50 Transition Words For English Conversations

In this video, you're going to add 50 plus transition words to your advanced English vocabulary. Of course, I'm Jennifer from JForrestEnglish.com And this channel is dedicated to helping you feel confident speaking English in public so you can take your career and your life to the next level. Now, before we go any further, make sure you subscribe and hit that bell icon so you're notified every time post new lesson. Now, let's get started with this lesson. So what exactly are transition words? Well, transition words are individual words or groups of words, phrases, that you can use to organize your ideas and to show connection between your ideas. They are commonly used in academic or formal writing, but you shouldn't limit their use to just that because you can absolutely use them in your spoken English. And you should use them in your spoken English to sound very advanced and professional. And if you watch to the end of this video, I'm going to share how you can use transition words to expand your ideas. And to take really simple idea and be able to talk on that idea for longer using transition words. So stay right to the end. So let's get started. You're going to learn over 50 transition words in this lesson. Don't feel overwhelmed, just add them to your vocabulary as you go. Our first group of transition words are used to show cause and effect, causation. So here have two separate ideas. spilled my coffee. changed my shirt. Now this is where we can use transition word to combine these ideas together and to show the relationship between them. spilled my coffee. As result, changed my shirt. Cause and effect. Here are the transition words in this category, and they're listed from most formal to least formal. So you can take screenshot of this. Consequently, hence, accordingly, thus, for that reason, as result, therefore, and so, since, because, due to. Now the example gave you, spilled my coffee. As result, changed my shirt. This is casual statement. It might sound little odd perhaps, out of place, to use very formal transition word, such as consequently, in such common everyday speech. spilled my coffee. Consequently, changed my shirt. You could absolutely say it. It's grammatically correct. But the choice of transition word is just little too formal. So do not think that formal is the best, and you absolutely should use formal. You should use formal when your ideas are more formal. They're more academic. They're more professional, in business context. Let's look at business context. The project is over budget. We have to cut costs. So again, we'll show our cause and effect. We'll use transition word to combine these ideas. And because it's more formal context, can use more formal transition word. The project is over budget, hence, consequently, thus, we have to cut costs. Our next group of transition words is chronology. This is how events are related based on when they occur. So think of time. Here are three events. went to the store. worked out. made dinner. Now of course, we can add first, second, third, first, next finally. That's chronology. And it instantly sounds more organized, and more advanced, when you add the transition words. So let's review the transition words in this category. First, firstly, to start, to begin, at the beginning, at the start. Second, secondly, after, afterwards, next, then, subsequently, later. Third, thirdly, after, afterwards, next, then, subsequently, later, finally, lastly, last but not least. Now notice that for the second and third events, many of the transition words are the same. You can use after, after for the second and third event. Or you can use the next, next for the second and third and fourth and fifth event. But you might want to avoid that so you don't sound repetitive using the same transition word again and again. So you can use next then. Then subsequently. Subsequently finally. So you can use the different transition words just to show off your advanced vocabulary. Our next category of transition words is to show contrast, when you have two opposing ideas. Let me give you two ideas. love ice cream. I'm lactose intolerant. So can you see how these two ideas are in opposition? love ice cream is great. It's really positive thing. But I'm lactose intolerant, that's negative and it also means that can't eat ice cream. So those ideas are in opposition. So we can use our contrasting transition words. However, although, though, but. love ice cream, but I'm lactose intolerant. Same thing, the transition words are listed from most formal to least formal. Again, you could say, love ice cream. However, I'm lactose intolerant. But again, these ideas are quite simple. So you probably want more simple transition work. Our next category of transition words is addition on similar ideas, love ice cream. love cake. It's adding similar idea because they're both in the same category, which is desserts or sweets. The most common transition words, from most formal to least formal, in this category are Furthermore, moreover, further, additionally, in addition, also, and. love ice cream, and love cake. Obviously you know that one, so why not try to advance your vocabulary by using, in addition. love ice cream. In addition, love cake. Now let's talk about generality. This is when things are true most of the time. The most common transition words in this category are, in general, generally, generally speaking, by and large, for the most part, most of the time, more often than not, usually, typically, mostly. So let's take an example. Our meetings are very productive. Now of course I'm sure there's one or two meetings that aren't very productive. But most of the time, in general, generally speaking, our meetings are very productive. Now let's look at the category of examples. There are really only three main transition words. For example, as an example, for instance. This software has really helped us. Now it can make your points lot stronger or help you expand on your idea by adding an example. This software has really helped us. For example, as an example, for instance, it reduced our error rate by 40%. Our next category is emphasis. This category is used to make point stronger by adding more supporting information. Let's take simple example. love pie. Now what if wanted to make this point stronger? can say, it's my favorite dessert. love pie. In fact, it's my favorite dessert. love pie. As matter of fact, it's my favorite dessert. These are the only two transition words that are commonly used to add emphasis. And finally, conclusion transition words. Notice just use transition word, and finally. That is conclusion transition word. Now of course, in this category, we use transition words when we want to end what we're saying. End our speech, end our presentation. Here are the most common transition words listed from most formal to least formal. In conclusion, to conclude, to summarize, in sum, all things considered, finally, overall, ultimately, in the end, to wrap up, to sum up, all in all. So let's say I'm ending my presentation at work and want my colleagues to remember one very important fact. And that fact is, if we want to remain competitive, we have to invest in automation. Now to let my colleagues know that this is the last point I'm going to make, my final point, I'm going to add conclusion transition word. Ultimately, if we want to remain competitive, we have to invest in automation. So now you have 50 plus transition words to help you communicate your ideas in very professional and organized way. Before you go, let me share bonus tip with you. You can use transition words to help you expand on your ideas. So let's take one idea. In general, our meetings are very productive. Now can pick any category of transition words to expand on this idea. could add contrast. However, they usually run over time. So this is an opposing idea. Now, let me give an example of my last point to add emphasis and to expand even more. For example, today our meeting was scheduled to end at 11 and it went until 11:17. So let's expand on this even more. What was the effect of the meeting running over by 17 minutes? As result, was late for meeting with client. Were there any other effects? If there were, could use an addition of similar idea transition word. Additionally, had to work through lunch to catch up. As you can see, transition words are an excellent way to expand on your ideas. So now it's your turn. In the comments below, why don't you take three or more transition words and start with one idea and then just pick any other category and expand on that idea with three or more transition words. So you can do that in the comments below. And if you found this lesson helpful, please hit the like button, share it with your friends and of course subscribe. And before you go, make sure you head on over to my website JForrestEnglish.com and download your free speaking guide. In this guide share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently. And until next time, which is my conclusion transition word, and until next time, happy studying!