English lesson 4: Are You Sure?

“Are You Sure?”

Generally speaking, when it comes to daily conversation, I think Americans like to give their opinions more compared to Japanese. One reason for this might be that in America we must have an opinion about everything, even if we know nothing about it to be polite in social situations. Giving and asking opinions and making personal judgments about something, someone or situations is a daily task in America. As a result, Americans tend to ask and answer a lot of questions all of the time. As a student of English you need to be prepared for this! Don’t panic and think you have to give a perfect answer for every question. You might be asked questions that require you to give an approximate answer. In Japan people are generally trained to give exact, correct and accurate answers. In America, this isn’t necessary because questions asked in conversation to be friendly are taken lightly and can also be answered lightly. Of course in important situations that require accurate answers like a medical emergency we make sure the answer is accurate. In English you will hear people expressing their opinions using words like, “I think so.” This expression is used when the person is not sure of his answer. Let’s look at some related expressions.

Key words:
I think so= not sure; only partly sure
I know so= completely sure
I’m afraid so/not= polite way to give bad news or say “no.”
I hope so/not= not sure; only partly sure for something that is desired to happen
About= a reasonable guess
Approximately= the formal way to give a reasonable guess
Almost= close to
Nearly= close to
Just about= close to
Close to= about
Izzi= is he (reduction)_

Here are some situational examples:
Example: Two friends
(Casual):
w Izzi the actor from that movie?
u I think so.

Example: Two co-workers
(Everyday)
w Do we have to work overtime this weekend?
u I’m afraid so.

Example: Boss to manager
(Formal):
w Will there be a labor strike?
u I hope not. That would really impact our sales forecast.