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Disagreements in Everyday
Conversation, Part Two |
From VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar.
Imagine you are at a business meeting in the United
States. The meeting is held one day after a major
sporting event, like the Super Bowl.
You might hear comments like this:
A: Did you see that terrible call the referee made?
B: Yes, but it didn't matter. Our team would have lost the
game anyway.
C: So, anyway, do you think the budget details are correct or
not?
Why were two of the speakers talking about a football
game at a business meeting? How did they use grammar to
show disagreement?
In our report today, we will answer these questions by
exploring the word anyway.
We will tell about two ways people use anyway to show
disagreement, or contrast, in American English.
Anyway
Today, we are not talking about the term any way, a noun
phrase that has two words – any and way. We are instead
talking about anyway, an adverb that is one word.
Adverbs are words that change the meaning of adjectives,
verbs, or sometimes whole sentences. They tell about a
way of doing things, time, reason, and so on.
Anyway is a common adverb that you will hear in everyday
speech. Like many other adverbs, it can appear at the
beginning, middle, and end of a sentence. Its meaning
can change depending on where it is found in the
sentence.
Today, we will consider the use of anyway at the
beginning and end of the sentence.
Two of the most common uses of
anyway in conversation
Susan Conrad and Douglas Biber are two experts on
English grammar. They say there are two main uses of
anyway in everyday conversation.
#1 Show contrast with another
speaker's point
The first use of anyway is to show contrast with another
speaker's earlier comments.
This does not necessarily mean that one speaker
disagrees with another. It just means that one speaker
is comparing one idea or thing with another.
When anyway has this meaning, it generally appears at
the end of the sentence.
Here is an example:
Passenger: I'm not sure if I have my bus ticket.
Bus Driver: That's OK. I'll let you ride anyway.
#2 Show that you want to talk
about a different topic
The second common use of anyway is to show that a
speaker wants to talk about a different subject.
It could mean that the speaker wants to move back to the
main point of discussion. The speaker could also use
anyway to show that they think another issue is more
important.
When anyway has this meaning, it generally is found at
the beginning of the sentence.
Here is an example. Imagine a group of students are
meeting after school to prepare for a biology test.
A: What are you doing this weekend? I'm going to a movie.
B: I'm going to play video games!
C: Anyway, I think we need to go back to studying our biology
notes.
Think back to the conversation at
the beginning of the story
Think back to the comments you heard at the beginning of
this story.
A: Did you see that terrible call the referee made?
B: Yeah, but it didn't matter. Our team would have lost the
game anyway.
C: So, anyway, do you think the budget details are correct or
not?
You might notice that there are two forms of
disagreement or contrast in this example. There are also
two uses of the word anyway in the conversation.
One speaker uses it to provide a contrasting point about
the call the referee made.
Another speaker uses anyway to show that she wants to
return to the main issue under consideration at a
business meeting: the budget. This speaker probably does
not believe that the game is an important subject. In
this sense, she is showing disagreement or contrast.
Anyway and politeness
One important point to remember is this: Americans will
often use other words in front of words that show
contrast or disagreement.
Speakers will use these words to soften the sudden or
unexpected change in conversation. This is probably why
the female speaker uses the word "so" before the word
anyway.
She is probably expressing annoyance at her coworkers'
comments, but does not want to stop them in a very
forceful or impolite way.
Americans can also use the word "well" before anyway to
serve this same purpose – softening a sudden change in
the conversation.
Using the word anyway at the beginning of the sentence
can appear to be impolite at times. How polite or
impolite the word sounds might depend on the speaker's
voice. It also depends on the person you are speaking
to.
Here is an example of a softer, more polite way to use
anyway when you want to go back to an important subject:
"Well, anyway, I would like to go back to the topic we
were previously discussing…"
And here is a forceful, impolite way to show someone
that you want to go back to an important subject. You
will notice that the speaker uses the word anyway.
"ANYWAY, I want to talk about an important topic."
What can you do?
These rules are not easy to learn. However, learning
them will help you understand Americans when they speak.
You will be able to understand disagreements about what
is important to discuss, and how to change a topic in a
polite way.
The next time you are watching an American film or
television show, try to study how Americans change
subjects or express disagreement. You might notice that
they use different or similar grammatical constructions.
I’m Jill Robbins.
And I'm Phil Dierking.
John Russell wrote this story for Learning English.
George Grow was the editor. |
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Words in This Story |
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conversation – n.
an informal talk involving two people or a small
group of people
- contrast
– n. something that is
different from another thing
- phrase
– n. a group of two or
more words that express a single idea but do not
usually form a complete sentence
- adverb
– n. a word that
describes a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a
sentence and that is often used to show time,
manner, place, or degree
- annoyance
– n. something that
causes feelings of slight anger or irritation
- referee
– n. a sports official
who has power to make judgments or rulings in a game
- grammar
– n. the study of the
classes or words and how they are used
- impolite
– adj. demonstrating or
relating to bad behavior
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