Learn how to find out how people know each other, using the phrase "How do you know ___?"
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| 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 someone whom they know. |
| Often at a party or in another social situation that you attend with a friend, you will be introduced to someone new, or someone else will join the conversation. A question that we often ask in this situation is how the new person knows your friend, and what the connection is between them. |
| So how to ask this? It’s easy: |
| “So how do you know Person A?” |
| If Person A is talking with you still, you can ask this in a slightly different way, by including both people and saying: |
| “So how do you know each other?” |
| This “So” at the beginning softens the question as well as makes it clear that you’re introducing a new topic. |
| Of course there are many possible answers to this question, usually beginning with “We met...”: |
| “We met at school.” |
| Or: |
| “We met at a party.” |
| Or: |
| “We met through a friend.” |
| Another way to answer this is to state your current connection with the other person. For example: |
| “We work together.” |
| Or: |
| “We have a friend in common.” |
| This phrase “a friend in common” is a really useful idiom that you should keep in mind! |
| The next logical step in the conversation is to expand on what you’ve just learned. A good all-purpose reply is “Oh, really?” |
| Then you can ask another follow-up question. |
| For example, if the other person says “We met at school,” you can say: |
| “Where was your school?” |
| or: |
| “Which school?” |
| If they say “We met at work”, you can then ask: |
| “Where do you work?” |
| Or: |
| “What kind of job do you do?” |
| If they say: |
| “We met through a friend,” |
| A possible follow-up question is: |
| “Anyone I know?” |
| Of course it’s also possible that the other person will ask you where you met the friend you have in common, by using that useful phrase: |
| “How about you?” |
| Now it’s time for Alisha’s Advice! |
| Note that sometimes in the United States people call this conversation, in which you try to work out what the connection between the two of you is, “the name game” - as in “We’re playing the name game again!” |
| Do you know how to talk about sports in English? Not just what sports you play and like, but what teams you’re a fan of? Find out in the next English in Three Minutes lesson! |
Comments
Hide