EASY ENGLISH CONVERSATION: Talk About the Weekend!

0:00 So, Audra, what'd you do this weekend?

0:03 Well, on Saturday, I had a family barbecue, and everyone came over.

0:09 We had burgers and steak and lots and lots of cake.

0:14 Wow.

0:15 Hello.

0:16 My name is Emma, and today I am going to teach

0:19 you some very important expressions and vocabulary about the weekend.

0:26 I love the weekend.

0:29 When I'm talking about the weekend, I'm talking about Saturday and Sunday.

0:34 So, a lot of the times on Fridays and Mondays, people talk about the weekend.

0:40 So, it's very important to know vocabulary and expressions about

0:45 the weekend because it's such a common part of conversation.

0:50 So, let's look at some examples of weekend vocabulary.

0:55 So, on Friday- and notice I have "on".

1:00 A lot of students make mistakes with this, but the preposition

1:03 we use with days of the week is the word "on".

1:07 So, on Friday, people often ask this question.

1:13 Do you have any plans for the weekend?

1:18 Do you have any plans for the weekend?

1:24 Or they might not ask, "Do you have", they might just say,

1:28 "Any plans for the weekend?" It's a very common question people ask on Fridays.

1:34 And what they want is for you to talk about your plans for the weekend.

1:38 What are you going to do on Saturday?

1:40 What are you going to do on Sunday?

1:43 Now, another thing you might see on Friday is sometimes people say "TGIF",

1:49 or they might write it somewhere.

1:53 My sister Audra, who's going to help us in a little bit,

1:58 and I often text each other this- TGIF.

2:02 Every Friday we write each other this.

2:04 What does it mean?

2:06 It means "thank goodness" or "thank God it's Friday".

2:13 We say this because we are so happy it's Friday.

2:17 No more work, it's the weekend, we can relax.

2:21 So TGIF.

2:24 Another expression we might talk about on a Friday is the word "long weekend".

2:30 A long weekend is a weekend that is three days.

2:35 So it might be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday where you have it off work,

2:40 or it might be Saturday, Sunday, Monday.

2:44 So if you have a three-day weekend, we call that a long weekend.

2:51 Long weekends are my favourite.

2:54 I love long weekends.

2:58 So, we talk about this on Friday, we do our thing on the weekend,

3:03 and then on Monday most people go back to school or work.

3:08 And this is often one of the first questions you will hear on Monday.

3:14 You'll hear "So, what'd you do this weekend?" And notice

3:19 I have "what" with an apostrophe and a "d".

3:23 The "d" here stands for "did".

3:25 So, this can also be "What did you do this weekend?"

3:32 But in conversation we often use contractions or we shorten words,

3:37 so "What did you do this weekend?" actually becomes "What'd you do

3:42 this weekend?" And this is really hard for English language learners because,

3:48 you know, they hear this and they don't realize the "what" means "what did".

3:55 Okay?

3:56 So be careful about this.

3:58 "So, what'd you do this weekend?" You might hear somebody ask

4:03 "How was your weekend?" You might hear this question "Did you get

4:08 up to anything this weekend?" The word or the expression "get

4:14 up to" is a very common expression and it just means "do".

4:19 Okay?

4:20 So, we use it when we're talking about activities we did in the past.

4:25 So, "Did you get up to anything this weekend?"

4:28 means "Did you do anything this weekend?" So, they have the same meaning.

4:34 "Did you get up to anything this weekend?" "Did you

4:38 do anything this weekend?" If you hear somebody ask this question,

4:44 one thing you can say is you can use "get up to" in your response.

4:48 You can say "I didn't get up to much".

4:52 This means I didn't do anything, really.

4:55 I didn't do a lot.

4:56 Nothing special.

4:58 So, "I didn't get up to much this weekend." It's funny

5:02 with this expression because we only use it in the negative.

5:06 We do not say "I got up to a lot".

5:10 We would say "I did a lot",

5:13 but in terms of when we use "get up to", we only use it in the negative form.

5:19 "I didn't get up to much this weekend." So,

5:22 now we are going to look at some common activities we do on the weekend,

5:27 and we are going to do a listening activity with my sister, Audra.

5:32 Okay, so there are many things you can do on the weekend.

5:36 I'm going to give some examples of some things I like to do during the weekend.

5:41 Before I begin, I just wanted to say one thing.

5:45 There is a difference between British English

5:47 and American English when we're talking about the weekend.

5:51 In British English, we can say "at the weekend".

5:56 In North American English, we say "on the weekend".

5:59 So, both "at" or "on" are correct,

6:02 depending on where you live and where you're speaking English.

6:06 So, let's get started on common plans we talk about...

6:09 Or, common plans for the weekend.

6:13 Now, the first thing I wanted to talk about is brunch.

6:18 Brunch is very popular in North America and other countries as well.

6:23 Brunch is a meal.

6:25 People often have brunch at restaurants.

6:29 And if you notice, I've put equals- breakfast plus lunch.

6:33 So, brunch is between breakfast and lunch.

6:37 It's usually around 10am or 11am, and people,

6:42 especially on Sundays, people often go for brunch.

6:47 Okay?

6:47 So, you can say "On Sunday,

6:50 I had brunch with my family." On Sunday, I had brunch with some friends.

6:56 So, you'll hear people talk a lot about brunch in North America.

7:01 Another thing people often do, and I do this a lot during the weekend,

7:07 is we binge on TV shows.

7:10 So, some people have Netflix, some people have Hulu,

7:13 some people have maybe DVDs or some show they're watching.

7:18 When we binge on something, it means we do too much of something.

7:23 So, if you binge on a TV show,

7:26 it means you watch a lot of episodes of a TV show back to back.

7:33 So, for example, when I was watching Game of Thrones,

7:37 I binged on Game of Thrones.

7:40 Sometimes I watched four episodes in a row,

7:44 and my whole Saturday was spent binging on Game of Thrones.

7:49 So, this is a common expression you might hear

7:52 people talk about when they're talking about the weekend.

7:56 Another thing people often do on the weekend is they run errands.

8:01 So, the past tense of "run" is "ran".

8:04 So, on Saturday, I ran some errands.

8:08 What does this mean?

8:10 Well, "errands" is a big term that covers many different activities.

8:16 "Errands" include doing groceries, you know,

8:20 maybe getting a new cell phone charger.

8:23 It's those little, small tasks you have to do, so those are errands.

8:29 Maybe you have to pay a bill and you have to go somewhere.

8:33 Instead of saying what each task is, you can just say "errands".

8:37 Okay?

8:38 So, "errands" is another word for "task".

8:40 What do you have to do on the weekend?

8:43 "I ran some errands." A lot of people meet up with their friends or family,

8:50 so this means that they see their friends or family.

8:54 So, I can say, "On Saturday,

8:56 I met up with some friends." "I went to a BBQ", or a "barbecue".

9:04 "BBQ" is the short form of the word "barbecue".

9:10 We often talk about things we get caught up on.

9:15 So, this might be a new expression.

9:17 Sometimes in life, we feel like we're behind.

9:21 Our week is very busy, and so we need to have some time to catch up,

9:27 or to get things done that we didn't have time to get done during the week.

9:33 So, let's look at some examples of things we get caught up on.

9:38 We can get caught up on schoolwork.

9:40 So this means during the week, I didn't have time to do some schoolwork,

9:45 now I have time, so I get caught up on schoolwork.

9:49 I get caught up on housework,

9:51 so maybe during the week, I couldn't do my laundry.

9:55 Now I can, I have time, so I get caught up on housework.

10:02 Maybe you have a job where you have to do projects during the weekend.

10:06 You can say, "I got caught up on work." For some people,

10:10 during the week, they only get five hours of sleep,

10:14 so maybe they like to sleep late or take naps on the weekend, so they can say,

10:20 "I got caught up on sleep." Many people like to sleep in on the weekend.

10:28 This means they do not wake up early, they sleep late.

10:33 So, on Saturday, I like to sleep in, and "slept" is the past tense of "sleep".

10:40 Finally, some people just say they relaxed on the weekend.

10:44 Okay, so now we are going to practice what we learned.

10:48 I'd like to invite my sister Audra over here to help us with our conversation.

10:53 So come on out, Audra.

10:56 Thank you for being here today.

10:58 No problem.

10:59 So, Audra, what'd you do this weekend?

11:03 Well, on Saturday, I had a family barbecue, and everyone came over.

11:09 We had burgers and steak and lots and lots of cake.

11:14 Wow.

11:15 Did you do anything else on Saturday?

11:17 I did.

11:18 I actually went out for coffee with my best friend Christine,

11:21 and we did a bit of shopping, and it was really, really lovely.

11:26 Great.

11:26 And what about on Sunday?

11:28 What'd you get up to on Sunday?

11:30 So, on Sunday, I did something a bit exciting.

11:32 I went to a sewing class, and I made a fabric basket.

11:37 A fabric basket.

11:38 Okay.

11:39 So, Audra is going to show us her creation.

11:42 Let's see what Audra made.

11:46 Ta-da.

11:49 Not only is she beautiful, but she is very talented.

11:52 Thank you.

11:53 Did you do anything else on Sunday?

11:56 I think that was about it for Sunday.

11:59 I do have some errands to do when I get home.

12:01 I will be doing laundry.

12:04 Okay.

12:04 And what about...

12:06 What time did you wake up during the weekend?

12:08 Did you sleep in?

12:09 I did not sleep in.

12:11 I woke up around 7.30 in the morning, which is quite early.

12:15 I wish I could have slept in until 11am.

12:18 That would have been much better.

12:20 Do you usually sleep in on weekends?

12:22 I do not.

12:23 I get up quite early.

12:25 I normally wake up at 6am during the week.

12:28 On weekends, I could say I sleep in until 7.30am.

12:34 Ideally, I would like to sleep in until 11am.

12:37 Wow.

12:38 So, my last question for you, Audra, is about brunch.

12:42 I know my sister Audra loves brunch.

12:47 Sometimes we go to brunch together.

12:50 So, when do you usually do brunch?

12:53 My friend Lou and I often do brunch on the weekends.

12:57 On Sunday morning, we go out for brunch and we try different places,

13:03 and we get to try many different types of food.

13:06 All right.

13:07 Well, thank you so much, Audra.

13:08 Thanks for telling us all about your weekend.

13:10 No problem.

13:11 Thank you for having me.

13:12 So, thank you for watching.

13:14 I want to invite you to check out our website at www.EngVid.com.

13:19 There, you can actually do a quiz where you

13:21 can practice everything you learned today in this video.

13:25 So, thank you for watching, and until next time, take care.