Perfect Phrases for ESL Everyday Situations

Perfect Phrases for ESL Everyday Situations

Active Learning Advice:
Don’t Wait to Use Your English!
Don’t wait for that special future time when you expect to be able to communicate in English error free. Unless you practice, that moment will never come. Take your English language skills, though limited, and use them. Begin every encounter with “Hello,” “Hi,” “Nice to meet you,” or “Glad to see you again.” At each parting say, “Good-bye,” “So long,” “Hope to see you again,” or “I’m sure we’ll talk again soon.”
Speak English to people in stores, in offices, and in schools.
Read English newspapers (if only the captions under the pictures), magazines, junk mail, cartoons, the comics, children’s books (with or without children), and “trashy” novels. Highlight or underline words you don’t understand, and look them up in your dictionary or on your computer.
Write shopping lists, recipes, and notes. Stick Post-it Notes on items you want to remember the English names for.
Listen to everything you hear in English—song lyrics, talk radio, voice mail messages, and whatever anyone says (unless it’s private)—and ask questions. This may sound strange; aren’t listening and hearing the same? No, they are not! If you are able to hear (are not deaf) and are within hearing distance of the sound, what’s the problem? Hearing is passive, and listening is active; it’s about choosing to process what you have heard.
Don’t Forget Small Talk
“Small talk” is friendly conversation about unimportant subjects. We use small talk as a way to generate more conversation. It is an accepted and common way to begin the day, whether at work or during day-to-day errands.
Phrases for Small Talk
image    I’m cold; I can’t wait until spring.
image    It looks like it’s going to snow. I hope it won’t be deep.
image    What did you watch on TV this weekend?
image    Rush hour was terrible this morning, wasn’t it?
image    I like your coat. I need a new coat. Where did you buy that one?
image    I like green. Green is a good color on you.
image    Have you decided on a name for the baby yet?
image    How is your daughter feeling?
image    What are you having for lunch? I’m having noodles.
image    Please tell me more about Valentine’s Day. There are so many greeting cards for it.
image    My horoscope says, “This is a lucky day for me.” What about yours?
Idioms and Other Vocabulary
Active: doing something to make results happen
Captions: words printed under a picture in a newspaper or magazine to describe the picture
Cartoons: drawings, often funny, political, and with words
Choosing: deciding on something
Deaf: physically unable to hear
Deep: far down from a surface
Encounter: meet up with
Expect: think will happen
Greeting cards: cards to send for special reasons (birthday, anniversary, holidays such as Christmas), sympathy cards for sad occasions (death in a family), get-well cards (for a person with an illness)
Highlight: bring attention to by marking with a colored pen
Horoscope: prediction of what will happen to you based on the position of the stars and planets and the date of your birth
Junk mail: letters and other written material sent as advertisements (ads)
Limited: not big or of great size
Lucky: likely to experience good things
Lyrics: words of a song
Noodles: soft strips or shapes of food made from flour, water, and eggs
Parting: leaving, saying good-bye
Passive: accepting what happens without being actively involved in the situation
Post-it Notes: trademark name for small pieces of paper that stick and are used for notes
Process: be involved in
Recipes: directions or instructions for cooking
Rush hour: time when people travel to and from work and when there is increased traffic
Shopping lists: lists of things you need to buy at a store, mostly food items
Talk radio: radio programs in which people talk about news and opinions and sometimes listeners call into the radio station to talk
The comics: story told through a series of cartoons
Though (also although or tho’ or altho’): relates two events that occur at the same time or almost at the same time, even if it is surprising that they do happen this way. (This happened altho’ that happened.)
Trashy novels: bad-quality, but often entertaining, written fiction
Underline: put a line under to bring attention to
Valentine’s Day: holiday on February 14 (2/14) when people give cards, candy, and other gifts to people they love (husband, wife, parents, children, and even sometimes teachers and friends)