 Hi, I'm Jennifer, certified English teacher and communications expert. In today's video, I'm going to teach you a very common idiom, an idiom that you can use in both your personal life and your professional life to sound really natural. All right, let's get started. So first, I'm going to teach you this idiom using an listening exercise. I'm going to say the idiom three times at a natural pace, the pace you would hear on TV, in movies, or in a cafe with friends. And I want you to write down exactly what you hear in the comments word for word. But don't worry, afterwards, I'll explain the expression very slowly, tell you what it means and talk about the pronunciation changes taking place. All right, so remember, I'll say it three times. Stop beating around the bush and just tell them. Stop beating around the bush and just tell them. Stop beating around the bush and just tell them. Okay, could you understand the expression? Do you know what I said? Don't worry if you didn't because I'm challenging you right now. We're talking about real fast paced English, but you're not used to hearing this type of English because this isn't the speed you would hear in a classroom. In a classroom, you would hear it a lot slower. But unfortunately, that doesn't help you when you're in the real world and you're hearing English at a fast natural pace. So doing exercises like this is the best way to improve your listening skills and also be able to understand English on TVs, in movies and everywhere else. So here's the expression that I said very slowly. I said, stop beating around the bush and just tell him. And this sounded like stop beating around the bush and just tell them. Okay, so very different in terms of speed. Now let's first talk about what this expression means. So we have the idiom to beat around the bush. So that's the idiom in the imperative form. So think of an idiom as just an expression. It means the words cannot be taken literally. So we have the noun bush. For example, bush is just a small tree, basically the easiest way to think about it. The expression though has nothing to do with trees or forests or woods. So that's what an idiom is is just words that don't have a literal meaning. They have a figurative meaning. So they mean something else entirely. And the expression to beat around the bush, it means to avoid talking about something directly or to avoid giving a direct reply or response. So basically it means being vague. So vague is the expression we use when you're not direct. So it's the opposite of direct. So let's say you ask me a question. Do you want to come to my party tonight? And I know the answer in my head. I know that no, I don't, I don't want to go to your party tonight. But let's be honest, that's not a very polite answer. And we would use a more indirect response. So maybe I would say, oh, yeah, maybe I just need to check my schedule or oh, if I have time or, you know, I might be busy, but I'm not sure. Can I get back to you? So if I was direct, I would tell the person no, thanks for the invite, but no, I don't want to go. Sounds a little harsh, right? Well, in North America, we don't like being direct like that. We consider it impolite and rude, although other cultures may prefer to be more direct. And because of that, in North America, we tend to give indirect answers. We tend to be a little bit vague. So let's say I tell my friend a few times, oh, maybe, maybe I'll come. And then two days before the party, she texts me and she said, so are you coming? And then I still haven't replied or I reply, maybe, not sure. Finally, my friend could get annoyed with me. And my friend could say, just stop beating around the bush and tell me, are you coming? Like stop beating around the bush. So give me a direct reply. So when my friend says this to me, she wants me to say yes or no. There's no other reply that would be acceptable to her because she told me to stop beating around the bush. So then I have to reply to back to her and say, unfortunately, I can't come. Thanks anyways. Or yes, I'd love to come. See you then. So I can give her a direct reply. So that's one example in a personal relationship where we could use this expression. So like I talked about, we use this when we want to be polite. So if I don't want to directly say something, because I don't want to hurt their feelings, or I don't want to make the situation uncomfortable, or the topic is of a sensitive nature, and it might be difficult to give a direct reply. And because of that, we often use these indirect replies with the expression, stop beating around the bush. Just tell me, just tell him, just tell the person directly. Okay, but we can also use this expression in a business context. Now imagine you wanted to quit your job, and you were talking to your boss, and you schedule a meeting to say, I need to talk to you about something. So the meeting's going, and you know what you want to say. You want to say, I quit. I'm leaving. But instead, you talk about, well, I think I might be finding another opportunity. Well, I'm going to try something different. So you're giving him an indirect reply, you're giving him indirect information. And honestly, your boss might become a little confused, because she doesn't know what you want to tell her, because you're beating around the bush, you're not being direct. So instead, you could just stop beating around the bush, bush, and say, look, thank you for the opportunity, but I quit. That would be direct. That would be not beating around the bush. Now we also use it when we don't want to provide a response, because there may be a negative consequence for us. So let's say I had a deadline to finish a report by Friday morning. And it's Friday afternoon, my boss comes over to me and says, where's that report? Now the answer is the direct answer is I didn't finish it. I missed the deadline. That's the direct answer. But can you imagine that most people don't want to provide that direct answer? So I might say something like, oh, well, I'm just putting the final touches or oh, I tried to send it to you. Did you not get it? I might even create an excuse. Oh, I'm just waiting to hear back for someone. But really, what I'm doing is I'm beating around the bush. I'm not giving a direct reply. And eventually, my boss is going to figure it out. That's the thing with this expression. Usually it doesn't work. Usually the person who you're talking to knows you're beating around the bush. They know you're not answering them directly. And usually this results in some annoyance or some frustration because they just want you to be direct and be honest to stop beating around the bush. But you can imagine that for the person, there's a lot of advantages to doing this potentially. So that's the reason why this expression exists, even though it's really annoying for the person you're speaking to. Alright, so those are some examples of beating around the bush. Now notice in all of my sentences, I put this in the imperative form, which means I started with the verb beating around the bush, but mine was in the negative. So I said, stop beating around the bush. So I put the verb there, stop. So in the imperative form, we don't use a subject and we just start with the base verb. So stop. I could have also said, don't beat around the bush. But here I chose to use stop. No reason why. But notice when I said stop, my next verb, the expression with beat, is actually in the jaren form. I'm saying stop beating, beating with ing. This is because in English, certain verbs take, the next verb will take a jaren form, the verb with ing. Now stop is one of those verbs. So if you have stop, your next verb is going to be in jaren form. This is also the same with start. If it was start beating around the bush, although I don't think many people would tell you to do that. But start beating around the bush, stop beating around the bush. Now I didn't use it, but we could have also said don't, don't beat around the bush. Don't beat around the bush. So here I'm putting beat in its base form because we don't need it in the jaren. It's only with specific verbs that have the jaren form afterwards. Stop is one of those verbs. Stop beating around the bush and tell them. I could have just as easily said, don't beat around the bush and tell them. They have the same meaning. They're just different constructions, just different grammatical structures. Okay, so we're using the imperative because really I'm giving an order or a piece of advice. I'm telling my friend or my coworker, stop beating around the bush. Tell your boss you didn't finish the report. Tell your boss you're quitting your job. So that's why we're using the imperative form here. It's the most common with this idiom. Okay, so now that you know exactly what the idiom means and how to form the sentence grammatically, let's look at the pronunciation. Okay, so repeat after me. Stop beating. Very good. Stop beating around. Excellent. Stop beating around the bush. Good. So really there's not much going on in terms of changes to the pronunciation. I'm just saying it quickly. Stop beating around the bush, but I'm not really reducing any of the sounds. I'm not dropping any syllables. I'm saying each word fully. I'm just saying it at a faster pace. So how can you do this? How can you speed up your pace to a more natural pace? Well, really you start by practicing slow and continue adding a little bit more speed until you get it to a fast pace. So you can start with stop beating around the bush. And once you know you have the words correctly, the pronunciation is good, speed it up. And then you can say stop beating around the bush. So still a little pause, but it's faster. So practice that 10 times, 20 times until you're able to easily say it. And then once you can, speed it up again. But practice it 10, 20, as many times as you need to feel comfortable with it. So your goal pace should be the way I'm saying it. So your goal pace should be stop beating around the bush. When you can say it at that speed, well then you know you've practiced enough. Okay, stop beating around the bush and just tell them. So here, the only thing I need to point out from a pronunciation change is tell him, him. Now, of course, him starts with an H, but at a natural speed in English, we reduce sounds that start with an H by just dropping the H sound. So really, when I say it at a natural pace, I actually say m, m, m, m, okay, repeat, m. Very good. So him, but I'm just taking off that getting rid of it. And I'm saying, m, good, m, good, but very important. If you do this, you need to connect the sound to the last word. So I cannot say tell him. So if I had a pause, I can't take off the H and I can't say tell him. I can't do that because there's a pause. I can take off the H only if I connect them and I say tell him, tell him, tell him. Very good. Tell him. Excellent. So we'll just do that n part and just tell him. Good. So here you can have a space between and just. So maybe you say those as one and just tell him. So you almost have two sounds and just tell him and just tell him. Okay, repeat and just good and just tell him. Very good. Now altogether and just tell him. Very good. Okay, so we'll do it from the top. And this is your goal pace. So when you can say it at this pace, now you know you're saying it at a natural pace, the way a native English speaker would say it. If you can't copy my pace now, don't worry. You just need to practice. Pause the video, practice it 10 times, 20 times, 30 times, and you probably need to practice it more than once. You might need to practice it 10 times a day for four days, five days, but then it's worth it because at the end of that five days, not only do you have a new idiom, but you're able to say it naturally and say it confidently because if you've practiced it 10, 20, 30 times every day for four days, you will remember how to use that idiom. So it's worth it in the end, even if it takes a little more practice now. Okay, so your goal pace. Stop beating around the bush and tell him. Okay, so you try. Stop beating around the bush and tell him. Okay, very good. So either you could do it now or after some repetition and practice, you'll be able to do it. So now you have a new idiom and you know how to say it like a native English speaker. So let me know in the comments, do you beat around the bush or are you more direct? And what about culturally? I told you in North America, it's very common to give indirect answers in order to be more polite. Does that also exist in your culture or would you prefer to be more direct with people? Hmm, let me know. I'd love to hear about it. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed the video, please hit the like button, share it with your friends, and of course subscribe. And until next time, happy studying.