Speaker 1: Hi, again. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today's lesson is... Actually, I had a few requests for, so I'm not going to mention names right now because there's too many to mention. But some people asked me about transitions, again, specifically, therefore and thus. But I figured I will do the whole package because they can all work together. If you're writing essays, you can use more than one of these, more than two of these, especially for longer essays. So first, we're going to look at the differences or similarities, as the case may be, of these words and when and how they are used. Okay? So the words we're looking at today are therefore, thus, consequently, so, then, hence, and the expression as a result. Okay? So again, all of these are transitions. I'll put it here. So a little review. What is a transition? A transition is like a bridge that connects two ideas. Okay? So what are we connecting here? What are the ideas that we want to connect? We want to connect a logical conclusion. Okay? Or we want to connect a consequence. What is a consequence? A consequence is basically a result. So for example, in life, we make choices, we make decisions, and then we have to live with the consequences, whatever those choices bring us. Okay? So there's a very, very slight difference in these three words, especially. These are the three that I want you to use most on essays if you're going to be writing essays. Okay? We use therefore, again, it's more of a mathematical word, but we use it obviously to write as well. When we have a premise, from the premise, we generally reach a conclusion. Now, what is a premise? A premise is an idea that we believe to be true. And because we believe it is true, from that truth, we reach a conclusion. Okay? I think everybody knows the very famous premise-conclusion sentence, I think premise. I believe that I think, therefore, I am. That's the conclusion I reach. Because I think, I am. Okay. Don't be confused. It's not because. It's premise and conclusion, but I'm just trying to simplify it a little bit. Thus means result. Now, it's a little bit different from consequence. Result means a result of the last argument. Okay? And consequence is, again, it's a result, but it's a consequence. Something's going to happen as a result of the thing before. Now, it's very, very important to remember something had to be mentioned before you can use any of these words. Okay? All of these words and whatever sentence or clause or whatever comes after it is in relation to what came before. Okay? I said something before, this is my conclusion now. Or this is the result of what happened. Or this is the consequence. More informally, we can use so, also to talk about a consequence or a result. We use then, so this happened, then I did this. Not then like time, like sequence. Then means more like this happened, so I did this. This happened, then I did that as a result of the first thing. Now, a lot of people ask me about this word, hence. The first thing I will say is don't use it. One, it's a bit old-fashioned and a little bit snobby. And two, most people don't use it correctly anyway. I personally don't like this word, but if you must use it, then remember it's also like a consequence, you can use it instead of thus, probably instead of therefore. And of course, very casual as a result. Okay? So before we look at this, all of these individually, let's look at some examples. I'm cold. Okay? This is a situation. I'm cold, therefore I'll put on a coat. Excuse me. Okay, you know what? Let me change this, sorry. I'll put a period here. If I was going to use therefore with this, I would start a new sentence. All of these words can be used to start a sentence or mid-sentence, but some of them are better used to start, some of them are better used in the middle. I'm cold, therefore I'll put on a coat. Now, if I'm grading your essay, let's say you're writing IELTS or TOEFL, et cetera, and you wrote, therefore I'll put on a coat, I will actually take off points. Why? Because you're trying to impress me. For something this casual, don't use therefore, use so. I'm cold, so I'll put on a coat. This is a situation, this is what I'm going to do as a result of this situation. I'm cold, and then I would put period, then I'll put on a coat. I've made a decision, I'll put on a coat as a result of being cold. Okay? Don't use therefore, don't use thus. Consequently, I won't take off points, but I won't give you points either. Okay? So, then, or okay, don't do it, and as a result, again, a little bit too formal for this context. But, let's look at a slightly more sophisticated context, a little bit better written sentence and see what the difference is. Okay, so let's look at this sentence now. It's a little bit more formal, we're talking about something a little bit more serious. We're going to look at the situation and the result or consequence, et cetera. Sales shrank, and the competition was increasing its market share. Okay, you're talking about maybe this is a business article, or you're talking about some sort of product, et cetera. So, this is the situation, this is what is happening with this product or with this company, and they want to do something. So, you can say, therefore, you're starting the sentence, capital T, beginning of the sentence, therefore, the company decided to invest more in R&D, research and development. Consequently, so as a consequence of this situation, the company decided to invest. Thus, the company decided to invest. So, all of these show that this came about as a result of this situation, okay? That's one way. You can also do it mid-sentence. Again, sales shrank and the competition was increasing its market share. The company, therefore, decided to invest, dot, dot, dot. Now, you could put... Actually, I'll do it in purple. You could put commas here, okay? And many people do that. The only difference between with commas and without commas is pace. The company, therefore, decided to. Without commas, the company, therefore, decided to, okay? You want to emphasize this or you want to emphasize the decision, okay? It depends. They drew this decision as a conclusion, okay? Therefore, decided. The company decided... You can even take this out. The company decided to invest more, but you want to show the transition. You want to show the direct link between the two sentences. So, again, the commas, just for pace and what you want to emphasize or not. The company, consequently, decided to. The company, consequently, decided to invest. The company, thus, decided to invest, okay? Thus, okay, I would not put commas. Don't put commas with thus because it slows it down a little bit too much. The company, thus, decided to invest, okay? This is a bit more direct link, so you can't put the commas to de-emphasize. It's a direct emphasis. That's one. Now, let's look at another way of doing this. It was too expensive, okay? Let's say down the... We're talking about the same article. We're talking about research and development. They wanted to invest more, but then they realized that it was too expensive. So, here, if I'm using so, remember, in an essay, if you've used therefore, thus, and consequently already, you don't want to repeat many words. In this case, it's okay to use so. Don't use so casually, but if you've used the other ones too many times, you want variety, so you can start using so as well. It was too expensive, so they decided to do something else. It was too expensive. See here? Semicolon. I hope you can see that. Consequently is a perfect word to use after a semicolon. It was too expensive. It's like a stop, but it's not, but it's not a comma either. Consequently, they decided to do something else. It was too expensive, and thus. So, here, I'm using thus instead of the semicolon. You could use thus after the semicolon as well. You could use and so. Notice that I'm not using therefore, okay? Because this is more of a consequence than it is a conclusion. I'm not taking this to be a truth, and because of the truth, I'm reaching a conclusion. It's a consequence. So, you see, there's a slight, very slight difference between therefore and thus, or consequently. And if you can use the words correctly in an essay, extra points for you, especially if I'm marking it, because I like that, okay? Now, we're going to look at one more example, and then we'll understand it a little bit better. Okay, so let's look at the last example here. Actually, the last couple of examples here. I want you to also realize that you can use two of these transitions in one sentence or in one situation. The job was too demanding, so many people quit. Consequently, the company hired new employees. So, this so shows the connection between these two ideas within one sentence, and then the next sentence shows the consequence of the last sentence, okay? So, don't be afraid to mix them up. You can have more than one idea. One situation resulted in another situation. The entire situation resulted in a whole other consequence, for example, right? And another thing I want to mention, so is used in many different ways. Be careful that you're using the right form or the right function of so. I could've written, the job was so demanding that many people quit, okay? That's a little bit different form of so, because here we're talking about modifying demanding, and the that would be the result part of it, okay? I don't want to confuse you. I don't want to get into that. Just understand so has many uses. Make sure you're using it correctly to join another clause to another clause, and to have a logical consequence relationship. And then, the next sentence begin with a clause relating again to the last sentence completely. Now, one other thing, and some of you may be reading, and you may actually come across this, for example, in TOEFL or IELTS, thus. Thus can sometimes mean like this, or like that, okay? If the model is thus constructed, so if the model is constructed this way, or like this, the result will vary, and we won't know what the real answer is. So be careful. Thus has a completely different meaning. Again, a little bit old-fashioned. People don't really use it very much anymore, but you may see it. Make sure you understand what it means. And I didn't mention, and so far I didn't mention then. It's too difficult. Person A says it's too difficult. Person says, then practice more. This then means this is a situation. This is what you should do, the result. I could say, so practice more, then practice more. I will not say, as a result of it being difficult, you should practice more. Don't say that. Very, very casual, okay? In very casual, especially spoken situations, you might want to use then. Again, I could put hence here, but I don't want to. I don't want you to either, but if you insist on using hence, you could put it here. It's basically showing the relationship of situation, result, okay? If you're still not sure, go to www.engvid.com. I put a quiz up there. You can practice some more with these. Leave questions and comments in the comment section, and also subscribe to my YouTube channel, and I'll see you again soon. Thanks.