{"id":28178,"date":"2019-12-30T20:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T20:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/?p=28178"},"modified":"2019-12-30T20:00:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T20:00:39","slug":"12-basic-english-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/12-basic-english-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Basic English conversation Q &amp; A for beginners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Even basic English conversations might prove challenging, especially when you don\u2019t know where to start learning them.<\/strong> This is more evident when you try using an app or one of those sites that promise you hundreds of English sentences and maybe even guarantee you an insanely short learning period.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have had no luck learning any new language that way, which is why I decided to offer you an easier approach. You only have to begin with a few sentences that you are most likely to use. Then, as you keep practicing these simple questions, you can gradually work your way up to more complex sentences. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&#8217;s go over some <\/span><b>basic English conversation questions<\/b> <b>and answers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> under the following four categories:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greetings and Introductions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Questions Asking for Personal Information<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Questions Asking for Directions<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Questions Asking for Someone\u2019s Opinion<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Basic English conversation for practical use<\/h2>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greetings and Introductions<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><b>How are you?<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHow are you\u201d and \u201chow do you do\u201d can be used as a greeting any time. It is common courtesy to respond by also asking the other person how they are.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greeting: How are you?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Response 1: I\u2019m fine, thanks. And you?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Response 2: Fine. How about you?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greeting: How do you do?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Response: Great. (Or I\u2019m good.)<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><b>Hello and Hi<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHello\u201d and \u201chi\u201d are some of the popular greetings to use in an informal situation. They are generally followed by the person\u2019s name.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greeting:\u00a0 Hello, John! How have you been?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Response: Fine, thanks. And you?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><b>Good morning\/ good afternoon\/ good evening.<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These greetings are used in the morning, afternoon or evening respectively. In your response, you could also ask the other person how they are. Here\u2019s an example:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greeting: Good morning, Jane.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Response: Good morning, John. How\u2019ve you been?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A shorter informal version of this greeting would go like this:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greeting: Morning.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Response: Morning Tom. Long-time no see<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">!<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><b>Greetings Followed by Introduction<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When meeting someone for the first time, you might want to introduce yourself besides just saying hello.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Greeting: Hello, I\u2019m James from Brooklyn. And you are?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Response: Hello, I\u2019m Mary from London.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Personal Information Questions<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><b>Asking Names<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>5.1<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: What\u2019s your name?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: I\u2019m Jeremy<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: My name\u2019s Jeremy<\/span><br \/>\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both answers can be used to give your name. When asking, you might also want to be specific if it\u2019s the family name you want. For example:<\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<b>5.2\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: What\u2019s the name of your family?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: My family\u2019s name is Washington<\/span><br \/>\n<b>5.3\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: What\u2019s your surname?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: My surname is Washington.<\/span><br \/>\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Family name and surname mean the same thing.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asking about some personal information<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask this question if you wish to know more about someone\u2019s origin. You could use any of the following variations and answers.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>6.1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Where are you from?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Sydney, Australia.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>6.2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Where do you come from?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: I come from Sydney.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can choose to give a one-word answer like \u201cSydney\u201d or form a sentence such as \u201cI come from Sydney\u201d. It is totally up to you. Giving a longer answer shows the other person that you are interested in continuing the conversation.<\/span><b><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<b>7.1 <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask this question when you want to inquire about what someone does for a living.<\/span><\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: What do you do?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: I\u2019m in marketing.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>7.2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Where do you work?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: I work at Google.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to rock an informal setting, you could ask, \u201cwhat\u2019s your deal?\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<b>7.3<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: What\u2019s your deal?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: I\u2019m a software developer. How about you?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In all these questions, you could also ask the other person what they do, just like in the example above.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><b>Asking about age<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask this question when you want to know someone\u2019s age.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: How old are you?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: I\u2019m twenty-five.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Twenty-five.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><b>Relationship Status Questions<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>9.1<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Are you married?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: yes\/ no.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: yes\/ no. How about you?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>9.2\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Are you seeing someone?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: yes\/ no.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The last example above is more suitable when you know that someone is not married but you wish to inquire whether they are in a relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h3><b>Do You Have xxx Questions<\/b><\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes you might want to know whether a person owns something \u2013 like a car, house, children, boat, and so on. Here are a few ways to go about it:<\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<b>10.1\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Do you have a car?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yes, I drive a sedan.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, if you don\u2019t have a car the answer would be \u201c<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">no\u201d.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>10.2\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Have you got a house?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> yes\/ no<\/span><br \/>\n<b>10.3\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Do you have any children?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> yes\/ no. How about you?<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3. Asking for directions<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><b>11.1\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Hello, can you tell me how to get to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the mall<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Let me draw you a map.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>11.2\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Can you please point me in the direction of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the mall?<\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is that way\u2026<\/span><br \/>\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In both the questions above, you can replace \u201cthe mall\u201d with the place you are looking for. There is no precise answer to these questions as it may depend on many conditions, including how close or far it is.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4. Asking for an Opinion\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><b>12.1\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> What do you think about <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this idea<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I think it is good\/ bad.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>12.2\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Do you think we should <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">go by bus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> yes\/ no<\/span><br \/>\n<b>12.3\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Would you like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">some tea?<\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yes, please.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No, thank you.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>12.4\u00a0<\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Do you mind if I borrow your <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pen<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No, I don\u2019t mind.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yes.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yes, I do.<\/span><br \/>\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the above examples, you can replace \u201cthis idea\u201d, \u201cgo by bus\u201d, \u201csome tea\u201d, and \u201cpen\u201d with whatever you wish to talk about.<\/span><\/i><br \/>\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When asked \u201cdo you mind\u201d questions, answering with a \u201cno\u201d means you don\u2019t mind or you accept while responding with a \u201cyes\u201d means you do not accept.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Exercise \u2013 Test Your Progress<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, how about some exercises to test whether you can ask and answer common questions in English? Try answering the following question or guessing what question was asked for a given answer.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>1. A<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: My name is Jane.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q:______________?<\/b><br \/>\n<b>2. Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Where do you come from?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:______________<\/b><br \/>\n<b>3. A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I am a teacher.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q:______________?<\/b><br \/>\n<b>4. Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> what is your age?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:______________<\/b><br \/>\n<b>5. Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Can I get your surname?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:______________<\/b><br \/>\n<b>6. A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No, I don\u2019t mind if you borrow my bicycle.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q:_____________?<\/b><br \/>\n<b>7. A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> yes, I\u2019m married with two children.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q:_____________?<\/b><br \/>\n<b>8. Q:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Do you prefer an orange or a banana?<\/span><br \/>\n<b>A:_____________<\/b><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>9. Q:<\/strong> How about we visit the zoo?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A:_____________<\/span><br \/>\n<b>10. A:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The campus is just a few blocks in that direction.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q:_____________?<\/b><br \/>\n<b>11. A: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No, I do not own a home.<\/span><br \/>\n<b>Q:_____________?<\/b><br \/>\n<b>12. A: <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The conference begins at 9 o\u2019clock.<\/span><\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:_____________?<\/b><br \/>\n<b>13. A: <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No, it is not raining in St. Louis<\/span><\/b><br \/>\n<b>Q:_____________?<\/b><\/p>\n<h2>Basic English conversation on social media<\/h2>\n<p>What else do you need to do? There are many ways of practicing your English out there and <a href=\"http:\/\/englishforward.com\">English Forward<\/a> has over <strong>300 million users<\/strong>, and if you\u2019re not one of them, you should be.<br \/>\nIf you\u2019re looking for somewhere to have written conversations with native speakers, learn about\u00a0\u201creal-world\u201d English, find out\u00a0what\u2019s happening in the world, and meet other English learners like you, Twitter is the place for you or any of those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.englishforums.com\/news\/reasons-joining-english-learner-forums\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">online english learning forums<\/a>.<br \/>\nUsing Twitter is free, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com \u203a englishforwardb\" target=\"_blank\">can teach you a lot<\/a> about\u00a0how people really use English. Some useful hashtags to know for entering casual conversations are\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/twinglish?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#twinglish<\/a><\/strong>, which is a place to practice your English, and\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/grammarhelp?src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#grammarhelp<\/a><\/strong>, which is a way to ask for help in correcting your grammar.<br \/>\n<strong>You can also tweet at (or mention) a specific account in your tweet; many of the educational accounts are happy to help English learners. So put away that textbook for a few minutes and learn some English on Twitter, 140 characters at a time.<\/strong><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember, you don\u2019t have to get them all at once. You only need to begin with a few sentences that you know you might need to use and maybe keep coming back to learn more. You\u2019ll see, your command of the language will get better and better each time. Now, do you have any questions of your own? <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&#8217;s have some of those basic English conversation chats right now. You&#8217;ll get a lot of help<a href=\"http:\/\/englishforward.com\"> from experts here.<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-28190\" src=\"http:\/\/159.65.134.245\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/basic-english-conversation-300x244.png\" alt=\"basic english conversation\" width=\"421\" height=\"343\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even basic English conversations might prove challenging, especially when you don\u2019t know where to start learning them. This is more evident when you try using an app or one of those sites that promise you hundreds of English sentences and maybe even guarantee you an insanely short learning period.\u00a0 I have had no luck learning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":28922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.englishforward.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}