Improving Your English Conversation: Anyway, By the Way

Watch the video then see the transcript below to check your understanding

The expressions “by the way” and “anyway” are so common in spoken English as they are used as tool for changing subjects and continuing after interruptions.

Do you know how to used them correctly? Find out in this episode of RealLife TV.

Change the way your learn and connect to people from all around the world

Transcript

Hello, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, welcome to another episode of RealLife TV.

I’m Chad, thank you for joining me out here on this beautiful day, and today I’m going to teach you all about how to use the expressions by the way and anyway.

Is this RealLife?

By the Way

The expression by the way is really common in spoken English. This is something you’re not going to see a lot in written English.

The reason is because we use this when we want to relate to either a previous topic or suddenly change the topic of conversation.

For example, if we were talking about our English class, and I suddenly wanted to change the subject of conversation, I would say “Oh, by the way, did you watch the football last night? I can’t believe our team lost!”

So I’ve changed the subject of conversation by using by the way. This is used a lot in spoken English.

Anyway

The phrase anyway is a little bit different.

Generally, anyway is used to show that you have finished one subject of conversation, and you’re going to move on to something new, something different.

For example, if we were talking about our English class, blah blah blah blah blah, I was like “Anyway, I have to go because it’s getting late. So, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I’ve stopped our previous conversation to tell you something else, in this case that I have to go.

So, that is the purpose of the phrase anyway.

So, that’s a really common way to use anyway in the middle of a conversation.

The phrase anyway has a few more meanings, for example, when somebody does something they weren’t supposed to.

For example: “His girlfriend told him not to go to the party, but he went there anyway.” It means he didn’t do what she said, he disregarded her advice or suggestion.

And another more literal way to use this phrase anyway is to show that you’re going to do something by any means, by any manner, and it’s usually related to some kind of verb, some kind of action.

So, I might say to you “Hey, try to learn English anyway you can,” or “Expose yourself to English anyway you can.”

It means using any means, whether it’s a RealLife TV Episode, a RealLife Podcast, maybe an article, anyway you can, practice your English.

That’s it!

Anyway, that’s the end of this episode of RealLife TV.

Don’t forget to check our website reallifeglobal.com, there you will find a lot a lot of our articles, podcast, and videos, but if you want to get our videos first, don’t forget to sign up to our YouTube channel, top right corner there.

And if you want to suggest some topics, maybe something you are having a lot of difficulty with in English, please just write a comment below and we’ll really appreciate your feedback so we can continue making some awesome content for you guys.

Thanks a lot, see you next time on RealLife TV.