Real English: Using WHEN & WHERE to Make Plans

Are you feeling like a day out with a friend? Great! Let me teach you how to arrange a meeting so you can have a chance to practise your English together! In this lesson, I will teach you some of the vocabulary you need to make plans. We will cover all the essential details, such as when, meaning the time of the meeting, and where, meaning the location. After watching, make sure to do the quiz at to check your understanding of the lesson. Have a fun day out! TRANSCRIPT Hi. I’m Gill from , and today we have a lesson on quite a nice social subject: “Making Arrangements to Meet a Friend“. Okay? And the idea is that this friend is an English-speaking friend. They may be English, or American, or Canadian, or they may speak another language, but you and they can only communicate in English. Maybe they’re Chinese and you’re Spanish or something, and the only language you have in common is English. But either way, you have to communicate in English, and this is one of the best ways to learn English, is to have friends who speak English, and have to communicate with them in English. So please make friends with English speakers, because apart from being friends, it will be very good for your language learning. Okay, right. So, first of all say you’re phoning your friend and you’re saying... First of all, you’re not going to just go straight in and say: “Let’s arrange to meet.“ You want to first of all say things like: “Hi! How are you?“ because if they’re not very well, it’s not a good idea to start making arrangements to meet. So, just socially you need to say: “Hello. How are you? How is everything going? I haven’t seen you for a while. Shall we meet up? Are you free to meet up?“ “To meet up“ is to meet, but we often say “meet up“, with the “up“ preposition. “Shall we meet up?“ And the “shall“ is used when you make a suggestion. “Shall we? Shall we do something?“ Okay? So once you’ve done your little introductory part and they’re feeling well, and they want to meet you and go somewhere interesting, we can move on to the second part, you need to decide when. When are you both free? Okay, so you might say: “When are you free?“ and they might say: “Oh, well, I’m free on Tuesday afternoon, Thursday morning, Saturday afternoon“, so you decide between yourselves which is the best time for both of you. “I’m free on“ and the day. Okay? You use “on“ with the day. “I’m free on Tuesday, on Saturday“. Okay? And then just to check: “Is that okay for you?“ You have to check with the other person: Is that okay for them as well? And then if they say: -“Yes.“ -“Great. Great.“ Useful word: “Great“, whenever you’re pleased about something. “Great.“ So, you’ve got the day, you now need to decide on the time. “What time shall we meet?“ Again, using “shall“ as the suggestion. “What time shall we meet?“ And because you’re meeting a friend, you don’t want to make it like: “Oh, I start work at 9:30 in the morning, I have to be there.“ This is a nice, social occasion. You don’t have to say: “Be there at 2 o’clock.“ As it’s a friend and it’s a social meeting, you can be a little bit more casual about it and say: “Oh, around... Around 2 o’clock“, which means just before 2, just after 2. “Around“ is a very useful word for time. “Let’s meet around 2 o’clock.“ Okay? So you’ve decided on the day and the time. So thirdly, you have to then decide where to meet, somewhere interesting maybe that you haven’t been before. “Where shall we meet?“ So “shall“ again. “Where shall we meet?“ And your friend might suggest: -“Oh, an art gallery. I haven’t been to that art gallery for a while. Shall we meet there? Have you ever been there?“ -“No, I haven’t been to that one.“ -“Oh, okay then. Well, let’s meet there. I think you’d like it.“ Okay? So, once you’ve decided on the location, the art gallery... An art gallery is a big place, and there’s an outside and an inside. You have to decide exactly where, so: “Whereabouts?“ is a useful word. “Whereabouts?“ It’s just like saying: “Where? Where shall we meet around the building? Whereabouts shall we meet? Inside or outside?“ But if it’s in the UK, because of the weather, it’s not always a good idea to meet outside somewhere because it could be bad weather, so you say: “In case it’s raining, in case it’s cold it might be better to meet inside“, so you can be dry and warm while you’re waiting for your friend. So: “In case“ means “if“, “if“. It might be raining, it might be cold, so: “In case it’s raining, in case it’s cold, we’d better meet inside.“ Okay? Always a good idea. And you can sit down as well usually if you want to.