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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