25 Smart Sentences for Daily Use in English Conversation Improve English Conversation Skills
- Hello everyone and welcome
back to English with Lucy.
Today I am going to bring you
25 Sentences for Daily Conversational Use.
When we have conversations,
we often use the same sentences
again and again and again.
So I’ve got some alternatives for you,
some new smart sentences that
you may not have heard before,
but they’re definitely
ones that we use a lot,
especially in the UK and
around the world as well.
Before we get started,
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Right, let’s get started with the lesson.
Firstly, let’s discuss
the phrases we can use
when we meet someone that
we either do or do not know.
These are different situations.
The first phrase, it’s
nice to bump into you.
It’s nice to bump into you.
Now if you don’t know someone
you can say it’s nice to bump into you,
and if you do know someone,
you’ve met them before,
you can say it’s nice to bump
into you again, another time.
Now, the literal meaning
of to bump into someone
is to collide.
I bumped into someone at the supermarket
and dropped my water for example.
However, in this instance,
to bump into someone means
to meet someone unexpectedly.
For example, I might say,
I bumped into your mum
at the swimming pool.
I unexpectedly met your mum.
Now the next one, number two
is a phrase that we would use
if we don’t know someone,
where haven’t met them before,
but we have maybe heard of them before
or we have communicated
with them digitally.
Maybe we’ve been talking over
email, something like that.
It is, it’s great to
finally meet you in person.
It’s great to finally meet you in person.
I say this all the time
when I meet other YouTubers,
people that I’ve seen online,
and then I go to a YouTube event
Ah, it’s so nice to
finally meet you in person.
Now number three is speak of the devil.
Speak of the devil.
And this has a very specific usage.
This is said when a person appears
just after being mentioned.
For example, if I’m talking to a colleague
about someone’s excellent presentation,
and then that person appears,
I could say, “speak of the devil,
we were just talking about
your excellent presentation.”
This can be a great way to
make someone new feel included,
especially if you have
been complimenting them
behind their back.
Number four, another one to use
if you haven’t met someone before,
but you want to pay
them a nice compliment.
You can say, I’ve heard so much about you.
I’ve heard so much about you.
And a really good response to this is
all good things, I hope.
All good things, I hope,
or all positive, I hope.
And the last one number five,
this is a nice way of saying
I don’t know who you are
(laughs)
so please introduce yourself to me.
It is, I don’t think we
crossed paths before,
I don’t think we’ve crossed paths before.
To cross paths is to
meet someone by chance.
And if we haven’t crossed paths before,
well we’ve never met.
But I think it’s a little
bit nicer than saying,
“Who are you?
I don’t know who you are.”
I don’t think we’ve crossed paths.
Okay, next section.
Let’s say for now that
you have met someone
that you do know,
you’re going to want
to catch up with them.
And to catch up with someone
is to talk about
everything that’s happened
since you last saw each other.
So we have number six,
which is how is everything going?
How is everything going?
If you can’t specifically
remember what they’ve been doing,
how is everything going,
is a great way to let them
lead the conversation.
It gives them room to open up.
This might refer to
their family, their work,
their personal life and
romantic life, who knows.
But you can let them lead the conversation
because they decide what everything is.
We also have number seven,
which is, what have you been up to?
What have you been up to?
This is a really friendly phrase.
I’ve used this before.
I’ve taught it before in my
Stop Saying How Are You video.
If you are up to something,
it means that you are doing
something mischievous.
You’re doing something troublesome.
This phrase is very warm and friendly.
It’s saying you know what
trouble have you been causing?
What have you been doing?
It’s something that we
use a lot with children
or with animals.
I often say to my dog,
“what have you been up to Diego?”
‘Cause I know he’s been
doing something mischievous.
But now we use it with friends as well.
It’s very casual,
but it’s not inappropriate
for professional situations,
if you know the person quite well.
What have you been up to?
Oh, not much, I’ve not been up too much.
We also have number eight, which is
what have I missed?
Fill me in.
So if you haven’t caught up
with someone for a while,
this is a good way to ask them,
what has happened since you last spoke.
To fill someone in,
is to give someone missing information,
to inform someone more
fully of a situation.
So if I’m saying, fill me in,
I’m saying, tell me all
this missing information.
Another good one is we’ve
got so much to catch up on,
we’ve got so much to talk about.
So much has happened since
we last saw each other.
Now, number 10 is one that you can use
if you’ve seen or met
someone that you know
you need to spend a long time talking to,
but it’s not the right time.
It is, there’s so much to say,
but I can’t go into it now.
I can’t go into it now.
To go into something is to
discuss or explain something
in a careful and detailed way.
This implies that there are
lots and lots of details,
too many for now.
Maybe it would be impolite to talk a lot,
maybe there are some people around
that shouldn’t hear what
you’re talking about.
It’s a good one to use
to have up your sleeve.
That means to have something
ready for later use.
Right, so we’ve discussed
talking to people
that we have met before,
now what should we do with people
that we haven’t met before?
We should get to know them,
we should ask some good
open-ended questions
to get them talking.
Often we want to ask people,
how did you get your job?
How did you end up working here?
That’s not so polite.
So a really good alternative
is number 11 which is,
how did you get into X?
How did you get into marketing?
To get into something in this context
is to become involved with.
How did you get involved in marketing?
Another nice way of
getting to know someone
is to ask them what they do for fun.
And in American English especially,
what do you do for fun is
a very common question.
I would say it’s not so common in the UK,
but we do see it in
movies and TV shows a lot.
We would say something
more along the lines of
what do you do outside of work?
Or what do you do when you’re not working?
I think this is nicer than asking someone
what do you do for fun?
‘Cause I know when someone
asks me what I do for fun,
I think “Oh God,
I’m not that fun a person.
I like running.
Will they think that’s fun enough?”
So yeah, just what do you
do when you’re not working?
What do you do outside of work?
Another good thing to
talk about is motivation,
and we want to know what motivates people.
But instead of just simply saying,
“What motivates you?”
You could say, “What makes you tick?”
What really makes you tick?
And this is sort of asking
what are you passionate about?
What keeps you going?
For example, helping my
students gain confidence
really makes me tick.
Another similar one is,
“What gets you out of bed in the morning?”
What do you get up for?
(laughs)
Or quite a fun and cheeky one is,
what floats your boat?
What brings you joy?
This comes from the phrase,
whatever floats your boat.
And this is something that we say
when somebody says they like something
and we it’s a bit strange.
So for example,
if someone says they like
running marathons every weekend,
I might say, “Whatever floats your boat,
not my thing, but good for you.”
(laughs)
The question, what floats your boat,
is a variation of that.
Now when we meet people,
and we have a really
really good conversation,
the next step is to
ensure further contact,
to create further contact.
But we don’t just want to
say, “What’s your number?
I would like to talk again.”
Although, I quite like
the direct approach.
There are some other ways of
doing this, like number 16,
I’d love to carry this on at a later date.
Or I’d love to carry
this on at another time.
And this is just basically saying,
I would love to continue
this conversation.
So you’re sort of stopping
them they’re, saying pause,
but let’s continue this later on.
Whether it’s tomorrow or this evening.
Another good one to use
if you can see that a
conversation is coming to an end,
maybe it’s like a break in a conference,
you know that the next lecture is starting
but you still want to make sure
you remain in contact with this person,
you could say something like,
“I feel like we’ve got so
much more to talk about.”
And this is a really nice one
because it’s sort of passing the baton.
It’s passing the responsibility
over to the other person.
It gives them the opportunity to say,
“Well, let’s stay in touch.
Let’s exchange contact details.”
It’s nice if you don’t know
if they want to stay in touch,
you’re kind of testing the water.
If they say yeah, let’s
stay in touch, brilliant.
If they don’t, well there we are.
The next one number 18 is
to discuss something over
a consumable, a food or a beverage.
We should discuss this over lunch.
We should chat over coffee.
We should talk over dinner.
If you think about it
using the word over is quite appropriate
because normally, two people
having a meeting at dinner,
we are speaking over the top of the food.
Another very simple one
very casual number 19 is,
we should do this again.
We should do this again.
It’s implying we should
see each other again.
And the last one number 20,
if you want to be very direct
and give your contact details,
you can say, “Here’s my
email or here’s my number.
Drop me a line and we’ll
sort something out.”
Drop me a line and we’ll
sort something out.
So to drop someone a line
is to write a brief message.
So it could be a text, WhatsApp, an email.
And to sort something out
is to organise something.
So we will arrange another meeting.
And the last set of phrases.
For me, the hardest part
of any conversation,
leaving the conversation.
It’s just so awkward, isn’t it?
If you don’t have much time,
you can use 21 which is,
Oh, I’m a bit pressed for time.
I’m a bit pressed for time.
This is a nice way of saying
I don’t have any time, I need to go.
Or number 22,
Right, need to make a move.
Now (laughs) in the UK,
we always say right,
and sort of clap our hands
or clasp them together
when we’re about to begin to leave.
When we’re about to
announce our departure.
To make a move is to begin
to leave or just to leave.
I’m going to make a move,
I’m going to leave.
It’s just a nicer way of saying it
because we’re beating around the bush,
we’re avoiding the topic.
I don’t wanna say I’m leaving,
I’m going to say I’m making a move.
Another very similar one is,
I’m going to have to get going.
I’m going to have to get going
or I need to get going.
To get going again, it’s
like to make a move.
It is to begin to leave.
But by saying I have to, it’s
implying I don’t want to,
I just have to.
It’s not my choice, but I need to.
Now a really nice one,
a really interesting, maybe
slightly manipulative one
but I learned it from someone
that I really respect.
It’s an older woman in my village
and I always really enjoy
talking to her at parties
in our village.
Now, I probably enjoy speaking to her
more than she enjoys speaking with me.
(laughs)
And she says this wonderful thing once
when she wanted to leave our conversation,
but she did it in such a nice way.
She said, “I don’t want to hog you
so I’m going to go over here.”
To hog something is to
take or use something good
all for yourself so that
other people can’t have it.
And she was saying,
I don’t want to keep you all to myself
so I’m going to make sure other
people can talk to you too.
It’s implying that whoever
you’re talking to is so great
that they need to talk to lots of people,
so lots of people can
benefit from talking to them.
It wouldn’t be right to
deny others the chance
of talking to this person.
I’m just gonna throw that in there.
I thought it was really interesting,
kind of like reverse psychology.
Instead of making me feel abandoned,
it made me feel flattered.
(laughs)
Oh, I’m so weak.
And the last one number 25.
I’ve already taken so much of your time.
I’ve already taken so much at that time,
I don’t want to take any more.
That’s a great way of saying,
you know I don’t want to leave,
but I’ve already wasted
so much of your time
that I’m going to go just
because it’s fair on you.
Right, that’s it for today’s lesson.
Those are your 25 smart
sentences for daily conversation.
Really good if you’re
going to a new place,
you’re going to meet lots of new people
or you’re going to see lots of people
that you haven’t seen in a while.
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I will see you soon for another lesson.
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