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  • Sometimes in English we have a little conversation with someone and we call this small talk.

  • In this English lesson, I'll teach you five very common questions you might hear if you're having one of these conversations.

  • And I'll teach you two possible answers for each question.

  • One answer that's really, really positive and one that's a little more negative.

  • The first question that is very common when having a conversation like this is the question: How was your day?

  • This is a question that you might be asked at the end of your day, maybe by a spouse or a friend.

  • And basically they're just trying to figure out how your day went.

  • A very negative answer to this question would be to say, I had a horrible day.

  • Maybe your boss was mean to you.

  • Maybe you were at school and the teacher wasn't very nice.

  • You would just say, I had a horrible day.

  • A positive way to answer this question, though, is to say, I had an awesome day.

  • Maybe your boss was really nice to you at work.

  • Maybe your teacher was in a really good mood, if you're in school, you would then say in a very positive way, I had an awesome day.

  • So how was your day?

  • A negative response: I had a horrible day.

  • A positive response: I had an awesome day.

  • Another question that's very common is the question how was the weather?

  • This is a question that someone will usually ask after you went on a trip or maybe after the weekend, and maybe they know that you went and did something fun.

  • So they'll say, How was the weather?

  • A negative response would be to say:

  • The weather was miserable.

  • When we describe miserable weather, we're talking about a day where it rains a lot or a day where it snows a lot.

  • We're talking about a day where the weather isn't very nice.

  • The weather was miserable.

  • If I was to describe the weather in a positive way, though, I would say the weather was gorgeous or the weather was beautiful.

  • Now, I know we usually use those words to describe people,

  • but if someone says the weather was gorgeous or the weather was beautiful, it usually means it was sunny, not too warm, not too cool.

  • The weather was just right.

  • The weather was gorgeous or the weather was beautiful.

  • Another very common question is the question how was traffic?

  • We usually ask this question when we know someone regularly drives somewhere where there might be traffic jams or where traffic is bad.

  • We say: How was traffic?

  • And they might answer in a negative way by saying: Traffic was awful.

  • I was in a traffic jam for 30 minutes and I was late for work.

  • Traffic was awful.

  • That would be your negative response.

  • When we give a positive response, though, we usually say: Traffic wasn't bad at all.

  • That would be probably the most common way to describe a pleasant experience while driving on the highway.

  • It wasn't bad at all.

  • It's as if we always expect traffic to be bad.

  • We always expect it to be awful.

  • And then when it's good, instead of saying it was amazing, we say it wasn't bad at all.

  • So a negative description: Traffic was awful.

  • A positive description: Traffic wasn't bad at all.

  • Sometimes small talk is about movies or television.

  • And if someone was to say: How was the movie?

  • You could reply in a negative way by saying: The movie wasn't very good.

  • We don't often use super negative words to describe movies.

  • We usually just say: The movie wasn't very good.

  • If the movie, however, was good, we might say: The movie was superb.

  • Superb is a great word to describe something that's amazing or awesome.

  • The movie was superb.

  • So if we're describing a movie that we didn't like, we might say:

  • The movie wasn't very good or the movie wasn't very good at all.

  • And if we were to describe it in a positive way, we would say: The movie was superb.

  • Sports are also a very common topic when having small talk,

  • and you might have someone ask you this question: How was the game?

  • Maybe you just went to see a game and they want to know how the game was.

  • How was the game?

  • Now there's a couple different negative ways to describe a game.

  • You could say: The game was disappointing.

  • This would probably mean that the team that you wanted to win lost the game.

  • The game was disappointing.

  • Maybe, though, the game wasn't very exciting, you might say: The game was boring.

  • Or if you really, really enjoyed the game and you had a lot of fun, you would probably say: The game was amazing.

  • This also probably means that the team you liked won.

  • So you might say the game was disappointing, the game was boring or the game was amazing.

  • Well, hey, thank you so much for watching this little English lesson about how to give a very positive or a very negative response to common questions you'll hear while having small talk with someone.

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  • Give me a thumbs up.

  • And if you have time, why don't you leave a comment?

  • And if you have even more time, why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson. Bye.

Sometimes in English we have a little conversation with someone and we call this small talk.

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