Learn English: How to wish someone in person and on Facebook

Hi, and welcome back to engVid.

Today we have a really special lesson planned for you.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to wish somebody in person, or in an email, or on Facebook

during the happy and sad occasions of our lives.

Okay?

Now, actually, I've learned different languages; and even though sometimes you learn all kinds

of complex words and all kinds of difficult things, sometimes it's hardest to say the

simplest wishes and greetings in the natural way that they should flow when somebody tells

you good news or bad news.

Okay?

So, this is to review, in case you don't know, and there may be some situations where you're

not...

Not really sure at all what to say.

So, try to do this quickly with me.

I'm going to give you a situation, and you tell me quickly: What do you say to a person

in that situation?

Now, some of them are going to be pretty obvious, and some maybe not.

Okay?

Are you ready?

Let's get started.

Okay.

What do you to say to someone on their birthday?

"Happy birthday."

Good.

Now, as I ask you, if you want or you need more time, then just pause and say it.

Okay?

But, really, we're going to do this quite fast.

So, on a birthday we say: "Happy birthday."

Later I'll tell you what else you can write besides: "Happy birthday."

Okay.

Your friend has a job interview.

Before they go for the job interview, what do you say?

There are a number of possibilities, here, but tell me something quickly.

You can say: "Good luck."

You could say: "All the best."

All right?

Good.

It's your friend's anniversary, what do you say to them?

You say: "Happy anniversary."

Yes, that works.

Okay?

You can also say: "Congratulations", but: "Happy anniversary" is fine.

It's January 1st and you see a friend, what do you say to him?

"Happy New Year."

Okay?

Good.

It's somebody's wedding day, what do you say to them?

Usually we just say: "Congratulations."

Okay?

Again, later I'll tell you what else you can say after that basic word, but you at least

want to get the basic words out of your mouth.

Right?

Good.

Now, we don't always do this, but often we do say something before someone's about to

eat, like, a nice meal or something like that.

And the strange part is we say something in French because we don't actually have something

in English to say before you're about to sit down to eat a nice meal.

So, have you heard what people say before someone is about to eat a nice, fancy meal?

Have you heard?

We say: "Bon appétit", which in French means: "Good appetite."

Okay?

So, that's something for you to learn.

All right?

Your friend tells you that she's pregnant, and you say: "Congratulations."

Okay?

Next, someone is introduced to you.

Okay?

So, what do you say to them?

You put out your hand and you say: "Nice to meet you."

By the way, depending on the culture and the situation, you don't always put out your hand

for...

To shake hands, but what you say is: "Nice to meet you."

Okay?

Good.

If someone has helped you a lot through a difficult situation, or with a project, something

at work, something at home, what do you say to someone who has helped you?

You say: "Thank you."

Okay?

This one you may or may not know if you haven't been in this situation.

Somebody loses someone that they love-that means someone in their family passes away

or dies-what are you supposed to say to them?

Well, there are a few possibilities.

So, you could say: "My condolences."

Okay?

The word is: "condolences".

Okay?

"Please accept my condolences."

Or: "I'm very sorry to hear that."

If you can't remember the word "condolences" or you feel it's hard to pronounce or something,

just say: "I'm very sorry to hear that.

I'm very sorry for your loss."

Okay?

Now, in case you're not catching exactly what I'm saying, what you can do during this lesson

is to turn on the captions, which we have, and there you'll see these words that I'm

saying written down.

And if there's anything you don't know, then you could write them down for yourself, which

is also a very good way for you to remember.

Okay?

So, there, you'll be able to write down, like: "Condolences", "Congratulations", exactly

how to spell and write these words.

Okay?

Let's continue.

Did you know or did you notice that in English when someone sneezes, we often say something

to them?

Do you know what that is?

It's: "Bless you."

Okay?

All right.

"Bless you."

All right.

That actually comes from an earlier time because when somebody sneezed in the olden days, it

meant they were unwell and they were really not...

You were worried about them and you didn't want them to die or anything like that, so

you blessed them so that they got back to good health.

Okay?

That's it.

All right.

You heard that someone got a job, so what do you say?

You say: "Congratulations."

Good.

You're trying to walk but somebody's in your way, so what do you say to them?

"Excuse me."

Right.

Good.

Okay.

You heard that your friend had a baby, and you say: "Congratulations."

Okay?

Good.

Afterwards I'll tell you what you can say after: "Congratulations."

All right.

You're introduced to someone, what do you say?

"Nice to meet you."

Okay?

Again, with or without the handshake.

Someone passes an exam.

Your friend tells you: "Oh, I passed the exam", and you say: "Congratulations."

All right?

Now, if your friend is going for the exam and you meet them before, what could you say?

You could say: "All the best.

Good luck."

Okay?

Good.

Someone's going away on holiday, what can you say to them?

Well, here, we don't have, like, a fixed phrase; there are a few possibilities.

You can say: "Have a good holiday.", "Have a great time.", "Bon voya-...

Bon voyage.

Bon voyage."

Okay?

That's it - I got it.

"Bon voyage."

Again, it's French; it's not English, so we do use that, though.

Okay?

Next, someone thanks you for something, so what do you say?

They say: "Thank you."

You say: "You're welcome."

Okay?

That's the standard thing; there are many other possibilities you can say, but usually

we say: "You're welcome."

Okay?

Or if you want to go a little bit further, you say: "My pleasure.", "No problem."

It depends on the formality of the situation and what the situation was.

Someone raises a glass, say: "Let's toast about bride and groom.

Let's make a toast."

So everybody usually says: "Cheers."

Okay?

"Cheers."

Good.

And if you make a mistake, then...

Say you forgot someone's birthday, so you call and say: "I'm sorry."

Okay?

Good.

"I'm sorry."

All right?

So, here you had a lot of words that are...

Really should come to you easily, so you need to practice them.

Okay?

Because life is not about just looking at the board and knowing what to say; life comes

at you just like that, right?

At random.

That's why I just wrote all kinds of situations; some are good, some are bad, some are sad,

some are exciting, whatever - and you have to have the answers at the moment.

Right?

So, sometimes: "Congratulations.", "I'm sorry.", "Thank you.", "Good luck.", "All the best."

Okay?

"My condolences.", "Bon voyage.", "Bon appétit."

All of these things, okay?

But now let's look a little bit further in the next part what you can say after these

basic greetings.

Because what I've realized when I was looking at Facebook, a lot of people are just writing:

"Happy birthday.", "Happy birthday.", "Happy birthday.", "Happy birthday.", "Happy birthday."

And nobody's saying anything else.

So, what else could you say besides that?

How can you personalize it?

How can you humanize it?

Okay?

Let's look at some possibilities.

I'll be back in a sec.

All right, now let's go over: What are some things you could say after you say: "Happy

birthday", and some other wishes and greetings?

Okay?

So, here we go.

And this is especially useful, as I said, if you're writing it.

Okay?

You can also say these things, but especially if you're writing an email, or you're writing

on Facebook, or you're writing someone a message, or you're writing in a greeting card, or you

work somewhere and they pass around a greeting card, and you want to write something a little

bit different.

Okay?

It's always nice.

And also try to think about who that person is for just one second to say something a

little bit more than just: "Happy birthday."

Okay?

Wish them that little bit extra that makes it more meaningful.

So, if it's someone's birthday, you could say after that: "I wish you" or "We wish you",

depending on the situation...

"I wish you a __________ year ahead."

Now, what could you say here?

All kinds of things.

Personalize it, depending on who you're talking to.

Right?

You could say: "I wish you a wonderful year ahead."

Very general.

"I wish you a beautiful year ahead.", "I wish you an exceptional year ahead.", "I wish you

a brilliant year ahead.", "I wish you a successful year ahead."

In business, that's a very common greeting and a very nice wish for someone: "I wish

you a very successful year ahead."

And if it's somebody that you're really close to, you can add on various adjectives: "I

wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous year ahead."

Okay?

You don't have to say just one thing; you can say many things.

All right?

But it's good to try to say something more than just the basic: "Happy birthday."

All right?

Okay.

Next, for someone's wedding, what else could you say after: "Congratulations"?

You could say: "We wish you lots of happiness.", "We wish you a lifetime of joy together."

Something like that.

Okay?

Next, for a new job or somebody gets a promotion, you could say the same thing: "I wish you

lots of success."

Okay?

"Success" is a good word to use around...

For academic achievements, for professional achievements, anything like that; a little

bit more formal.

Okay?

And exams, someone tells you that they've done very well and you say: "Congratulations!

Fantastic!

I knew you could do it!"

All right?

Something like that; something very encouraging.

All right.

In a...

In a difficult situation-someone suffers a loss, someone passes away-you could say: "I'm

so sorry for your loss."

Again, we talked about: "My condolences."

And also, we didn't talk about this before, but if somebody's just ill-okay?-you could

say, first of all: "Get well soon."

Okay?

And then in both of these situations of a loss or illness, you could add something personal,

like: "Please let me know" or "Please let us know if we can help in some way.", "Please

let me know how I can help.", "Please let me know what I can do to help you."

Okay?

"Just say the word."

Something like that.

Okay?

You could write it or say it.

Now, when it comes to: "Thanks" and "Thank you", again, try to make it more meaningful.

Okay?

Don't just say: "Thank you."

Thank you for what?

Tell them.

Okay?

"Thanks for"...

Or: "Thank you", okay?

"Thank you for your help.", "Thanks for your support.", "Thanks for your kindness.", "Thank

you for your encouragement, your generosity.", "Thank you for your business."

Okay?

That's very important if you're writing to a customer or a client: "Thank you for..."

Thank them for their business.

Okay?

They have many choices; they chose you - thank them.

Let them know why you're thanking them.

And you can write it like this, by using the noun.

You could say: "Thank you for your help", or you could just say: "Thank you for helping

me.", "Thank you for being so kind.", "Thank you for being so generous.", "Thank you for

being so encouraging."

Okay?

All kinds of things like that.

And I am genuinely saying to you: Thank you for watching engVid, and thank you so much

for subscribing-I hope-to my YouTube channel.

Okay?

So you can continue to get lots of useful, practical lessons to help you improve your

English.

And most of all, I want to say congratulations to you for taking ownership and taking control

of your English.

All right?

I really admire you.

So, if you'd like to take this one step further, please visit our website at www.engvid.com.

There, you can do a quiz on this and really practice these expressions so they flow easily,

because as I said, in the most important times which are happy times or sad times, you want

to know that you know exactly what to say and you want it to come smoothly and easily

from your mouth.

Okay?

Thanks very much for watching.

Bye for now, and all the best with your English.

Bye.