THANKSGIVING - 5 English Phrases & Vocabulary for this American Holiday

Hey Naturals, how are you? I'm Gabby, your English teacher.

I'm so excited because the

fourth Thursday of November is Thanksgiving.

I love this holiday because it

encourages us to give thanks. This

is an American tradition. Every year

the fourth Thursday in November we celebrate Thanksgiving.

Typically friends and family get together

for a special big dinner.

You might be invited to a dinner or maybe a party

at your work or at your school.

Even if you're not invited to a kind of celebration,

you could create your own! Or you could volunteer.

Thanksgiving is a time for people to come together to

eat and to celebrate what we're thankful for.

It's a big day to volunteer

to serve others. I plan on volunteering for Thanksgiving.

If you have the time and you're curious,

and if you're living in the United States, it's a great time to

connect with your local soup kitchen or organization

that serves free meals to people who are

in need. In this free English lesson,

I'm going to share five phrases that will help you

on Thanksgiving. It will help you to celebrate,

and to enjoy your Thanksgiving with more

English fluency and confidence, to

have interactions like a native speaker, with native

speakers. Let's get started. If you're invited

to a Thanksgiving event or really any dinner or

party where there's food in a person's home, the first thing

that you should ask is, "What can I bring?" or

"What should I bring?" Maybe the host will say "Nothing!

Don't worry about it!" But the host may ask you to bring a

beverage or maybe even a dish to share

with others. Second, you could

ask, if you're not familiar with the special dishes that we

have on Thanksgiving, there are a lot of special dishes,

like turkey and yams or sweet potatoes, green

beans with almonds, cranberry, stuffing,

these are all very specific foods to Thanksgiving.

Although sometimes we eat some of those on other days. Some of

them are pretty specific only for Thanksgiving. So you could ask,

"Excuse me, what is this dish?" So then you

can ask, "Could you please pass that dish?" Or "Could

you please pass the stuffing?" And you'll know what you're asking

for. Now when you eat and you enjoy the dish

or the meal that you're having, you can say "Mmm..

this is so delicious!" But a better way to express

yourself like a natural English speaker, like a native,

would be to say, "My compliments to the chef."

I love this phrase. I think it's very nice, a very good way to

compliment the person who prepared the food.

Again you can say it with me - my compliments to the chef.

Excellent. Now imagine that you're

done eating, you've enjoyed the meal. Well, don't be so

fast to just get up and leave! Offer to help.

Ask your host, "Can I help clean up?"

You could ask, "Can I help with the dishes?" Or

"Can I help put some things away?" And your

offer will be so polite and gracious and I'm sure your

host will appreciate it. This goes for men and women.

You can ask if you can help to clean up and probably your host will

say "No, don't worry, just relax and enjoy yourself."

Maybe your host will say "Yes! Please. I need

some help." That's great because that's a way that you could

show your appreciation or your thankfulness for

your Thanksgiving dinner celebration. I hope that these five phrases

were helpful. Let's just review them quickly before we finish this free

lesson. First of all, "What should I bring?"

Second, "What is this dish?"

Third, "Could you please pass that dish?"

Fourth, "My compliments to the chef."

And fifth, "Can I help clean up?"

Excellent. I hope you enjoyed this free lesson. If you did,

share it with your friends. Enjoy your Thanksgiving. If you'd

like to join Go Natural English as a premium

member and have access to our members group and

special materials that are organized courses,

come over to GoNaturalEnglish.com and learn more

how to become a premium member. Thanks so much and I'll see you there!

Bye for now.