You maybe know to say congratulations if it's exciting news, but you're not sure what to say next.

So in this English lesson,

I will talk about all of the different life events, happy and sad things that happen in life, and I will tell you how to respond when someone tells you about them.

Let's start by talking about some happy news.

Let's say someone says to you that they're going to have a baby.

You would say congratulations.

That's the first thing we often say when someone shares exciting, happy news with us.

But then in this situation, you might ask this question.

You might say, when is the baby due?

Someone has just told you they're going to have a baby, and you would like to know when the baby is going to be born.

And then the third thing you might say is,

I'm so happy for you.

When someone shares happy news, exciting news, it makes you happy, it makes other people happy, and sometimes we just simply say, I'm so happy for you.

So if someone shares the news with you that they're going to have a baby, you would say congratulations, when is the baby due?

And I'm so happy for you.

Let's fast forward a bit and talk about what to say when someone tells you they had a baby.

Maybe someone phones you and says, yesterday our baby was born, we had a baby yesterday.

The very first thing you would say is congratulations.

You'll start to realize in this lesson that we say congratulations a lot when people share happy news with us.

The second thing you might do is ask the question, have you decided on a name yet?

Or have you picked out a name yet?

You'll want to know what name the baby has been given.

And if you're meeting the baby for the first time, you might say, what a cute baby.

Even if the baby's not cute, it's usually polite to say, what a cute baby.

So if someone tells you that they've just had a baby, you'll say congratulations.

You might ask, have you decided on a name yet?

Or have you picked out a name yet?

And you'll usually want to say, what a cute baby.

Now, not all news is happy news.

Sometimes people will share news that is really, really sad.

Maybe someone at work tells you that someone in their family has died.

Someone in their family has passed away.

In that situation, there are two main things that we say in English.

We say, my condolences, or we say, I'm sorry for your loss.

If someone at work told me that someone that they knew or someone they were related to had died,

I would say, my condolences, or I'm sorry for your loss.

And if you know the person really well, you might also say something like this.

If there's anything I can do to help, let me know.

Or you might inquire how they're doing by asking, how are you holding up?

If someone I knew at work really well had experienced a loss like that in the family,

I would probably say one or both of those two things.

I would just ask, how are you holding up?

Basically asking how they're doing.

Or I might say, if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.

Some of you might know this, but this might be news.

For some of you, it was my birthday a few weeks ago.

I had my birthday in the month of July.

I'm not going to give the exact date, but I'm one year older.

When someone has a birthday, there are a few things we say.

Probably the most common thing is to just say, happy birthday.

We say happy birthday because we want that person to be happy on that day.

The second thing we might say is, I wish you many more.

When someone has a birthday, we want them to have a lot more birthdays.

We want them to live a very long time.

So we might say, I wish you many more.

And then if you aren't doing anything with that person on their birthday, maybe you've called them in the morning to say, happy birthday.

You might just say, I hope you have a good day, or I hope you have a great day.

So when someone has a birthday, you say, happy birthday,

I wish you many more, and I hope you have a great day.

Another exciting thing that can happen in life is that people get engaged.

People decide that they're going to get married.

And the most common thing to say is, of course, congratulations, but then you'll probably ask this question.

You'll probably ask, have you picked a date?

When people announce their engagement, when people get engaged, it means they're going to get married at some point in the future, and you'll probably want to know exactly what day that is going to happen on.

So when people get engaged, we definitely say congratulations, and then we might ask the question, have you picked a date?

So people get engaged, and then eventually they get married, and maybe you're at a wedding, and the ceremony is over, and there's an opportunity for you to congratulate the new couple.

By the way, in Canada, there's a ceremony and then a reception.

The ceremony is the official part of the wedding, and then the reception's just a big party later on.

But after the ceremony, there's usually an opportunity to congratulate the couple.

So you would definitely say congratulations, and then you would probably say something like this.

I wish you a wonderful life together.

As a newly married couple, you just hope that every day and every week and every month and every year for a very long, long time is just wonderful.

So if you're at a wedding and you have the opportunity to congratulate the couple, say congratulations, and then say, I wish you a wonderful life together.

Now, every year after a wedding on the same date, you have your anniversary.

You celebrate that you've been married for one year or five years or 11 years or 26 years or however many years it has been.

And when it is someone's anniversary, you say happy anniversary.

Similar to happy birthday, you say happy anniversary.

You can say congratulations if you want, but the most common thing to say is happy anniversary.

And then similar to the wedding, you might say something like this.

I wish you many more years together.

Instead of saying I wish you a wonderful life together, you wish that they have many, many more years of enjoyment where they just love being married to each other.

So if it's someone's anniversary, they're celebrating the day that they got married, you would say happy anniversary.

And then I wish you many more happy years together.

So people go to school and hopefully, eventually they graduate.

After someone graduates, here's what you would say to them.

You would say congratulations.

Another time where you can say congratulations to someone.

And then you might say something like good job.

They must have worked hard in order to graduate and you want to celebrate that by saying good job.

If you know them really well, like if one of my kids graduates,

I then say I'm proud of you.

You wouldn't say this to just anybody, but if it's like a grandkid or one of your own children, you might say I'm proud of you.

And then these are two questions anyone could ask a graduate.

You could say what's next or what are your plans for next year?

When someone graduates, it means that part of their life has ended and they'll be doing something different in a few months or the next year.

Maybe they're gonna get a job or go back to school to learn some more.

So when someone graduates, you say congratulations.

You say good job.

If you're a parent or a grandparent, you might say I'm proud of you.

And then for anyone, anyone can ask these questions.

You could say what's next or what are your plans for next year?

It's always really cool when someone gets a new job.

Maybe someone you know didn't have a job and they're starting a new job next week.

If they tell you that they're starting a new job, you would definitely say congratulations.

And then you would probably say I'm excited for you or I'm so excited for you.

And then you would probably say I wish you all the best.

This is a general term we use in English to just tell someone we hope that whatever new thing they're starting goes really, really well.

So if someone tells you that they're going to be starting a new job, definitely say congratulations and then say I'm excited for you and I wish you all the best.

Now, as I said, not all news is good news.

Maybe someone tells you that they are sick.

There are a couple of things you would probably say in this situation.

The first would be get well soon.

If someone you know is sick, you want them to feel better as quickly as possible.

So you would say get well soon.

And then you might even say that in a longer sentence.

You might say I hope you feel better soon.

So if someone you know tells you that they're sick, you would definitely say get well soon or I hope you feel better soon.

Maybe someone you know is going to have surgery.

They're going to the hospital for an operation.

Before they go, you would probably say this.

I hope all goes well.

Basically what you're saying is that you're hoping that the surgery is effective.

You hope that the doctors and nurses do a good job and fix whatever it is that needs to be fixed.

After the surgery, you would probably ask these two questions.

How did it go and how are you feeling?

You'll want to know if the surgery was effective and if it did help the person feel better.

And then you'll probably also say this.

I hope you have a speedy recovery.

After a surgery, your body needs time to heal and we call this the recovery process.

So you might say I hope you have a speedy recovery.

I hope the recovery goes really, really quickly.

So I put this last one in here just for fun.

It's what to say to your colleagues, your coworkers at the end of the day on Friday.

You might say one of two things.

You might say have a good weekend or you might say see you on Monday.

So if your work week goes from Monday to Friday and it's around 4.30 or five o'clock on Friday and you're about to go home, you would definitely say have a good weekend or see you on Monday.

Well, hey, thank you for watching this English lesson about what to say to people when they share exciting news or serious news about their life.

I hope you were able to learn a few more English words and phrases that you can use in your next English conversation.

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And if you have some extra time and you want to improve your English, there's always more English lessons to watch.