t need to keep arguing. I will just accept your point.”
We use “If you say so” as a way of telling somebody that we accept what they’re saying, or we don’t want to continue arguing. Or maybe even we use it in a positive way to mean, “Well, you are the expert. You know more about this than I do. If you say that something is true or false, then I guess I will just believe it.”
And that is “If you say so,” an interesting and useful phrase that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 487 of Everybody ESL. Remember: If you have any questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Winnie recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!