25 Smart Sentences for Daily Use in English Conversation | Improve English Conversation Skills

hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy today I'm going to bring you 25 sentences for daily conversational use when we have conversations we often use the same sentences again and again and again so I've got some alternatives for you some new smart sentences that you may not have heard before but they're definitely ones that we use a lot especially in the UK and around the rest of the world as well now as always there is a free pdf that goes with this lesson we have all 25 phrases some extra information pronunciation definitions

all that good stuff and a quiz that you can use to test your understanding if you would like to download that free pdf all you've got to do is click on the link in the description box you enter your name and your email address the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox and then after that you've joined the PDF club and you will automatically receive leave all of my free PDFs each week along with my news offers and updates it's a free service and you can unsubscribe at any time right let's get started with the

lesson first let's discuss phrases we can use when we meet someone that we either do or do not know these are different situations the first phrase is nice to bump into you it's nice to bump into you now you would use this phrase if you are at the very least familiar with them so maybe you know of them to know of someone is to have heard about them to know their name if you have seen someone recently you can say nice to bump into you again now the literal meaning of to bump into someone is

to collide with someone for example I bumped into someone at the supermarket and dropped my milk for example however in this context the context of meeting someone to bump into someone means to meet someone unexpectedly for example I might say I bumped into your mum at the swimming pool meaning I unexpectedly met your mum now the next one number two 2 is a phrase that we use if we don't know someone we haven't met them before but we have maybe heard of them before or we have communicated with them digitally maybe we've been talking over

email or something like that it is it's great to finally meet you in person it's great to finally meet you in person I say there's so much after the pandemic I met so many people online over zoom and now I can finally meet them in real life so I say ah it's so nice to finally meet you in person number three is speak of the devil speak of the devil and this has a very specific usage this is said when a person appears just after being mentioned for example if I'm talking to a colleague about

someone's excellent presentation and then that person appears I could say speak of the devil we were just talking about your excellent presentation this can be a great way to make someone new feel included especially if you have been complimenting them behind their back number four another one to use if you haven't met someone before but you want to pay them a nice compliment you can say I've heard so much about you I've heard so much about you obviously only say this if you actually have heard good things said about this person a really good response

to this is all good things I hope or all positive I hope and the last one number five this is a nice way of saying I don't know who you are so please introduce yourself to me avoids an awkward situation it is I don't think we've crossed paths before I don't think we've crossed paths before to cross paths with someone is to meet someone by chance and if we haven't crossed paths before well we've never met but I think it's a bit nicer than saying who are you I don't know who you are I don't

think we've crossed paths before okay next section let's say for now that you've met someone that you do know you're going to want to catch up with them and to catch up with someone is to talk about everything that's happened since you last saw each other so we have number six which is how is everything going how is everything going and if you can't specifically remember what they've been doing how is everything going is a great way to let them lead the conversation it gives them room to open up this might refer to their family

their work their personal life romantic life who knows but you can let them lead the conversation because they decide what everything is we also have numbers 7 which is what have you been up to what have you been up to and this is a really friendly phrase I've used this before I taught it in my stop saying how are you video if you are up to something it means that you are doing something mischievous you're doing something Troublesome but this phrase is very warm and friendly it's saying you know what trouble have you been causing

what have you been doing it's something that we use a lot with children or animals I often say to my dog what have you been up to Diego because I know he's been doing something mischievous we use it with friends as well it's very casual so it's not appropriate for professional situations but it is appropriate if you know the person quite well a good response to what have you been up to is ah not much or I've not been up to much we also have number eight which is what have I missed what have I

missed fill me in so if you haven't caught up with someone for a while this is a good way to ask them what has happened since you last spoke to fill someone in is to give someone missing information or to inform someone more fully of a situation so if I'm saying fill me in I'm saying tell me all this missing information another good one is we've got so much to catch up on this means we've got so much to talk about so much has happened since we last saw each other now number 10 is one

that you can use if you've seen or met someone that you know you need to spend along talking to but it's not the right time it is there's so much to say but I can't go into it now I can't go into it now to go into something is to discuss or explain something in a careful and detailed way and this implies that there are lots and lots of details too many for now maybe it would be impolite to talk a lot maybe there are some people around that shouldn't hear what you're talking about it's

a good one to use or a good one to have up your sleeve and that means to have something ready for later right so we've discussed talking to people that we have met before now what should we do with people that we haven't met before we should get to know them shouldn't we we should ask some good open-ended questions to get them talking often we want to ask people how did you get your job how did you end up working here but that's not so polite so a really good alternative is number 11 which is

how did you get into X how did you get into marketing how did you get into Finance to get into something in this context is to become involved with how did you become involved with marketing then they can tell you their life story another nice way of getting to know someone is to ask them what they do for fun and in American English especially what do you do for fun is a very common question I would say that it's not so common in the UK but we do see it in movies and TV shows a

lot I just noticed this question asked to me a lot when I visited the US and I thought it was really nice it was a really good way of making conversation that isn't about work so what do you do for fun in British English we might say something more like what do you do outside of work or what do you do when you're not working it's maybe a bit nicer than asking someone what they do for fun because I know when someone asks me what I do for fun I think oh my word I'm not

that fun a person I like running is running fun enough to answer this question do they think that running's fun enough yes so those other Alternatives what do you do when you're not working what do you do outside of work they're pretty safe another good thing to talk about is motivation and we want to know what motivates people but instead of just simply saying what motivates you you could say what makes you tick what really makes you tick and this is sort of asking what are you passionate about what keeps you going for example helping

my students gain confidence really makes me tick another similar one is what gets you out of bed in the morning what do you get up for or a really fun and cheeky one is what floats your boat that means what brings you Joy that comes from the phrase whatever floats your boat whatever you like this is something that we say when someone says they like something that we think is a bit strange so for example if someone says they like running marathons every weekend I might say whatever floats your boat not my thing but good

for you the question what floats your boat is a variation of that now when we meet people and we have a really really good conversation the next step is to ensure further contact to create further contact but we don't just want to say what's your number I would like to talk again although I quite like the direct approach there are some other ways of doing this like number 16 I'd love to carry this on at a later date or I'd love to carry this on at another time and this is basically saying I would like

to continue this conversation so you're sort of stopping them there saying pause but let's continue this later on another good one to use if you can see that a conversation is coming to an end maybe it's like a break in a conference and you know that the next lecture is starting but you still want to make sure that you remain in contact with this person you could say something like Phil we've got so much more to talk about I feel we've got so much more to talk about and this one is really nice because it's

sort of passing the Baton it's passing the responsibility over to the other person and it gives them the opportunity to say well let's stay in touch let's exchange contact details it's good to use if you don't know if they want to stay in touch if you're kind of testing the water if they say yeah let's stay in touch brilliant if they don't well there we are at least we know the next one number 18 is to discuss something over a consumable food or a beverage for example we should discuss this over lunch or we should

chat over coffee we should talk over dinner if you think about it using the word over is quite appropriate because normally two people having a meeting at dinner are speaking over the top of the food the conversation flows over the food or drink another very simple very casual one is number 19. we should do this again we should do this again it's implying we should see each other again and the last one number 20 if you want to be very direct and give your contact details you can say here's my email here's my number drop

me a line and we'll sort something out to drop someone a line is to write a brief message so it could be a text a WhatsApp an email we can also say drop me a text or drop me a WhatsApp to sort something out is to organize something we'll arrange another meeting and the last set of phrases and for me the hardest part of any conversation is leaving the conversation I'm terrible at parties I end up talking to one person intensely for the whole event and then it comes to the end and I think I

have not met many people here it's just so awkward isn't it if you don't have much time you can use 21 which is oh I'm a bit pressed for time I'm a bit pressed for time and this is a nice way of saying I don't have any time I need to go or number 22 right I need to make a move and in the UK we always sort of clap our hands together or if we're sitting down we slap our thighs and say right I've got to be going to make a move is to begin

to leave or to leave I'm going to make a move I'm going to leave it's a nicer way of saying it because we're beating around the bush we're avoiding the topic I don't want to say I'm leaving so I'm going to say I'm making a move another similar one is I'm going to have to get going I'm going to have to get going or I need to get going again this is to begin to leave but by saying I have to it's implying that you don't want to I just have to I'm obliged to leave

it's not my choice I need to now a really nice one it's interesting but ever so slightly manipulative but I learned it from someone that I really respect an older woman in my Village I always enjoy talking to her at parties in our village but I probably enjoy speaking to her more than she enjoys speaking with me and once she said this wonderful thing when she wanted to leave our conversation but she did it in such a nice way she said I don't want to hug you so I'm going to go over here and I

felt like oh she doesn't want to hug me to hog something is to take or use something good all for yourself so that other people can't have it and she was saying I don't want to keep you all to myself so I'm going to make sure other people can talk to you too and it's implying that whoever you're talking to is so great that they need to talk to lots of people lots of people can benefit from talking to them it wouldn't be right to deny others the chance of talking to this person I thought

it was really interesting kind of like reverse psychology instead of making me feel abandoned it made me feel flattered oh I'm so weak okay and the last one number 25 I've already taken so much of your time I've already taken so much of your time that's a lovely way of saying you know I don't want to leave but I've wasted your time so I'm going to go because it's fair on you okay those are your 25 smart sentences for daily conversation really good if you're going to a new place you're going to meet lots of

new people or you're going to see lots of people that you haven't seen in a while it's also great for networking if you're going to have to have lots of conversations and leave conversations frequently as I said before we have the full list and explanations and a quiz in the free pdf that goes with this lesson just click on the link in the description box to get that that's all from me I hope you enjoyed the lesson I hope you learned something don't forget to check out my English courses we've just launched B1 B2 and

C1 and if I do say so myself they are bloody brilliant if you want to achieve the intermediate Upper Intermediate or advanced level of English check them out the link is in the description box too I will see you soon for another lesson [Music] thank you