On today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'm teaching you 18 slang words, phrasal verbs and expressions for socializing and making plans.
I'll be teaching you words like iron out, back out, a game plan, bar hop, in the air, and more.
Let's get to it.
Hey there, welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast.
I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City.
My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.
Are you ready to improve your English skills?
Let's jump right in.
Hey, hey, hey, it's episode number six, and I'm so excited for this one.
This episode is all about socializing and making plans.
Okay, so as you know, Do you know what this expression means?
Being a social butterfly means that I love to be social and I flourish, which means to do well or succeed in social environments surrounded by people.
I'm an extrovert and so I truly love to connect with people.
However, I have noticed that the older I get, I definitely am starting to enjoy nights in more than nights out.
What's happening to me?
So New York City is the city that never sleeps.
The subway runs 24 hours a day and there are always people everywhere.
We socialize so much and make plans with our friends and family often.
There are 330 million Americans and I'd say about half of us love being social outside of the house and the other half likes to be social at home and host people in our own homes.
It depends on the person.
What about in your culture?
Is it more typical to host people in your own homes or out at restaurants?
Like when I went to Spain while I was in college, it was typical for people to meet outside in restaurants and tapas bars.
But when I was in the Philippines, on the other hand, everyone we met invited us into their homes so that they could cook us a traditional Filipino meal.
Honestly, I have to say that I really love both of these options.
In this episode, I'll be teaching you 18 vocabulary words and expressions.
Honestly, in the future there's probably going to be a part two of this episode, because there are so many words that I could have taught you about socializing and making plans.
It was really hard to narrow it down to only 18, but you know, I think it's better to teach a smaller, more manageable amount of vocabulary in each episode.
So here are the words that I'm going to be teaching you in this episode.
Bump into.
Catch up, Hit up, hang out, set up, iron out a game plan, low key, play things by ear, bar hop, RSVP up in the air, swing by a previous engagement, show up back out, have a blast and keep in touch.
As usual, before we get started, I want to remind you, don't forget to go to the episode description and get the study guide that comes with this episode.
The study guide includes the transcript so that you can follow along.
It includes all the vocabulary words and definitions and new examples. and practice activities.
If you're on my email list, you'll automatically get it sent to your inbox every Wednesday when I put out new episodes.
All right, so let's get to the story.
Today's story is about a group of friends who have a reunion after not seeing each other for over two years.
Here we go.
Liliana was walking around in Manhattan on a beautiful spring day when she randomly bumped into her friend Peter from university.
She was so excited to see him because she hadn't seen him or any of her university friends in over two years.
Peter and Liliana spoke for about 10 minutes, but then made plans to catch up later.
Liliana told Peter to hit her up so that they could plan to hang out with each other.
While they were making plans, they had the brilliant idea to plan an official college reunion with all of their friends.
The easy part was starting a group chat with everyone and having them all agree to set up a reunion.
The hard part was ironing out the details and coming up with a game plan to figure out what everyone wanted to do.
Some people wanted to keep things low-key by going to a restaurant and then playing things by ear afterward.
Others in the group wanted something more elaborate and wanted to go bar hopping and then to a nightclub.
A total of 10 people RSVP'd yes to the reunion.
Two friends RSVP'd maybe because their plans for that night were still up in the air.
They did promise to swing by for a bit, though.
Three people RSVP'd no because they had previous engagement.
The night of the reunion was great.
Ten friends showed up ready to party and only one person backed out because they got sick.
They decided to do a little bit of what everyone wanted by going to eat at a restaurant first and then hitting up some fun bars after.
Then a small group of them went to a party at a nightclub.
All in all, the night was amazing, and everyone had a blast.
They promised to do this at least once a year so that they could all keep in touch.
Here's a little side note, a little addition.
This story totally made me think about my own friends from university.
I haven't seen most of them since 2019-2020, before COVID hit, and I feel like this episode just might inspire me to reach out to them.
Maybe it's a little reminder for all of you listening.
Maybe it's a reminder for you.
Go get in touch, go call, go text a friend that you haven't seen in a long time.
The bonus is if they speak English so that you can practice with them.
Okay, so let's talk about all the new vocabulary from this story.
I'm sure you noticed we have so many phrasal verbs.
This is one of those topics that has, it seems like, endless phrasal verbs that can be used.
So today I'm going to teach you quite a few phrasal verbs.
First, we have the phrasal verb bump into.
This is a very common phrasal verb that we use to talk about unexpectedly meeting someone.
Sometimes it's a friend, sometimes it's a stranger, but it always implies that it was not expected.
So I could say, I bumped into a guy who teaches at Harvard University, for example.
Here in New York City there are 8 million people, but it feels so small because we always bump into people that we know.
So it's truly a small world, and we bump into all the time for situations like these.
The next one is catch up, which is a phrasal verb.
This means to be updated on someone's life.
Usually it's to fill in the time that you missed.
If I haven't talked to a friend in six months, I'd want them to catch me up on what's been happening in the past six months that I've missed.
So if you tell someone hey, let's catch up, you're basically telling them I want to know what's been happening in your life and any new information.
The next one is hit up.
And you may or may not have noticed that this phrasal verb popped up twice during the story.
The hardest thing about learning phrasal verbs is that almost every phrasal verb has more than one definition.
So anytime I tell my students, hey guys, it's phrasal verb week, at first they get really excited because they truly understand the value of phrasal verbs.
But then they get overwhelmed because there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of phrasal verbs in the English language.
And so many of them have more than one definition.
This is why using translators or dictionaries often does not work for phrasal verbs.
Phrasal verbs are so contextual, and English is such a living language that there are new definitions being created every single day.
So it's important to always use the context to figure out how they're being used.
This is why watching American TV shows and media and listening to American music is so important to your English learning journey.
It'll help you stay updated on new vocabulary.
So like I said, hit up is mentioned twice in this story.
And the crazy thing is that each time it has a different definition.
The first time that hit up is mentioned.
It means to contact someone, usually by sending a message of some kind.
So she tells him to hit her up, meaning, hey, send me a message.
Contact me when you're able.
The second time that hit up is mentioned, it has a different meaning, which is to attend an event or visit a place.
Hey, let's hit up that new Ethiopian restaurant on the Lower East Side.
Next, we have the phrasal verb hang out.
This is probably one of the most common phrasal verbs in American English and I'm sure that most of you have heard it before.
This means to spend time together with someone in a very casual and relaxed way.
The next word is set up.
This is also a phrasal verb.
And this means to arrange or organize something, like a meeting or event.
So in the story, they say they have to set up plans.
That just means they have to make plans by organizing.
Next is a phrasal verb, iron out.
This is a really cool expression because it's so common in American English, yet I've never seen this being taught in any type of English textbook.
So I'm really excited that I get to teach this to you because we use this phrasal verb very often.
To iron out means to resolve or work out the details of a plan.
It can also refer to resolving or fixing problems as well.
In social settings, it means figuring out the details of an event.
Next is the expression a game plan.
This has a wide range of uses, but it's typically used in business or work settings or social settings.
This is an expression that was influenced by sports, like when the team makes a plan on how to defeat another team.
In a business setting, a game plan is a strategy for solving a problem or achieving a goal.
In a social setting, like in the story I read.
It means an official plan, mainly a plan that works for everyone who's attending.
Next, we have low-key.
This means something that is very relaxed in nature and doesn't draw much attention.
To keep things low-key means something is very relaxed.
To play things by ear is the next expression.
This means to decide something spontaneously without previous planning.
We also call this improvising.
So playing things by ear just means that you're willing to wait and see what happens before you make a decision.
The next expression is bar hop or to bar hop.
This is a really popular type of event in New York City, where you visit multiple bars or pubs in one night.
We actually have another name for this that's a little bit newer, which is a crawl.
So we have pizza crawls, ice cream crawls, and pub crawls.
Basically what this is, is going from one place to another to compare food and find the best spot.
So a bar crawl or bar hopping is when you go from one bar to the next.
Because there are so many new places all the time in New York City.
This is a good way to see multiple places in one night.
Next, we're going to talk about RSVP.
This is a really popular acronym.
No American can tell you what the letters stand for.
Because it comes from a French expression that basically means respond if it pleases you.
RSVP means please respond to the invitation.
Next is up in the air.
Up in the air means uncertain or not yet finalized.
We mainly use this for making plans and we say oh, I was going to go to the beach, but our plans are up in the air because it's supposed to rain.
The next one is a popular phrasal verb, to swing by.
Swing by means a short visit.
Sometimes it's not really planned or it could be a surprise, but it always refers to a visit that is short.
So this means that the friends who couldn't attend the whole night, they're at least going to come for a short time just to say hi to everyone.
In the story, it says swing by for a bit.
This is a really common expression.
For a bit means for a short time.
So if someone tells you that they're gonna swing by for a bit, that means they're gonna visit for maybe an hour.
They're just gonna see people, greet people, and then they're gonna have to leave.
The next phrase is a previous engagement.
Previous means before or earlier than, and an engagement in this context refers to plans or commitments.
So to say that you have a previous engagement means that you have a conflict because you already have plans or commitments.
So a lot of times, if someone invites us somewhere but we can't go, we say I'm so sorry, I have a conflict.
Or I'm so sorry I have a previous engagement so I can't attend.
Next we have the phrasal verb show up, which is also extremely popular.
Show up means to arrive or appear at a place or event.
So we can say that my sister showed up two hours late to the party.
Then we have the phrasal verb back out.
This is one that a lot of students have not heard of, even though it's extremely popular in American English.
To back out of something means to cancel your plans or your commitment.
She had committed to speaking at two events, but had to back out for health reasons.
Lastly, we have two very popular expressions.
The first expression is to have a blast.
This means to have fun and enjoy yourself.
So we typically say, oh my goodness, it was amazing.
We had a blast.
And the last expression is keep in touch.
To keep in touch means to maintain communication or contact with someone over time.
For example, I might ask my friend, hey, have you kept in touch with any of your university friends?
This means have you continued communication?
Are you still in communication with someone?
Then we have to lose touch, which means that you gradually stopped communicating with someone.
Well, there you have it.
18 amazing English expressions that come from real-life English that you can use to socialize and make plans.
I am so excited for you to hear these words.
Study them, learn them and then start using them confidently and naturally in your English.
Just remember that in order to really learn vocabulary, you have to listen to it multiple times, read it, write it in order to naturally use it in your English.
So listen to this again get the study guide, follow along with the transcript, and then do the practice activities so that you can improve your English.
That's a wrap for today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast.
Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently.
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Thanks so much for tuning in.
