Unit 45. Well, Anyway...

Telling a Story
Unit 45; Part A
![]() Two words you will often hear in conversation are anyway and well. Listen to the conversation below. Notice that anyway and well are often said in quite a high-pitched voice. ![]() A: I nearly got arrested, you know, the other day. B: You what ... arrested? What do you mean? A: Well, I'm doing this project on graffiti, you know, at college, and ehm ... so I have to take lots of photos of graffiti and ... B: Uh huh. A: So anyway, I saw this train with some amazing graffiti on the side, so I went there to ehm... take a photo of it. The thing is, it was a bit far from the platform ... B: So what happened? A: Well, I walked along next to the lines, and then these two ehm .. station police came along and said I shouldn't be there, so ehm ... they took me to the office, and then they asked for my ID card, you know, my identity card ... B: Mmm? A: Well, I didn't have it. I left it at home that day. B: Oh no! A: Yeah, so anyway, then they didn't know what to do with me, so ehm ... I said, "Look. I'll leave my camera here and I go home to get my ID card." In the end, they agreed, so I did thati, and they ehm ... wrote my ID number, and then just let me go ... In the conversation above, A uses anyway to show that sheis moving on to the next part of the story. In this context it isusually pronounced in a high voice. Notice that before the word anyway, the speaker is not moving the story on, she is just giving some background information. Anyway shows she is returning to the story. In the conversation above, A uses well to show that she is responding to B's questions. In this context, it is usually pronounced in a high voice. |
Unit 45; Part B
![]() In the conversation above, notice that the listener B, is notsilent. He asks questions. He also encourages A to continue by makingnoises like uh huh and mmm. Listen again, and notice that he makesthese noises in a low-pitched voice. He does this to show that he doesnot want to speak, he wants A to continue speaking. | |
Exercises
![]() | Unit 44 Unit 45 Unit 46 | ![]() |