In this English lesson, you're going to learn the key phrases that you need in order to make plans with friends and also the phrases you need to make new friends. This is Jack from to Fluency and this English lesson is going to be super useful for you because making plans with English speakers is a big part of being able to speak with confidence.
Often when you meet new people, you want to be able to make plans with them, whether that's to hang out casually, if you want a new romantic relationship, or if you just want to meet new acquaintances and people at conferences, at language schools, wherever it may be. And at the end, I'll have some key facts and also a really big tip when it comes to communicating and how to do this through apps. And as always, try repeating
these out loud. So feel free to pause the video and go back and repeat what I say. I'll repeat most phrases twice so you can get some good practice. All right, let's start with the first group, which is all about inviting someone to do something. And the first phrase is going to include a casual term. And this is something I hear all the time from English speakers, and it's this. Would you like to grab a coffee this weekend? Would you like to grab a coffee this weekend?
Now this doesn't mean grab and hold, but it just means would you like to get a coffee this weekend? So grab means to get something quickly like coffee or lunch. And it's informal, but you'll hear people use this all the time. Would you like to grab lunch this weekend? The next one is more of a British slang term. I'm going to use the word fancy fancy and the phrase is this. Do you fancy go for a drink on Friday? Do you fancy going for a drink
on Friday? Now this sounds like an invitation to someone in a more romantic way. Do you fancy going for a drink on Friday? So fancy is a British term that means like, do you feel like doing this? Would you like to do this? Do you fancy going for a drink on Friday? Now the next one is more inviting and a little bit more open-ended, but it's this. I was thinking we could go to
that show this weekend. I was thinking we could go to that show this weekend, but this one is obviously more open-ended and not as strong. Now you'll often hear English teachers saying don't say this, say this instead. Now sometimes that's useful, but along the time they say don't use the word want say this instead. However, we use one everyday in English and it's very good for you to use as well. So listen to this example. Want to do something this weekend?
Do you want to do something this weekend? So sometimes we'll drop the do and just say want. That's very informal, but you could just ask, do you want to do something this weekend? And again, a lot of teachers might say use more advanced English, but this is a fantastic way to ask someone to do something with you. Now the next one is something you'll often hear when somebody doesn't want to make a specific plan.
For example, let's say you bump into somebody in a supermarket, so you weren't meeting them there, but instead you just see them in the supermarket. You might say at the end of the conversation, let's get together soon, let's get together soon. You're not making any concrete plans. You're not committing to a specific time and date. Instead you're saying maybe we should do this soon or I'll text you soon and we can arrange it. We should get together soon.
Now the next section is all about suggesting a specific activity. And I love some of these phrases because they're, again, they're just so common in everyday English. And the first one is something you might have heard before, and it's this, how about we try that new restaurant on Saturday? How about we try that new restaurant on Saturday? So how about we do something on this day? And this is used between
friends, between partners. Also, it could be used as a way to make new friends or new romantic friends. Now, if you want to have a more creative way to propose something, then you might say this. What if we tried that new Italian restaurant? What if we tried that new Italian restaurant? So you've heard something about the Italian restaurant. You are thinking maybe this is going to be good. Why don't we try it? Why don't we try that new Italian restaurant? The next one you'll probably
know. And it's this should we go for a walk tonight? Should we go for a walk tonight? But you can also make this a conditional too. Should we go for a walk if it's not raining? Should we go for a walk if it's not raining? Again, this might be simple English, but it's a fantastic way to suggest an activity, a specific activity. Now the next one involves the word check out to check something out. I often say check out my other
videos on my channel. Why don't we check out that new gallery everyone's talking about? Why don't we check out that new gallery everyone's talking about? Now if you want to have some enthusiasm and show your preference here, instead of asking someone's preference, you can say this. Let's do something fun like bowling. Let's do something fun like bowling. So the let's show some enthusiasm in your preference for doing something. So let's do something fun
tonight like karaoke. The next set of phrases is all about check in for someone's availability because they might not be free. They might not be available to do the fun things you want to do. The first one is before you suggest an activity, you can suggest the date. So you might say, are you free on Thursday evening? Are you free on Thursday evening? And here free means available. Are you available? Do you have the time to do
something on Thursday evening? And then they normally say maybe what you thinking and you can say, well, let's do something for them like karaoke. Now the next one is offering some flexibility and it's it's more polite in a way, but you're putting the preference on the other person. So you might say, oh, we should go check out that new restaurant. They say, yeah, yeah, let's do it. When works best for you, when
works best for you. So you're asking the other person their preference for time when works best for you and a casual way to see if someone's available. Is got any plans this weekend or do you have, do you have any plans this weekend? Do you have any plans this weekend? If you want to mention a specific time, but of the flexibility, you might say, does Saturday morning work for you? Does Saturday morning work for you or is there a better time? Does Saturday morning work for
you or is there a better time? And let's say you've not seen one for a while and you want to meet them in a casual way. You might ask, do you have some time next week for a quick catch up? Do you have time next week for a quick catch up? Or you'll often have a catch up with somebody who you haven't seen for a while and you want to share your news and you want to hear about their news as well.
And if you ought to be more direct, you can just ask them like before, let's have a catch up next week. Let's have a catch up next week. Now the last five are going to be about accepting these offers to hang out with someone, to have a catch up with someone, to go to a movie with someone. And also we'll look at ways to decline this too, because that's always difficult to do when you say no now, no, a very common way to accept when someone says, do you want to do this on
Thursday? Should we do this next week is sounds good, sounds good. I'll give you a text on the night or sounds good. We'll arrange plans tomorrow. You'll also see people say sounds like a plan sounds like a plan and then declining it usually comes with an excuse or
a reason. Now an excuse means, oh, I don't want to do it. The reason is you'd actually have a reason, something that's happening that means you can't do it. So for example, I'd love to, but I have so much going on at the moment. Maybe I'll I'll text you in a couple of weeks and maybe we can do something then. So that one is somebody saying I don't really want to, or I kind of want to, but I'm too busy, so
let's do something next time. Whereas if someone says, oh, I'm busy that day, but how about Sunday instead? Then in that case, they're telling you that they are open to a different day. And then another way to accept something in a very positive way is I'd love to. I would love to. So someone might ask you, do you
want to go and do this tomorrow? You can say, oh, I'd love to, I'd love to, yeah, let's do it. Now if you've noticed throughout this, there's been a certain tone to accepting things or asking people. And the tone is a very warm and friendly 1. So in English, when we're making plans and inviting people or saying yes to something, then we often show excitement about it. So if somebody invites you over for dinner, then you have that. Yeah, I'd love to.
And if you're doing it in a text message, you'll often use an exclamation mark. So you want to show that excitement and that warm tone when you are accepting offers and also when you're inviting people. And often times you can tell by the tone if somebody wants to hang out or wants to do something with you. So if the tone is a little less friendly, then you can say, OK, no problem, maybe next time. Now I've got some stats for you as well, including this one here, which I'm going to read.
According to a 2023 survey, I imagine that this has changed a little bit. 68% of Americans prefer texting to make plans with friends, while only 15% use phone calls. I imagine that's higher now. So with this in mind, this is also important to work on your writing nervously. Followers these days correct your spelling, so there's not much need to worry about that. But it's also good to learn these phrases in a way to text them like before. Sounds good. Exclamation mark is going to
work with texting. And another study showed that 73% of young adults in the United Kingdom use WhatsApp daily to make plans, compared to just 25% who prefer face to face. So which apps are used in your country when it comes to making plans? And what to do now is to go back and to learn these phrases again. And what you can also do is go to the description, see the list of phrases, read them out loud and know which ones you need to practice a little bit more.
Oh, and then share this episode with a friend like the video and then watch another episode which is on your screen now. So thank you for being here and I'll speak to you soon. Bye for now.