When you talk about your favorite things you talk about the best liked or most enjoyed things.
Examples:

• "What's your favorite color?" "Green."

Study the dialogue:

Leila is talking to her new friend Cathy:

Asking about favorite things:

• What's your favorite sport?
• What sport do you like best?
• What sport do you like most?
• What kind of sport do you like best?
• Who's your favorite football player?

Responding:

• My favorite sport is football.
• I like football best.
• I like football most.

Cause and effect

When we talk about an effect resulting from a certain cause, we use expressions such as: because, since, as, owing to, due to...

 Examples

• The police arrested him because he broke into a bank.
• The police arrested him since he broke into a bank.
• She can't read the letter as she is illiterate.
• He can't run fast for he is too fat.
• Owing to his intelligence, he managed to solve the problem.
• Due to the bad weather, they didn't go for a picnic.

Other ways to express cause and effect:

Describing:

What are some good ways to describe

• people?
• things?
• feelings?
• yourself?
• personality?

See the phrases below for examples of descriptions in English.

Questions:

How to express regret

wish / if only

You can express regret by using wish or if only:

I wish / if only + Past perfect

Examples:

Suggestions

The following English phrases and expressions are all used to make suggestions and give advice to people.

Making suggestions:

• Let’s revise our lessons.
• What about going to the cinema tonight?
• How about playing cards?
• Why don't we do our homework?
• Couldn't we invite your grandmother to our party?

Asking about direction

To ask about directions use these questions:

• How can I get to . . . from here?
• How can I get to . . . ?
• Can you show me the way to...?
• Can you tell me how to get to . . . ?
• Where is . . . ?
• What's the best way to get to . . . ?

Shopping expressions

These are expressions used when you go shopping:

• Can / may I help you?
• Can I try it / them on?
• What size do you wear? What size are you?
• What color would you like?
• Extra small, small, medium, large, extra large
• How does it fit?
• Where is the changing room?
• How would you like to pay?
• Can I pay by credit card / in cash?

Giving news

Giving good and bad news

• I'm really pleased to tell you...
• I've got a bit of good news to tell you..
• I've got some good / brilliant / great / wonderful / splendid news for you...
• You know what! I've got a bit of great news for you...
• Great news for you...
• I'm afraid I've got some bad news for you...

Telephone conversations

It is common that English speakers make phone calls either for business reasons or personal affairs. These are expressions you can use in your conversations on the phone.

• You 've reached .... company/department.
• How can I help you?
• Can I speak to Mr/Mrs.....?

Being able to make and cancel an appointment is an important skill in English. You need to be able to:

• make an appointment,
• respond to an appointment and
• cancel an appointment.

Here are some expressions you can use to do this concisely and clearly.

Sometimes you may have no particular interest or concern about something and you want to express indifference during a conversation. Here are some expressions you can use:

Expressing indifference

• So what?
• Who cares!
• I don’t care!
• It’s all the same to me.
• I have no preference.
• I suppose so.
• I don’t mind.
• It doesn't matter to me

Expressing shock and disbelief

It is sometimes difficult to say how you feel in unexpected situations, such as natural disasters, bad news .., especially when you feel sad.
Here's a list of some common expressions to help you express

•  shock
• and disbelief.

Shock:

I was	shocked to hear… stunned by... taken aback by…
... came as	a complete shock.
I'm in

How to tell the time in English?

There are two common ways of telling the time in English. For 2:40 you can use one of these two ways.

• Digital: the easier way - "Two forty "
• Classical: you say the minutes first then the hour - "twenty to three"

Here are the different ways to ask for and tell the time.

What are some good ways to describe

• people?
• things?
• feelings?
• yourself?
• personality?

See the phrases below for examples of descriptions in English.

To talk about your likes and dislikes, you can use these expressions.

Expressing likes:

• I like…
• I love...
• I adore…
• I ‘m crazy about…
• I’m mad about…
• I enjoy…
• I’m keen on…

Making and responding to a request

It's important to be polite when you ask for something.
You can make a request by using:

• can you ...?
• could you ...?
• will you ...?
• would you mind ...?

Here are some examples of how to make a request..

Can you Will you Could you possibly	open the door for me, please?
would you mind	opening the door for me ?

There is a range of ways to introduce yourself and people.

Introducing yourself:

Here are expressions to introduce yourself:

• My name is ...
• I'm ....
• Nice to meet you; I'm ...
• Pleased to meet you; I'm ...
• Let me introduce myself; I'm ...
• I'd like to introduce myself; I'm ...

Parting phrases

Leaving and saying goodbye

• All right, everyone, it's time to head off.
• Anyway, guys I'm going to make a move.
• Ok, everyone, it's time to leave you.
• See you later / tomorrow / soon.
• Talk to you later!

There are different ways to greet people:

Greeting means welcoming someone with particular words or a particular action.
When meeting people formally for the first time, we greet by shaking hands and saying "How do you do?" or "Pleased to meet you."
"How do you do?" isn't really a question, it just means "Hello".
When young people meet informally they sometimes greet and say "Give me five!" and slap their hands together (high five).
Generally we do not greet by shaking hands with people we know well. We greet by just saying 'hi' or 'hello'
Here are some expressions you can use to greet people.