Tip 144 ”on the fence”　無料ビジネス英語学習

無料ビジネス英語学習 Words & Phrases 第144弾は、”on the fence” です。

YesかNoか、答えを出すまでには迷うことってありますよね。
今回はそんな場面で使える表現を紹介します。

例えば、ヒカは同僚のタロウに
“So are you coming to the seminar?”「セミナー来るの？」と聞きました。
「まだ決めてないよ。」と伝えたい場合、あなたがタロウなら英語で何と言いますか？

“I haven’t decided yet.”「まだ決めていません。」
でも伝わりますが、より自然に聞こえるイディオムがあります。

そこで
“I’m still on the fence.”「まだ決めてないよ。」
と言ってみましょう。

発音もビデオでチェック！
「どっちつかず」という意味のこの表現をぜひ使ってみて下さい。

Hello and welcome to this Bizmates
words and phrases video series

and today's idiom is "On

the fence." On the fence. What does this
mean? We will find out,

but first let's do our test.

Okay, So, I ask you

"How's the new system? You know, our new computer system,

"

I give up!" But you could say... there you go!

It's a lost cause. I'd given up.

Much more natural! Okay. A lost

cause. I hope you got that. Let's go on

to today's idiom "on the fence." Now here's what I

sometimes hear, like this: So

Taro is my colleague, and I say "So Taro,

hey are you coming to the seminar? You
know I'm going to have a seminar and

I want you to see it. Are you coming? And he says

Yeah, I haven't decided yet.

This is a perfect answer. I haven't
decided yet.

But if you want to sound a little bit more
natural, with a cool

idiom, you can say like this

So if I say "Taro are you coming to the
seminar? Are you coming to my seminar?

and he says "I'm still on the fence."

I'm still on the fence.

Very natural! So he has not decided

yet. He doesn't know if he's gonna go to
the "Yes"

or "No." He's on that border

the "fence." Okay, let's look at
pronunciation

it's, I'm stillon the fence

I'm still on the fence. Okay,

you try... Good! Okay, with my question

So are you coming to the seminar?

Please decide. Okay, like this.

For homework next time I'm going to ask
you

So are you coming to the seminar? And you say...

that's right. "I'm still on the fence."

Please remember this and we'll see you
next time.

Thank you.