How to keep a conversation going in English (with examples!)

In the last lesson, you learned how to start a conversation in English. In this lesson, you will learn how to keep a conversation going without running out of things to say. Here's an example of how not to have an English conversation. Did you have a good weekend? Yes, I did. And you? Yeah. Unfortunately, the conversation stops here because there's no natural way to continue it. This is okay if you only want to have a quick conversation. For example, if you are quickly passing a co-worker in the hallway. But how can you have a longer conversation in English? Let's look at three points that will help you keep a conversation going, and then we'll see them in practice in two example conversations. If you like learning English from conversations, then you will love my Everyday English Speaking courses because each lesson is based on a dialogue, so you can see how the phrases are really used. It's a very effective way to learn English phrases in context. Click on the link under this video to learn more about my Everyday English Speaking courses. There are some free sample lessons you can try before buying the course. All right, here are three keys for keeping a conversation going. One is to try to ask a lot of questions that start with who, what, when, where, why, and how. Try to avoid yes or no questions because then the other person might just say yes or no and the conversation reaches a dead end. But when you ask a who, what, when, where, why, and how question, then the other person must give a little more detail in their answer. And in each of your answers, you try to give one or two details that will help continue the conversation. You don't need to talk for a long time, again, just one or two details. So if someone asks you, did you have a good weekend? Instead of just saying yes, you could say, yes, I had a picnic with my family in the park. And then the other person might share about their weekend or ask you which park you went to and the conversation continues. The third key is to try to talk about these topics, family, interests and hobbies, sports, TV, movies, and popular culture, music, current events, interesting places in the city, and travel. Unless the other person is a very good friend of yours, try to avoid topics like politics, religion, sex life, health problems, and personal finances. Okay, let's see these things in practice with two example conversations. Notice how each person adds one or two details and then there is a follow-up question about the details to keep the conversation going. Conversation one. Hey, how was your weekend? Pretty good. I went to a baseball game with my brother. Really? Who was playing? The Yankees and the Red Sox. We're huge Yankees fans. Yeah? How was the game? Very exciting. It was tied until the last inning when we won two to one. That's great. I can't say I'm a baseball fan myself. I prefer basketball. Basketball? Huh? Playing or watching? Both. I've played basketball since I was a kid. No kidding. You must be really good. Well, I just play for fun. It's a great workout. I bet. I could use more exercise myself, but I don't think I'm cut out for basketball. I was thinking of joining a martial arts class. That sounds interesting. Which one? Conversation two. What a beautiful day. It feels like summer. Sure does. I can't wait for the summer. We're taking a big family vacation in June. Oh? Where are you going? We're going to Colorado for a month of hiking and camping. Have you ever been there? Yes. I've actually been to Denver twice on business trips, but they didn't involve any hiking. How about you? Any special plans for the summer? No. Not really. I'll probably take a few weekend trips to visit friends, but I'm saving up my vacation time for December when I'm going to Costa Rica. Wow. Why Costa Rica? Well, my best friend from college lives there now, she owns a hotel, and she invited me to spend a couple of weeks there to escape the cold winter weather. How wonderful. Do you speak any Spanish? Barely any. Only what I remember from classes in high school. So I think some English learners can be a little afraid of having conversations because they're afraid they'll have to speak for a long time. But as you can see from those examples, each person just says one or two sentences, and then it's the other person's turn to speak. It's a balanced interaction. A conversation involves taking turns, not just one person talking on and on for a long time. So don't be scared to have conversations in English. I know you can do it, and remembering the tips from this video will really help you. One, try to ask who, what, when, where, why, and how questions. Two, in each of your replies give one or two details that will help keep the conversation going. And three, stick to topics that are of general interest and not likely to cause offense or arguments. Of course, it's even easier to have conversations when you know lots of phrases to express yourself, and you can learn them inside my Everyday English Speaking courses. Like I mentioned earlier, the course lessons are all based on conversations, so you can learn the phrases naturally. The link to Everyday English Speaking is under this video, and I'd encourage you to check it out. In our next lesson, we'll learn how to end conversations in English politely without being rude. Make sure you're subscribed to my channel so you don't miss it.