 What do you say? What do you say? What do you say? Making invitations in English. What do you say when you want to invite someone to do something with you? Well, it depends on the situation. There are lots of ways to make invitations in English. Let's see how well you can handle these scenarios. Situations for practicing English phrases for conversation. Inviting. Situation 1. You want to invite someone to a movie this weekend. What do you say? A. Why don't you go to a movie with me? B. Would you like to go to a movie this weekend? C. How about to watch a movie this weekend? D. Want to see a movie together this weekend? Think about the best answer. Situation 1. Analysis. For each of these situations, we will highlight the best answer and give a natural response to it. We will also say what is wrong with the other ones. The best answer is... Would you like to go to a movie this weekend? Sure. I'd love to. What's wrong with the other ones? Why don't you go to a movie with me? This sounds kind of rude and negative. You're not giving advice here. If you say why don't you, you're giving them a suggestion or advice. If you want to give an invitation, you can say why don't we? B. C. How about to watch a movie this weekend? The grammar is incorrect. It should be, how about watching a movie this weekend? D. Want to see a movie together this weekend? There's a problem with grammar here. See a movie. It's okay to say, want to see a movie this weekend? That's very informal. You don't have to say the full question. Do you want to see a movie? Situation 2. You are at a party and someone starts playing dance music. You want to ask your friend to join you on the dance floor. What do you say? A. Would you please dancing with me? B. I would like to dance with you. C. Let's to dance now. D. Want to dance? Situation 2. Analysis. The best answer is D. Want to dance? Sure. If you don't want to, you can say something like this. I'd rather not. But thanks for asking. What's wrong with the other ones? A. Would you please dancing with me? The grammar is incorrect. Would you please dance? Would be better. But it's too formal for this situation. B. I would like to dance with you. Okay? That's a strange invitation. Don't focus on yourself. Focus on the other person. C. Let's to dance now. This is too strong. Also there's some grammar problems. We don't say let's to dance. It's better to say let's dance. Situation 3. You want to invite someone to have brunch with you on Saturday. What do you say? A. Why don't you have brunch this Saturday? B. Why don't we have brunch this Saturday? C. How about to have brunch on Saturday? D. What about have brunch on Saturday? Analysis. The best answer is B. Why don't we have brunch this Saturday? Sounds like a good idea. What's wrong with the others? Why don't you have brunch this Saturday? Again we have the problem with you or we. If you say why don't you, you're giving them a suggestion. If you say why don't we, you're inviting them to do something. C. How about to have brunch on Saturday? The grammar is incorrect. It should be how about having brunch? D. What about have brunch on Saturday? Also the grammar is incorrect here. You can say a shorter one like this. What about brunch on Saturday? Situation 4. You want to invite a friend to your house for dinner this Friday. What do you say? A. How about coming over for dinner on Friday? B. Do you like to have dinner this Friday? C. Come to my house for dinner on Friday. OK? D. Could you have dinner together on Friday? The best answer is A. How about coming over for dinner on Friday? Sounds great. What's wrong with the others? Do you like to have dinner this Friday? If you say do you like, you're asking what they prefer to do. For an invitation you need to say would you like to do something. C. Come to my house for dinner on Friday. OK? This sounds kind of rude. It's like you're commanding them to do it. D. Could you have dinner together on Friday? This is weak. You need to be more assertive. When you say could you do something, it's like you're begging them to do something with you. Situation 5. You want to invite someone to see a Broadway play next week. What do you say? A. Do you like to see, do you like seeing a play next week? B. How about let's go to the play together? C. How would you like to go to a play next week? D. I really want to go to that play and you? The best answer is C. How would you like to go to a play next week? I'd love to. Thanks! What's wrong with the others? Do you like seeing a play next week? Are you asking them what their preference is? To invite them you need to say would you like to see a play next week? B. How about let's go to the play together? The grammar is incorrect. It's better to say how about going? D. I really want to go to that play and you? Focus on the other person, not yourself. Situation 6. You want a friend to go fishing with you tomorrow. What do you say? A. How about going fishing tomorrow? B. Let's to go fishing tomorrow. C. What about it? Going fishing tomorrow. D. Why not going to fishing tomorrow? The best answer is how about going fishing tomorrow? Sounds like a plan. What's wrong with the others? Let's to go fishing tomorrow. The grammar is incorrect here. Let's go fishing. What about it? Going fishing tomorrow. This is very strange wording. What about going fishing tomorrow would be better? D. Why not go to fishing tomorrow? The verb usage is incorrect here. Go fishing is correct. Situation 7. You want someone to go to the space museum with you. What do you say? A. I want to go to the space museum. How about it? B. Why not going to the space museum with me? C. What about the space museum? Are you going? D. What do you say we go to the space museum? The best answer is D. What do you say we go to the space museum? Good idea. What's wrong with the others? I want to go to the space museum. How about it? It's about us, not you. Don't focus on yourself. I want to do this. Say, would you like to go to the space museum? B. Why not going to the space museum with me? The grammar is incorrect. Why not go? Also, when you add the with me to it, it sounds like you're begging them to go along with you. C. What about the space museum? Are you going? B. Are you going? C. This is actually not an invitation. You're just asking if they're going or not, maybe by themselves. B. Notes about invitations. It's very uncommon and quite rude to just walk up to someone and invite them to do something. A better way is to prepare them for the invitation with small talk, or bring up the issue step by step. Small talk. If you haven't seen someone for a while, it's good to greet them and talk about general topics. Before popping the invitation questions. Some phrases for this are, how's it going? How are you doing? Long time no see. How have you been lately? What have you been up to? Prepping for the invitation. Small talk enables both speakers to feel relaxed and sets a friendly tone. After you've talked to your partner for a minute about general things, you can bring up the topic by referring to it specifically. For example, are you free on Friday evening? There's a baseball game this Saturday. Have you heard about the Jane Elton concert? Did you know that the Beagles are in town? After you establish good rapport with your partner, extend the invitation. Here's a sample dialogue. Hi, Benny. How's it going? Okay, I guess. How was your final test? Pretty good. I'm glad it's all over with. Hey, did you hear about the Mary Bandolo concert? Yeah, I heard she was in town. Well, I have two tickets. Would you like to go? Sure, that would be wonderful. Great. I'll text you the details later. Here's a step-by-step process to help you remember how to invite in English. One, greet your partner. Say something like, how's it going? Two, talk generally for a minute or two. Small talk is just that. Small talk. It should not be too long. Three, bring up the topic. Weekend plans, upcoming events, or things like that. Four, pop the question. Invite them to go with you to the event. Five, listen to their response. Six, keep things positive even if they decline the invitation. Seven, share the details of the event. This can be postponed to a later time. Don't forget phrases for making invitations. For example, do you want to go see a movie? Do you want to go see a movie? This is informal pronunciation. Sometimes you can say, want to go see a movie? This is very informal. How about going to a movie? Would you like to go to a movie? How would you like to go to a movie? Why don't we go see a movie? What do you say we go to a movie? Now you try it. Role play the following situations with a partner. Or think of your own. One, invite your partner to watch a football game this Saturday. Two, invite your partner to go dancing with you. Three, invite your partner to go hiking this weekend. Four, invite your partner to your place for lunch. Five, invite your partner to go snowboarding on Friday. Six, invite your partner to a New Year's Eve party. Seven, invite your partner to go on a road trip for a day. Think of other situations or invitations. Think of other situations or events to invite someone to. Feel free to pause the video and discuss each of these situations or role play them. It's your time to talk. Practice inviting others to do things with you and seeing how they respond. Stop the video and take as much time as you need to practice these things. Hope you enjoyed that. If you enjoyed it, please give it a thumbs up in the comments section below. And remember to subscribe to our channel. This video was brought to you by the following English learning sites. ESLgold.com and FreeEnglishStudy.com Have any ideas for our next video? If you have ideas for our next video, please share them with us at the link below. Who knows, maybe yours will be the topic of our next video. Thanks for watching. Come back often to see our latest videos. And remember to check out our channel and playlists.