Cailey Johanna
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English in Daily Life: Vocabulary for Work, School [Plus Lots of Free Resources]
Sometimes, basic English conversations are the most complicated ones.
In daily life, English speakers talk quickly. They use lots of slang. They make jokes and cultural references that you might not understand.
This article will provide comprehensive English vocabulary lists that you can use in daily life situations.
Contents
- English in Daily Life: Essential Words and Phrases
- Basic English Conversation Skills
- Fun Ways to Make English Part of Your Daily Life
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
English in Daily Life: Essential Words and Phrases
Typical English Greetings for Daily Life
Resources for Learning Typical English Greetings
English greetings help you confidently introduce yourself to native English speakers and make new friends. Therefore, greetings are not just an important part of daily English, but also your ticket to many other everyday English conversations.
English Like a Native has a great video explaining some common English greetings and helping you practice your pronunciation. This video is helpful because it explains when to use each greeting and shows which phrases are more formal or more common.
If you want a little more practice before you head off to use these greetings in your daily life, iSLCollective has some useful worksheets that you can print out. You can fill them out on your own to make sure you understand how to use these English greetings in your daily life.
English for Restaurants
Ordering:
Menu Items:
Specific Requests:
Can I have it [rare/medium/well-done]?
Drinks:
Table Service:
Is everything to your satisfaction?
Paying:
Compliments:
Common Phrases:
“I’m allergic to [ingredient].”
“Do you have any recommendations?”
“Is there a wait for a table?”
Resources for Learning English for Restaurants
JamesESL has a great video to help you form some questions and sentences. His video uses a slow pace to help you follow along, and he tries to make the conversation easy but also detailed enough to get you through the restaurant experience without feeling stressed.
If you want to learn more detailed restaurant conversations, take a look at Mad English TV, where you will learn tons of different examples of daily conversations. This video covers fast food and traditional sit-down restaurants, and addresses some situations or problems you might face when eating at a restaurant.
Bringing Your English Skills into the Classroom
Classroom Phrases:
Subjects:
School Supplies:
Directions and Locations:
Follow the signs to the cafeteria.
The classroom is on the second floor.
It’s down the hall to the left.
Assessment and Grades:
Teachers and Staff:
School Events and Activities:
Social Interactions:
Common Phrases:
“I need help with my homework.”
“I’m going to the library to study.”
“I have a presentation tomorrow.”
“I have a lot of homework to do.”
Resources for Learning English for School
Two Minute English has a video with several examples of everyday English conversations you might have while at school. It also explains some vocabulary words that are used in a classroom but you might not have learned.
Another great resource for practicing classroom conversations is Scribd. This site has a document full of common classroom phrases that you can download. The conversations are listed in the order you might hear them in a classroom setting, and are separated into categories to help you understand.
It also teaches you some words that you might hear as part of your teacher’s instructions and questions that you can ask if you do not understand a lesson.
English for Daily Life at the Workplace
Getting Started:
Meetings and Discussions:
Can we set up a conference call?
What’s the agenda for the meeting?
Tasks and Projects:
Supervision and Feedback:
Is there room for improvement?
Let’s review your performance.
Office Tools and Technology:
Professional Language:
Interactions with Colleagues:
Policies and Procedures:
Common Phrases:
“I need to meet the deadline.”
Resources for Learning English for Work
If your daily life includes speaking English at work, you might want to check out some of the videos by Learn English in Hamza’s Classroom. The video below gives sample conversations that people might have at the workplace.
Each sentence is repeated twice to give you time to listen and understand. It also provides subtitles so you can read along.
You may also need to practice English in order to get a job. Learn English with Emma gives great advice for all things related to the job search. She will help you understand common English questions you will hear in an interview, and she uses easy-to-understand but detailed language to help you through the process of finding a job.
Basic English Conversation Skills
To master English for daily life, basic conversation skills are essential. And there is no better tool to learn them than FluentU.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Click here to check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.
ESL Fast provides a list of sample conversations you are likely to encounter in daily life. These are topics that you might talk about with a friend, coworker or classmate. They are simple and easy to follow and include an audio recording so that you can listen to the conversation while you read.
When adding English to your daily life, it is also important to know how to talk about common activities. Woodward English is a great place to practice this skill, thanks to this list of daily routine vocabulary. The list comes with helpful pictures. This site also includes lots of example sentences and a quiz to test your learning.
Fun Ways to Make English Part of Your Daily Life
In order to learn a language, it is important to practice every day. And the easiest way to practice English every day is finding fun ways to learn, so you do not get bored and quit.
Here are some fun and simple ways to practice English every day, depending on your personal interests:
- Try reading a great story or a comic book in English. You might be surprised at how much English vocabulary you learn when you are entertained!
- The same goes for watching movies. You will be so entertained by the movies that you will not even realize how much English you are learning.
- English music is a fun tool to practice listening every day. This will help you practice pronunciation and get used to English phrases.
- Find a friend or a group of friends who speak or are learning English. Then, practice common, everyday phrases and expressions. Try to act out common scenes like making weekend plans or eating at a restaurant.
The topics included in this post are related to some of the most common conversations you will find (and have!) in daily life.
Practice these phrases and vocabulary words so that you can carry English into your daily life and speak like a native. Make sure to incorporate English learning into your life every day through music, movies and other fun English activities.
Even 10 minutes of daily practice will help you improve your conversational skills!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)