What do you do this weekend? If I asked you this question, would you know how to respond or would your heart start to beat fast? Your palms get a little sweaty? Well, never fear. Today, I'm going to help you learn how to think and speak in English so that you can respond to this question. What did you do last weekend? With no fear, no hesitation, and lots of confidence. Hi, I'm Vanessa from speakenglishwithvanessa.com. And for over the past 10 years to over 7 million of you here on YouTube, I have been teaching real life English that real speakers use in everyday conversations. And that's what you are going to learn today. Plus, because I am your teacher and I love to make you extra help. I have created a free PDF

worksheet that includes all of today's important lesson material plus two extra bonuses that you cannot get in this video. The first one is a quiz to test yourself. See if you can remember what you learned today. And the second one is a downloadable speaking practice. Many of you have said that you love these downloadable speaking practices and I want to help you have more speaking practice. So when you get the PDF worksheet, you can click on the link that will give you this speaking practice. You can carry it wherever you go and practice speaking in English. So how can you get this worksheet plus quiz and speaking practice? All you have to do is click on the link in the description, enter your name and email

address, and voila, just like that, it will land in your email inbox. It is my gift to you. So let's get started by talking about your weekend plans. I'm going to tell you a little story about what happened to me last weekend. Hint, it was very busy. I'm going to include a lot of phrases that you can also use to describe your weekend plans. And this is going to help you build on your vocabulary and your speaking skills so that it sticks in your head and you can think and speak in English. Are you ready? Listen carefully to what happened to me last weekend and then we'll break down the vocabulary.

I'm not one to have busy weekends. In fact, I don't like to overload my schedule with many activities. I try to keep it simple by going for hikes with my family or just having some friends over to our house. Take a look at this first phrase. I'm not one to. This means it doesn't usually happen. I'm not one to have busy weekends. Or we could say, I'm not one to complain, but the service in this restaurant is horrible. So, this is not something natural for you, but it's happening anyway. This second word, overload, feels really heavy, right? That's the idea here is there is too much going on.

I don't like to overload my weekends or my schedule, but sometimes it happens. You might say, "Ugh, I overloaded my work schedule this week, and I don't know how I'm going to possibly do it all." The opposite of overload is this. To keep it simple. There is a famous phrase in English. Kiss. Keep it simple. Stupid. Not the nicest phrase. But you could use this to say, uh, I really just need to keep it simple this weekend. I've had such a busy week. Or you might say to your teacher, Vanessa, Vanessa, please keep it simple. There's too much in English that I need to learn. Don't speak in long complicated sentences with too much difficult vocabulary. Please just keep it simple.

All right, let's go to the next part of my story. But some weekends become more hectic than others. Last Sunday was one of those days. This word hectic means busy and chaotic. Some weekends are more hectic than others. I prefer to have weekends that are not hectic, but sometimes that happens. Let me know in the comments. Was your weekend hectic last weekend? This phrase one of those days hides a hidden meaning. If I say, "Ugh, yesterday was one of those days." The phrase itself doesn't clue you in to the kind of day it was. Was it a good day or a bad day? But I bet you're smart enough. You can tell actually how my day was by my tone of voice. Yesterday was one of those days. Do you think it was a

good day? Absolutely not. So if you use one of those days, you are implying that it was not the kind of day that you wanted to have. You might say, "Yes, yesterday was just one of those days. I was late to work. I lost my keys. Then I forgot my lunch at home. H one of those days." Okay, let's move on. With the change in weather, it's about that time to start thinking about what to plant in the garden. That's what inspired me to plan a get together at my house last week for a seed exchange. Ideally, everyone brings some seeds to share so we can all plant new things in our gardens. This phrase, it's about that time to plus a verb can be used in so many situations. So, let's imagine that

for you, your friend is having a baby and you cannot wait to go baby clothes shopping with her and her baby's going to be due in maybe 2 3 months. Well, you might say, "It's about time to go baby clothes shopping. Do you want to do it this weekend?" "It's about that time, too." Great phrase. This phrase, a get together, is a great example of a time when a verb can be used as a noun in a slightly different context. So here I said, I had a small get together. We could say, do you want to get together? That's a verb. Do you want to get together at my house? But I used it as a noun and I said, I planned a get together at my house. A get together. And it simply means that we are getting

together. Simple, right? Let's move on. I sent out text reminders, prepped food and drinks, tidied up the house. I also reminded my kids to be on their best behavior. I wanted to highlight this first phrasal verb here. I sent out text reminders. To send out, we could say I sent text reminders. Totally fine. Absolutely acceptable. But sometimes in daily conversational English, we will choose to use the phrasal verb because it sounds more conversational. I sent out text reminders. So here it has the exact same meaning, but it just sounds a little more natural. This word I prepped food and drinks. To prep something is shortened for prepare. I need to prep some food and drinks before people come

over. Do you ever prep food and drinks before people come over to your house? Probably. So, you could say, "I prepared," but it's a little more conversational to say prep. And then we have this lovely phrasal verb to tidy up. This is something essential to do. I think it is within our nature that when guests come to our house, we can't stop ourselves. We have to tidy up. If people come to your house and you don't tidy up, well, maybe you are not human. It is within our human nature to want to tidy up when guests come over. It simply means you put away all of the mess. Maybe you shove it in a closet or another room or maybe you actually clean it up and you make sure that your house

looks nice and tidy. And this final phrase here, I told my kids to be on their best behavior, is a fullfixed phrase that we use altogether. It's often used for children because children often misbehave, but we can also use this for adults as well. Let's imagine that you are going on a first date with someone. You've never talked with them before in real life. You're going on a first date with them and they're kind of rude. Well, you probably won't want to go on a second date with them because on your first date, you should be on your best behavior. If you're rude on the first date, well, it's only going to go downhill after that, right? So, you should be on your best behavior on your first date. And kids should also be on

their best behavior when you have guests over. That's the ideal, right? Okay, let's move on. My two oldest children have their own garden beds, so they were pretty hyped about sharing some seeds with the neighbors. I want to introduce a very specific vocabulary phrase, a garden bed. I have several videos on this channel where I have shown you my garden, walked through the garden. You've even met one of my lovely neighbors who also has a great garden. This phrase, a garden bed, is usually a rectangular area where you plant vegetables. Sometimes you plant flowers in a garden bed as well, but it is a contained area. This is helpful

especially if you have weeds that want to come in. You can make sure that the soil in the garden bed is really nicely kept. And what about this phrase to be hyped? My kids were hyped about the garden club meeting. So, we could say they were excited. It is simply a synonym for excited. They were hyped about the meeting. And we could say, "I'm hyped for every trip that I go on. I'm really excited to travel and I get hyped before a trip." Maybe you get hyped when you realize there's going to be a new Speak English with Vanessa lesson out. Oh, on Friday is coming. I'm so excited. You are hyped for the new lesson. Great.

Let's move on. Eight of my neighbors showed up. Several people brought over packets of seeds to share, and some brought seeds that they had saved directly from their plants last summer. It was such a good opportunity to bond with my neighbors. This phrasal verb to show up means to arrive. Yes, this is the direct meaning, but it also has a slight nuance to it. It means you're not exactly sure how many people are going to show up, but you don't need to say, "I don't know." It means there's an element of surprise or unknown. So, you might ask, "How many people showed up to the meeting?" Well, if you were expecting 50 people, you might say,

"Well, actually only 20 people showed up. I was kind of surprised." So here it is implying that you don't exactly know how many people are actually going to be coming. How many people showed up? Well, at my gathering there were eight people. This phrase to bond with someone is a very kind phrase. Here I talked about bonding with my neighbors. I'm talking about creating a closer relationship. We are growing our friendship bonds. You can also bond for example with your children. You might say something like, "I try to bond with my kids by listening to the type of music that they enjoy."

Well, as your kids get older, it might be more difficult to connect with them. So, listening to music together could be a way to bond in a deeper way. All right, let's continue. A few hours later, everyone headed home and I had a moment to catch my breath before the next event. Yes, there was a next event. This lovely phrase is one that I use all the time, but I don't see English learners using that often, and I want to make sure you can use it. To head home means simply to go home, but we use this verb to head to talk about simply starting the journey. So, you could say, "Well, I think I need to head home. It's getting late." This is commonly used all the time. You could say, "I need to go

home." Totally acceptable. But when you use this phrase to head home, you are elevating your English. I love it. What about this phrase to catch my breath? No, I'm not actually catching my breath. It's more figurative than that. I said I had a little bit of time to catch my breath before the next event. It wasn't that I couldn't breathe. This means I just have a few minutes to try to recover, gather my thoughts, relax a little bit. H I could finally catch my breath before the next thing. So, if you've had a busy day at work, you might say, "When I got in the car after work, I had a few minutes to catch my breath before I went home."

Okay, let's go on. I made an early dinner, kissed my kids good night, and headed out to my friend's book club meeting at a fun rooftop bar. I wanted to show you this phrase to kiss my kids good night because it can also be used in a couple other ways as well. When I was saying good night to my kids, what did I do? I gave them a kiss and said good night. But I reduced all of these ideas to just I kissed my kids good night. You might say this about your partner. I kissed him good night. Or you might say this at the end of a date. I kissed him goodbye. Okay. There are some famous songs as well that are rather ironic. I would say they're trying to use this in a clever way. When they say,

"I kissed him goodbye." That means goodbye. Good riddance. I don't want to see you anymore. I kissed him goodbye. So, if you look up some songs about kissed him goodbye, they're quite funny. I think a lot of these are kind of country songs, but you'll get the sense of this phrase. We can just kiss someone good night, kiss someone goodbye, or we can kiss them goodbye. Do you recognize this word to head? Here, we're using it as a phrasal verb to head out. Earlier, you heard to head home and now we're talking about leaving. And we're using that same verb again. This time as a phrasal verb with the word out. I'm heading out. Or you could say, for example, I'm heading

out to the store. Do you need me to get you anything? I'm heading out to my book club meeting. I'm going out, but we're leveling it up and saying heading out. Let's go on. We spent the evening discussing the characters and how the book turned out. I want to stop after just this phrase and explain this phrasal verb to turn out. We're talking about the ending of the book, what happened in the end. But there's a slight nuance here. We're talking about how the book turned out. There's a bit of surprise here. We don't know what's going to happen at the end of the story. So, and you don't know what's going to happen at the end of my story about my

day. So, you don't know how it's going to turn out. And in the book, we talked about how the book turned out. We talked about the ending, the unknown ending. That's how we're using to turn out here. You can use this in a business situation as well. Maybe you're having a big meeting where you're trying to get some new clients. And you think that the meeting went well, but you're not quite sure. You might say to your friends later, "I think the meeting went well, but I don't really know how it's going to turn out. I'll find out next week." Okay. There's a lot of unknowns here.

You don't know the conclusion yet, but you're hoping it will be good. Okay, let's move on. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of the book we were discussing. Turns out my friends didn't like it either, but it's always nice having some me time, especially when it involves a rooftop bar. You probably recognize this phrase, turns out, we just talked about it here. I'm using it as a little bit of a transition. Turns out my friends didn't like the book either. So, we're talking about that surprising or unknown conclusion. I'm telling you what happened at the end. So, here I didn't enjoy the book and I found out it turns

out my friends didn't like it either. We're using the same phrasal verb but in a way to show the conclusion. I love this. So, let's imagine that you're walking along the streets of your hometown and there is a foreign traveler walking along looking lost. And you think, uh, I should probably help them, but can I speak in English? Can I really help them in English? I don't know if I can do it. Then you approach them, ask if they need help, and you actually help them. Well, you might tell me, "Vanessa, it turns out I can actually use English. I did it." Here you are telling me the conclusion. It turns out I actually can do it. Good for you. This next expression, me time, is a fun one and

it's simply what it looks like. It's time spent for only you, something that you enjoy doing. You are not giving to others. You are not working. You are doing something that you love. And going to book club with my friends in a rooftop bar. This is absolutely something that is me time. It's something that I enjoy. So, tell me in the comments, what do you like to do for your me time? Okay, let's move on to the final two sections of my story where you're going to learn five final phrases. By the time I got home, it was already 1000 p.m. I was socially exhausted and just crashed. This phrase, by the time, is an interesting one because it's talking about a timeline. When something happens, another event is also

happening. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. So here, two things happened at the same time. I got home and I was exhausted. By the time I got home, I'm feeling quite tired. This phrase, socially exhausted, is a great one to use when maybe you haven't done a lot of physical activity, but if you have talked to so many people for so long all day, you had garden club, seed exchange with eight neighbors, then you had rooftop bar, book club with your friends, you have been talking and socializing so much. It can be really exhausting, especially if you're a more introverted person. A little bit of social stimulation will be even more

exhausting for you. So you could say, "I was just socially exhausted after talking with clients all day." It's probably true. This next word to crash is not talking about a car crash. Instead, it's talking about your body. At the end of the day, what are you going to do if you are exhausted? You're going to flop down on the couch or in your bed and crash. It just means that your body is so exhausted that you're just going to lay there. You're not going to do anything necessarily productive. You're just going to lie there and crash. So, if someone says, "Hey, what are your plans for this weekend?" You

could use this phrase if you have had a really busy, exhausting week. Uh, I had such a busy week. This weekend, I'm just going to crash. Maybe you'll just watch Netflix all weekend. Okay, let's go to the final part of the story and the final phrases. In my ideal world, I wouldn't be cramming two events into the same day, but I pushed myself because I knew I would have a good time and I did. In my ideal world is a great phrase for talking about this dream of a way that you wish the world was. So, let's think about this for your English goals. In your ideal world, what do you wish you could do with English? So you might say, "In my ideal world, I would be able to communicate easily with clients. In my

ideal world, I wish that I could travel to the US and just easily talk with people." Okay, here you're talking about the dream. This dream, in my opinion, is not unrealistic. It is achievable. You're here on the right path trying to make this happen. But we can use this phrase to talk about a goal. In my ideal world, this is what would happen. And our final phrase is a great phrasal verb that unfortunately happens to many of us to cram into. When you were studying in school, did you study a week ahead of time for an exam? Or were you someone who tried to cram all of your studying into the last few days, maybe the last few hours before the exam?

Well, unfortunately, human nature is such that we often cram things into the last few days before we have to do something. So, we can use this to talk about our daily lives. I try not to cram everything into the last few minutes, but I sometimes do. And even though I crammed those two big events into one day, I still had a good time. Sometimes you can just push yourself and make it happen. Well, great work practicing thinking and speaking in English today. The next step is to download today's free PDF worksheet. This is a 13page worksheet that includes everything you learned today, plus a bonus quiz. Test yourself and see if you can really remember all these phrases, plus a bonus

speaking practice. I want to help you speak today. You listened, you learned new vocabulary and it will become your chance to speak and practice this. When you download this worksheet, you will be able to download the bonus speaking practice so that you can use it anywhere you go and level up your English skills. How can you get this worksheet? Just click on the link in the description, enter your name and email address, and voila, just like that, it will land in your email inbox. It is my gift to you. Well, thank you so much for learning English with me. I want to ask you a question. Let me know in the comments, what did you do last weekend? Try to use some of the phrases that you learned in

today's lesson. And I will see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. But wait, do you want more? I recommend watching this video next where you will continue to learn to think and speak in English while talking about technology. This is a very relevant topic and you need to be able to speak about this in daily life. I'll see you there.