How to Respond to Different Situations in English

So sometimes people share exciting news about their life,

or maybe they share more serious news about their

life and you don't know what to say.

You maybe know to say congratulations if it's exciting

news, but you're not sure what to say next.

So in this English lesson, I will talk about all

of the different life events, happy and sad things that

happen in life, and I will tell you how to

respond when someone tells you about them.

Let's start by talking about some happy news.

Let's say someone says to you that

they're going to have a baby.

You would say, congratulations.

That's the first thing we often say when

someone shares exciting, happy news with us.

But then in this situation,

you might ask this question.

You might say, when is the baby due?

Someone has just told you they're going to have

a baby, and you would like to know when

the baby is going to be born.

And then the third thing you might

say is, I'm so happy for you.

When someone shares happy news, exciting

news, it makes you happy.

It makes other people happy.

And sometimes we just simply say, I'm so happy for you.

So if someone shares the news with you that they're

going to have a baby, you would say, congratulations.

When is the baby due?

And I'm so happy for you.

Let's fast forward a bit and talk about what to

say when someone tells you they had a baby.

Maybe someone phones you and says,

yesterday, our baby was born.

We had a baby yesterday.

The very first thing you would say is congratulations.

You'll start to realize in this lesson

that we say congratulations a lot.

When people share happy news with us. The

second thing you might do is ask the

question, have you decided on a name yet?

Or have you picked out a name yet?

You'll want to know what name the baby has been given.

And if you're meeting the baby for the first

time, you might say, what a cute baby.

Even if the baby's not cute, it's usually

polite to say, what a cute baby.

So if someone tells you that they've

just had a baby, you'll say congratulations.

You might ask, have you decided on a name yet?

Or have you picked out a name yet?

And you'll usually want to say, what a cute baby.

Now, not all news is happy news.

Sometimes people will share news

that is really, really sad.

Maybe someone at work tells you that

someone in their family has died.

Someone in their family has passed away.

In that situation, there are two main

things that we say in English.

We say, my condolences.

Or we say, I'm sorry for your loss.

If someone at work told me that someone that they

knew or someone they were related to had died, I

would say, my condolences, or, I'm sorry for your loss.

And if you know the person really well,

you might also say something like this.

If there's anything I can do to help, let me know.

Or you might inquire how they're doing

by asking, how are you holding up?

If someone I knew at work really well had experienced

a loss like that in the family, I would probably

say one or both of those two things.

I would just ask, how are you holding up?

Basically asking, how they're doing.

Or I might say, if there's anything I

can do to help, please let me know.

Some of you might know this, but this

might be news for some of you.

It was my birthday a few weeks ago.

I had my birthday in the month of July.

I'm not going to give the exact

date, but I'm one year older.

When someone has a birthday, there

are a few things we say.

Probably the most common thing is

to just say, happy birthday.

We say happy birthday because we want that

person to be happy on that day.

The second thing we might say is, I wish you many more.

When someone has a birthday, we want them

to have, like, a lot more birthdays.

We want them to live a very long time.

So we might say, I wish you many more.

And then if you aren't doing anything with

that person on their birthday, maybe you've called

them in the morning to say, happy birthday.

You might just say, I hope you have a good

day, or, I hope you have a great day.

So when someone has a

birthday, you say, happy birthday.

I wish you many more, and I hope you have a great day.

Another exciting thing that can happen in

life is that people get engaged.

People decide that they're going to get

married, and the most common thing to

say is, of course, congratulations.

But then you'll probably ask this question.

You'll probably ask, have you picked a

date. When people announce their engagement,

when people get engaged, it means they're going

to get married at some point in the

future, and you'll probably want to know exactly

what day that is going to happen on.

So when people get engaged,

we definitely say, congratulations.

And then we might ask the

question, have you picked a date?

So people get engaged, and

then eventually they get married.

And maybe you're at a wedding and the

ceremony is over, and there's an opportunity for

you to congratulate the new couple.

By the way, in Canada, there's

a ceremony and then a reception.

The ceremony is the official part of the wedding, and

then the reception is just a big party later on.

But after the ceremony, there's usually

an opportunity to congratulate the couple.

So you would definitely say congratulations, and

then you would probably say something like this,

I wish you a wonderful life together.

As a newly married couple, you just hope that every

day and every week and every month and every year

for a very long, long time is just wonderful.

So if you're at a wedding and you have

the opportunity to congratulate the couple, say, congratulations, and

then say, I wish you a wonderful life together.

Now, every year after a wedding, on the same date

you have your anniversary, you celebrate that you've been married

for one year, or five years, or eleven years, or

26 years or however many years it has been.

And when it is someone's

anniversary, you say, happy anniversary.

Similar to happy birthday, you say, happy anniversary.

You can say congratulations if you want, but the

most common thing to say is, happy anniversary.

And then similar to the wedding, you might say something

like this, I wish you many more years together.

Instead of saying, I wish you a wonderful life together,

you wish that they have many, many more years of

enjoyment where they just love being married to each other.

So if it's someone's anniversary, they're celebrating

the day that they got married.

You would say, happy anniversary, and then I

wish you many more happy years together.

So people go to school

and hopefully, eventually they graduate.

After someone graduates, here's what

you would say to them.

You would say, congratulations another time where you

can say congratulations to someone, and then you

might say something like, good job.

They must have worked hard in order to graduate, and

you want to celebrate that by saying, good job.

If you know them really well, like if one of

my kids graduates, I then say, I'm proud of you.

You wouldn't say this to just anybody, but if

it's like a grandkid or one of your own

children, you might say, I'm proud of you.

And then these are two questions

anyone could ask a graduate.

You could say, what's next?

Or what are your plans for next year?

When someone graduates, it means that part of their

life has ended and they'll be doing something different

in a few months or the next year.

Maybe they're going to get a job or

go back to school to learn some more.

So when someone graduates, you say, congratulations.

You say, good job.

If you're a parent or a grandparent, you might say,

I'm proud of you, and then for anyone, anyone can

ask these questions, you could say, what's next?

Or what are your plans for next year?

It's always really cool when someone gets a new job.

Maybe someone you know didn't have a job

and they're starting a new job next week.

If they tell you that they're starting a

new job, you would definitely say, congratulations.

And then you would probably say, I'm excited

for you, or, I'm so excited for you.

And then you would probably say,

I wish you all the best.

This is a general term we use in English

to just tell someone we hope that whatever

new thing they're starting goes really, really well.

So if someone tells you that they, that they're

going to be starting a new job, definitely say

congratulations, and then say, I'm excited for you and

I wish you all the best.

Now, as I said, not all news is good news.

Maybe someone tells you that they are sick.

There are a couple of things you

would probably say in this situation.

The first would be get well soon.

If someone you know is sick, you want

them to feel better as quickly as possible.

So you would say, get well soon.

And then you might even say that in a longer

sentence, you might say, I hope you feel better soon.

So if someone you know tells you that

they're sick, you would definitely say, get well

soon, or I hope you feel better soon.

Maybe someone you know is going to have surgery.

They're going to the hospital for an operation.

Before they go, you would probably say

this, I hope all goes well.

Basically what you're saying is that you're

hoping that the surgery is effective.

You hope that the doctors and nurses do a good

job and fix whatever it is that needs to be

fixed. After the surgery, you would probably ask these two

questions, how did it go and how are you feeling?

You'll want to know if the surgery was effective

and if it did help the person feel better.

And then you'll probably also say this,

I hope you have a speedy recovery.

After a surgery, your body needs time to

heal, and we call this the recovery process.

So you might say, I hope you have a speedy recovery.

I hope the recovery goes really, really quickly.

So I put this last one in here just for fun.

It's what to say to your colleagues, your coworkers,

at the end of the day on Friday,

you might say one of two things.

You might say, have a good weekend.

Or you might say, see you on Monday.

So if your work week goes from Monday to Friday

and it's around 4:30 or 5:00 on Friday and you're

about to go home, you would definitely say have a

good weekend or see you on Monday.

Well, hey, thank you for watching this English lesson

about what to say to people when they share

exciting news or serious news about their life.

I hope you were able to learn a

few more English words and phrases that you

can use in your next English conversation.

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