Question Type 1: Basic Description Questions

3. Vague Language

One language feature that sounds like native-speaker English is vague language. Vague language is best described language that is not exact.

Look at the following example:

You usually need to buy them in a special shop like a craft shop or somewhere like that.

The phrase "or somewhere like that" is vague language.

Use the following vague language in your answers:

Rounding up the time:

I arrived about half past six.

When I arrived it was almost half past six.

When I arrived it was half six-ish.

It was nearly half past six when we arrived.

List completers include words such as things and stuff.

• 
  I usually watch documentaries and things like that.
  
• 
  I usually watch documentaries and stuff like that.
  
• 
  I’m quite fond of reading magazines and things / stuff.
  
• 
  I might buy a book or something like that.
  
• 
  I usually buy books and DVDs or stuff like that.
  
• 
  I might buy a book or whatever.
  
• 
  I might go to the park or whatever.
  
• 
  I might go with my classmates or whoever.
  

Do not use too many list completers in your speaking test. A good guideline would be 4 or 5 examples across the whole interview.

Quantities

Vague language is very common with numbers when expressing quantity, frequency or the time. Lower numbers are often expressed by phrases such as: a couple of, a few. Whereas, larger numbers are rounded up with: about, around or replaced with: lots of, loads of.

With vague language, "a couple" does not usually mean “two”; it can mean "up to three" or even "four". When you do not want to give accurate numbers, you can use the following:

• 
  There were about 30 odd students in my class.
  
• 
  There were about 30 or so people at the party.
  
• 
  She’s not that old.
  
• 
  I'd say she's about 40-ish.
  
• 
  There are a lot of / lots of / loads of choices.
  
• 
  I’ve been to Beijing a couple of / a few times.
  
• 
  I think I saw about / around 10 or so.