There are certain tricks and subtleties in the way that language can be used that will greatly enhance a cold reading.

Verbal ambiguities

Some words have more than one meaning that can be usefully exploited by the cold reader.

For example

"Somebody here knows George". This is a very useful trick often used by spiritualist mediums in group meetings. It is based on the ambiguity of the word "here" - it could mean either "here in the audience" or "here in the spirit world". In this way, the odds of a hit are effectively doubled.

"I am getting something about a will". This could mean either Will (the personal name) or an inheritance or legal document.

"The word 'book' is somehow relevant". This could refer, for example, to an ordinary book (of pages), or "the Book" (Bible), or the telephone book, or a reservation for a show or flight, or a police booking, or a bookmaker (betting), or a financial account, or it could even be a surname.

By observing how the client interprets an ambiguous word, the reading can then follow up that particular meaning.

Stating questions negatively

A very commonly used verbal trick in cold reading is to ask questions in the negative form.

No matter how the client responds to these questions, the psychic can interpret the response as confirming the statement made.

For example:

"You're not married are you?"

"You weren't brought up in the country were you?"

"You're not an only child are you?"

"You don't believe in reincarnation do you?"

"You haven't had a letter from your mother recently have you?"

If the client answers "No" to such questions, the reader replies with "I thought not". If the answer is "Yes", the reader can say "I thought so". The psychic therefore wins every time.

Repeating information given by the client

The cold reader should file away in memory every bit of information that the client gives during the reading.

This not only allows further deductions to be made from the information given, but the psychic can also exploit the fact that clients will often forget that they have said certain things.

This enables the cold reader to repeat back to the client, at some later point, information that the client has given, as if this information was being received psychically.

Consider this example dialogue: