How to Talk to Kids in English Basic English Phrases

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about

expressions for talking to kids I’ve

prepared this lesson with parents in

mind but if you have kids in your life

and you want to practice English with

them these are a few expressions that

you can use to do that let’s get started

I want to begin this lesson by talking

about requests so I’ve made a simple

list of a few regular things you might

need to ask children to do these are

kind of requests for maybe elementary

school or maybe junior high school level

students but I think that the pattern

that I’m using here is quite simple so

you can create your own request of

course depending on how you’re feeling

you might use please before the request

but these are some very common examples

like I took from my childhood for

example so please clean your room or

please help me with dinner or please

help me make dinner so this is one you

would use if you’re a parent or if you

are just another person connected to the

child and you want to ask for help of

course you could change this person like

please help your dad make dinner or

please help your mom make dinner please

help your grandpa make dinner others

please brush your teeth brush your teeth

another common one please take off your

shoes and please take out the trash

so as you can see these are all common

household chores this is a common theme

for a lot of these points today chores

so chores is the word that we use to

mean small household tasks everyday

household tasks like washing dishes or

doing laundry so these are tasks that at

least in the u.s. young children are

expected to be able to do themselves

there these are like kids

responsibilities to take out the trash

or to wash the dishes

or to clean their rooms so these are all

examples of chores maybe brushing your

teeth is a hygiene point but these are

some common chores then I want to move

on to requests to stop a behavior so

these are requests to do something but

if you want to tell a child to stop

something we’ll use a pattern like stop

plus the verb in the ing form so we do

this because it’s something that the

child is doing now it’s something that’s

happening now so we use the progressive

or the continuous form so common

examples stop kicking progressive stop

kicking your sister stop kicking your

brother or stop hitting your sister stop

hitting your brother stop fighting is

another one if you have a couple

children involved

stop shouting stop shouting stop

screaming stop yelling you can use all

of those again in the progressive form

or stop running around stop running

around so this is one that my parents

would use if maybe we were going to like

a polite event we were going to

something a little more formal usually

they would make this request before we

got to the event so my brother and I

were pretty well behaved I think they

would usually say like try to be quiet

and calm like let’s be polite that kind

of expression so I’ve used that here

this let’s be polite as kind of the

follow up to this so we’ll often use

these expressions when we’re in a place

where it’s rude to be noisy or it’s just

a problem for a kid to make a lot of

noise or to cause a scene or something

so this is a good expression to use to

follow up like stop running around let’s

be polite let’s be polite so this here

this let’s point this leads into a

larger topic I want to discuss so I

introduced these points for making

requests and I said these are kind of

for like elementary or junior high

school level students perhaps but when

talking with very young children like

they’re just learning to speak so maybe

preschool or kindergarten like very

early elementary school they are still

learning there may be native language

and you want to practice in English with

them you can use patterns that parents

use and other adults use for very young

children and that’s to use lets with our

or lets with a third person so by this I

mean we’re using let’s to mean let’s do

something together or I want you to

participate with me so for example let’s

clean our room so up here I made a

request please clean your room so this

would be from a parent to a child who

can understand the request when we’re

talking to very young children though

and we’re trying to do something

together we’ll use a pattern like this

let’s clean our room so maybe it’s not

your room it’s the child’s room but you

want to do it together or you want to

show like this is a responsibility let’s

begin this together we’ll use this let’s

clean our room let’s clean our room or

let’s help grandpa with dinner so this

is how we would change this sentence

so I mentioned help me with dinner we

can change this person here to another

person and by adding let’s it sounds

like together we’re going to help

grandpa with dinner so this is what I

mean by this third person here let’s

help grandpa with dinner or let’s take

off our shoes so for example if you

arrived someplace and together you want

to take off your shoes you can say this

let’s take off our shoes so this sounds

more gentle and like we’re doing

something together then please take off

your shoes so final example let’s brush

our teeth so maybe if you brush your

teeth with your child you can use an

expression like this so as I said we

tend to use these for very young

children

when the child gets older we use more

formal request patterns to ask about

chores and things okay let’s continue on

then to some information questions so

you’ll notice I’ve used this have you

have you have you pattern for a lot of

these so these are questions that you

can use to follow up on your requests

here so relating to chores or to

homework for example have you done or

have you finished your homework have you

done your homework have you finished

your homework you could say - did you

finish your homework that’s okay that’s

fine as well

have you done your homework is also okay

to use parents use both of these another

one have you done your chores have you

done your chores this is a great example

of a common question we use you’ll

notice I’ve used chores here so chores

means not just one task but all the

tasks that are the child’s

responsibility so for example when my

brother and I were growing up we had to

wash the dishes and like vacuum the

house and like take out the trash

I think something like that those were

our chores so those three things those

were our responsibilities so when my

parents asked us have you done your

chores we had to answer about all of

those responsibilities chores so if you

want to be specific you could say have

you washed the dishes or have you

vacuumed the house or to ask about

everything you can ask have you done

your chores again you could change this

to finished have you finished your

chores or did you do your chores is also

okay you can use a simple past tense

there too another example have you

cleaned your room have you cleaned your

room or again did you clean your room

that’s also fine to use if you want to

ask an information question about

something maybe the child doesn’t have a

responsibility for you can use something

like this like what did you learn in

school today or who did you hang out

with last weekend

so you can use these WH patterns to ask

very simple past tense questions or

where are you going this weekend so

these are probably for older children I

think finally I want to end this by

introducing some encouragement

expressions that we use these four are

great and clear and I was always very

happy to hear these expressions so they

are good job and great job awesome and

that’s cool that’s cool

so if I made something I drew a picture

or I created some things with I don’t

know I I like to do kind of creative

things then when my parents or when my

relative said like wow that’s cool I

felt so happy they would say that’s cool

or awesome or if I finished my homework

my parents would say good job or a great

job so these four phrases just they

always made me feel so so happy so I

would recommend these words if you want

to give encouragement to kids also if

you do need to express disappointment in

something of course you can use this

pattern like to stop doing something if

you want to express disappointment so

giving encouragement or expressing

disappointment you can use a couple of

different expressions yes but the one

that always made me feel the most I

guess sad about my behavior was I’m

disappointed

I’m disappointed so I would suggest if

you want to use English to with your

child or with a child in your family I

would suggest using this expression

sparingly that means just a little bit

maybe only in serious times so if my

mother or father said I’m disappointed

or I’m disappointed in you it was

because I did something seriously wrong

I made a really bad mistake so maybe

like I broke something valuable or I

didn’t take

a very important responsibility or like

I just I did something and I did not

tell them or I told a lie or something

they would say I’m disappointed in you

so of course that made me feel very sad

and like I didn’t want to do it again in

other situations just using this stop

pattern was enough really stop doing

that or stop touching me so this was a

pretty good one I don’t I didn’t like

hearing that very much so again try to

use it just in the serious times

I’m disappointed or I’m disappointed in

you

of course you could change that too

we’re disappointed meaning your mother

and I or your father and I are

disappointed in you that one’s also okay

alright so I hope that this helps you

get some expressions that you can use

for talking to kids of course if you

have any questions or comments or want

to practice making some sentences please

feel free to do so in the comment

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much for watching this lesson and I will

see you again soon bye

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