实用英语口语：告别“howtosay”的年代

　　英语角上最常听到的一句话恐怕就是“How to say?”了。每次不知道该说什么时，总会用“How to say?”来打马虎眼。但事实上，尽管“How to say?”在语法上是正确的一句话，英美人却是从来不这么说的。那么，当找不到合适的词时，他们都会怎么说呢？ 1. How do I put it? / What should I say?

这是最常用的两句了。简单明了，通俗易懂哦！

2. I don't know what to say.

过于激动、气愤、恼怒、悲伤或者高兴的时候，总会一时语塞、说不出话来。这时，你就可以说"I don't know what to say!"。比如：

You say you spent $100 on the car! I don't know what to say! I can't believe you did that! !（你说你花了100美元买车！我真是不知道该说什么好了，真是难以置信！）

I don't know what to say! You came here and expect me to give you all my attention for a whole hour. You know I'm busy, so just go!（我真是没话说了！你竟然要我给你一个小时的时间陪你。你知道我很忙，一边去吧！）

3. something of the sort

有时我们是真的找不到合适的表达法。这时就可以说：

A: What do you think of the idea of permanent education? That is, letting people go on learning until they die?
B: Well, that sounds quite new to me. Do you mean evening schools, or something of the sort?

B 实在不知道permanent education是怎么回事，于是就用and ... and something of the sort?来代替了。

类似的说法还有something like that，something of that kind，or something or other，or whatever (you call it)。

4. a sort of ..., you know.
这个a sort of..., you know 最适合想了半天却什么也没想出来的场合，让对方从你说话的context中去判断你要表达的意思。例如：

This man is so unpopular here. He is just a sort of ..., you know.
这个人在这儿可不怎么受欢迎。他有点……，你知道。

5. You know what I mean.

前面说一大通，最后不知道怎么总结，便可以用You know what I mean. 来“偷懒”喽! 例如：

To be honest, this will be difficult. You know your application form will be read not just by me but by at least three members of the academic council, and it's no easy matter to have all of us agree on one thing... you know what I mean.
说实话，这很难。你知道不止一个人要看你的申请，学院委员会至少还有两个人要看。要让我们大家都同意可不是件容易的事……你知道我的意思。

类似的说法还有“You know the sort of thing I mean.”，“I think you understand what I mean. I can't think of the exact word, but you know.”

6. 此外，你还可以用一些conversational fillers来争取一些思考的时间。常用的有：Mm， Uh，um，er，erm，well，well then，now，actually，of course，in fact，I mean，you know，you see，as a matter of fact，shall I say...，sort of，kind of，like，and等等。