Hello. My name is Emma and in today's video I am going to
teach you some very important conversational English. I'm going to teach you some expressions we
use a lot, and all of these expressions have one thing in common: They
all use the word "go". So, "go" is one of the first words
you probably will learn in English. We use it when we talk about going to a different
place, so for example: I go to school or I go to the park. So, we have "go" and it has that meaning, but
it also can have a lot of other meanings in English, and those are the ones
we're going to look at today. So, again, we use it a
lot in conversation. So let's get started with some of the most
basic ways we use "go" in conversation. So I have here the question. One of the first questions you ask a person
when you meet them or when you see them, and that is: "How are you?" We often use "go" in a way that means the
same thing as this, so we often say: "How's it going?" "How's it going?" means the same thing
as: "How are you?" Notice that there is an
apostrophe and an "s". This actually is: "How is it going?" but we
like to use a contraction in conversation. It's a little bit more informal, so we would
probably use this with maybe our friends or our family, or you know, somebody we
meet but maybe not in a job interview. Okay? So we use this a lot:
"How's it going?" If you are in Australia, you
might see: "How you going?" We would not say this in North America, I
don't think we say this in England, but in Australia you will often hear people say: "How
you going?" and that means the same thing as: "How are you?" Okay? I was very confused when
I went to Australia. I thought that, you know, people were making
grammar mistakes, but it turns out that this is actually a very common way in
Australia to say: "How are you?" Another thing we can use with "go" is if we
want to find out how something specific, you know, how is something. So, for example, maybe your friend has just
started taking some new classes, you might say to them: "How are your classes going?"
or "How is your job going?", "How...?" You know, if you're talking about the
past: "How did the interview go?" So we often use "how" with, you know, some
event or situation, and "going" to ask how did it... Like, you know, how... How it was. Okay? And you'll see this a lot. Okay, so these are some of the ways we use
"go" when we're talking about how someone is, and we will come back to this one, but
let's talk about some of the responses first. When somebody says:
"How are you?" you often respond
with: "I'm fine." So it's the same thing with when
somebody asks you: "How's it going?" You can say: "I'm fine", but you can also
use "go" in your response, so you can say: -"How's it going?" -"It's going well." or "It's going good." I know that's not, you know, great grammar,
but we do use "good" a lot when people ask us how we're doing, like, in conversational
English, not in written English. But yeah: "It's going well", "It's going good",
"It's going amazing", "It's going terrible". Okay? So you can use different adjectives here to
describe how you're feeling or how your day is going. You know, you can also
just talk generally. You can say: "It's" or you can also
say: "Everything" or "Things". There are many
variations of this. You might say:
-"How's it going?" -"Everything is going amazing." or: "Things are great.",
"Things are going good." Okay? So there's a lot of variation. If somebody asks you how, you know: "How
are your classes going?" or "How is...? How is work going?" your answer could also be: "My classes are
going great.", "Work is going great." You know: "School
is going amazing." Or maybe, you know:
"School's going terrible." Okay? So you can use this in a
lot of different ways. We also have this question which people sometimes
ask when, you know, they see you and, you know, maybe it's your friend and they're
meeting you, they might say: "Hey. What's going on?" Okay? So: "What's going on?" This one you've got to be careful with, because:
"What's going on?" can have multiple meanings, and it all depends on
the way you say it. So, when you say: "What's going on?"
it's very similar to: "How are you?" You just also have to be
careful about your tone. So, for example: "What's going on?"
is different than: "What's going on?" Okay? So you see how I
changed my voice? So if you say this in a very
friendly: "What's going on?" way, then it means pretty much: "How
are you doing?" or "How are you?" And the response to this might be
something like: "Oh, what's going on? Nothing much. Not much is happening. You know, I've just started
classes, they're going good." So, you know, you might
answer in this way. There are many different ways to answer, but:
"Nothing much" means: "Yeah, you know, my life is pretty much the same." So these are all common at the
very beginning of conversation. Okay? And, again, be careful
with formality. "How's it going?", "How you
going?", "What's going on?" These are informal, so you use them with your
friends, you use them with people your age, but you might not use them in maybe a business
meeting or maybe a very serious situation. All right, so now let's look at some other
expressions where we use the word "go". Okay, so we talked a little bit about: "Hey,
what's going on?" in terms of "go" expressions. Now I'm going to teach you another
meaning of: "What's going on?" "What's going on" or "What's going on here?"
can also mean that maybe you're confused about something, or you're actually
asking: "What's happening?" Okay? So: "What's going on?" can
also mean: "What's happening?" So imagine if you saw a car accident, you might
go up to somebody and say: "What's going on here? What's happening?" Okay? So they have the same meaning. You know, also, like another way we use: "What's
going on here?" is with parents and kids. I remember when I was a kid, any time I was
doing something bad, my mom wouldn't know what I was doing but she would somehow
know I was doing something bad. So she didn't know what
it was, but she knew... Maybe I had a guilty look on
my face, she always knew. So she would always say to
me: "What's going on here?" meaning, you know:
"What are you doing? I know you're doing
something bad. What's going on here?" And so that's why using your tone is very
important for this, because: "What's going...?" Or: "Hey, what's going on?" is
different than: "What's going on?" Okay? So be very careful about the tone you're using
because it's not the words that change the meaning, it's the way you say it that
changes the meaning for: "What's going on?" Okay, we also have, you know:
"Something is going on." Or, you know... This is similar to this, but: "Something is
going on here", I'm not using it as a question. I put a lot of question marks to show something
is going on, means you're confused, you know something is happening but you
don't know what is happening. So, sometimes, you know, for example, maybe
you have two friends and, you know, they're your friends and suddenly they're starting
to act a bit funny around each other, and you're thinking: "Hmm, these guys are acting
kind of strange but I don't know why." Okay? Maybe they're secretly in love, maybe they've
been dating for the past five months and, you know, you just had no idea. So when you see something and you know that
something is happening, but you don't know what exactly is happening, you can
say: "Hmm, something is going on. I don't know what's going on,
but something is going on." And I'm blocking these because it's not a
question, it's a statement, but this... It's pretty much, you know, in your
mind you're thinking: "What's... What's happening? Something is going on. I wonder what it is." Okay, we can also use "go" when
we're talking about change. Things changing, things becoming different,
and a lot of the times we use "go" when we're talking about what some people
would say are bad changes. Okay? So, for example: "go crazy". Okay? So, like, you know, somebody
is going crazy right now. Their girlfriend just broke up with them,
they're really upset, they're going crazy. Okay? So there's a change there, there's
a change in their behaviour. And some people would say it's a negative
change, or you know: "going mad". We can also say, you know: "That
guy's going mad", meaning crazy. Not angry. You know, in this case these
two have the same meaning. Or, you know, I personally like grey hair,
but some people when their hair changes to grey, some people see
it as a bad thing. I don't see it as a bad thing, but some people
get upset about it, and so for those people who think, you know, grey hair is a bad thing,
when their hair changes from brown to grey, maybe they say: "Oh, you know, his hair
went grey." or "His hair is going grey." So we use "go" with the colour, and
again, "grey" means your hair colour. Or, you know, I like people who are bald, but
some people might see, like, losing your hair as, like, a negative thing. I don't, you know. My brother is actually bald, but some people
would see it as a negative thing, and so they would say: "go bald", you
know: "My brother went bald." So it's a change from having hair to
having no hair, and again, this... I'm going to say it again: I don't think it's
bad necessarily, some people might say it's bad, but you know, it's
all opinion-based. Now, this is different from... We have other changes that happen, we have:
"old", "tired", "ill", these are also things people see as negative changes, but
we don't use "go" with these things. We actually use the word "get", so you
get old, you get tired, you get ill. So, it really is, you know, sometimes we use
"go", sometimes we use "get" when we're talking about negative changes. You just need to, like, learn the word and
figure out: Is it with "go" or is it with "get"? But again, this is
another way we use "go". So now let's look at some
other examples of "go". Okay, so another way
that we use "go"... So as you can see, there are many different
ways we use "go" instead of just: "go to the park". We use it in many
different expressions. Another expression is: "There
you go" or "Here you go". Now, this is one we use
a lot in conversation. Okay? So we don't really use it in writing, but
in conversation you will hear it a lot. And so what does it mean? Well, usually we use: "There you go" or "Here you
go" when we're giving something to somebody. It's what we say as we give
something to somebody. So imagine I have this marker, I want to give
you the marker, I will say: "There you go" or "Here you go". A lot of students get very, like, worried about
the difference between "there" and "here". For these expressions usually it means pretty
much the same thing, so don't worry about it. You know, if you say: "Here we go", or you
know: "There you go", it sounds the same to native speakers of English. So, don't worry so much about
if you use "there" or "here". Okay? You can use both. So, my example is:
-"Can I use your pen?" -"There you go" or
-"Here you go". And so this also
means: "Yes you can." If somebody is asking you for
something: -"Can I borrow, you know...? Or can I have a piece of paper?" -"Yes, there you go." It means you're giving them permission
and you're also handing them something. You can also say it if you
do something for somebody. So, for example, maybe somebody wants you
to give them a whole new hairstyle, so you work on their hairstyle, you make their hair
look really nice, and you might say: "There you go", meaning, you know:
"I've just done this for you." So we use this a lot in speech. Main one, though, is when you're giving
something to somebody, you say: "There we go." Okay, we can also use: "There we go again"
or "There you go again", you can change the subject here, depending
on the situation. You can use this when you want to show you
are kind of annoyed or, you know, this is an annoyed face. It's not a happy face. It's more of an angry face. So when you want to show you are
frustrated about something. So, for example, I'll give you a good example
of this: Imagine you have a friend who gets very mad or very angry,
and he gets angry often. Okay? So imagine you want to go to a movie theatre,
and your friend is supposed to come with you but, you know, his girlfriend and him had a
fight, now he doesn't want to come, so maybe you're a little bit annoyed. You're not really
happy about that. If this is something
that happens often... Okay? So it happens again, and again, and again,
you would probably say this, you would say: "Ah, there we go again"
or "Here we go again". And this means... It's showing that something keeps happening
and, you know, it's making you kind of annoyed or angry because
it happens a lot. You know, another example of this might be
maybe you have a friend who, like, you know, drinks a lot, and maybe you get like a phone
call and your friend says, you know: "I can't find my house. I don't know where I am. I'm lost in the city. You know, please help me. Come find me." If you get this call every Friday night, you're
going to start getting, like: "Oh, again?" And so what you would say is:
"Ugh, Chelsea's drunk again. Here we go again" or
"There we go again". Okay? So that's the meaning of it, it's when you're
showing you're annoyed with something that happens a lot. On the positive side, so on the happy side of
this, we also use: "There we go" or "There you go" when we're showing
encouragement for something. Okay? When we want to encourage somebody or, you
know, congratulate them for doing something... Doing a good job on something. Okay? So, for example, imagine... This is so far from the truth, but imagine
I'm a hockey player and I'm really good at hockey and I love hockey, and you know,
I'm playing in a game and my team wins. We're so excited. We can say: "There we go! We did it!" Okay? Meaning: "Yes, we won the game! There we go!" Okay? So we're encouraging and
congratulating ourselves. Maybe if I'm not included, maybe if I'm talking
to you and you just did really well on your English test, I'd
say: "There you go!" Okay? And sometimes we also do the, you know, this
motion: "There you go!" to show our excitement that you did well. We can also say: "Way to go!" Okay? To show, like, you
know: "Well done! Way to go!" So you might see a teacher write this on,
you know, a test if you did a good job, and so it means the same thing, it
means, you know: "Good job. I want to congratulate you
for doing something well." All right, so now let's look at
some more expressions of "go". Okay, so I really like the next expression
because it's very positive, very upbeat, it's a very good message, and
that's: "Go for it!" So, we use this a lot in conversation, all
of these expressions are very conversational expressions we use. "Go for it!" is what we tell somebody when
they want to do something and they're not sure if they should or not,
but it is a good idea. Maybe they're afraid to do something, and you
want to tell them: "No, do it", you could say: "Go for it." It kind of reminds me
of a Nike commercial. You know how they
say: "Just do it"? "Go for it" is kind
of the same idea. So, for example, maybe somebody
says to you: "You know what? I really want to get this job, but I
don't think I'm a good candidate. I don't think I'm
going to get the job. You know, maybe I don't have enough education
or, you know, my English isn't good enough, somebody might say to you: "Go for it" or
"Go for it anyway", and it's, you know, to tell you, you know, despite all
that, do it, apply for that job. Maybe you're thinking about going to school
but you don't think, you know: -"Well, maybe I shouldn't do it,
or I don't know." -"Go for it" means: Yeah, do it. So it's a way to encourage
people to do something. And we often use it when
somebody is having doubts. They're not sure because maybe
they don't have confidence. So we often say: "Go for it" to our friends
or, you know, to tell them: "Yeah, you can do it." Another way we use this is when we're talking
about food, if there's one piece of candy left or one slice of cake left, or you know,
one apple left, whatever you're eating and there's only one left and somebody wants to
eat it, but they're worried maybe you want to eat it, you can tell
them: "Yeah, you want it? Go for it." Means: "Yeah, you can eat it", so we
also use it in that example as well. Okay, the next one I wanted to talk about,
the next "go" expression is: "Go out of your way" for someone or something. So when you go out of your way for someone
or something it means that you do something with more effort... Okay? So special effort. So it's something you don't usually do, but you
do something that makes your life a little bit more difficult to help
someone or to do something. So, for example, you know, maybe I'm going
home and my mom calls me and says: "Can you pick me up some bread?" Now, even though I'm close to home, this is
my home, this is, you know, my car, and the bread's over here, I go out
of my way to get the bread. So I do more work to accomplish
some sort of go-, go-, goal. Sorry. You know, another example: "I always
go out of my way to help someone." Okay? So, you know, even though there's an easy
way to do something, I will do extra things to help somebody. Or maybe, you know... You know, some teachers go out
of their way for students. Maybe their student is having a lot of trouble
with, you know, the present perfect or, you know, some sort of grammar, and so even
though the teacher finishes her... His or her work at maybe 4pm, they will
stay for an extra hour to help the student. The teacher is going out of their way, meaning
they're putting extra effort in, but it's something, you know, they want to
do, they want to help the student. So: "Go out of your way" means you make a special
effort to help someone or to do something. Okay? So we've looked at a lot
of "go" expressions today. I recommend watching this video a couple of
times because we have covered a lot and, you know, usually your memory can only hold so
many new pieces of vocabulary at a time. So it's actually good to maybe concentrate
on maybe three expressions, get those down, get used to those expressions, and then watch
it again, learn another three expressions we covered. You know, that can be
really, really helpful. You can also check out our website at www.engvid.com,
and there you can do a quiz to practice a lot of what you learned today. I highly recommend that, too, and I also
recommend you take the quiz multiple times. You know, maybe you are really good at the
quiz this week, but maybe next week you've forgotten some of the words, so it's good to
do these quizzes multiple times to really help you remember the material. You can also subscribe to my channel; I have a
lot of videos on all sorts of topics, including vocabulary, IELTS, pronunciation, grammar,
just all sort of different topics. So I highly recommend
you check that out. Thank you for watching, and
until next time, take care.
