Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to practice speaking English today? Let's do it.
Hey, wha’tch up to this weekend? Yes? What do you say?
If I asked you, Hey, whatch up to this weekend? Would you freeze and panic, because you don't
know how to respond to this question easily and naturally? Never fear. Today I'm going to help
you to naturally have a conversation about your weekend plans which is a really common
conversation topic. Maybe you're leaving school or work on a Friday and someone asks you, "Hey,
whatch up to this weekend?" And they ask you about your weekend plans, instead of freezing
and panicking, today I want to help you learn the most important conversation question that
you can use in these situations. Also some common vocabulary for talking about your weekend plans.
And then at the end of this lesson, we're going to practice a little exchange back and forth.
I hope that you can get your pronunciation and speaking muscles ready so you can really use what
you've learned during today's lesson. Are you ready to learn the most important conversation
question of all time, at least according to me? Is that question, what's your name? No.
Is that question, will you give me money? No. Is that question, do you love me? No, no, no. The
most important conversation question is, there's actually two parts, what about you? How about you?
When someone asks you about your weekend plans and you say a little reply, I'm going hiking,
I'm not doing much, there might be an incredibly awful awkward pause. What happens next?
Well, this is where the most important question comes in. You can ask them, what about you? How
about you? You can imagine tossing a ball back and forth. The other person has asked you a question.
What are you doing this weekend? They throw you the ball. Now you reply and you say,
I'm going hiking, or I'm not doing much. You need to throw or toss the ball back to that person. And
this question does that, how about you? It means you are asking the same question back to them.
What are you doing this weekend? How about you? I want you to remember this wonderful question,
either of them, actually, they have the exact same meaning, how about you?
What about you? Remember these questions, because later when we practice this at the end of this
lesson during our conversation speaking time, remember these questions and use them. All right,
let's go to some common vocabulary that you can use to talk about weekend plans.
Brunch, many Americans love brunch. The word brunch is a combination of
breakfast and lunch. And that's because we usually eat this on the weekends, maybe a Saturday morning
or a Sunday morning between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. It's a time when you could eat either breakfast
or lunch, and it's usually a long social event. So you might go out to brunch with your friends
or have your friends to your house to eat brunch. My friends and I are meeting at our
favorite brunch spot on Sunday. Great. It's a restaurant where you can eat breakfast type
foods. Usually with some kind of alcoholic drink like a mimosa or something with fruit in it,
or maybe some champagne in the morning. And you can eat this in the company of your friends.
Another common weekend word is social butterfly. A social butterfly refers to someone who makes a
lot of plans. They are flying around to event, to another event, to another activity. They're always
doing things usually involving lots of other people. They are a social butterfly. If you are
a social butterfly, probably the year 2020 with lockdowns and all of these things were probably
really difficult for you, because you love to get together with other people and always be active.
So we can use this in a sentence like this. My friend is a social butterfly.
She has invitations to three brunches and four afternoon teas. Amazing.
What if you are not a social butterfly. What if you are the opposite? Are you unsocial
caterpillar? No. It means you are a homebody. Your body likes to stay at home. I'm a homebody.
She's a homebody. Someone who enjoys just doing things slowly and staying at home. They feel most
comfortable in a comfortable place at home. You could say, "My friend is a social butterfly, but
I'm more of a homebody. When I get together with friends, I would rather have dinner at my house
and then play games here." I think this is true for me personally, as I get a little bit older
I prefer these intimate group settings. Instead of lots of people,
I prefer just a couple of friends at home. Maybe having a bonfire outside, roasting
some food or some marshmallows and this kind of intimate setting. I enjoy doing activities at home
more often than when I was a little bit younger. To stay in, unfortunately that has been probably
a lot of our weekend plans for the past year. And it means that you're just going to stay at home.
It doesn't mean you're going to do nothing. It just means you're not going to go anywhere.
I'm going to stay in. You might say, "It's supposed to be cold and rainy this weekend, so
I'm just going to stay in and read a book," or "I'm just going to stay in and do some things
around the house." To binge watch. This means that you watch a lot of movies or TV shows usually back
to back without stopping. So several hours, maybe you watch four seasons of a TV show in one day.
This is binge watching. You are watching a lot. This expression comes from a term we usually use
with alcohol. To binge drink, this means that you drink a lot of alcohol at one time,
not a very healthy thing to do. But when we say to binge drink, that has that same idea,
is you're doing a lot back to back. Or you could binge watch TV. So you might say, "Last weekend,
my husband and I binge watched all of the Star Wars movies." This isn't true. When you have
young children, you do not have time to binge watch TV. But you might say this about your life,
"I binge watched that new TV show that just came out." Our final expression that you can
use to talk about your weekend plans is, to catch up on some chores. This phrasal verb,
to catch up on, is a beautiful phrasal verb that you can use to talk about some kind of necessary
activity that you haven't done for a while. And now there's more and more and more,
and you need to finish all of this. So we can imagine laundry, dishes, sweeping, cleaning, maybe
some home repairs, tidying up, maybe even yard work. If you don't do those things for one week
or two weeks, Oh, there's so many you have to do. So that means you need to catch up. You need to
do what you haven't done for a while. You need to catch up on some chores, and chores are just those
activities that I mentioned, laundry, dishes, these necessary activities that involve cleaning
up, helping to make your home a wonderful place to live. So maybe this weekend, you just need to
catch up on some chores. You might say, "I was so busy all week and finally I'm going to catch
up on some chores this weekend." Maybe not very fun, but when your house is clean it feels good.
All right, now that we have some common vocabulary you can use to talk about your weekend plans,
let's talk about some introduction questions that you might hear
and that you can also ask other people. These have varying levels of reductions and
fast ways that you will hear them. So I want to help you understand and recognize what other
people are saying and also be able to use it. So let's talk about our first question.
What are you up to this weekend? What are you up to this weekend? You might know the expression
what's up. This just means, how are you? So we're using that same word, up to talk about,
what are you doing this weekend? What are you up to this weekend? But do you think
that we usually say it like this? What are you up to this weekend? So clear. So lovely.
No. Instead we're going to reduce this a little bit and then we can reduce it a lot
more. Let's talk about that first one. What are you up to? What are you up to? What're.
So here the word, what and are, are creating a spoken contraction. Usually when we write,
we don't write this type of contraction. It's only in spoken English, but oftentimes be verbs like
are, is, will be contracted with a question word. Whatda you up to this weekend? Whatda,
whatda you up to? We can reduce this a little bit further. Whatch up to? Whatch up to?
Whatch up to this weekend? There are a lot of reductions happening at the beginning. Whatchh,
what-cha up to. So here we have, what are you, being reduced to just, whatch, the chh is you.
And what are has just been smashed together, and we can say whatch
up to, whatch up to, whatch up to, whatch up to. This is really fast. If you say this slowly,
whatch up to, it sounds really weird. So we only use this in really fast English.
So if you're going to say this, it needs to be quickly and reduced and linked together.
Most likely you're going to hear this. So I want to make sure that you can understand when someone
says, "Hey, whatch up to this weekend." Whatch up to this weekend. You can say,
"Oh, Vanessa taught me that. I know what that means. What are you up to this weekend? Yes."
So let's go on to our next expression where we're going to also reduce this a bit and help you to
understand it. What have you got going on this weekend? What have you got going on this weekend?
These all mean the same thing. What are you doing this weekend? But you might hear this expression
with the word gut. What have you gut going on this weekend? When you actually hear this,
we don't say it clearly. What have you got going on this weekend? Wouldn't that be nice though?
Instead, you're going to hear a reduction or a contraction of the first two words, just like
we saw with the previous example. What've. So what and have are going to be pushed together. What've
you gut goin on? That final G in the word going is going to be cut off and we'll just say,
goin. So let's try to say that altogether. You want to try to say it with me? What've
you gut goin on? What've you gut goin on this weekend? What've you gut goin on this weekend?
Do you think we can reduce this further? Oh yes. Whatda ya gut goin on this weekend? Whatda ya gut.
Here the beginning of, what have you got, is just really like you threw it in a mixing bowl,
stirred it up and threw it out on a cookie tray. Well, let's try to break it down so
it's not quite so messy and complicated. At the beginning we have, what have you got?
But it sounds like, whatda, whatda, this is, what have. Whatda ya. Ya is you. Whatda ya gut goin,
again, we're going to drop that G at the end of the word going.
Goin on, whatda ya gut goin on? Whatda. Notice what's happening at the end of the word, what?
Do you hear a clear, T, Whatda ya, whatda ya.
Nope. That at the end of the word, what is going to change to a D sound?
This is really typical of American English, where a T that's surrounded by vowel sounds
is going to change to a D. It's called a flapped T and it just rolls off your tongue in a smooth
way. Whatda ya gut goin on? Can you say it with me? Whatda ya gut goin on this weekend?
Whatda ya gut goin on this weekend? All right, let's go to our last question. You doin anything
fun this weekend? You doin anything fun this weekend? What's happening at the beginning of
this question? Should there be another word? Yep. Are you doing anything fun this weekend? Are you,
but the word, are it's on vacation. It's just gone somewhere. So we're going to start this question
with the word you. You doin anything fun this weekend? It makes the questions seem a little
more casual and less like an interrogation, or you're asking someone out on a date.
It's just a casual question. You doin anything fun this weekend? But we can reduce this question.
We're not going to reduce it an awful lot, but we will hear this reduced a little bit. When we say,
you doing anything fun. Instead, you're going to hear it, ya doin. Ya, the word you is reduced to
ya. Ya doin, listen to that G at the end, ya doin, it's gone. It's also on vacation.
Maybe it's on vacation with the word are. So let's say, ya doin anything fun this weekend,
ya doin, that's the main reduction that's going to happen in this question. Ya doin anything fun
this weekend. Ya doin. Try to say that with me. Ya doin anything fun this weekend? Ya doin anything
fun this weekend. All right, let's go onto some other common things that you will hear in these
types of small talk, easy casual conversations. If someone tells you about their weekend plans,
and it sounds interesting or fun, how can you reply? You might say, "That sounds like fun," or,
"How interesting," or just simply, "Nice." If that person is doing nothing, they're just sitting at
home, maybe they're going to binge watch some TV and stay in. Well sometimes it's nice to
still say something positive in response. So you might say, "Sometimes it's nice to do nothing."
And that's true, especially if you've been doing a lot, sometimes it's nice just to stay in
and relax for the weekend. So you might say, "Sometimes it's nice to do nothing." All right.
Before we practice our sample conversation together. What can you say at the end?
Well, if you're talking about weekend plans, it is before the weekend. So you could just say,
"Have a good weekend" or "Enjoy your weekend." Simple, great way to end the conversation.
All right, let's take a deep breath. Are you ready to put all of this together? What I
would like you to do is, first, I would like you to listen to this sample conversation.
Think about the different parts that are happening. You're going to hear
our key beautiful question. What about you? How about you? You're going to also hear some of the
key vocabulary that we talked about, and also just some of the questions, the introductory questions,
what you got going on this weekend? Great things like that, that we'll put together.
And then I'm going to put some pauses and it's going to be your turn to have
the conversation with me. So first let's watch the conversation sample.
"Hey, whatch up to this weekend?" "Not that much. I'm just going to stay in and catch up on
some chores on Saturday. But on Sunday, I'm going to meet up with some of my friends for brunch."
"That sounds fun. Where's your favorite brunch spot?" "I usually go to
Sunday Morning Cafe." "What about you? What have you got going on this weekend?" "I'm
kind of a homebody. So I'll probably just read a book in my hammock." "That sounds nice. Well,
have a good weekend. Enjoy your book." "Thanks. You too. Have a good weekend." All right. Are you
ready to take this to the next level? I'm going to be asking you a question and then pausing. And
I would like you to reply in that pause. Take a moment. Tell me about your plans. You can do it.
Let's go. "Hey, whatch up to this weekend?" "How interesting. How often do you do that?"
"Oh, me? Oh, I'll probably go hiking since the weather's going to be so warm."
"Well, nice talking to you. Have a good weekend."
Well, how did you do? If you would like you can go back and practice that little sample conversation.
You can take a deep breath, enjoy yourself. That's part of learning English. Because I
want you to enjoy the process, enjoy the journey. So now I have a question for you,
in the comments below this video, let me know, whatcha gut goin on this weekend? What
are your weekend plans? Try to use some of the expressions that you learned in this lesson and
thank you so much for learning English with me. I will see you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download my free ebook, 5 Steps To Becoming A
Confident English Speaker. You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.
Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons. Thanks so much. Bye.