AEE 2699: When to Avoid the Word Regurgitate in English

This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 2699, When to Avoid the Word Regurgitate in English. Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA.

Hey, Michelle, how are you today? Hi, Aubrey. I'm doing well. How are you? Excellent. I have a question for you. Sure. If ever you didn't understand something in class or maybe the teacher called on you and you weren't prepared, did you ever just sort of reiterate what the teacher had just said?

I have totally done that. Oh, yeah, for sure. You're just kind of... You just kind of say, oh, yeah, I agree. And you just kind of say the same thing.

Just try to play it off. That can happen. For sure. Say it in other words. It seems like you think you're so smart. But now, in hindsight, the teacher totally saw through us.

Right. Well, today's episode was inspired by a local news show that I was watching. And the news anchor sort of made a little bit of an error and said to a guest, something like, I'm going to regurgitate what you just said. And I remember thinking, regurgitate?

Would we say that? Right? It's an accident. Do the other news anchor have a reaction? Not really, right? They just kind of move through it, which I know this happens to us a lot, podcasting.

We'll just use a different word than we meant, and you don't even notice because you're sort of thinking of the next thing. I'll catch it sometimes in the transcripts. I'm like, oh, funny, that should have been this. We all do it.

Native speakers do this. If ever you guys out there do this, it's normal, right? Yeah. That's why it's connection, not perfection. It happens. It happens.

But I was like, this is an interesting topic because regurgitate has quite a negative connotation. And there's another word that would be better, which is reiterate. This is likely what the news anchor meant to say. So I thought this would be interesting to share today these two different words and why you usually would not use regurgitate.

Yeah, exactly. So everyone, just we want to remind you before we get further into this to hit subscribe or follow wherever you're listening. And also, please, wherever you are listening, if you could do this on Apple Podcasts, you could do this on YouTube, you could even write how you feel about the show. But we would love for reviews.

I think Apple is the best. Where else can we leave reviews, Aubrey? Yeah. Spotify, CastBox. Yes. Leave us a review, a rating. We read them. We love them.

So wherever you listen, leave a review. Yeah, probably those better than YouTube. YouTube is more comments, but still write to us on YouTube. But thank you so much for any of those, any listeners who have reviewed us.

All right, let's get into it. So for starters, so again, both of these words loosely mean to repeat, but the connotations are very different. So if you understand this subtle difference that's important for connection and your choice of words affects how the other person receives them... Exactly, right.

There is a chance that other person was sort of like, interesting regurgitate, but they might not have clocked it. But a lot of people listening probably did because that's it, right? It's whenever we say regurgitate, we're kind of imagining like some sort of unpleasant behaviors, right?

Yes, exactly. So should we break down the differences? Yeah. Yeah, let's do it. So in general, off the top here, you're going to use regurgitate very rarely.

But reiterate, we use a lot at work in daily conversations. When we say we're going to sort of repeat what someone has said in other words, let me just reiterate that. Or for emphasis, we're repeating for emphasis, right? I want to reiterate what you said because I think it's so important.

Yes, exactly. And regurgitate literally means to vomit, right? Or to puke, you might hear. So yeah, it's often used to mean repeat what someone else said, but it takes on a more negative connotation.

And it implies that you're just repeating what they said almost word for word, almost like you swallow it and it comes back up. It's this thoughtless regurgitation. repetition.

And you may not actually understand what you're saying. So actually, maybe in the classroom example from the beginning, maybe it could be regurgitation rather than regurgitation. A teacher might say, I feel like you just regurgitated what I said. If they say that is unkind, it is a criticism.

What they are saying is you just repeated back exactly what I said. You're not thinking about it. I wouldn't say that as a teacher because I would recognize like this is a student who didn't know what else to say. So it still has such an

a negative connotation that as a teacher, I would just like, let it go, let them save face, right? Let's do a little role play here to show how this might look. I might say, I can't stand that influencer. He doesn't have any unique content.

I know he just regurgitates other people's ideas. Yeah, this is a perfect example where you are intending to criticize, right? Someone is taking other clips and just remaking them too similarly to the original idea. So you're intentionally using the word regurgitate to emphasize that you think it's a bad thing.

That's right. That is right. Here's another role play. I don't like discussing politics with her. Her arguments don't sound authentic. I agree. It sounds like she's regurgitating something she read online.

So yeah, this is negative connotation. I hope she doesn't overhear this conversation. I hope not. I hope not. Or I might say he's just regurgitating what I already said earlier.

That's annoying. But you know what they say? Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Oh, I love that phrase. This is sort of a bonus today. And it's great to do a whole episode about this.

In fact, Hit follow. We definitely will. Yeah, hit follow. I think we should just save this for another time because there's so much we could say with this.

Yes, that's a great phrase. So yeah, we'll bring that back later. And let's dive into reiterate now, right? Much more positive connotation means repeating something, but usually making it clearer or emphasizing something more so others understand or realize the import.

Right. So it kind of has more of a neutral to a positive tone. And it's often used in professional or polite conversations. So it could be work in the classroom, giving a formal presentation, formal explanation.

And it suggests that you're actually helping the listener understand. You are not repeating word for word, but you're highlighting specific information to make it clearer. So that's an important distinction. Exactly.

Right. Let's do a couple role plays here. Want to start us out for one? Sure. Here we go. I missed that. Can you reiterate what you said earlier about our homework assignment?

Sure. I was explaining that it's due in milestones, not all at once. So it's interesting. Often, it is interchangeable to say repeat or reiterate. You could say, can you repeat what you said earlier?

Often, reiterate we're saying because, like we said, we want to emphasize or clarify something. We're asking them not to say it exactly how they said it, like to rephrase it in order to clarify.

Right, exactly. So here's another one. I'm having trouble following the debate. Oh, I can reiterate the main points if you want. This is perfect, right?

Because I'm not, it almost would be condescending to say I can repeat the main points. Yeah. We wouldn't say that, right? But reiterate is perfect here because I am saying I'll sort of like rephrase them with my understanding to help hopefully clarify.

Exactly. Or here's another one. The manager reiterated that we need to have everything in by the deadline. Wow. She really doesn't want us to be late.

Yeah. So that means she let us know once and then reiterated it for emphasis to make sure we understood how important it was. That's right. All right.

What about some similar words? Of course, we talked about repeat. This is the most common. Just means to say something again, usually exactly the way you said it, right?

Yes, exactly. So this is very common, the everyday option. There's no emphasis, no judgment, and it can be word for word or slightly rephrased. So here are a couple little role plays.

Sorry, can you repeat that? I didn't hear you. Yeah, I said we're meeting at eight, not seven. Okay, right. Or it would actually be strange to say reiterate there, right?

You just didn't hear something basic information, what they said. Exactly. Okay. Or here's another one. Wait, repeat the address again. Oh, it's 125 Main Street.

Same idea. Or my mom always repeats things when she's stressed. Yeah, mine too. I think it's only natural. Yeah. And then go over. This is a fun phrasal verb that's very native and natural.

It means to repeat or review something to make sure it's understood. This is more similar to reiterate. Yes, exactly. Yeah, also neutral implies helping someone understand better.

So and you're reviewing or explaining something again, and it's often could be step by step. So really good for things like homework or directions. So for example, wait, can you go over the plan again?

Sure, we're leaving at six, then stopping for food on the way. Okay, so those steps, right? We're reviewing something. Or here's another one. I didn't really get the directions.

No problem. I'll go over them with you. So yeah, this might happen often at work. If directions are really complicated or unclear, this might be perfect if you share that you're not clear.

They say, oh, let's go over them together. Yeah, right. Exactly. And then this one is really fun. It's parrot. So just like the bird. But so to parrot something is to repeat it exactly without thinking or understanding, just like a parrot would, right?

So this has more of a negative tone because it's not an original thought. You're just repeating something. And it's used kind of in this critical way. Exactly.

So for example, he just parrots whatever his friends say. And then you might say, yeah, I don't think he's formed his own opinion. This is definitely critical. We're saying that they're just repeating one for words, similarly to regurgitate, right?

That they're just repeating the ideas without thinking about it. Or my little cousin keeps parroting everything I say. Kids love to do that. Yes, kids do that all the time, right?

So yeah, let's do a role play here. We're friends discussing a political debate we watched on TV. I'll start us out. Did you watch that debate last night?

Oh, I did, but I wasn't very impressed. Oh, same. It felt like one of the candidates was just regurgitating talking points the whole time. Exactly. And every time he answered, it was basically just repeating the same idea.

Yeah. And the other person kept asking him to reiterate his position and it never really got clearer. I noticed that too. And whenever he got pushed, he'd just go over the same point again and again instead of actually responding.

Right. It's like he was parroting what he'd been told rather than speaking for himself. Hopefully he steps up in the next debate. He better or he's going to lose votes quickly.

Okay. It's really good work that you use them all in a conversation like this, right? But it is interesting how the connotation is different, right? There's more criticism depending on the word you use.

Yeah, really interesting. So I think you said it felt like one of the candidates was just regurgitating talking points the whole time. So just taking them in and just kind of vomiting them out.

Not really, not literally everyone. Yeah, it's very idiomatic, which that's what's interesting is the literal meaning of this is some, you know, animals will do this or maybe children, but you're just like spitting up food, right? And so it's this really gross image, this negative connotation. So that is very critical to say someone was regurgitating an idea and

And it does kind of bring up this like gross mental image. And so if you're using that, it is pretty rare. But if you are, it's intended to be really critical.

Yeah, definitely. Basically, I just was repeating, they were repeating the same idea. And yeah, this, this works perfectly. You're just saying they weren't coming up with anything new or creative, just saying the same thing over and over.

Right. And then you said, yeah, and the other person kept asking him to reiterate his position, and it never really got clearer. So he was asking to maybe explain it in different ways, slightly different, or just go over the most important things. But this person was just regurgitating, not reiterating.

Exactly. They were repeating something by rote, word for word, which sort of made it seem like they didn't understand the idea or didn't really have a clear opinion. And then they weren't able to paraphrase in a way that made sense. Interesting.

And then this phrasal verb go over, I said, whenever he got, or you said, and whenever he got pushed, he'd just go over the same point again and again. Yeah. So this, we use this a few different ways, whether we are going over things together to make sure we all understand, or this would sort of be in the same as repeating, going over the same thing again and again.

Yes, exactly. And then we move on to the parrot. You said, yeah, it's like he was parroting what he'd been told rather than speaking for himself. So another negative tone, negative connotation.

No one wants to be compared to a parrot. That is definitely critical, right? Exactly. Oh, such a great vocab here. And this is really important for connection because like this, if you're talking about a debate or coworkers or someone who is sort of just repeating the same ideas, it is important that you know the connotations of these different words because you could accidentally be really rude, really critical, offend someone.

So it's important to know the different meanings of these. Yeah, really, really helpful here. So if you want to check out another interesting episode, we just did 2696. That was hate homework, how to connect about it in English.

That was definitely an interesting one. Yes, go check that out. Scroll up if you missed it. Be sure to hit follow if you missed that one. And so that you can catch our upcoming episode on that fun phrase we were talking about.

And yeah, like we were saying, these do have very different meanings. You're not going to use regurgitate very often. And you want to make sure that you're intending some really intense criticism, negative criticism if you use it. Yeah, exactly.

All right. Well, thanks for talking about this with me today, Aubrey. And we'll talk to you next time, everyone. See you guys next time. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English.

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