On one thread of this blog we look at the words and phrases that people use in daily conversation in particular situations. This week, we’re considering the things that we say – especially the questions that we ask – when we see someone we know well at the end of a day at work, college or school, etc.
We often start by showing polite interest in what a person has done by asking the question How was your day?, How has your day been? or Did you have a good day?
Hi, Annie. How was your day?
If we know someone well, we might ask about a particular thing that we know they have done today. For this, we might say, How was …? or perhaps How did … go?
How was your meeting this afternoon, Ben?
How did your meeting go this afternoon, Ben?
In British English, we can ask the same question by saying, How did you get on…?
So how did you get on in your maths test?
How did you get on with the decorating this afternoon?
If we know that the person has done something important or challenging today, we might show them that we care by saying, I was thinking about you this afternoon. or I thought about you at midday today.
Anyway, I’m really glad your interview went well. We were both thinking about you this afternoon.
If we want to know whether the person has succeeded in doing a particular thing in the course of the day, we might say Did you manage to…? or Did you get a chance to…?
Did you manage to get a doctor’s appointment?
Did you get a chance to speak to Noah about the arrangements?
Since people’s days usually involve other people, we often ask about them too. We might simply ask Did you see Abbie today? Sometimes we want to know whether the person spoke to someone about a particular subject, in which case, we might say Did you mention … to Abbie?
Did you mention Tom’s birthday party to Abbie?
Whatever you’ve done today, we hope it was good!
This was vert intersting, I was able to know how to ask dôme questions that were vert important to me.
Well. Thanks, I think any tips are welcome when one needs to improve how to speak English, specially using new vocabularies.
Thank you!!!
Just believe that
Dear kate
Your post is really helpful. I request you to post how to ask the negative questions and in how many ways we can ask negative question. I hope you can post it.
a little rude…you can say ‘can I blah blah?’ instead.
It is good enough to learn phrases….it will be helpful….
Enjoyed it a lot.
Very useful .
Thanks 🙂
It is great way of learning and improving day to day spoken and communication.
“On one thread of this blog” means?
Very helpful .
Everything is very useful for me so please kindly send me mail.
awesome
The posts like these are really appreciable it really did a great help in improving our daily life usage of english as a second language
Thank you for your wonderful article!!
Om Mani Padme Hum
I have a question here… I’m from Taiwan, and why does this exist at FUNERALS(my grandfathers)? What is it used for? happiness?health?
I had a busy day and the end of it read your great post, which was enjoyable!
Thank you
Wow o,
I love it,because my English language is very poor.
And I believed if I continue with your words I will improve upon it.
Thanks so much.
It was very interesting post. I request you to post when a person indulge into fight and exchange words.
Awesome
Well co-incedently…..my name is Kate too😊😊
This week’s subject is not very challenging. However, there is nothing wrong with it. It’s good to see things that we (English learners) already know, because it cheers us up 🙂
Thank you.
More power to your elbow !
It’s a pleasure for me to come across this phrase.
Thanks a lot
A piece of Information have been interesting and helpful for me. Sometime, we knew the meaning of some words but we don´t put in practice so I think is a good idea keep in in mind and use that word in our daily conversation.
The examples are very constructive and are common in everybody’s daily communication. Thank you
Interesting, I took some advices that are helpful to improve my classes’ content, students like to hear how to make use of the vocabulary they learn immediately so they can put it in practice. Being an English teacher in Mexico is a challenge but I am taking it. 28 years old and excited about education process. I am interested about English and French language. Thanks
I suggest you to use more specific words in the text so they could be highlighted. Me as a viewer will learn new diplomatic words and you can take extra credit for it by taking us to other web page. ((:
Very helpful to the speakers of other languages. I expect more. Hopefully
I would get such more lessons in future. Thanks
Thank you. It’s a very good lesson. I can learn not only English itself but also how to say it in various situations. I wonder if you could help to clarify the use and meaning of the common expression ‘What’s up’ too?
Hi Ali! In US English, you can use this informal expression to ask how someone is or ask them what they have been doing. In UK English, you can use it to mean ‘What is the problem?’ I hope that helps.
Dear Kate,
I really thank you for your post. Could you do one about quantifiers and adjectives please?
Thank you in advance
If I meet a person on Saturday, for instance, may I ask them “how did you get on in your week?” ?
Hi Rogerio! They would certainly know what you meant but it wouldn’t sound very natural. ‘How’s your week been?’ or ‘Have you had a good week?’ would sound better. Or, if you wanted to ask about something specific they did in the week, you might say, ‘How did you get on in London, etc. I hope that helps. Best wishes!
A very good explanation, thanks Kate