English Greetings | How to Respond to the Question "What Are You Up To?" | Go Natural English

Hi, I'm Gabby from gonaturalenglish.com

And it's my pleasure today to teach you how to respond to a very common

Conversational question, what are you up to?

Your answer to this question really depends on the situation. So listen up. I'm going to guide you through

Three common situations when you will hear this question

Normally in a casual friendly environment

But you could also hear this from your colleagues in a work or professional environment

I'm going to talk about what the phrasal verb up to really means and

A phrase that you should know that's related to all of this

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What are you up to?

Well up to is a phrasal verb that simply means doing to be doing

something to be up to something is to be

Doing something and you will often hear up to in this question. What are you up to?

This is commonly a question. You'll hear when someone wants to ask you. Are you?

Busy, so let's say a friend calls me and asks me. Hey, Gaby, what are you up to?

Are you busy? Are you free? This is the true meaning behind

Asking what are you up to? I'm already thinking

hmm

Could this person?

Want what are they going to ask me to do? They're probably going to want to know if I can do something

Because they're asking what am I doing? So, how do I answer the question in this situation?

They asked me Gabi. What are you up to? I would say

Not much. Why what's up, or?

nothing, really what's going on or if I am busy I could say well I'm a little

busy

Do you mind if we talk later or?

I'm a little busy, but what's up, tell me quickly

So your answer will depend, of course on whether you are busy or not. So if you're not busy

simply say not much or

Nothing or no? I'm free right now. Why what's going on?

how are you or if you are busy you could say I'm a little busy or

Things are kind of crazy right now now is not a great time to talk

Do you mind if I call you back a little later?

So these would all be appropriate responses depending on what you want to say

But the first meaning of this question is really are you busy? What are you up to? Are you busy?

No, the second reason why someone would ask this question

What are you up to is really to connect and to catch up with you

After you haven't seen this person for quite some time

Maybe a few weeks or a few months or even a few

Years, in this case, we would ask the question a little bit differently

Instead of asking. What are you up to? I might add

These days to the end of the question. So for example, what are you up to these days?

I haven't seen you in forever and

You would answer in

The present perfect. I've been up to

so many things or well, I

Have been really busy. I've been

Working really hard

I've been studying English every day

Whatever it is that you have been doing you can tell them as much or as little as you'd like

Another way that we change this question is instead of asking. What are you up to these days?

We might ask what have you been up to?

We could still add these days. For example, what have you been up to these days?

What have you been up to these days?

What have you been up to these days? I haven't seen you in so long

and

Well, if you asked me this question, I might respond I have been

Working a lot. I have been travelling I

travelled earlier this year to Florida and I traveled to Brazil and

Well, I've been busy with work creating

videos for go natural English and so many more things so you can answer as you would like to

telling the person things that you have been doing and

If you don't want to say much you could simply say I have not

Been doing much. I haven't been doing much or I have not been up to

much I

Haven't been up to much or I have not been up to anything

Really? I haven't been up to anything really

Now if you say this, I would suggest

adding something on for the sake of conversation because

saying that you have not been up to anything is a bit of a

conversation killer and

you want to avoid killing the

Conversation if you want to continue talk with that person if you don't want to talk to that person

Well, then go ahead and kill the conversation

But after you say I haven't been up to anything really you should ask them

How about you? What have you been up to to continue the conversation?

Now I told you there are three situations in which someone might ask you this question

What are you up to in English conversation? The first was to ask you if you're busy

The second was to catch up with you after not seeing you for

Quite sometime and the third is simply as another way to say. Hello

So if someone is asking you what are you up to? It could be simply like asking you. How are you?

like a greeting and in this situation

you want to answer with a

Shorter sentence because it's really just a greeting. It's not an invitation to explain your

entire schedule or

Really a long answer. So if someone asks you what are you up to and you think it's more of a hello?

How are you? What are you up to? I would recommend to say not much. How about you or

Just working. How about you or

just cooking or

Whatever you are doing in the moment or that day. I am about to go to the gym

Why what's up?

so keep your answers short in this situation because it's similar to how are you and it's just a quick greeting to

Open or to start or begin a conversation in English so you can use it too now

Let's practice the pronunciation

Of this sentence because native English speakers will not always ask

What are you up to?

So clearly we also pronounce this question like this

What's you up to or what?

jump to it's quite different when we connect and

Those sounds together. So let's practice one more time

What are you up to?

What's up -

what's up -

Very good. I

Hope that you're saying this out loud

You know the more that you repeat phrases out loud, it will help you with your pronunciation

there's a very common phrase that native English speakers like to use when we were describing when someone is not doing

Good things we say that they are up to no good

For example, my pet dog is making a mess

he is up to no good or you might say this when someone is

Behaving in a bad way. He is up to no good

It's a common expression and kind of a fun one to use with this phrasal verb to be up to something

now

You know the three ways what are you up to is used to?

say hello to catch up after a long time and

to ask if you are busy as well as how to

Respond when someone asks you this question, you know, what up to means as a phrasal verb?

You know a common expression and you know how to pronounce this phrase like a native speaker

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