How to start thinking in English (instead of translating everything)

Discover practical tips to stop relying on translation, build everyday language habits and improve your English fluency, whether you’re studying at home or learning English in the UK.

What does it actually mean to think in English?

Thinking in English means that you use English automatically, instead of translating in your head first. So when someone asks you “How was your weekend?” you answer “Really good actually” before you’re brain has had chance to think about it.

It’s not something that happens overnight. It starts in small ways, like greetings, food, and the words you use every day. And it’s not just a byproduct when you learn English in the UK - you can improve your spoken English by actively working on this. We’re going to show you how.

By the way, in case it’s your first time here, we’re ELC, officially the UK’s no.1 group of English language schools in the UK. We offer English courses in the UK in three really interesting locations. We love all things English, which is why we’ve written this. Now back to the subject…

Why is it so hard to stop translating in your head?

When you first learn a new language, you usually learn it through a word you already know. “Chair” gets attached to “chaise” or “Stuhl” or “silla” or the word in your own language. That word is already attached to the idea of a chair, so your brain tends to connect the idea, then your word for it, then the English word.

The older you are, the more likely that you learned English as a second language by a translation method, rather than learning English via immersion where everything is in English.

Translating isn’t a bad habit you need to break. It’s a great way to start, but you can teach your brain to connect directly between the idea/thing and the word in English, without passing through your own language first.

How to start thinking in English

We don’t think in full sentences, even in our own language, so don’t put yourself under pressure to do that in English. You start by having fragments of language ready to go.

Use what you have

Most important, is to stick with the English words and phrases, and the grammatical structures and tenses that you definitely know already, regardless what level you’re at.

Name what you see

Whether you’re studying English in the UK like one of our students, or you’re in your country, the simplest way to start thinking in English is to build automatic connections by quietly naming the objects you see around you, or describing the scenes you see, for example, on your journey into school or work.

Rehearse conversations

As we’ll see later in this article, focussing on repeated language is both a great way to become fluent in English and a good starting point for thinking in English. If you know what you are likely to say in certain situations, like buying lunch, asking for a coffee, greeting your classmates in the morning, you can rehearse these snippets of language. Very quickly, these can become automatic things you say that never pass through your first language.

Learn English in phrases, not just individual words

If you visit a new country and you don’t know its language at all, you’ll often use a phrase book or app to ask for things and greet people. That’s great for survival language, but without understanding the grammar and vocabulary, it’s hard to remember those sorts of phrases, and you’re literally looking for the phrase you need in your own language to find the translation.

But once you’re learning English, and you do have an understanding of grammar, vocabulary, tenses etc, this is a great time to go back to phrases, because this time round they will be more memorable.

Helpful fillers

You can start with useful phrases like:

• Let me think…
• How can I put this?
• That’s a good question

These give you a few seconds to think what you’re going to say next, and these can be totally automatic after a few days of using them.

Steal other people’s phrases

If you’re studying English in the UK, you’ll overhear a lot of native speakers of English.

Listen out for phrases you like - especially the things that amuse you or intrigue you.

You might not always knows what the speaker is saying - so try and make a quick note of what you think they said on your phone, then explain the situation to your teacher and ask them what they think the phrase might have been. Just the attention you give to the phrase will lock it into your brain, directly as an English phrase, making you much more likely to use it yourself.

What to do when you don’t know the English word

You don’t need to be learning English to forget the word for something. Everyone does it, including native speakers. Rather than stopping you from expressing yourself and you needing to switch into ‘translation mode’, try and push through.

Say you’ve forgotten “colander”. You could say “the bowl with holes in it, for draining pasta”. Everyone will understand, and you’ve kept the conversation going in English. A few patterns that help:

• Describe what it does: “It’s the thing you use to...”
• Say what it’s like: “It’s a kind of...” or “It’s like a..., but smaller.”
• Use a simpler word: “a big shop” instead of “a department store” works fine.
• Ask: “What’s the word for...?” is English too, and people are usually happy to help.

Does thinking in English make you more fluent?

Yes it does, because you’re skipping the translation task which is automatically going to improve English fluency.

But speaking English fluently doesn’t necessarily mean you’re accurate. It’s important to keep on learning new vocabulary, keep studying the language, so as you become more fluent, you also become more accurate.

How long does it take to start thinking in English?

There’s no single answer to this. You’ll hear our students say “Sometimes I dream in English”, and that’s all part of the process. The more vocabulary you know, the more phrases you learn, and the more practice you get, the more your brain is going to start processing that information when you’re not expecting it.

Be prepared for this to happen randomly, and for your progress to be non-linear. One day you can be speaking English all day without thinking about it, the next day, you’re struggling to put a sentence together! Our ability to produce language depends on so many other factors, like our confidence, our mood, how much sleep we’ve had, whether we’re relaxed, too relaxed, or super focussed, etc. Be kind to yourself as your brain processes everything.

But for sure, thinking in English can certainly happen long before you become fluent in English!

The final step: Not even thinking at all!

Let’s finally look at how the brain works - which is all to do with predictive processing and saving energy. The human brain is actually designed to avoid you having to think, because the more you have to think and figure things out, the more energy that uses.

Instead, our brains seek out ways to function automatically, by using predictable, established patterns, and doing as much as possible ‘on autopilot’.

Once you’ve learned to ride a bike, most of what you do to make the thing go forwards (balancing, pedalling, braking, steering) happens without you thinking about it.

This frees your brain to focus on the unpredictable parts of the activity, like following signs to your destination or looking out for pedestrians crossing in front of you.

When it comes to language, your brain is no different.

In our first language, particularly in everyday situations, we’ll often have a set of things we’ll say pretty much without thinking, which become our standard responses (and part of our character) in certain situations.

What we say in any situation is often connected to three aspects of communication:

• What we think about the person we’re speaking to
• What they want us to do, and how we react to that
• The relationship between us and the person

So if you’re at home and your parent or partner or brother/sister speaks to you, the three aspects of communication will often dictate what you’re going to say to them.

For example,

“Can you take the bins (garbage) out please?” might be answered with:

• “I did it last time, why don’t you do it?” (I think you’re being lazy)
• “Sure, no problem, I’ll do it now” (I don’t mind being asked, and I’m happy to help)
• “I’ll do it later, I’m just watching a film” (I am comfortable negotiating with you).

In your first language, there’s a good chance you won’t even be thinking at all when you say these things.

So one way to improve your spoken English is to identify some of the phrases that match your personality, what you usually say in certain situations, so that these become as automatic when you’re speaking English as when you’re talking in your own language!

How immersion helps you think naturally in English

At home, translating is always an option, because there’s usually time. Living in England takes that time away. The person serving you coffee asks a follow-up question. The bus driver says something you didn’t expect. Someone at dinner asks what you did today.

There’s no time and space to translate, so you either ‘glitch’, or you answer with the English you have.

What makes immersion so effective is that you aren’t practising thinking in English for an hour a day. You’re doing it all day, and you’re repeating similar tasks each day. It’s that repetition in context that gives you the best opportunities to start thinking in English, and ultimately, start speaking without even thinking in English!

It’s one of the main reasons people choose to learn English in the UK.

Find out more about the official number 1 group of language schools in the UK

At ELC, lessons give you the structure: the phrases, the grammar and the confidence to use them. Then the town around the school gives you the practice, whether that’s the seafront in Brighton or Eastbourne, or the old streets of Chester.

If you want to improve your spoken English and stop translating in your head, our English courses in the UK are a good place to start.