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Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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