Learn 14 GO Expressions in English

How's it going? What's going on? There we go! What do these expressions have in common? They all have the word "go" in them. These expressions are especially useful for conversation. Sometimes we can use "go" to indicate changes, like with "go grey" and "go mad". In many other cases we use "go" in set expressions such as "go for it" and "here we go again!". In this video, you'll learn the following expressions: "How's it going", "how you going", "what's going on", "it's going well", "something is going on", "go crazy", "go bald", "there you go", "there we go", "here you go", "here we go again", "go for it", "way to go", and "go out of your way". Who knew there were so many "go" expressions in English? Try my quiz at https://www.engvid.com/learn-14-go-expressions-in-english/ to practice these important expressions. and improve your English speaking.

TRANSCRIPT

Hello. My name is Emma and in today's video I am going to teach you some very important conversational English. I'm going to teach you some expressions we use a lot, and all of these expressions have one thing in common: They all use the word "go". So, "go" is one of the first words you probably will learn in English. We use it when we talk about going to a different place, so for example: I go to school or I go to the park. So, we have "go" and it has that meaning, but it also can have a lot of other meanings in English, and those are the ones we're going to look at today. So, again, we use it a lot in conversation. So let's get started with some of the most basic ways we use "go" in conversation.

So I have here the question. One of the first questions you ask a person when you meet them or when you see them, and that is: "How are you?" We often use "go" in a way that means the same thing as this, so we often say: "How's it going?" "How's it going?" means the same thing as: "How are you?" Notice that there is an apostrophe and an "s". This actually is: "How is it going?" but we like to use a contraction in conversation. It's a little bit more informal, so we would probably use this with maybe our friends or our family, or you know, somebody we meet but maybe not in a job interview. Okay? So we use this a lot: "How's it going?"

If you are in Australia, you might see: "How you going?" We would not say this in North America, I don't think we say this in England, but in Australia you will often hear people say: "How you going?" and that means the same thing as: "How are you?" Okay? I was very confused when I went to Australia. I thought that, you know, people were making grammar mistakes, but it turns out that this is actually a very common way in Australia to say: "How are you?"

Another thing we can use with "go" is if we want to find out how something specific, you know, how is something. So, for example, maybe your friend has just started taking some new classes, you might say to them: "How are your classes going?" or "How is your job going?", "How...?" You know, if you're talking about the past: "How did the interview go?" So we often use "how" with, you know, some event or situation, and "going" to ask how did it... Like, you know, how... How it was. Okay? And you'll see this a lot. Okay, so these are some of the ways we use "go" when we're talking about how someone is, and we will come back to this one, but let's talk about some of the responses first.

When somebody says: "How are you?" you often respond with: "I'm fine." So it's the same thing with when somebody asks you: "How's it going?" You can say: "I'm fine", but you can also use "go" in your response, so you can say: -"How's it going?" -"It's going well." or "It's going good." I know that's not, you know, great grammar, but we do use "good" a lot when people ask us how we're doing, like, in conversational English, not in written English. But yeah: "It's going well", "It's going good", "It's going amazing", "It's going terrible". Okay? So you can use different adjectives here to describe how you're feeling or how your day is going. You know, you can also just talk generally. You can say: "It's" or you can also say: "Everything" or "Things". There are many variations of this. You might say: -"How's it going?" -"Everything is going amazing." or: "Things are great.", "Things are going good." Okay? So there's a lot of variation. If somebody asks you how, you know: "How are your classes going?" or "How is...? How is work going?" your answer could also be: "My classes are going great.", "Work is going great." You know: "School is going amazing." Or maybe, you know: "School's going terrible." Okay? So you can use this in a lot of different ways.

We also have this question which people sometimes ask when, you know, they see you and, you know, maybe it's your friend and they're meeting you, they might say: "Hey. What's going on?" Okay? So: "What's going on?" This one you've got to be careful with, because: "What's going on?" can have multiple meanings, and it all depends on the way you say it.