Do you find that your English conversations end rather suddenly? Is there anything we can say before ‘goodbye’ to indicate that we would like to stop talking? The ability to close topics is a very useful but difficult skill.
In this programme, you’ll hear how native speakers close topics in two real conversations.
TRANSCRIPT
William
Hello, and welcome to How To, the programme which tries to help with those very basic but very tricky areas of communication.
My name’s William Kremer. Let me start today’s programme by telling you an anecdote – a short story about something that happened to me.
When I was an English language teacher I once bumped into one of my students in the supermarket.
And we got talking about this and that and it was very nice: we carried on talking and talking and talking and after a while I quite wanted to stop talking, but my friend didn’t pick up on my hints!
In the end, I had to say, ‘Well I have to go now. Bye bye!’ and walk away!
Now, ultimately this is how you end a conversation: you say, Goodbye, and walk away.
But before we do that we usually try to close a topic: we finish talking about a particular thing.
This shows our conversation partner that we’re ready to say goodbye. But the way we do this is very subtle – it’s hard to notice.
Yesterday, I got talking to my colleague Emily about a holiday she’s taking soon.
I’m going to play you the end of our conversation. Don’t try to understand every word, but see if you can work out how Emily closes the topic of her holiday, before she ends her conversation.
Emily
And then I’m gonna fly back five and a half weeks later –
William
A changed person –
Emily
Hopefully.
William
You’ll come back here. You’ll have shaved your head or something, I don’t know, something completely –
Emily
So, who knows what will come, what will happen when I come back, but erm – anyway, so hopefully it will at least be a holiday and I’ll get nice weather, hopefully. So – but erm –
William
Do you know any of the people that you’re going to be with?
Emily
No, I don’t. I don’t know anyone. Erm, yes. So I guess I’d better go back to work.
William
Ok. Erm –
Emily
I’ve got loads to do.
William
Oh right. Well, it’s nice talking to you.
Emily
Thank you very much.
William
And I’ll see you downstairs.
Emily
Yeah.
William
So, bye.
William
Emily tried to close the topic of her holiday by using the words so, anyway and but.
You’ve probably used these words in sentences lots of times – but Emily isn’t using them in sentences – she’s using the words to show that she’s ready to stop talking about her holiday.
Listen again.
Emily
Who knows what will come, what will happen when I come back, but erm – anyway, so hopefully it will at least be a holiday and I’ll get nice weather, hopefully. So – but erm –
William
As well as using so, anyway and but she made a general comment about the holiday which sort of finishes our conversation, because it seems to give her final opinion about her holiday.
She says: It will at least be a holiday and I’ll get nice weather, hopefully.
Let’s listen one more time.
This time, notice that after Emily signals that she’s ready to close the topic, I ask another question; I’m not quite ready to stop talking about her holiday! This forces Emily to use a stronger method of closing the topic.
Emily
So who knows what will come, what will happen when I come back, but erm – anyway, so hopefully it will at least be a holiday and I’ll get nice weather, hopefully. So – but erm –
William
Do you know any of the people that you’re going to be with?
Emily
No, I don’t. I don’t know anyone. Erm, yes. So I guess I’d better go back to work.
William
Ok. Erm –
Emily
I’ve got loads to do.
William
Oh right. Well, it’s nice talking to you.
Emily
Thank you very much.
William
And I’ll see you downstairs.
Emily
Yeah.
William
So, bye.
William
Emily had to give a stronger sign that she needed to close the topic.
She said that she had to go back to work – she had loads to do. This makes it obvious that she can’t talk any longer.
We don’t just close topics at the end of a conversation.
Sometimes there are things that we need to talk about or to do, and we have to stop chatting in order to focus on the new job or the new topic.
Yesterday, I called Tim into the studio to help me with something.
We started talking about his painful leg, but, as you’ll hear in the next clip, he signals to me that he’s ready to stop talking about his leg and start helping me with my work.
William
So, they still don’t even know what it is?
Tim
No. It’s a very, very funny sort of weird thing, which they don’t really know, so we shall see, but I’m having an MRI scan next week so that’s good so that should hopefully tell them a bit more. Anyway, how can we help?
William
So it’s now time to close this topic.
If you have the chance to speak to native English speakers, be aware of how they signal that they wish to close or end topics – and you can try to use words like so and anyway yourself if you need to stop a conversation.
That way, you shouldn’t be stuck in the supermarket for hours and hours and hours.
Closing topics
Useful words
- so
- anyway
- but
- right
- okay
- well
Use these words with sentences that
- give your final opinion about the topic
- summarise what has already been said
- lead to you saying ‘goodbye’
Examples
- But, we shall see if it makes a difference. Anyway, I must be off!
- So, it’s something, anyway, to look forward to.
- Well anyway, it’s lovely talking to you, but I must get on.
- Right, well, I guess I’d better get back.
Vocabulary
anecdote
a short story about something that happened to you.
- The other night Alan told us a very amusing anecdote about when he played cricket for his school.
subtle
an adjective describing something which is not obvious or easily noticeable.
- He made a number of subtle changes to the document.
- It was painted a subtle shade of blue.