Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Alright, guys, how you doing?

  • You've been up to much recently.

  • This is Elliot from E T J English.

  • And today I'm going to be explaining something.

  • I actually said just now at the start of this video.

  • Now, usually when I do these kind of idiomatic expressions, okay, these kind of expressions that we commonly make in English when we greet each other when we speak to friends and things like this, usually I put them in a list like common British English expressions, my most popular video.

  • But this one needs to go in one video because this one is one of the most important.

  • Along with all right, up too much or you've been up to much is really, really, really important for English.

  • So please focus on this one and learn it.

  • The question in its longest form Have you bean up too much?

  • Have you been up to much?

  • Now listen to my pronunciation.

  • Like I said at the beginning, we've got have you bean up too much?

  • Now listen to how I connect the words together.

  • Soon I'm going to be doing a YouTube video about connecting words to sound more like a native but just listen to this as a bit of a warm up for that video when it comes.

  • Have you been up to much?

  • Have you been up to much?

  • If you can copy how I speak, try your best and try and copy how I say it.

  • Have you been up to much?

  • What does it mean?

  • I'm sure a lot of you already know what it means and how we use it.

  • But what it means is what have you been doing?

  • Have you been busy done anything interesting recently?

  • That's kind of the sort of question that we're asking, but we're asking in a lot more common British informal way.

  • Yeah.

  • Have you been up to much now?

  • We can also shorten this and this is what a lot of people do.

  • Okay, So you need to know this for when you're listening.

  • So we've got you've been up to much been up to much or the long version.

  • Have you been up to much in a generic response?

  • If we haven't really been doing much, how do we reply?

  • Well, we could just say not much.

  • Really.

  • You on?

  • That's like saying I haven't been doing very much.

  • What about you?

  • Not much, really.

  • You so just listen to this really natural response.

  • Okay.

  • Hi, mate.

  • How you doing?

  • You've been up to much recently.

  • Not much, really?

  • Make.

  • What about you?

  • That is a very common British English conversation beginning.

  • It's small talk.

  • We need to know small talk.

  • This question will be asked almost in every conversation when you meet somebody.

  • Especially if they're native, obviously.

  • And also, when you answer, think about when you last saw that person.

  • Have you actually done much since you last spoke to that person?

  • Then you know how to respond.

  • But if you want the easy, easy way out, just say not much.

  • If there is something really special or something you want to share that you've been doing, you could say Yeah, actually, last weekend I went to my sister's house and I cant sited for her because she went away for the weekend.

  • And that's such a true story.

  • That is something I did last weekend as a really natural response.

  • Usually we'll start with Yeah, and then we'll kind of talk about what it waas that we have been up to.

  • So that's your two different responses if you haven't been doing much or if you have done something that you want to share so that's talking about things that we have bean doing.

  • But what about now?

  • What if I'm on the phone to somebody and I want to say, What are you doing?

  • I could also say what you up thio too much.

  • And once again, same reply.

  • Yeah, I'm just cleaning the house right now.

  • Or once again.

  • No, not much, really.

  • You know, you don't have to just say you you could say, What about you?

  • That's how we return Questions will usually say you if it's more informal on to be formal, we could say, What about you also?

  • So we've got what we've seen up to what we are up to right now, and also we can talk about the future.

  • What you up to today?

  • You're getting up too much at the weekend.

  • You getting up too much at the weekend or you're getting up too much tomorrow.

  • You up too much tomorrow.

  • So you just need to get your grammar correct in this ondas, long as you've got up to that means doing that's like saying what you're doing.

  • Okay, so I hope you guys found this useful.

  • Like I said, this comes up in every, like every conversation that you will hear in English.

  • Now, it's really funny because I actually asked I set myself a task.

  • Last week.

  • I decided to ask every single Skype student.

  • I have this question when I met them on Skype so I'd be like, Hi.

  • How you doing?

  • You've been up to much.

  • Andi, you won't believe how many people didn't know the answer to this on.

  • This is the most common question in English.

  • Aside from all right, or how are you?

  • You've been up to much.

  • Is that other one is in that top three.

  • Okay on.

  • We need to know that.

  • So I had to explain to all of my Skype students, apart from maybe one or two very advanced speakers What this Waas.

  • So I hope you found this video useful.

  • If you want to become one of my Skype students and friend, then you could go and book a trial lesson with me on Skype.

  • I can help you improve your English conversation, listening, speaking, writing, everything, whatever you want to improve.

  • I'm here to help.

  • Anyway, thank you very much for watching guys.

  • It's been a pleasure, as always.

  • Cheers, and I'll see you all in the next video bite.

Alright, guys, how you doing?

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it