from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Are you ready to  practice speaking in English with me? Let's do it.  

What do you do? Where do you want to  go? What are you up to this weekend?  

Could you answer these questions in English?  In today's English lesson, you will practice  

speaking with me about seven of the most common  conversation topics in English. We will practice  

vocabulary, questions, sample conversation,  plus, you will have the chance to have a sample  

conversation practice conversation with me too. Over the past year, I have made seven Speak With  

Me lessons, and today I have combined them all in  a very useful lesson where you can practice them  

for the next two hours. To help you never forget  what you've learned, I've created a gigantic  

free PDF worksheet using all of the vocabulary,  phrases, questions, sample sentences, and some  

challenge questions so that you can never forget  what you've learned. You can download this free  

PDF worksheet with the link in the description.  All right. Are you ready to get started? 

We are going to be talking about  these topics today. Drum roll.  

Let's get started with the  first one, weekend plans.  

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, "Okay, 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. 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 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, 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. 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 a 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 kind of intimate group  settings instead of lots of people,  

I prefer just a couple friends at home. Maybe  having a bonfire outside, roasting some food or  

some marshmallows and this 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. 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. 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 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. 

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, there's so  

many you have to do. That means you need to catch  up, you 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. 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. 

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. 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 the first  one. What are you up to? What are you up to? 

What're. 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 B  

verbs like are, is, will be contracted with a  question word. What're you up to this weekend?  

What're, what're you up to? We can reduce this a  little bit further. Whatcha'p to? Whatcha'p to?  

Whatcha'p to this weekend? There are a lot of reductions happening  

at the beginning. Whatch, whatcha'p to? Here  we have, what are you being reduced to just  

whatch, the ch is you and what are has just  been smooshed together and we can say whatcha'p  

to? Whatcha'p to? Whatcha'p to? Whatcha'p to?  This is really fast. If you say this slowly,  

whatcha'p to? It sounds really weird.  We only use this in really fast English,  

so if you are 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, whatcha'p to this weekend?" Whatcha'p to this weekend? You can say,  

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

Let's go into 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 got. What have  you got going on this weekend? When you actually  

hear this, we don't say it that 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 got goin' on?  

That final G in the word going is going to be  cut off and we'll just say, goin'. Let's try to  

say that altogether. You want to try to say it  with me? What've you got goin' on? What've you  

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

Do you think we can reduce this further? Yes. Whadayagot goin' on this weekend? Whadayagot.  

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 whada. Whada, this is what  have, whadaya, ya is you. Whadayagot goin',  

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

Goin' on. Whadayagot goin' on? Whada. Notice  what's happening at the end of the word what,  

do you hear a clear T? Whadaya, whadaya.  

No. That T 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.  

Whadayagot goin' on? Can you say it with me?  Whadayagot goin' on this weekend? Whadayagot goin'  

on this weekend? All right, let's go to our last  question. You doing anything fun this weekend?  

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

Should there be another word? Yes. 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 doing anything fun this weekend?  It makes the question seem a little more casual  

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

just a casual question. You doing 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, 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. 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 on to 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 some being 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."  

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 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 are 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.  

First, let's watch the conversation sample. "Hey, what you up to this weekend?" 

"Nothing much. I'm just going to stay in  and catch up on some chores on Saturday.