Speak With Me: English Speaking Practice

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

Are you ready to practice speaking  English today? Let's do it.  

Hey, wha’tch up to this  weekend? Yes? What do you say?  

If I asked you, Hey, whatch up to this weekend?  Would you freeze and panic, because you don't  

know how to respond to this question easily and  naturally? Never fear. Today I'm going to help  

you to naturally have a conversation about  your weekend plans which is a really common  

conversation topic. Maybe you're leaving school  or work on a Friday and someone asks you, "Hey,  

whatch up to this weekend?" And they ask you  about your weekend plans, instead of freezing  

and panicking, today I want to help you learn  the most important conversation question that  

you can use in these situations. Also some common  vocabulary for talking about your weekend plans.  

And then at the end of this lesson, we're going  to practice a little exchange back and forth. 

I hope that you can get your pronunciation and  speaking muscles ready so you can really use what  

you've learned during today's lesson. Are you  ready to learn the most important conversation  

question of all time, at least according to  me? Is that question, what's your name? No.  

Is that question, will you give me money? No. Is  that question, do you love me? No, no, no. The  

most important conversation question is, there's  actually two parts, what about you? How about you?  

When someone asks you about your weekend plans  and you say a little reply, I'm going hiking,  

I'm not doing much, there might be an incredibly  awful awkward pause. What happens next?  

Well, this is where the most important question  comes in. You can ask them, what about you? How  

about you? You can imagine tossing a ball back and  forth. The other person has asked you a question. 

What are you doing this weekend? They throw  you the ball. Now you reply and you say,  

I'm going hiking, or I'm not doing much. You need  to throw or toss the ball back to that person. And  

this question does that, how about you? It means  you are asking the same question back to them.  

What are you doing this weekend? How about you?  I want you to remember this wonderful question,  

either of them, actually, they have  the exact same meaning, how about you?  

What about you? Remember these questions, because  later when we practice this at the end of this  

lesson during our conversation speaking time,  remember these questions and use them. All right,  

let's go to some common vocabulary that  you can use to talk about weekend plans.  

Brunch, many Americans love brunch.  The word brunch is a combination of  

breakfast and lunch. And that's because we usually  eat this on the weekends, maybe a Saturday morning  

or a Sunday morning between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. It's a time when you could eat either breakfast  

or lunch, and it's usually a long social event.  So you might go out to brunch with your friends  

or have your friends to your house to eat  brunch. My friends and I are meeting at our  

favorite brunch spot on Sunday. Great. It's  a restaurant where you can eat breakfast type  

foods. Usually with some kind of alcoholic drink  like a mimosa or something with fruit in it,  

or maybe some champagne in the morning. And you  can eat this in the company of your friends.  

Another common weekend word is social butterfly.  A social butterfly refers to someone who makes a  

lot of plans. They are flying around to event, to  another event, to another activity. They're always  

doing things usually involving lots of other  people. They are a social butterfly. If you are  

a social butterfly, probably the year 2020 with  lockdowns and all of these things were probably  

really difficult for you, because you love to get  together with other people and always be active. 

So we can use this in a sentence like  this. My friend is a social butterfly.  

She has invitations to three brunches  and four afternoon teas. Amazing.  

What if you are not a social butterfly. What  if you are the opposite? Are you unsocial  

caterpillar? No. It means you are a homebody.  Your body likes to stay at home. I'm a homebody.  

She's a homebody. Someone who enjoys just doing  things slowly and staying at home. They feel most  

comfortable in a comfortable place at home. You  could say, "My friend is a social butterfly, but  

I'm more of a homebody. When I get together with  friends, I would rather have dinner at my house  

and then play games here." I think this is true  for me personally, as I get a little bit older  

I prefer these intimate group  settings. Instead of lots of people,  

I prefer just a couple of friends at home. Maybe having a bonfire outside, roasting  

some food or some marshmallows and this kind of  intimate setting. I enjoy doing activities at home  

more often than when I was a little bit younger.  To stay in, unfortunately that has been probably  

a lot of our weekend plans for the past year. And  it means that you're just going to stay at home.  

It doesn't mean you're going to do nothing.  It just means you're not going to go anywhere.  

I'm going to stay in. You might say, "It's  supposed to be cold and rainy this weekend, so  

I'm just going to stay in and read a book," or  "I'm just going to stay in and do some things  

around the house." To binge watch. This means that  you watch a lot of movies or TV shows usually back  

to back without stopping. So several hours, maybe  you watch four seasons of a TV show in one day. 

This is binge watching. You are watching a lot.  This expression comes from a term we usually use  

with alcohol. To binge drink, this means  that you drink a lot of alcohol at one time,  

not a very healthy thing to do. But when we  say to binge drink, that has that same idea,  

is you're doing a lot back to back. Or you could  binge watch TV. So you might say, "Last weekend,  

my husband and I binge watched all of the Star  Wars movies." This isn't true. When you have  

young children, you do not have time to binge  watch TV. But you might say this about your life,  

"I binge watched that new TV show that just  came out." Our final expression that you can  

use to talk about your weekend plans is, to  catch up on some chores. This phrasal verb,  

to catch up on, is a beautiful phrasal verb that  you can use to talk about some kind of necessary  

activity that you haven't done for a while. And now there's more and more and more,  

and you need to finish all of this. So we can  imagine laundry, dishes, sweeping, cleaning, maybe  

some home repairs, tidying up, maybe even yard  work. If you don't do those things for one week  

or two weeks, Oh, there's so many you have to do.  So that means you need to catch up. You need to  

do what you haven't done for a while. You need to  catch up on some chores, and chores are just those  

activities that I mentioned, laundry, dishes,  these necessary activities that involve cleaning  

up, helping to make your home a wonderful place  to live. So maybe this weekend, you just need to  

catch up on some chores. You might say, "I was  so busy all week and finally I'm going to catch  

up on some chores this weekend." Maybe not very  fun, but when your house is clean it feels good. 

All right, now that we have some common vocabulary  you can use to talk about your weekend plans,  

let's talk about some introduction  questions that you might hear  

and that you can also ask other people.  These have varying levels of reductions and  

fast ways that you will hear them. So I want  to help you understand and recognize what other  

people are saying and also be able to use  it. So let's talk about our first question.  

What are you up to this weekend? What are you up  to this weekend? You might know the expression  

what's up. This just means, how are you? So  we're using that same word, up to talk about,  

what are you doing this weekend? What are  you up to this weekend? But do you think  

that we usually say it like this? What are  you up to this weekend? So clear. So lovely. 

No. Instead we're going to reduce this a  little bit and then we can reduce it a lot  

more. Let's talk about that first one. What  are you up to? What are you up to? What're.  

So here the word, what and are, are creating  a spoken contraction. Usually when we write,  

we don't write this type of contraction. It's only  in spoken English, but oftentimes be verbs like  

are, is, will be contracted with a question  word. Whatda you up to this weekend? Whatda,  

whatda you up to? We can reduce this a little  bit further. Whatch up to? Whatch up to?  

Whatch up to this weekend? There are a lot of  reductions happening at the beginning. Whatchh,  

what-cha up to. So here we have, what are you,  being reduced to just, whatch, the chh is you.  

And what are has just been smashed  together, and we can say whatch  

up to, whatch up to, whatch up to, whatch up to. This is really fast. If you say this slowly,  

whatch up to, it sounds really weird. So  we only use this in really fast English.  

So if you're going to say this, it needs to  be quickly and reduced and linked together.  

Most likely you're going to hear this. So I want  to make sure that you can understand when someone  

says, "Hey, whatch up to this weekend."  Whatch up to this weekend. You can say,  

"Oh, Vanessa taught me that. I know what that  means. What are you up to this weekend? Yes."  

So let's go on to our next expression where we're  going to also reduce this a bit and help you to  

understand it. What have you got going on this  weekend? What have you got going on this weekend? 

These all mean the same thing. What are you doing  this weekend? But you might hear this expression  

with the word gut. What have you gut going  on this weekend? When you actually hear this,  

we don't say it clearly. What have you got going  on this weekend? Wouldn't that be nice though?  

Instead, you're going to hear a reduction or a  contraction of the first two words, just like  

we saw with the previous example. What've. So what  and have are going to be pushed together. What've  

you gut goin on? That final G in the word going  is going to be cut off and we'll just say,  

goin. So let's try to say that altogether.  You want to try to say it with me? What've  

you gut goin on? What've you gut goin on this  weekend? What've you gut goin on this weekend? 

Do you think we can reduce this further? Oh yes.  Whatda ya gut goin on this weekend? Whatda ya gut.  

Here the beginning of, what have you got, is  just really like you threw it in a mixing bowl,  

stirred it up and threw it out on a cookie  tray. Well, let's try to break it down so  

it's not quite so messy and complicated. At  the beginning we have, what have you got?  

But it sounds like, whatda, whatda, this is, what  have. Whatda ya. Ya is you. Whatda ya gut goin,  

again, we're going to drop that  G at the end of the word going.  

Goin on, whatda ya gut goin on? Whatda. Notice  what's happening at the end of the word, what?  

Do you hear a clear, T, Whatda ya, whatda ya.  

Nope. That at the end of the word,  what is going to change to a D sound? 

This is really typical of American English,  where a T that's surrounded by vowel sounds  

is going to change to a D. It's called a flapped  T and it just rolls off your tongue in a smooth  

way. Whatda ya gut goin on? Can you say it  with me? Whatda ya gut goin on this weekend?  

Whatda ya gut goin on this weekend? All right,  let's go to our last question. You doin anything  

fun this weekend? You doin anything fun this  weekend? What's happening at the beginning of  

this question? Should there be another word? Yep.  Are you doing anything fun this weekend? Are you,  

but the word, are it's on vacation. It's just gone  somewhere. So we're going to start this question  

with the word you. You doin anything fun this  weekend? It makes the questions seem a little  

more casual and less like an interrogation,  or you're asking someone out on a date. 

It's just a casual question. You doin anything  fun this weekend? But we can reduce this question.  

We're not going to reduce it an awful lot, but we  will hear this reduced a little bit. When we say,  

you doing anything fun. Instead, you're going to  hear it, ya doin. Ya, the word you is reduced to  

ya. Ya doin, listen to that G at the end,  ya doin, it's gone. It's also on vacation.  

Maybe it's on vacation with the word are. So  let's say, ya doin anything fun this weekend,  

ya doin, that's the main reduction that's going  to happen in this question. Ya doin anything fun  

this weekend. Ya doin. Try to say that with me. Ya  doin anything fun this weekend? Ya doin anything  

fun this weekend. All right, let's go onto some  other common things that you will hear in these  

types of small talk, easy casual conversations. If someone tells you about their weekend plans,  

and it sounds interesting or fun, how can you  reply? You might say, "That sounds like fun," or,  

"How interesting," or just simply, "Nice." If that  person is doing nothing, they're just sitting at  

home, maybe they're going to binge watch some  TV and stay in. Well sometimes it's nice to  

still say something positive in response. So you  might say, "Sometimes it's nice to do nothing."  

And that's true, especially if you've been  doing a lot, sometimes it's nice just to stay in  

and relax for the weekend. So you might say,  "Sometimes it's nice to do nothing." All right.  

Before we practice our sample conversation  together. What can you say at the end?  

Well, if you're talking about weekend plans, it  is before the weekend. So you could just say,  

"Have a good weekend" or "Enjoy your weekend."  Simple, great way to end the conversation. 

All right, let's take a deep breath. Are you  ready to put all of this together? What I  

would like you to do is, first, I would like  you to listen to this sample conversation.  

Think about the different parts that  are happening. You're going to hear  

our key beautiful question. What about you? How  about you? You're going to also hear some of the  

key vocabulary that we talked about, and also just  some of the questions, the introductory questions,  

what you got going on this weekend? Great  things like that, that we'll put together.  

And then I'm going to put some pauses  and it's going to be your turn to have  

the conversation with me. So first  let's watch the conversation sample.  

"Hey, whatch up to this weekend?" "Not that  much. I'm just going to stay in and catch up on  

some chores on Saturday. But on Sunday, I'm going  to meet up with some of my friends for brunch." 

"That sounds fun. Where's your  favorite brunch spot?" "I usually go to  

Sunday Morning Cafe." "What about you? What  have you got going on this weekend?" "I'm  

kind of a homebody. So I'll probably just read  a book in my hammock." "That sounds nice. Well,  

have a good weekend. Enjoy your book." "Thanks.  You too. Have a good weekend." All right. Are you  

ready to take this to the next level? I'm going  to be asking you a question and then pausing. And  

I would like you to reply in that pause. Take a  moment. Tell me about your plans. You can do it.  

Let's go. "Hey, whatch up to this weekend?" "How interesting. How often do you do that?"  

"Oh, me? Oh, I'll probably go hiking  since the weather's going to be so warm."  

"Well, nice talking to you. Have a good weekend."  

Well, how did you do? If you would like you can go  back and practice that little sample conversation.  

You can take a deep breath, enjoy yourself.  That's part of learning English. Because I  

want you to enjoy the process, enjoy the  journey. So now I have a question for you,  

in the comments below this video, let me  know, whatcha gut goin on this weekend? What  

are your weekend plans? Try to use some of the  expressions that you learned in this lesson and  

thank you so much for learning English with me. I will see you again next Friday for a new lesson  

here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is  to download my free ebook, 5 Steps To Becoming A  

Confident English Speaker. You'll learn what you  need to do to speak confidently and fluently.  

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for more free lessons. Thanks so much. Bye.