Common English Phrases Related to Leisure and Hobbies [515]

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In this episode, you’ll learn useful English phrases connected to leisure activities and hobbies. These expressions appear often in casual conversations and social situations. I explain how they are used so you can talk about your interests more naturally and fluently.

This lesson is perfect for anyone who wants to build their vocabulary, speak more naturally, and feel more confident in real-life situations. Whether you’re preparing for exams like IELTS or just want to improve your communication, learning English collocations is a step in the right direction.

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Transcript

0:09

Hi there, this is Harry. Welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language, to help you with your conversational skills, your business English skills, interview skills, whatever your goals are, we're here to help. And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do. Just get in touch, www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson and we'll be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. So what have I got for you in this particular lesson? Well we're going to look at co-locations and co-locations are really really popular with our listeners and our viewers and our students. So we're going today to look at co-locations related to leisure. So co-locations related to leisure. And just a quick note about what is a co-location in case you're worrying about it and not quite sure. Well a co-location is simply two or more words that are often seen together or often used together. And co-locations for our students are really helpful because they're not just single words. And when you use them, you're using actual phrases or expressions. And then this way it can make you more easily understood and help you to speak like a native, which is what we're trying to do. Okay, so as I said, co-locations connected with leisure. So first one, to catch up on sleep. Well, we all have to do that from time to time. If we've been working hard or we've been playing hard, so we have to catch up on sleep. So yeah, what are you doing tomorrow morning? Do you fancy going for a game of tennis? No, I think I actually will have a lazy morning. I have to catch up on sleep. I've been really, really working hard lately. And I think tomorrow morning I'll spend a couple of extra hours in bed to catch up on some sleep. So to catch up on some sleep means to make up for the sleep that you've missed or lost over previous days or weeks. The same way we can catch up on work means to get some work done that you missed or you didn't have time to do. So catch up on something means to make up for. So to catch up on sleep, to make up for the sleep you didn't get two days ago, three days ago, or a week ago. So to catch up on some sleep. Second, to have a lie in. Well, this is something similar. A lie-in is when you possibly might be awake, but you just don't feel like getting up yet. So Saturday mornings or Sunday mornings are great days to have a lie-in where you lie in bed for a period of time. You might wake up 7, 7.30, but you might read a book or you might just relax, have a chat, or just think about what you want to do over the weekend. But you're not in any rush to get out of bed. You're not rushing off to work. And you are having a well-earned, well-deserved lie-in. So you lie in the bed. Literally, you don't get up. Or if you do, you might just nip to the kitchen, get a cup of coffee like I do, get back into bed, pull the blankets up around you, get the book out, and have a nice, leisurely read. So it's a nice lie-in. I fancy a lie-in this weekend. We've been busy every weekend since Christmas, so we've always had something to do, somebody visiting, kids going off to some sport. Why don't we just have a nice quiet lie-in this weekend? Okay, a lie-in. Next, to go for a stroll. So when you finally get out of that bed and you've finally got something you want to do for the weekend, first of all, you might just like to relax by having a walk in the park. Why don't we go for a stroll? Yeah, so stroll is a very nice way to say to go for a walk. It's not one of these Norwegian walks with sticks where you're trying to break the world record. Neither is it a very, very slow walk where you're stopping every couple of minutes to smell the roses. But a stroll is just leisurely walk around the park, bit of sun shining, feel the sun on your head or your back, and you can enjoy the time. Okay, so let's go for a stroll in the park, a walk in the park. Okay, so you know, a stroll is not too slow and it's not too quick, but it's leisurely, a leisurely stroll. And as we said, these are co-locations connected with leisure, so a leisurely stroll is a really good way to describe it. To hit the shops. So if you're feeling like a little bit more activity or you're feeling like having some retail therapy, then you might use this expression, let's hit the shops. So the girls like to hit the shops. Yeah, they get together on that Saturday or whatever day. They have a day off during the week. He said, I tell you what, we'll do tomorrow. We'll meet about 10 o'clock. We'll grab a coffee and then we're going to hit the shops. You better get the credit cards ready because they're going to suffer a lot tomorrow to hit the shops. So to hit the shops means to go to the shops, but in a big way, not just to do any window shopping, but just to do some real damage to that credit card and buy that outfit that you have been promising yourself for a long time. Oh, there's nothing better than hitting the shops with the girls. We start off with that coffee, we go to the shops for a couple of hours, and then if we are flagging or feeling a little tired, we nip in somewhere for a quick lunch and yeah, back to the shops before we get home in time to make the dinner. Okay, so to hit the shops. To take up a hobby or take up a sport. So when you take up something, you start it. So it's usually something new. Ah, I've taken up knitting. I know it sounds like a very old pastime, but you know something, it's really relaxing. Yeah, it's the little click, click, click of the knitting needles. But you know, it's something nice to crochet or something to knit, some little gifts. So yeah, I think something I think I'll continue. Okay, so to take up knitting, so that as a hobby. Or you might want to take up yoga. I've been told it's a great way of relaxing. Pilates and yoga, all these sports that people are really into, both men and women actually now. So it used to be just predominantly women, but a lot of men do it for the relaxation exercises or so they tell me. So to take up a sport, to take up a hobby. Yeah, whatever you do, you take them up, you start, you begin something new, something that you haven't done before. I think I'll take up swimming. It's really good overall exercise to get the body balanced. So to take up a new sport. To catch up with friends. Well, when we catch up, as we mentioned earlier, those two, when we're going to catch up on sleep, so we were making up for the sleep that we didn't get. But if we catch up with friends, it means that we haven't seen them for a while. Perhaps they've been away or perhaps we've all been busy and during our busy lives, we don't really get the time we'd like to spend with our friends. So let's spend Friday night, catch up with all the friends. Let's have it a pizza night or let's have it a board game night or let's get some theme that will encourage them to come out. We just all work far too hard. So Friday night's going to be catch up with friends night. So we get together, we catch up on old times, we catch up on the gossip, we catch up on all the stories that we've missed out on and then that'll keep us going for the next month or so. So to catch up with friends as a co-location means to get together, to get the people closest to you together and enjoy their company. So catch up with. Have someone over for dinner. Well, this is a favorite way of spending time with our friends and our family. A lot of people like to go out the weekends on a Friday night or Saturday night or even Sunday night for dinner. But with COVID issues and other problems, people started spending a lot more time at home. So now cooking at home is not such a problem. So having someone over for dinner means inviting some guests, family or friends to your home. Who are you having over for dinner next week? Ah, we're inviting the Mike's friend from college. He hasn't seen him for ages. They've moved back into the city. So we thought we'd invite them over, catch up on old times, help them to get settled again because they've been away for quite a few years. So we're having them over for dinner, I think on Saturday. So I'll cook something special. Okay, so when you have someone over for dinner, you usually go that extra mile. You might cook that dish that you haven't cooked for ages. You might buy a new outfit, buy a wine that's a little bit more expensive so that everybody can sit around the table and enjoy themselves to have someone over for dinner. Okay, so to have someone over for dinner for Christmas or for Easter or for some special occasion. So to have somebody over for a special dinner or just to have people over for dinner just to enjoy their company. To go out for a meal. So the exact opposite from having somebody over for dinner is when you decide to go out for a meal. You know, I'm really, really fed up cooking day after day. Let's go out for a meal on Friday. I hear that new Italian restaurant really got some great offers on at the moment. You can go for the early bird meal at between 6 and 7.30 and we can perhaps go for a glass of wine afterwards. Yeah, so let's do that. Let's go out for a meal. So go out means leave the home, leave the car if you've got any sense, grab a cab or taxi or jump on the metro, whatever it is, get yourself out and about, down to that restaurant, enjoy the meal and then get yourself home and everything will be hunky-dory. Everything will be good to go out for a meal. To stay up late, the request from the children. Can I stay up late tonight? There's a movie I want to watch. Can I stay up late to watch the football? Can I stay up late to watch the boxing? Whatever it might be. Always a request from the kids wanting to know, can they stay up late? They never like, as you know, to go to bed too early because they think they're going to miss something. Okay, so they like to stay up late. And as you get older, like me, you hate staying up late. And so you really like the idea of getting to bed early, get the book out, read the book, and then drift off into a nice, cozy sleep. So to stay up late means not to go to bed at your normal time, to go to bed that hour or even two or three hours later. So you've got something to talk to your friends about. Wow, I got the chance to stay up late last night. It doesn't really happen, but Friday night, no school on the Saturday. So the parents let me stay up to watch that horror movie. Or when your friend comes to visit and you have a sleepover, you stay up late, swapping stories, running around, and everybody telling you to be quiet. Okay, so to stay up late. And then finally, spend quality time. And as I said at the beginning, usually we use this with the word together. Spend quality time together. Well, quality time is not quantity. Yeah, it's not that two, three, four hours. Maybe it's an hour, two hours playing some games, going for that walk, going for the pizza, just enjoying each other's company, get the bikes out, but to spend quality time when you take an interest in what people are doing, not because you have to, but because you want to. Spend quality time together. So it's a real American expression. Hey, we love to spend quality time together. It's all about how we get on as a family. But it's really, really important. It's important to know that you take some time out of your busy, busy days and your busy schedules to spend quality time together, meaning in the family, in the home, out in the park, wherever it might be. And it might not just be with family, of course. It could be spending quality time with your other relatives or quality time with your friends. Okay, so something special out of the way, away from the routine of the office, the school, whatever it might be. Okay, spending quality time together. Okay, so they're co-locations connected with or related to leisure and leisure activities. So I'll go through them once more. There are 10 of them. So catch up on sleep. Have a lie in. Go for a stroll. Hit the shops. Take up a hobby or take up a sport. Catch up with friends. Have someone over for dinner. Go out for a meal. Stay up late. And then finally, spend quality time. As I said, spend quality time together. Well, we spent some quality time together in our lesson. I hope you've enjoyed it. Try to practice some of those co-locations. If you need any other examples, come back and let me know. And you'll get me on www.englishlessonviaskype.com. As always, thanks for listening. Thanks for joining me. And this is Harry Sane. Goodbye. Until the next time.