Learn how to accept and decline invitations politely
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Accepting an English Invitation. David here. |
| Kellie: Hello. I'm Kellie. |
| David: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to accept or reject an invitation in a polite manner. The conversation takes place at Katrina’s flat. |
| Kellie: The speakers are neighbours. |
| David: So they will use both formal and informal English. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Daniel: Hello, I'm Daniel. I just moved in next door. Nice to meet you! |
| Katrina: Hi, I'm Katrina. Nice to meet you too. |
| Daniel: I'm having a housewarming party tomorrow evening. Are you free? |
| Katrina: Thanks for the kind invite! I'd love to come! |
| Daniel: I'm happy to hear that. The party starts at 7.30. |
| Katrina: Do I need to bring any food or drinks? |
| Daniel: No, I'll have everything. |
| Katrina: Thank you. See you tomorrow! |
| David: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Daniel: Hello, I'm Daniel. I just moved in next door. Nice to meet you! |
| Katrina: Hi, I'm Katrina. Nice to meet you too. |
| Daniel: I'm having a housewarming party tomorrow evening. Are you free? |
| Katrina: Thanks for the kind invite! I'd love to come! |
| Daniel: I'm happy to hear that. The party starts at 7.30. |
| Katrina: Do I need to bring any food or drinks? |
| Daniel: No, I'll have everything. |
| Katrina: Thank you. See you tomorrow! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: So, Daniel has just moved house. Is that something that people do frequently in the UK? |
| Kellie: Well, people tend to buy their houses so they usually stay for a longer period, but it still happens. Especially if people are younger and not settled, or just want to upgrade or downgrade. |
| David: They say that moving house is one of the most stressful times of your life. |
| Kellie: I’d believe that! When buying a house, you can find yourself in a chain and waiting for the sellers to also buy a house. Your house sale could depend on several other house sales and if it all falls through, that can be very stressful. |
| David: Are there any things you should do after moving in? |
| Kellie: It’s polite to say hello to your neighbours. You don’t have to buy gifts though, like you do in some other countries. In recent years, people don’t even formally introduce themselves anymore. |
| David: What do they do instead? |
| Kellie: Instead of going to their neighbour’s house to say hello, people often just wait until they see them in the street. |
| David: In the dialogue Daniel invited Katrina to a house warming party. |
| Kellie: Yeah, if you do want to meet the neighbours, then that is a great way to do it! |
| David: It’s also good to invite them because if you have a noisy party, the neighbours won’t complain about it if they are there too. |
| Kellie: That’s true! |
| David: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: to move in [natural native speed] |
| David: to occupy a new space to live or work in |
| Kellie: to move in[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: to move in [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: next door [natural native speed] |
| David: the house or building immediately adjacent |
| Kellie: next door[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: next door [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: house [natural native speed] |
| David: a dwelling for a family |
| Kellie: house[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: house [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: free [natural native speed] |
| David: not required to do something at a given time |
| Kellie: free[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: free [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: kind [natural native speed] |
| David: considerate, benevolent |
| Kellie: kind[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: kind [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: evening [natural native speed] |
| David: the last part of the day and early part of the night |
| Kellie: evening[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: evening [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: invite [natural native speed] |
| David: invitation, a request to attend an event |
| Kellie: invite[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: invite [natural native speed] |
| David: And last we have.. |
| Kellie: party [natural native speed] |
| David: social gathering of guests for celebration or entertainment |
| Kellie: party[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: party [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| David: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: Are you free? |
| David: meaning "do you have any plans?" |
| Kellie: In this phrase, “free” doesn’t refer to price but it means to be free from any previous plans. |
| David: To have free time. |
| Kellie: That’s right. This is a nice, informal phrase to ask somebody if they are busy with a view to inviting them to do something. |
| David: So, if you ask someone “are you free?” how would they usually reply? |
| Kellie: Well, as it’s usually leading to asking someone to do something, the person may reply with “Yes, why?” as they know something else is coming. |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. “Are you free? If so, let's go shopping!” |
| David: ..which means "Do you have plans already? If not, let’s go shopping!" Okay, what's the next word? |
| Kellie: housewarming party |
| David: meaning "a party to celebrate moving house" |
| David: So in this case, “warming” doesn’t mean putting the heating on and turning the temperature up. |
| Kellie: No, it doesn’t! It’s the common name given to a party to celebrate moving into a new house. |
| David: Is it always a housewarming party? |
| Kellie: Well, maybe if it was a flat that you had moved into, it’d be called a flat warming party instead. |
| David: But still a warming party? |
| Kellie: It sounds nice, doesn’t it? |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. The next-door neighbours are having a housewarming party. |
| David: .. which means "The next door neighbours are having a party to celebrate moving in". Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: In this lesson, you'll learn about accepting or rejecting an invitation in a polite manner. |
| David: To do this, we’ll look at using the present continuous tense with the verb “having”. |
| Kellie: So, to recap what we learned about the present continuous tense in Lesson 6, the present continuous tense is used to describe what is happening now and uses the -ing form for the verb. |
| David: So “having” is the verb “to have” in its present continuous form. |
| Kellie: That’s correct! We can use “having” with many nouns to make a present continuous sentence. |
| David: Like the example from the dialogue of “I’m having a housewarming party.” |
| Kellie: Or “he is having a test” or “she isn’t having a good time”. |
| David: I’ve also heard “having” used with food or drink items. |
| Kellie: Yeah, it can be used in place of eating or drinking. “I’m eating pizza” is the same as “I’m having pizza”. |
| David: Okay. Next, let’s go over something that is fundamental to speaking English. The verb “to be”. |
| Kellie: This is an auxiliary verb, which means that it helps other verbs. It can be used in so many different sentence structures, but it conjugates in so many different ways, depending on what the subject is. |
| David: Can you give us an example? |
| Kellie: Let’s go back to Daniel. He said “I am having a party.’ If we were talking about Daniel, we would say “he is having a party.” If it had happened last week, we would say “he was having a party”. |
| David: Wow, it changes a lot! |
| Kellie: We’re not finished yet! If the party happens next week then “He will be having a party.” And, one last example, if the party lasted for a month, we could say “He will have been having a party for a month.” |
| David: Daniel is a party animal! |
| Kellie: Yeah! |
| David: So Kellie, what if Daniel is invited to a formal party, like a wedding? That’s a formal occasion, right? |
| Kellie: Yes, it is. It’s a bit different from a housewarming party. Firstly, Daniel would have to formally accept or reject the invitation in a polite way. With informal parties, sometimes you don’t need to give a firm answer and you can just turn up on the day, but formal invitations need a formal response. |
| David: How would Daniel do that? |
| Kellie: Whether he is accepting or rejecting, it is polite to first say thanks. “Thank you for the invitation.” |
| David: In the dialogue, the phrase “Thanks for the kind invite” is used. |
| Kellie: Yes, that works too. Then you can add a phrase to accept or reject. Something like, “I’d love to come” or “I’m looking forward to it”. |
| David: How about rejecting an invite? Can I just say that I don’t want to come? |
| Kellie: You could, I guess, but it’s not very polite! It’s best to say “I’m sorry, but I already have plans.” |
| David: Hey Kellie, do you want to stay after we finish recording and help me clean the office? |
| Kellie: Thanks for the kind invite, but I’m busy. |
Outro |
| David: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Kellie: Bye. |
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