Hi Tim here with another

nine-to-five English lesson

Today we're going to learn how to make generalizations in English

don't you hate it when people say things like

Americans are rude. I mean not all

Americans are rude and people in other countries are rude, too. It's simply not helpful to say

Something is true of a whole group of people

When it's negative like that, it feels wrong

But it can be helpful to describe a group of people as long as we're clear that it's not

Everyone we're talking about

we call this a

generalization

for example many of my friends work in finance

I'm making a generalization

about my friends and

It doesn't have to be people if I say

Most of our online sales come from Europe. I'm

generalizing about sales

Let's try making a few

generalizations like this

Listen to each example then repeat it for yourself

Ready, let's get started

Very little of our business comes through online sales actually

Many of the customer concerns are about delivery times

Most of the people i've talked - like the new website on

The whole our employees are pretty happy with their jobs

Did you hear that expression on the whole

That's a useful phrase. That means in general

you're not talking about everything or

everyone

just overall or

mainly

besides phrases like on the whole you can make this type of

generalization with words like most and

little

now we don't only generalize about how much or how many

we also

generalize about what happens

For example, you might say something like the department budget is normally reviewed by our manager

that word

normally tells us that it doesn't always happen, but

It usually does

let's practice some examples of

generalizing about things that happen

Remember to repeat the examples after you hear them

Generally speaking. We see higher sales in the summer months

Nine times out of ten customers. Give us great feedback

Normally our new employees go through a training program

In most cases we finish our projects ahead of schedule

So besides normally you can use expressions like in most cases and

Generally speaking and the other expression we heard is

Nine times out of ten. That sounds pretty exact. Doesn't it?

But it really just means in most cases

We don't really mean exactly ninety percent of the time

This leads me to talk about how often

something happens

that's something we can generalize about as well and

It's very important. Which words you use you want to be

Somewhat accurate for example, are you late for work usually?

sometimes

or

rarely

these are

frequency words

If you don't use a frequency word

Then you are

suggesting that something always or

never happens and

That might not be true

Let's try some of these expressions for generalizing about how often something happens

Once again, repeat the examples after you hear them

People don't usually buy something on their first visit

More often than not we run out of paper before the end of the month

It's pretty rare that people complain about our service

Our staff meetings often lasts more than 90 minutes

You probably already know the word often but what do you think more often than not

means

It actually just means more than 50% of the time

We also heard the adjective rare that's made from the word

rarely meaning not often

some other frequency words have adjective forms such as

usually which becomes

usual but others such as

often don't

Okay, so we've practiced some expressions for generalizing

about how many about how things happen and

how often

But how does this sound in a?

conversation

Let's listen to a short

dialogue between

justine, and andy they're talking about andy's customers and

products

Let's listen

So, where are your customers located

Most of them are in Canada and the US and are they happy with your products? Well, it's pretty rare that we get any complaints

That's pretty simple, right

When justine asks about the location of andy's customers

he says that most of them are in canada and

the US

he's

generalizing about how many

Then he says that it's rare that they get complaints about their products. That's

generalizing about how often something happens

Makes sense, right?

Now it's your turn to practice

Will repeat the dialogue but this time we're going to be out the second speakers words

You will have to say those parts

yourself

Remember to say that most of the customers are in Canada and the US

Then say it's pretty rare to get complaints

So, where are your customers located

And are they happy with your products

Alright that's all for this lesson

we've learned some great ways to generalize about how many about what happens and

About how often things happen

We'll be back soon with some more

useful English expressions

Until then so long and happy learning