Learn English Phrases – I give you my word / I’ll take your word for it

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Everyday English Speaking Course

Hi students, it’s Shayna, your teacher at espressoenglish.net, and today’s phrase is “I give you my word.” This expression is a strong way to say I promise or I guarantee. Here’s an example where you might use the phrase “I give you my word.”

Imagine that you lied to your boyfriend or girlfriend and they found out about it, and they’re very angry at you. Well, in try to resolve the situation and make peace with your boyfriend or girlfriend, you might say, “I give you my word that this will never happen again.” You are promising or guaranteeing with 100% certainty that you will never lie to them again.

Now, another phrase that has to do with trust and belief is “I’ll take your word for it.” What does this mean? Well, there are actually two ways to use this phrase. “I’ll take your word for it” means I’ll choose to believe you based on the fact that I trust you.

If you say this phrase confidently and directly, then it means I really believe you. For example, if you’re at work, and you asked your coworker to check some calculations, and your coworker comes to you and says “I checked the calculations, and they’re all correct. You can check them if you want.” You can say; “No, that’s ok, I’ll take your word for it.” This means I believe you when you say you checked the calculations, and they are correct.

Now, if you say “I’ll take your word for it” slightly differently, for example, like this; “Well… I’ll take your word for it,” then this means you are skeptical, you don’t really believe the person. Here’s an example of using the phrase in this way.

Imagine that you have a friend who really likes to do dangerous things, and this friend just went skydiving for the first time, and he’s telling you all about his experience and he says, “Skydiving is the most wonderful sensation in the world,” then you can say “Well… I’ll take your word for it…” This means you accept what he’s saying, but you don’t completely believe him, and you don’t want to experience the same sensation of skydiving.

If you have any questions about these expressions, just email me at help@espressoenglish.net and I’m happy to provide further explanation. I hope you’ll join me tomorrow for the next video phrase.

You’ll learn hundreds of conversational English expressions in this course:

Learn English Phrases - I give you my word / I'll take your word for it Espresso English

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