Sometimes in English we have a little conversation with someone
and we call this small talk.
In this English lesson, I'll teach you five very common questions
you might hear if you're having one of these conversations.
And I'll teach you two possible answers for each question.
One answer that's really, really positive and one
that's a little more negative.
The first question that is very common
when having a conversation like this is the question: How was your day?
This is a question that you might be asked at the end of your day,
maybe by a spouse or a friend.
And basically they're just trying to figure out how your day went.
A very negative answer to this question would be to say, I had a horrible day.
Maybe your boss was mean to you.
Maybe you were at school and the teacher wasn't very nice.
You would just say, I had a horrible day.
A positive way to answer this question, though, is to say, I had an awesome day.
Maybe your boss was really nice to you at work.
Maybe your teacher was in a really good mood, if you're in school,
you would then say in a very positive way, I had an awesome day.
So how was your day?
A negative response. I had a horrible day.
A positive response. I had an awesome day.
Another question that's very common is the question how was the weather?
This is a question that someone will usually ask after you went on a trip
or maybe after the weekend, and maybe they know that you went and did something fun.
So they'll say, How was the weather?
A negative response would be to say: The weather was miserable.
When we describe miserable weather, we're talking
about a day where it rains a lot or a day where it snows a lot.
We're talking about a day where the weather isn't very nice.
The weather was miserable.
If I was to describe the weather in a positive way, though, I would say
the weather was gorgeous or the weather was beautiful.
Now, I know we usually use those words to describe people,
but if someone says the weather was gorgeous or the weather was beautiful,
it usually means it was sunny, not too warm, not too cool.
The weather was just right.
The weather was gorgeous or the weather was beautiful.
Another very common question is the question how was traffic?
We usually ask this question when we know someone regularly drives
somewhere where there might be traffic jams or where traffic is bad.
We say: How was traffic?
And they might answer in a negative way by saying: Traffic was awful.
I was in a traffic jam for 30 minutes and I was late for work.
Traffic was awful.
That would be your negative response.
When we give a positive response, though, we usually say: Traffic wasn't bad at all.
That would be probably the most common way to describe
a pleasant experience while driving on the highway.
It wasn't bad at all.
It's as if we always expect traffic to be bad.
We always expect it to be awful.
And then when it's good, instead of saying it was amazing, we say it wasn't bad at all.
So a negative description. Traffic was awful.
A positive description.
Traffic wasn't bad at all.
Sometimes small talk is about movies or television.
And if someone was to say: How was the movie?
You could reply in a negative way by saying: The movie wasn't very good.
We don't often use super negative words to describe movies.
We usually just say: The movie wasn't very good.
If the movie, however, was good, we might say: The movie was superb.
Superb is a great word to describe something that's amazing or awesome.
The movie was superb.
So if we're describing a movie that we didn't like, we might say:
The movie wasn't very good or the movie wasn't very good at all.
And if we were to describe it in a positive way, we would say: The movie was superb.
Sports are also a very common topic when having small talk,
and you might have someone ask you this question: How was the game?
Maybe you just went to see a game and they want to know how the game was.
How was the game?
Now there's a couple different negative ways to describe a game.
You could say: The game was disappointing.
This would probably mean that the team that you wanted to win lost the game.
The game was disappointing.
Maybe, though, the game wasn't very exciting, you might say: The game was boring.
Or if you really, really enjoyed the game and you had a lot of fun,
you would probably say: The game was amazing.
This also probably means that the team you liked won.
So you might say the game was disappointing, the game was boring or the game was amazing.
Well, hey, thank you so much for watching this little English lesson about
how to give a very positive or a very negative response
to common questions you'll hear while having small talk with someone.
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