In this English lesson, you're going to learn the key phrases
that you need in order to make plans with friends and also the
phrases you need to make new friends.
This is Jack from to Fluency and this English lesson is going to
be super useful for you because making plans with English
speakers is a big part of being able to speak with confidence.
Often when you meet new people, you want to be able to make
plans with them, whether that's to hang out casually, if you
want a new romantic relationship, or if you just
want to meet new acquaintances and people at conferences, at
language schools, wherever it may be.
And at the end, I'll have some key facts and also a really big
tip when it comes to communicating and how to do this
through apps. And as always, try repeating
these out loud. So feel free to pause the video
and go back and repeat what I say.
I'll repeat most phrases twice so you can get some good
practice. All right, let's start with the
first group, which is all about inviting someone to do
something. And the first phrase is going to
include a casual term. And this is something I hear all
the time from English speakers, and it's this.
Would you like to grab a coffee this weekend?
Now this doesn't mean grab and hold, but it just means would
you like to get a coffee this weekend?
So grab means to get something quickly like coffee or lunch.
And it's informal, but you'll hear people use this all the
time. Would you like to grab lunch
this weekend? The next one is more of a
British slang term. I'm going to use the word fancy
fancy and the phrase is this. Do you fancy go for a drink on
Friday? Do you fancy going for a drink
on Friday? Now this sounds like an
invitation to someone in a more romantic way.
Do you fancy going for a drink on Friday?
So fancy is a British term that means like, do you feel like
doing this? Would you like to do this?
Do you fancy going for a drink on Friday?
Now the next one is more inviting and a little bit more
open-ended, but it's this. I was thinking we could go to
that show this weekend. I was thinking we could go to
that show this weekend, but this one is obviously more open-ended
and not as strong. Now you'll often hear English
teachers saying don't say this, say this instead.
Now sometimes that's useful, but along the time they say don't
use the word want say this instead.
However, we use one everyday in English and it's very good for
you to use as well. So listen to this example.
Want to do something this weekend?
Do you want to do something this weekend?
So sometimes we'll drop the do and just say want.
That's very informal, but you could just ask, do you want to
do something this weekend? And again, a lot of teachers
might say use more advanced English, but this is a fantastic
way to ask someone to do something with you.
Now the next one is something you'll often hear when somebody
doesn't want to make a specific plan.
For example, let's say you bump into somebody in a supermarket,
so you weren't meeting them there, but instead you just see
them in the supermarket. You might say at the end of the
conversation, let's get together soon, let's get together soon.
You're not making any concrete plans.
You're not committing to a specific time and date.
Instead you're saying maybe we should do this soon or I'll text
you soon and we can arrange it. We should get together soon.
Now the next section is all about suggesting a specific
activity. And I love some of these phrases
because they're, again, they're just so common in everyday
English. And the first one is something
you might have heard before, and it's this, how about we try that
new restaurant on Saturday? How about we try that new
restaurant on Saturday? So how about we do something on
this day? And this is used between
friends, between partners. Also, it could be used as a way
to make new friends or new romantic friends.
Now, if you want to have a more creative way to propose
something, then you might say this.
What if we tried that new Italian restaurant?
So you've heard something about the Italian restaurant.
You are thinking maybe this is going to be good.
Why don't we try it? Why don't we try that new
Italian restaurant? The next one you'll probably
know. And it's this should we go for a
walk tonight? Should we go for a walk tonight?
But you can also make this a conditional too.
Should we go for a walk if it's not raining?
Again, this might be simple English, but it's a fantastic
way to suggest an activity, a specific activity.
Now the next one involves the word check out to check
something out. I often say check out my other
videos on my channel. Why don't we check out that new
gallery everyone's talking about?
Why don't we check out that new gallery everyone's talking
about? Now if you want to have some
enthusiasm and show your preference here, instead of
asking someone's preference, you can say this.
Let's do something fun like bowling.
So the let's show some enthusiasm in your preference
for doing something. So let's do something fun
tonight like karaoke. The next set of phrases is all
about check in for someone's availability because they might
not be free. They might not be available to
do the fun things you want to do.
The first one is before you suggest an activity, you can
suggest the date. So you might say, are you free
on Thursday evening? Are you free on Thursday
evening? And here free means available.
Are you available? Do you have the time to do
something on Thursday evening? And then they normally say maybe
what you thinking and you can say, well, let's do something
for them like karaoke. Now the next one is offering
some flexibility and it's it's more polite in a way, but you're
putting the preference on the other person.
So you might say, oh, we should go check out that new
restaurant. They say, yeah, yeah, let's do
it. When works best for you, when
works best for you. So you're asking the other
person their preference for time when works best for you and a
casual way to see if someone's available.
Is got any plans this weekend or do you have, do you have any
plans this weekend? Do you have any plans this
weekend? If you want to mention a
specific time, but of the flexibility, you might say, does
Saturday morning work for you? Does Saturday morning work for
you or is there a better time? Does Saturday morning work for
you or is there a better time? And let's say you've not seen
one for a while and you want to meet them in a casual way.
You might ask, do you have some time next week for a quick catch
up? Do you have time next week for a
quick catch up? Or you'll often have a catch up
with somebody who you haven't seen for a while and you want to
share your news and you want to hear about their news as well.
And if you ought to be more direct, you can just ask them
like before, let's have a catch up next week.
Let's have a catch up next week. Now the last five are going to
be about accepting these offers to hang out with someone, to
have a catch up with someone, to go to a movie with someone.
And also we'll look at ways to decline this too, because that's
always difficult to do when you say no now, no, a very common
way to accept when someone says, do you want to do this on
Thursday? Should we do this next week is
sounds good, sounds good. I'll give you a text on the
night or sounds good. We'll arrange plans tomorrow.
You'll also see people say sounds like a plan sounds like a
plan and then declining it usually comes with an excuse or
a reason. Now an excuse means, oh, I don't
want to do it. The reason is you'd actually
have a reason, something that's happening that means you can't
do it. So for example, I'd love to, but
I have so much going on at the moment.
Maybe I'll I'll text you in a couple of weeks and maybe we can
do something then. So that one is somebody saying I
don't really want to, or I kind of want to, but I'm too busy, so
let's do something next time. Whereas if someone says, oh, I'm
busy that day, but how about Sunday instead?
Then in that case, they're telling you that they are open
to a different day. And then another way to accept
something in a very positive way is I'd love to.
I would love to. So someone might ask you, do you
want to go and do this tomorrow? You can say, oh, I'd love to,
I'd love to, yeah, let's do it. Now if you've noticed throughout
this, there's been a certain tone to accepting things or
asking people. And the tone is a very warm and
friendly 1. So in English, when we're making
plans and inviting people or saying yes to something, then we
often show excitement about it. So if somebody invites you over
for dinner, then you have that. Yeah, I'd love to.
And if you're doing it in a text message, you'll often use an
exclamation mark. So you want to show that
excitement and that warm tone when you are accepting offers
and also when you're inviting people.
And often times you can tell by the tone if somebody wants to
hang out or wants to do something with you.
So if the tone is a little less friendly, then you can say, OK,
no problem, maybe next time. Now I've got some stats for you
as well, including this one here, which I'm going to read.
According to a 2023 survey, I imagine that this has changed a
little bit. 68% of Americans prefer texting to make plans
with friends, while only 15% use phone calls.
I imagine that's higher now. So with this in mind, this is
also important to work on your writing nervously.
Followers these days correct your spelling, so there's not
much need to worry about that. But it's also good to learn
these phrases in a way to text them like before.
Sounds good. Exclamation mark is going to
work with texting. And another study showed that
73% of young adults in the United Kingdom use WhatsApp
daily to make plans, compared to just 25% who prefer face to
face. So which apps are used in your
country when it comes to making plans?
And what to do now is to go back and to learn these phrases
again. And what you can also do is go
to the description, see the list of phrases, read them out loud
and know which ones you need to practice a little bit more.
Oh, and then share this episode with a friend like the video and
then watch another episode which is on your screen now.
So thank you for being here and I'll speak to you soon.
Bye for now.