Focus: Helping you gain confidence in speaking English in public.
Objective: Learn 50+ transition words to enhance your English vocabulary for professional and advanced communication.
What are Transition Words?
Definition:
Individual words or phrases used to organize ideas and show connections.
Common in academic/formal writing, but also beneficial for spoken English.
Benefits: Helps in expanding ideas, making speech sound more advanced and professional.
Categories of Transition Words
1. Cause and Effect
Examples: Consequently, hence, accordingly, thus, for that reason, as a result, therefore, so, since, because, due to.
Usage: Connect ideas to show causation.
E.g., "I spilled my coffee. As a result, I changed my shirt."
Formality: Choose transition words based on the context (e.g., avoid too formal words in casual speech).
2. Chronology
Examples: First, firstly, to start, to begin, at the beginning, second, secondly, after, afterwards, next, then, subsequently, later, finally, lastly.
Usage: Organize events based on time sequence.
E.g., "I went to the store, worked out, and made dinner."
3. Contrast
Examples: However, although, though, but.
Usage: Highlight opposing ideas.
E.g., "I love ice cream, but I'm lactose intolerant."
4. Addition
Examples: Furthermore, moreover, further, additionally, in addition, also, and.
Usage: Add similar ideas.
E.g., "I love ice cream, and I love cake."
5. Generality
Examples: In general, generally, generally speaking, by and large, for the most part, most of the time, more often than not, usually, typically, mostly.
Usage: Describe situations that are true most of the time.
E.g., "In general, our meetings are very productive."
6. Examples
Examples: For example, as an example, for instance.
Usage: Strengthen arguments or ideas by providing examples.
E.g., "This software has really helped us. For example, it reduced our error rate by 40%."
7. Emphasis
Examples: In fact, as a matter of fact.
Usage: Strengthen points with supporting information.
E.g., "I love pie. In fact, it's my favorite dessert."
8. Conclusion
Examples: In conclusion, to conclude, to summarize, in sum, all things considered, finally, overall, ultimately, in the end, to wrap up, to sum up, all in all.
Usage: End statements, speeches, or presentations.
E.g., "Ultimately, if we want to remain competitive, we have to invest in automation."
Bonus Tip: Expanding Ideas with Transition Words
Use transition words to elaborate further on an idea.
Start with a base idea and pick transition words from different categories to expand on it.
E.g., "In general, our meetings are very productive. However, they usually run over time. For example, today our meeting was scheduled to end at 11 and it went until 11:17. As a result, I was late for a meeting with a client. Additionally, I had to work through lunch to catch up."
Conclusion
Call to Action: Practice using transition words by commenting with examples.
Resources: Free speaking guide available at JForrestEnglish.com