Learn 35 useful conversational phrases for making friends or asking someone out on a date. Meeting new people can be awkward, especially if you don’t know the language perfectly. In this lesson, I will teach you what to say when you first meet someone new at a class or activity, what to say when you meet someone by chance, and what to say when you want to get to know someone better and to deepen your relationship. Learn these phrases and you will improve your conversational ability in friendship and dating situations.
Test your understanding by taking the quiz on this lesson: 35-english-phrases-friends-dating/
Next, watch my video on how to sound more interesting by speaking with RHYTHM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XVeMLYiNM0&index=26&list=PL-Q2Xro-OWKe-pXnqtUKfD2Gpsbpu6Gl7
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, everyone. In today’s lesson we’re going to look at phrases you can use when you’re dating someone, you want to date someone, when you’re making friends, or when you want to make friends. And the way this lesson works is there’s… There are two people speaking, one person says something, and the other person replies. So let’s start here. And all these examples are things that would… A person would say if they met somebody they didn’t know before at some kind of class. I suppose it depends where you live, but in London there are so many different kinds of classes you can go to, from exercise classes, for things that are artistic, dance classes, or photography classes, many classes that are based on interests – and that’s a really good way for meeting new people. And it seems like many people date that way, really. They go to the photography class because they want to meet someone to date. They’re a little bit interested in photography, but you know, they just want to meet new people. So that’s how it works in a place like London. If you… If you live somewhere where there’s not so many classes, perhaps these kinds of conversations wouldn’t be so common where you live, but these are… These are the kinds of conversations you would hear in London if you went to a dance class, a salsa class, that kind of thing.
So, number one: „Is it your first time here?” You’ve met someone, you want to continue the conversation with them, get to know them a bit, you can say: „Is it your first time here?” And the person replies: „I come most weeks.” Or they say: „No. I come once in a while”. „Once in a while” means not every week. I come one week, then three weeks later I come in an unpredictable way.
Number two: „Do you come here often?” This sentence or phrase, this is an innuendo. So, it is a kind of phrase that many people would avoid using if they didn’t want to be really direct and show that they were interested in someone in that kind of way. So, if you just want to be friends with someone, maybe you wouldn’t say these exact words: „Do you come here often?” So here are the replies: „Not as much as I’d like to.”, „Today’s my first time.” or „It’s my first time today.” Or you could say: „I’m a regular”. „A regular” is a person who goes to the salsa class every single week, they always go. So that’s… Being a regular is the opposite to a person who’s just going for the first time today.
Number three: -„So, how long have you been coming to this photography class?” -„About a year now.”
Number four, you could say: „Do you go to any other classes?” Now, this question could mean any other similar classes. If, to use the salsa example again, because salsa’s quite a popular hobby I suppose to do, in a city like London there’s more than one salsa class, and people really into it, they’ve probably tried different salsa classes, so they could ask that question to you: „Do you go to any other classes?” It means: „Do you go to any other salsa classes?” But it could also mean in general, depending on how you’re asking. So it could be: „Well, I’m at salsa today, but I do… I do embroidery on Wednesday”, or whatever else you do. Here are the replies: „Sometimes I go to the other one in ______.” So, to use a place name in London, I could say: „Sometimes I go to the other one in Brixton.” For me to answer that, it means I’m talking about the same kind of class. And I could also say: „This one is my favourite.” I mean: This salsa class that I’m at today is my favourite of all the other salsa classes. Or I could say: „This one is my local”, and that one suggests I come here because it’s the easiest one for me to go to. Another example of that would be a yoga class, because there are so many different yoga classes, perhaps some people prefer to go to the one closest to their house, so they might say that.
Next we’ve got: „How did you find the class?” Now, when I use the word „find” there, it doesn’t mean: How did you find the building? Or: „How did you…? How did you get here?” It means more like: „What did you think of the class? Was it interesting for you?” So we can reply this way: „I really enjoyed it. It was good fun.” […]
