Hi, everyone. I'm Alex.
Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "Common 'Where' Questions".
So, in this lesson, I'm going to give you a lot of different, you know,
questions, obviously, that we ask with the word "where". And specifically, I want you
to use this lesson for listening practice and fluency practice. So, yes, you know, we
will look at the structure and the meaning of the questions, but we'll also be looking
at saying the questions quickly so that you can identify them if you hear them, or you
will know how to say them quickly yourself, because some of them, you can cut words out,
or when you say it quickly, it sounds a little bit differently than if you just
cut word, word, word, word.
So let's look at from the top, very common question if you're, you know, meeting someone
or talking to someone at work or at school that's new and you don't know, or maybe you're
meeting somebody at a party at your family's house or your friend's house, and you're curious
about their origin, you can say:
"Hey. Where were you born?" Right?
"Where were you born?"
So you can say: "Oh, I was born in Canada.",
"I was born in Mexico.",
"I was born in Palestine."
Like: "Where were you born?"
Again, this is slightly different from the question of:
"Where are you from?" Because, again: "Where were you born?" you can specifically mention,
you know, the hospital that you were born, but:
"Where are you from?" like, you know:
"Which country? Which area?"
So, for example, me, I am from Poland. I live in Canada, but originally
I'm from Poland, I can say.
So: "Hey. Where did you grow up?"
This is really good because "grow up" means, you know:
Where did you have, kind of, your childhood, growing into a teenager experience? So, essentially,
from the ages of... I guess it varies, depending on who you talk to, but kind of the memories
you have as a child, probably from the age of 6 until you were like 14 to 16 years old
- that 10-year period.
-"Where did you grow up?"
-"Oh, I grew up in Michigan." or
"Oh, I grew up in Paris."
If you're so lucky to grow up in Paris, that's pretty cool.
So, a very common question:
"Hey. Where do you work? Where do you work?" Right? Like, so:
"I know your job, but where do you work?"
"Where do you go to school?" Right?
"Where do you work?" or
"Where do you go to school?"
Very common question.
And, also, if you're making plans for the weekend, and maybe you're texting your friends
or you're calling your friends. Let me get out my phone, here. And if you're calling
your friend and you're making plans for tomorrow, you can say:
"Yeah. Where do you want to go? Where do you want to go? Do you want to see a movie, or do you want to go out to eat?
Hey. Where do you want to eat? Do you want to eat at the pizza place, or do you want
to eat at the Italian restaurant? Where do you want to meet up?" So, "to meet up" means
to meet, essentially. This is a phrasal verb that just means "to meet". Where do you want
to see each other? Again, very common.
"Where do you want to meet up? Where do you want to go? Where do you want to eat? What do you want to do?" Right?
So: "Where are you going? Hey. Where are you going?" "Where are you?" If you're looking
for someone and you're talking to them on the phone, and you're at a party or you're
at a big concert, and you can ask them: "Hey. Where are you?" Right? "Where are you now?"
Or even if you want to know... You want to meet with them later, right? And you can say:
"Where are you? Like, are you at your parents' house? Are you at school? Are you at the library?
Where are you now?"
And finally: "Hey. Where is it?" So this can be anything. Right? "Where is the pool? Where
is the library? Where is the movie theatre?"
Okay, now, what we're going to do is I'm just going to quickly use this as a pronunciation
activity for you guys so you can practice your fluency. Because you might say:
"Yes, yes, Alex, I know these questions. These are simple questions",
some of them, maybe all of them to you.
But even then, it's another thing to be able to identify them quickly
in a conversation, and another thing, to be able to produce them in a fluent way and ask
them in a smooth way.
So, first, I'm just going to read it quickly and I'm going to ask you to please repeat
it with me. Okay? Just let me put my phone down, here. Okay. So, repeat after me, and
try and say it as quickly as I'm saying it as well.
"Where were you born?"
Good.
"Hey. Where you from?"
Now, here, you might be thinking:
"Whoa. What did you just say?"
because I just said... Did I say "Where are you from?"
or did I say "Where you from?"
So, in this common question: "Where are you from?"
some people completely cut the "are", and say:
"Hey. Where you from? Where you from?"
And this could also be because they are contracting "where"
and "are" together, saying "where're", "where're", that's particularly challenging. So try and
repeat after me. Just say:
"Hey. Where you from?"
Perfect.
"Where did you grow up?"
Okay. Now say it like this:
"Where'd you grow up?
Where'd you grow up?"
What you notice that I did here is I didn't say:
"Where did", I said: "Where'dj".
So, a very common thing that native speakers of English do is when they have the verb "did"
with a "wh" question word... And in this case, we're just going to talk about where, they
crunch it together, so it doesn't become "where did", but "where'dj", like a "j" sound almost.
Okay? So one more time:
"Where'dj you grow up?"
Good.
Next: "Where do you work?"
Okay, let's say it a little faster.
"Hey. Where do ya work?"
Okay. And here, you noticed that I did the very American thing of not saying "you", but
saying "ya", so you can say:
"Where do ya...?" Right? "Where do ya work?" or "Where do you work?"
Next: "Where do you go to school?"
Okay. One more time.
"Hey. Where do you go to school?"
That's very difficult. "Where-do-you-go-to-school?"
It's one smooth line, all right? Next:
"Where do you want to go?
Where do you wanna eat?
Where do you want to meet up?"
And again, here, what I was doing: "Where do you want",
if you have "want" plus the verb, again, an
infinitive: "Where do you wanna?" Right?
Instead of: "Where do you want to",
you can say: "Where do you wanna...? Where do you wanna eat?
Where do you wanna go? Where do you wanna meet up?"
Next, and try and repeat after me:
"Where're you going?"
Okay, and again, you notice I did it very quickly with:
"Where're", "Where are", "Where're". "Where're you going?" You
can also say: "Where you going?" Same like:
"Where are you from?", "Where you from?"
Very quickly, some people might say:
"Where you going? Where you going?"
Okay, two more. We'll do these ones quickly. Listen and repeat after me.
"Where are you?"
Okay. And:
"Where is it?"
Perfect.
Now, what I'm going to do, guys, for the quiz this time, I'm specifically just going to
ask you to identify which question form is correct. So, obviously, it's important to
know how to ask these questions, to pronounce them correctly, but it's also important...
The reverse is to recognize the correct structure when you see it. So not, for example, not:
"Where do you from?" or "Where from you are?", but:
"Where are you from?" Okay? So on the
quiz this week, all I want you to do is identify the correct question structure, and then watch
this video again, and repeat after me. Practice your fluency. Practice hearing the questions
correctly. Okay?
So, again, as always, you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com.
And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
See you later.