So, how are things with you?
That question, "So, how are things with you?"
was a very common question that I heard
this past weekend when I was at a little family gathering.
I tried to keep track of all the questions
that I heard English speakers use
when they started conversations with each other,
and I think that one was the most common.
"So, how are things with you?" or the shorter version,
"So, how are things?"
So in this English lesson, I thought I would share with you
all of the different types of questions
that I heard at the family gathering I was just at.
All of the questions that native English speakers used
when they were starting conversations with each other.
(gentle upbeat music)
Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson
where I'm going to help you learn some questions you can use
when you're having an English conversation.
Before we get started, though,
if this is your first time here,
don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,
and give me a thumbs up if this video helps you learn
just a little bit more English.
So the questions I'm going to teach you today
are not questions you would use with people you work with
or classmates at school.
You wouldn't use these questions
with people who you see every day,
these are questions you would use to start conversations
with people who you haven't seen for a few days
or a couple of weeks or a few months,
or even more than a year.
So these are questions that you can use
when you go to a family gathering.
They're questions you can use
when you see a friend who you haven't seen for awhile.
And they're great questions to use to start a conversation,
but they're also great questions to use
during the conversation.
So let's get started.
The first question I wanted to teach you is the question,
"How have you been?"
Or we sometimes add the word so in front and we say,
"So, how have you been?"
But I'm saying it kind of slowly.
Here's how I would ask that question at normal speed.
I would say, "So, how have you been?"
I kind of mush all the words together
at the beginning of the question.
So, how have you been?
This is a question we ask
when we wanna know about someone's well-being.
We wanna know if they've been healthy,
we wanna know if they've been enjoying life,
we wanna know if they've been happy.
So the first question you could ask is,
"So, how have you been?"
The second question I wanted to teach you
is the question, "What's new?"
Or there's actually a longer version,
we sometimes say, "So, what's new with you?"
And again, I should say it at full speed, right?
So, what's new with you?
This is a question we ask because life continually changes.
If you haven't seen someone for a week,
or two weeks, or a month, there's probably new things
that have happened in their life.
And this is a great question to ask
if you want to know about them.
So you say things like, "Hey, so what's new?"
Or, "So, what's new with you?"
And then they might tell you about a new car,
they might tell you about a new job,
they might tell you about a new baby
that's been born in their family.
But it's a great question to ask
to find out if anything new has happened in their life.
The third question you could ask someone
to start an English conversation,
or even during an English conversation, is this,
"What have you been up to lately?"
I actually heard this question a lot this past weekend.
People would say, "Hey, it's good to see you.
What have you been up to lately?"
Life is full of activities.
People have hobbies, people have jobs.
There are things that people do every day
and sometimes those things change.
So it was really fun to be able to ask this question.
And it was fun that people asked me this question,
because then you can talk about
the new things that you've been doing lately.
So the third question you can ask,
"What have you been up to lately?"
And I should say it at full speed, shouldn't I?
What have you been up to lately?
That was still a little bit slow.
What have you been up to lately?
That's how I would say it at normal speed.
What have you been up to lately?
The fourth question you can ask is, "How are things?"
That's kind of the short version.
You could say, "So, how are things?"
Or, "So how are things with you?"
That's actually the question I used
when I started this video.
This is a nice general question. It's a very broad question.
When you say to someone, "So, how are things with you?"
they can answer by talking about work,
they can talk about their family,
they can talk about a new car that they bought.
It's a really good way to start an English conversation
because it allows the person you are talking to
to answer in a variety of ways.
"So, how are things with you?" Or, "So how are things?"
Often when talking to a friend or a relative,
there are things about their life
that you already know about,
but you want to inquire about them,
you wanna ask questions about them.
And we often do this by combining the word how with is
to make the contraction how's.
We ask questions like this. "How's the family?
How's the new car? How's work?"
These are all questions where you kind of need to know
a little bit about the person's life.
And you can ask these questions
and then they can kind of give you an update.
I just used a question like this this past weekend.
My brother-in-law, I knew he had bought a new truck,
and when he was here, I said, "How's the new truck?"
So you can combine how with is to make the contraction how's
and ask questions about things
you already know a little bit about,
but you want to know more.
A sixth way to ask questions during an English conversation
is to use the word how and was
to ask questions about the past.
You could ask questions like this. "How was your trip?
How was your drive? How was your weekend?
How was your day off?"
So we use again, the question word how with was
in order to ask questions
about things we know already happened.
"How was your trip?"
Life is full of changes.
Maybe someone has retired, maybe they got married,
maybe they had a baby, maybe they started a new job
or went to university.
And there's a fun way of asking a question
about things like that.
You add the phrase treating you to the end of the question.
So you can ask questions like this.
"How's fatherhood treating you? How's marriage treating you?
How's that new job treating you?
How's retirement treating you?"
It's just a fun way to ask someone
about the change that's happened in their life,
and it gives them an opportunity to kind of explain
how that change has made their life different.
So you can ask questions just like that.
I could even ask that question to you
about learning English.
I could say, "How's learning English treating you?"
and you could tell me what it's like
to be an English student.
Well, hey, thanks for watching this English lesson
where I helped you learn some new questions you can use
when you have your next English conversation.
If this is your first time here,
don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,
and give me a thumbs up if this video helped you learn
just a little bit more English.
And if you have the time, why don't you stick around
and watch another English lesson.
(gentle upbeat music)