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  • Hi. My name is Rebecca. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to show empathy for someone

  • else. Empathy is the ability to show that you care about the other person. So, when

  • somebody says something to you, you want to be able to respond in a way that shows that

  • you understand how they're feeling, and that's what I'm going to show you. You can use this

  • in personal situations, social situations, or business situations, and it will work in

  • all these cases. And the way we're going to do it is by using one simple expression, and

  • then adding a little bit to them. Let me show you.

  • So, the expression you're going to learn today is: "You must be", plus something else. So,

  • you could say either: "You must be happy." Okay? So, for example, you can say: "You must

  • be", plus an adjective; could be a positive adjective, like "happy"; could be a negative

  • adjective, like "tired" or something. And you could also say: "You must be", plus a

  • noun. So, I'm going to show you each of these in actual examples.

  • So, let's say that someone says to you: "I worked all day." So what could you say to

  • them to show that you understand how they must be feeling? And how do you think the

  • person is feeling? Well, if he says: "Mm, I worked all day." So you could say to him:

  • "Wow. You must be tired." Or: "You must be exhausted." Right?

  • Let's say someone says to you: "I just got a promotion." So what can you say to them?

  • "Congratulations. You must be thrilled. You must be very happy." Right? So: "You must

  • be", plus an adjective is what we're doing.

  • Next one, someone tells you: "You know, John lost his cellphone." You say: "Oh no. He must

  • be", all right? So we don't have to say only: "you", you can also say: "he", "they", etcetera,

  • "she", and so on. So, in this case, John lost his cellphone, so you could say: "He must

  • be upset. He must be frustrated." Okay? "He must be angry." One of these words, depending

  • on what you choose.

  • Now, you could also use a slightly different expression. I'm going to show you here. Someone

  • says to you: "Our meeting room is too small." So, let's say we respond with: "You must be",

  • plus an adjective. So then we could say not: "You must be", but in this case, there's another

  • expression. "That". This is when we're talking about situations. So, we could say: "That

  • must be problematic." Or, if we want to use the noun, we can say: "That must be a problem."

  • Okay? So if you're talking about situations versus news, then you can use the expression:

  • "That must be". All right? So... Because we're talking about a fact, a situation. "That must

  • be problematic. That must be a problem."

  • Let's look at another situation. -"We don't speak English very well." -"That must be challenging."

  • Or: "That must be a challenge." Okay? So you see that we could use this expression: "You

  • must be", "He must be", "She must be", "They must be", or: "That must be", plus the adjective/plus

  • a noun. All right?

  • So, now, to practice, I'm going to give you some sentences and you try to think or say

  • what you think would be an appropriate empathetic response. Okay? So, let's say I say to you:

  • "I haven't slept in 48 hours." So, which of these words, which of these adjectives could

  • you use as your response? -"I haven't slept in 48 hours."

  • -"You must be exhausted." Right?

  • "Exhausted" means very tired.

  • "My daughter hasn't answered her phone all day." What would you say if someone said that

  • to you? Which of these? Probably:

  • "You must be really worried." Okay? You can also say:

  • "You must be worried." Or: "You must be really worried.", "You must be very worried."

  • Let's say: "John forgot his presentation at the hotel." What could you say?

  • "Wow. He must be really annoyed."

  • "Annoyed" means upset, angry, irritated. Okay?

  • Another example: "We got the contract." Good news? Bad news? Good news. Right?

  • So, what could you say?

  • "Congratulations. You must be thrilled."

  • Next one: -"John hasn't eaten anything all day." -"Oh no." He must be, what? Well, could

  • be a lot of these, but: "He must be starving." Sometimes we exaggerate-okay?-in English,

  • like here.

  • And last one: "My boss missed his flight." So, what could we say there?

  • Again, there are a few possibilities, but:

  • "He must be really upset. He must be annoyed." Okay?

  • So, you see by using the expression: "You must be", "He must be", "She must be", "That

  • must be", you can express your empathy and your caring about another person, and whatever

  • they have told you. And this enables a conversation to go forward in a very smooth way.

  • So, if you'd like to do some practice on this, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.

  • You can do a quiz there so you can really master this phrase, and you'll also see lots

  • of other English lessons which will help you to improve your English. So, thanks for watching.

  • Bye for now.

Hi. My name is Rebecca. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to show empathy for someone

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