Five clever phrases to make you sound cultured

No guarantees you’ll keep your friends, though.

Let’s say you’re at a networking event, on a first date, or meeting your partner’s parents for the first time. Those are the nerve-wracking moments you want to have something interesting and impressive to say—and even though we both know you’re awesome—it’s nice to know you (hopefully) made a good impression.

We all know the desire to feel like we have something to add to the conversation, so it helps to have a bit of interesting trivia or a great icebreaker in your back pocket. Depending on your audience, peppering in some phrases inspired by art and literature can allow you to connect on interesting subjects and keep the conversation going! It can also give you an added cool factor… or it can make you seem utterly pedantic. I was usually around adults and older children as a kid, so I’ve always had an unusually large vocabulary, and I didn’t always realize that I was losing people in conversations. Learn from my personal experience: Sometimes, your friends will just smile and nod when you unilaterally discuss the French Revolution at length.

That being said, use the following for good, not evil, and have fun with these phrases!