How are you? What’s up?
- I am fine.
- I am good.
- I am pretty good.
- I am okay.
- Not bad.
- Not great.
- Not so good.
- Not so well.
When they ask you this question they dont except u to elaborate on your response or your answer. For example you would not respond to it in a way that you elaborate on your emotions or feelings.
What do you do?
- What are doing? – sounds similar to “what do you do?”, but means different. (your action right now or this minute).
- If someone ask me what are doing? I will Say I am presenting a video on English.
- But if someone ask me what are you do then I will say I am teacher.
- The question what are you doing questions your action at that moment? That very minute.
- So if someone is asking me what are you doing, I would say what? I would say I am presenting a video on English. And if someone asks you, what do you do? It is another way of asking, what is your job?
- So native speakers of English, find this question, what is your job too direct and therefore a little awkward.
- Therefore they rephrase it and ask, what do you do? So this question, what do you do, in a way, means, what is your job?
- So how do you respond to that? You may say I am a teacher; I am an engineer; I am a farmer; I am a student.
- Now there is another way of our answering to that question. So you may say I work at a school. I work at a hospital. I work at a law firm.
What do you do?
- When you are starting with your profession the you will start with I am
- If you are going to specify the place uou will start with I work at for eg I work at a law firm.
- If you work for famous institute then you will start with I work for For eg I work for Microsoft / The Indian Express (a famous institution/ company name)
- If someone tells you what their job is it is always good to response with positive comment.
- Then you may say How interesting! , Oh..That must be exciting! , Really? That is nice.
But make sure that you are genuine in your response. The listener should not feel that you are making a fake comment.
Asking about hobbies
- instead of asking, Do you have any hobbies? or What are your hobbies?
- Prefer asking What do you do for fun? What do you do in your free time?
- I like to watch movies/read books/play tennis.
- Here is another way for I like watching movies/cooking/reading.
- There is another way of responding to that. I like watching movies.
- Here, you are using verb plus ing form.
- So, in that case, we strike to from the sentence.
- Instead of saying I like to watch movies, you may say I like watching movies.
- Or if you want to specify how much you like doing something.
- Then you may say, I really like watching movies.
- I want to be just plain about it you may say, I kind of like watch movies or watching movies. How do you say that? I kind of like watching movies.
- Or you may say, I like hanging out with my friends and stuff like that. What is stuff like that mean here?
- It includes all other activities that you would do with your friends while you hang out with them.
Where are you from?
- When you meet somebody at different city and you know that person does not belong to that city then you ask Which city are you from?
- When you meet somebody at different state and you know that person does not belong to that state then you ask What state are you from?
- When you meet somebody at different country and you know that person does not belong to that country then you ask What country are you from?
- I am (your nationality). which you country from
- I am Brazilian/ Indian.
- I am from (the country you are from).
- So when you are using the term from you fill it up with the country you are from, right.
Where are you from?
- I am from Brazil/ India.
- When you are from famous state I am from New Delhi.
- I am from Mumbai.
- when you feel awkard to ask some one where s/he was then you ask him/her Are you from New York? – polite expression or Are you from Tamil Nadu? – polite expression
- You
may answer denoting the region you come from. So suppose you are from Kerala, you might say, I am from the South. - I am from the South/North/West/North-east
What is your name?
- Native speakers do not ask this question directly. They are often direct.
- I am Karthika and you?
- I am Veena (his/her name)
- I am sorry. What was your name again? – you remember meeting them.
- When you met someone and you dont rember their name then you first apologies. In this you are telling the listener that you remember meeting him or her, but you do not remember his name.
-
In this case, you are letting the other person know that you are sorry for the fact that you do not remember his name, but you remember meeting them.
- Riya, what do you do ? – use of name in conversation to show interest.
- Now another interesting aspect of is that if you use a person’s name at the beginning or the end of a question or a sentence, you are interested in the conversation.
- So the use of name and conversation generally shows interest.
- So instead of asking, what do you do, you may ask Riya, what do you do? So you may fill the person’s name and
then question. Or you may ask, what do you do for fun Riya? - Do not use the name too often as it may sound strange.
Getting contact details
- What is your phone number? – too direct (particularly with the opposite sex)
- So instead, you may request the person, if you could get their phone number.
- Or if you could get their email address. So how do you do that?
- Could I get your number, please? Could I get your email address, please?
- So, in this case, you are less direct, and you are actually softening the request.
- For Formal and official purposes, people prefer to connect by emails over phone calls.
- Could I get your number? – less direct / softens the request.
- Could I get your email-address?
- Sure, my number is 987654321.
- Sure, my email address is is xyz@gmail.com.
- Sure it’s (your phone number/email id).
- Are you on (facebook/linkedin/twitter/skype)
- Yes, I am/No, I am not.
- No, but you can contact me on (email/phone number).
Where do you live ?
- So where do you live?
- If you are staying in a famous part of the city or a known part of the city, then you may say do you know Adyar in Chennai, I live there Do you know Adyar/ Mylapore in Chennai?
- Landmark : I live near IIT campus.
- I live near the Cancer Institute/Anna University.
- Train line: I live on the yellow line, near Patel Nagar metro station.
- I live near Guindy railway station.
- If you know where that place is, if you are familiar with the place, you may say Oh yea! I know it. I live near there!
- r if you do not know that place, if you are not familiar with that place, you may say, Oh, no! I am afraid, I don’t know it.
- Or you may say Oh really?
- So where do you live? Or How about you?
- Comments about the area if you are familiar.
- That is a really nice area.
- No negative comments about the area.
Where did you go to school?
- A good small talk question/conversation starter.
- Past 23 – Where did you go to college/school?
- Where did you go to university?
- I went to (university) in (city).
- I went to New York University in America.
- Wow! That is a really famous university.
Where did you go to school ?
- I didn’t go to college.
- Do not act surprised.
- Make a positive comment.
- Oh really? Did you go straight into a job?
- Follow up question: What did you study?
- What was your major?
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