Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

Welcome to EnglishClass101.com’s English in Three Minutes. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn English.
Hey everyone, I’m Alisha!
In this series, we’re going to learn some easy ways to ask and answer common questions in English. It’s really useful, and it only takes three minutes!
In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to ask and answer the question “Have you seen this movie?”
Sometimes when you’re talking to someone you might run out of things to talk about. Don’t worry, it happens to everyone! This lesson is going to be really useful in increasing your repertoire of small-talk questions by focusing on a topic that most people are at least a little bit interested in - movies!
If you find yourself with nothing to talk about, or if you just really like movies, then you can always start a conversation about a new or controversial movie.
You do this by asking:
“Have you seen [the name of the movie]?”
The question “Have you seen...” is used when asking about movies rather than “Did you see”, because you’re asking about the person’s present state.
There are several possible answers to this.
If you have seen the movie, there are again several ways to reply according to how much you enjoyed it. If you saw it and really enjoyed it, you can say:
“Yeah, I really liked it.”
Or if you saw it but only thought it was so-so, you can say:
“Yeah, it was OK.”
Or, if you saw it but didn’t like it:
“Yeah, but it wasn’t really my thing.”
Remember with this last one that you shouldn’t criticize the movie too much until you know what the other person thinks of it in order to be polite.
The logical follow-up to one of these responses is to ask what the other person thought of the movie. You can just say:
“What did you think of it?”
And then this starts off a potentially interesting conversation about your opinions on the movie!
However, how do you answer if you haven’t seen the movie in question?
All you have to say is:
“No, not yet.”
This “not yet” implies that you’re planning to see the movie at some point, and so signals to the other person that they shouldn’t tell you about key points of the story.
If you don’t plan to see the movie in question, or if it’s not the type of movie you like, you can get this across politely by saying:
“No, it’s not really my sort of thing.”
Now it’s time for Alisha’s Advice!
If you have seen the movie in question but the other person hasn’t, it’s a great conversation starter to tell them about the plot of the movie, or about any particularly funny or memorable scenes. But be careful! You should always ask if the other person plans to see the movie in the future before telling them any important plot points.
Just say “Do you plan to see it at some point?” Telling someone an important plot point, or the “twist” or ending of a movie, is called “spoiling” a movie. The noun is “a spoiler”, as in “Don’t tell me any spoilers!”. It’s considered very bad manners to reveal a spoiler without giving warning first, and some people can get very annoyed if you do this - so be careful!
In general, talking about movies is a pretty safe topic if you don't want to offend people. But you need to be a little more careful when asking about ages. Do you know how to do? Find out in the next English in 3 Minutes Lesson!

Comments

Hide