BOOST Your English Speaking with These Common Daily Expressions

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to my advanced English lessons with Harry.

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So what have I got for you in this particular lesson?

Well, we're going to look at collocations.

And collocations are really, really popular with our listeners and our viewers and our

students.

So we're going today to look at co locations related to leisure.

So collocations related to leisure.

And just a quick note about what is a collocation in case you're worrying about it and you're

not quite sure.

Well, a collocation is simply two or more words that are often seen together or often

used together.

And collocations for our students are really helpful because they're not just single words.

And when you use them, you're using actual phrases or expressions.

And then this way can make you more easily understood and help you to speak like a native,

which is what we're trying to do.

Okay, so as I said, colocation is connected with leisure, okay, or col... collocations

related to leisure, I think I've got 10 of them in this particular one yet, 10 on the

list.

I'll go through them one to 10.

Then I'll go back through them and give you an example as to how you might use them.

So here they are.

Catch up on sleep.

Have a lie-in.

Go for a stroll.

Hit the shops.

Take up a hobby or sport.

Catch up with friends.

Have someone over for dinner.

Go out for a meal.

Stay up late.

And spend quality time somewhere.

Spend quality time together usually.

Okay, so here we have 10 of them.

So let's take them one by one, and go through them.

So remember, colocations related to or connected to leisure.

Something you do in your free time, your leisure time, your free, or your even we call it spare

time.

Spare time, free time, leisure time when you're not working in the house, or out of the house

in your office.

So first one to catch up on sleep.

Well, we all have to do that.

From time to time we've... we've been working hard or we've been playing hard.

So we have to catch up on sleep.

So what are you doing to tomorrow morning?

Do you fancy going for a game of tennis?

No, I think actually, I have a lazy morning I have to catch up on sleep.

I've been really, really working hard lately.

And I think tomorrow morning, I spent a couple of extra hours in bed to catch up on some

sleep.

So to catch up on some sleep means to make up for the sleep that you've missed or lost

over previous days or weeks.

The same way we can catch up on work means to get some work done that you missed, or

you didn't have time to do so catch up on something means to make up for so to catch

up on sleep to make up for the sleep you didn't get two days ago, three days ago, or a week

ago.

So to catch up on some sleep.

Second to have a lie-in.

Well, this is something similar.

A lie in is when you possibly might be awake, but you just don't feel like getting up yet.

So Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings are great days to have a lie-in where you lie

in bed for a period of time, you might wake up 7-7:30, you put... you might read a book

or you might just relax, have a chat or just think about what you're going to do over the

weekend.

But you're not going to... you're not in any rush to get out of bed.

You're not rushing off to work and you are having a well-earned, well-deserved lie-in

so you lie in the bed.

Literally.

You don't get up.

Have you do you might just nip to the kitchen, get a cup of coffee like I do.

Get back into bed, pull the blankets up around, you get the book out and have a nice, leisurely

read.

So it's a nice lie-in.

I fancy a lie-in this weekend.

We've been busy every weekend since Christmas.

So we've always had something to do something.

Somebody visiting kids going off to some sport.

Why don't we just have a nice quiet lie-in this weekend.

Okay, a lie-in.

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Next, to go for a stroll.

So when you finally get out of that bed, and you finally got something you want to do for

the weekend.

First of all, you might just like to relax by having a walk in the park.

Why don't we go for a stroll?

So stroll is a very nice way to say to go for a walk.

It's not one of these Norwegian walks with sticks where you're... you're trying to break

the world record.

Neither is it a very, very slow walk where you're stopping every couple of minutes to

smell the roses but a stroll is just leisurely walk around the park bit of sun shining feel

the sun on your your head or your back.

And you can enjoy the time.

Okay.

So well, let's go for a stroll in the park or walk in the park.

Okay, so, you know, stroll is not too slow.

And it's not too quick, but it's literally a leisurely stroll.

And as we said, these are collocations connected with leisure.

So a leisurely stroll is a really good way to describe it.

To hit the shops.

So if you're feeling like a little bit more activity, or you're feeling like having some

retail therapy, then you might use this expression.

Let's hit the shops.

So the girls like to hit the shops.

Yeah, they get together on that Saturday or whatever day they have a day off during the

week, as I tell you what we'll do tomorrow, we'll meet about 10 o'clock, we'll grab a

coffee, and then we're going to hit the shops.

You better get the credit cards ready because they're going to suffer a lot tomorrow.

To hit the shops.

So to hit the shops means to go to the shops but in a big way, not just to do any window

shopping.

But just to do some real damage to that credit card and buy that outfit that you have been

promising yourself for a long time off.

There's nothing better than hitting the shops with the girls, we start off with that coffee,

we go to the shop for a couple of hours.

And then if we are flagging or feeling a little tired, we nip in somewhere for a quick lunch

and yet back to the shops before we get home in time to make the dinner.

Okay, so to hit the shops.

To take up a hobby or take up a sport.

So when you take up something, you start it.

So it's usually something new.

I have taken up knitting.

I know it sounds like a very old pastime, but you know something, it's really relaxing.

Yeah, it's that little ckick click click of the knitting needles.

But you know, it's something nice to... to crochet or something to knit some little gifts.

So yeah, I think something I think I'll continue.

Okay, so to take up knitting sort of that as a hobby.

Or you might want to take up yoga, I've been told it's a great way of relaxing.

Pilates and yoga, all these sports that people are really into both men and women actually

now.

So it used to be just predominantly women, but a lot of men do it for the relaxation

exercises or so they tell me so to take up a sport to take up a hobby.

Whatever you do, you take them up, you start you begin something new, something that you

haven't done before.

I think I'd take up swimming, it's really good overall exercise to get the body balanced

to take up a new sport.

To catch up with friends.

Well, when we catch up, as we mentioned earlier, those two when we're going to catch up on

sleep, so we were making up for the sleep that we didn't get.

But if we catch up with friends, it means that we haven't seen them for a while, perhaps

they've been away.

Or perhaps we've all been busy and during our busy lives, we don't really get the time

we'd like to spend with a friend.

So let's spend Friday night catch up with all the friends.

Let's have a pizza night or let's have a board game night or let's get some theme that will

encourage them to come out.

We just all work far too hard.

So Friday night is going to be catch up with friends night.

So we get together.

We catch up on old times we catch up on the gossip, we catch up on all the stories that

we missed out on and then that will keep us going for the next month or so.

So to catch up with friends as a colocation means to get together to get the people closest

to you together and enjoy that company.

So catch up with.

Have someone over for dinner.

Well, this is a favourite way of spending time with our friends and our family.

A lot of people like to go out at the weekends.

On a Friday night or Saturday night or even Sunday night for dinner.

But with COVID issues and other problems, people started spending a lot more time at

home.

So now cooking at home is not such a problem.

So having someone over for dinner means inviting some guests, family or friends to your home.

Who are you having over for dinner next w eek?

Ah, we're inviting the Mike's friend from college, he hasn't seen him for ages, they've

moved back into the city.

So we thought we'd invite them over, catch up on old times, help them to get settled

again because they've been away for quite a few years.

So we're having them over for dinner, I think on Saturday, so cook something special.

Okay, so when you have someone over for dinner, you usually go that extra mile, you might

cook that dish that you haven't cooked for ages.

You'd like buy a new outfit, buy a wine that's a little bit more expensive, so that everybody

can sit around the table and enjoy themselves.

To have someone over for dinner.

Okay, so to have someone over for dinner for Christmas, or for Easter, or for some special

occasion.

So to have somebody over for a special dinner, or just have people over for dinner, just

to enjoy their company.

To go out for a meal.

So the exact opposite from having somebody over for dinner is when you decide to go out

for a meal, you know, I'm really, really fed up cooking day after day.

Let's go for a meal on Friday, I hear that new Italian restaurant has really got some

great offers on at the moment.

You can go for the early bird meal, it's between 6 and 7:30.

And we can perhaps go for a glass of wine afterwards.

Yeah, so let's do that.

Let's go out for a meal.

So go out means leave the home.

Leave the car if you've got any sense.

Grab a cab or taxi or jump on the metro, whatever it is, get yourself out and about down to

that restaurant, enjoy the meal.

And then get yourself home and everything will be hunky dory, everything will be good.

To go out for a meal.

To stay up late.

The requests from the children.

Can I stay up late tonight there's a movie I want to watch.

Can I stay up late to watch the football?

Can I stay up late to watch the boxing whatever it might be?

Always request from the kids wanting to know can they stay up late.

They never like as you know to go to bed too early because they think they're going to

miss something.

Okay, so they like to stay up late.

And as you get older like me, you hate staying up late.

And so you really liked the idea of getting to bed early, get the book out, read the book,

and then drift off into a nice cosy sleep.

So to stay up late means not to go to bed at your normal time to go to bed that hour

or even two or three hours later.

So you got something to talk to your friends about.

Wow, I got the chance to stay up late last night.

It doesn't really happen.

But Friday night, no school on the Saturday.

So the parents let let me stay up to watch that horror movie.

Or when your friend comes to visit and you have a sleepover, you stay up late swapping

stories running around.

And everybody telling you to be quiet.

Okay, so to stay up late.

And then finally, spend quality time.

And as I said at the beginning, usually we use this with the word together spend quality

time together.

Well, it's quality time is not quantity.

Yeah, it's not that 2-3-4 hours, maybe it's an hour, two hours playing some games going

for that walk, gone for the pizza, just enjoying each other's company, get the bikes out.

But spend quality time when you're taking interest in what people are doing not because

you have to but because you want to spend quality time together.

So it's a real American expression.

Hey, we love to spend quality time together.

It's all about how we get on as a family yet but but it's really really important.

It's important to know that you take some time out of your busy busy days and your busy

schedules to spend quality time together meaning in the family in the home, out in the park

wherever it might be.

Might not just be with family of course it could be spending quality time with your other

relatives or quality time with your friends.

Okay, so something special out of the way away from the routine of the office, the school

whatever it might be okay spending quality time together.

Okay, so the collocations connected with or related to leisure and leisure activity, so

go through them once more.

There are 10 of them.

So, catch up on sleep.

Have a lie-in.

Go for a stroll, hit the shops.

Take up a hobby or take up a sport.

Catch up with friends.

Have someone over for dinner, go out for a meal, stay up late.

And then finally, spend quality time as I said, spend quality time together.

Well,

we spent some quality time together in our lesson.

I hope you've enjoyed it, try to practice some of those collocations if you need any

other examples, come back and let me know and you'll get me on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.

As always, thanks for listening and thanks for joining me and this is Harry saying goodbye

until the next time.