Vague expressions
Vague language is
very common, especially in speaking. We often add words and phrases such as
about, kind of, sort of, and that kind of thing to make what we say less
factual and direct:
There were about
twenty people at the meeting.
It’s kind of cold in
here.
Did you see lions and
giraffes and that kind of thing when you were in South Africa?
We generally use
vague language when we don’t know the name of something, or to make things
sound less factual, or to talk about groups and categories.
When we don’t know the name of
something
We can use vague
expressions when we are not sure of the name of something. These expressions
include: what do you call it?, what’s it called?, it’s a kind of X, it’s a sort
of X, it’s a type of X, or something, thing, stuff:
A: Val’s been in
hospital for tests. Did you know that?
B: No. What’s wrong?
A: Well, they’re not
sure. She’s had to have that test, er, what do you call it? Where you have to
go into a type of X-ray machine.
B: A CAT scan?
A: Yeah. She’s had
that done but they still don’t know what’s causing her headaches.
She’s got a small
dog, a kind of poodle, or something.
What’s that stuff you
use when your lips get dry?
Where’s the thing for
cleaning the window?
Spoken English:
In very informal
speaking, we sometimes say /ˈwɒtʃjəməkɔ:lɪt/, /ˈwɒtʃjəməkɔ:lɪm/, /ˈθɪŋəmi/, /ˈθɪŋəmədʒɪg/. These are informal versions of what
do you call it/him/her, etc. We never write these words:
A: Andrew’s just
moved in with whatyamacallhim /ˈwɒtʃjəməkɔ:lɪm/?
B: Barry?
A: No, his friend
from Manchester.
Making things sound less
factual
Being very factual
can sometimes sound too direct in speaking, and so we add vague expressions.
These are called hedges: about, kind of, sort of, -ish (suffix), stuff, things:
There’s sort of
something I don’t like about her. (more direct: There’s something I don’t like
about her.)
It’s kind of bright
in here. (more direct: It’s too bright in here.)
I can’t meet up
later. I have too much stuff to do.
I forget so many
things these days.
We especially use
vague expressions before numbers, quantities and times to make them sound less
factual:
I’ll see you at about
8 tomorrow morning for breakfast. Is that okay? (more direct: I’ll see you at 8
tomorrow morning for breakfast.)
We expect to take in
or around two years to complete the project. (more direct: We expect to take
two years and four months to complete the project.)
We’re meeting
Veronica at four-ish. (more direct: We’re meeting Veronica at four.)
We’ve been living
here for more or less five years. (more direct: We’ve been living here for five
years and three months.)
Talking about groups and
categories
We use certain vague
expressions to make groups or categories. We usually give examples of members
of the group or category (underlined below) and then add a vague expression,
e.g. necklaces, bracelets and things like that.
Common vague expressions
include:
1. and that kind of thing and stuff like
that
2. and that sort of thing and stuff
3. and that type of thing and so on
4. and things like that and this, that and
the other
5. and the like
Where are all the
knives and forks and that kind of thing?
I need to buy cards
and wrapping paper and stuff like that.
A: Where’s Emma?
B: She’s gone to the
doctor. She’s been getting pains in her stomach and feeling tired and things
like that.
He never eats
chocolate, sweets and that type of thing.
There are so many
lorries and trucks and that sort of thing passing by our house, even during the
night.
We sometimes find
vague category expressions in formal speaking, but we usually use different
expressions, such as: and so forth, et cetera, and so on, and so on and so
forth:
[from a university
lecture on literature]
The book has often
been looked at from a feminist perspective and so forth but I want to look at
it from a political perspective today.
[from a university
lecture on communication]
If you use an
advertisement in the newspaper, a thirty-second ad on television et cetera et
cetera, it will receive quite a wide audience but there’s relatively little you
can say in it. (ad = advertisement)
What are your views
on the new government and the changes they have made and so forth?
We sometimes use
vague category expressions in writing. The most common ones are: and so on and
et cetera (which is shortened to etc.)
The new theatre will
be used for big events such as opera, ballet, drama and so on.
The house is equipped
with a cooker, washing machine, television, etc.
When can vague expressions be
impolite?
Expressions such as
stuff and whatever, whoever, whenever, whichever are sometimes used to be vague
in an impolite way. These are especially impolite when they are used in a reply
to a direct question asked by someone who is senior to us:
[a father to his son]
A: What did you do at
school today?
B: Stuff. (This is
not a polite reply. It can mean ‘I don’t want to talk to you’.)
[parent to teenage
daughter]
A: You spend too long
on the phone.
B: Whatever. (This is
a very impolite response and means ‘I don’t care’.)
[two friends talking]
A: We’re meeting
around seven at Mel’s place.
B: No, it’s at six
thirty.
A: Well, whenever.
(This is not as impolite, because it is between friends. A uses whenever to
show that she is annoyed that she has been contradicted about the time and that
it doesn’t really matter whether it’s six thirty or seven.)
Hedges (just)
We use hedges to
soften what we say or write. Hedges are an important part of polite conversation.
They make what we say less direct. The most common forms of hedging involve
tense and aspect, modal expressions including modal verbs and adverbs, vague
language such as sort of and kind of, and some verbs.
Tense and aspect
I wondered if I could
have a word with you? (less direct and more polite than Could I have a word
with you?)
Modal expressions
The answer could be
that the trees have some sort of disease. (less direct than The answer is that
…)
Maybe we should have
a word with him about it? (less direct than We should or we must have a word
with him about it.)
This is possibly the
best performance in the Olympics.
Vague language
It’s sort of
difficult to say. (less direct than It’s difficult to say)
Could you just post
this letter for me?
Verbs (feel)
Some verbs (such as
feel, suppose, reckon) can be used to hedge personal statements, that is, to
make personal statements less direct:
We feel he should let
them decide whether to buy the flat. (less direct than He should let them
decide …)
I reckon that’s the
best answer to the problem. (less direct than That’s the best answer to the
problem.)
Hedges in academic writing
We use certain types
of hedging in writing, especially in academic writing, so that statements don’t
seem to rely simply on personal opinion.
We often use
structures with it in the passive such as it is argued that and it has been
agreed that:
It has been generally
agreed that these new video phone technologies will transform everyday life. (a
more cautious and less personal statement than I agree that …)
Kind of and sort of
Kind of and sort of
are very common expressions in speaking. They soften other words and phrases so
that they do not appear too direct or exact. Kind of is more common in American
English. Sort of is more common in British English:
He’s kind of jealous
that they have become such good friends.
I’m sorry but she’s
just kind of lost interest in buying the car.
They said it was a
chalet but it was more like a sort of wooden hut.
She’s spent the whole
year sort of travelling around the world.
Sort, type and kind
Sort, type and kind
all generally mean the same thing. They are words we use to refer to a group of
people or things which share the same characteristics. We use these words very
often when we describe things and we often find them in dictionary definitions:
Jazz isn’t the sort
of music I can listen to for very long.
A fastener is a type
of metal button which fits together to join clothes, for example a coat might
have fasteners.
There are many kinds
of birds coming to feed in my garden at the moment.
We often use sort,
type and kind as vague expressions to suggest that we think something is like
something else. We do this either because we are not sure, or because we do not
want to be too specific and too direct:
[joking about a cheap
perfume that someone got as a present]
And it was, it was
really cheap, I mean, it was a sort of a rose perfume and I think the whole box
only cost him one pound fifty, or something. You could probably run your car
off it.
We sometimes use some
before sort, type and kind as vague expressions:
Karen has made some
sort of cake for the party.
There was some type
of hole in the road and we didn’t see it.
There’s some kind of
strange smell in here.
We often use and that
kind of thing or and that sort of thing to refer to categories. We usually give
an example or two from the category we are referring to first, e.g. apples and
that kind of thing, bookshops and libraries and that sort of thing:
A: What are you doing
tonight?
B: Well, first, I’ve
got lots of marking and that sort of thing to do.
A: Are you taking
anything to eat?
B: Just a few snacks
– crisps and that kind of thing.
Thing and stuff
Thing
We use the general
noun thing more commonly in speaking than in writing.
It is most commonly
used to refer to physical objects, but we also use thing to refer to ideas,
actions and events:
What’s that thing
over there in the car park?
She always says that
she hasn’t a thing to wear.
Can you put your
things in the upstairs room? (things here = personal belongings)
Anger is a very dangerous
thing in a young man.
So don’t rush him.
These things take time and we certainly don’t want to upset him.
A holiday? That’s
just the thing for you.
A: Hi Geoff. How’s
things? (How’s things is a common informal greeting.)
B: Fine, thanks. How
are you?
We often use thing in
a similar way to wh-cleft constructions (What we need to do is …). It is also
often used with to and with that-clauses (underlined):
The thing we need to
know is why they missed the train.
The thing they said
that we shouldn’t forget was to take a boat trip on the lake.
The best thing to do
is to phone the doctor at once.
The thing that
worries me most is the cost of the holiday.
In speaking, we
commonly use the phrase the thing is. We use it when we want to focus on
something, or to indicate that there is a problem:
The thing is … erm …
we don’t have time to visit New York as well as Washington.
Yeah, that’s OK, but
the thing is, he still hasn’t apologised for being late.
Thing is an example
of vague language. It allows speakers not to sound too direct. We often use
thing in phrases such as things like that, that kind of thing:
They’re cooking lots
of different Italian and Spanish dishes and things like that.
When I worked in a
newspaper office, there wasn’t time for eating lunch or that kind of thing, you
know.
We also use thing to
show both positive (usually affectionate) and negative attitudes, mainly when
accompanied by appropriate adjectives:
Our cat is too old
now to leave the house, poor thing.
You lucky thing! I
wish I had the chance to visit New Zealand.
A: You’re going to
get paint on that dress. Why don’t you get changed?
B: It doesn’t matter.
It’s just an old thing.
Stuff
Stuff is one of the
most common nouns in speaking. It is more informal than thing. It is not at all
common in writing.
Stuff is an
uncountable noun. We use stuff in similar ways to thing, especially in vague
language phrases such as stuff like that:
Where can we put our
stuff? (our belongings) (very similar to, but more informal than, Where can we
put our things?)
She didn’t have much
advice to offer. She just told us to learn lots of new English vocabulary and
stuff like that.
(Vague expressions English Grammar Today ©
Cambridge University Press.)
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