TALKING ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE

TALKING ABOUT DATING AND RELATIONSHIPS IN ENGLISH

How is your love life? Are you seeing anyone?

These are common questions when talking about dating and relationships.

If you’re single or in a relationship, there are some important phrasal verbs and expressions in English that will help you! You can use these to talk to your friends about your dating life or they will help when watching romantic movies 😉

I’m going to use a short dialogue from my upcoming Audio Book “Living In English”. I will use this dialogue to teach you some common phrases related to dating.

DIALOGUE

Sally: So how’s your love life, Georgia? Are you seeing anyone lately?

Georgia: I’ve had a few flings here and there. My friend tried to set me up with this guy she knows. She told me he was a really intelligent and attractive guy, so I thought why not? We went on a blind date.

Sally: How did it go?

Georgia: It was terrible! We really didn’t hit it off. He talked endlessly about marketing and all that boring stuff and then insisted I pay for my own meal! How are things with John?

Sally: We had a fight yesterday and I nearly broke it off. He said he wanted to leave Sydney and go back to the country but I really want to stay here!

Georgia: So do you think you’ll split up with him?

Sally: No. We have our problems like anyone but I couldn’t be without him. (sigh)

Georgia: Oh look over there! See that guy! I’m going to go and chat him up!

(Dialogue (c) Nick Dale – Real English Speaker.)

EXPLANATIONS

“So, how’s your love life? ”

This is a common way to ask someone about their romantic life. Of course, this is a very personal question and you should only ask your close friends this.

“Are you seeing anyone lately?”

This is another way to ask someone about his or her dating life.

To DATE someone means to spend time getting to know him or her in a romantic way before committing to a longer term relationship.

We can also say “I’m seeing someone” which means I’m ‘dating’ someone or romantically involved in a casual way.

“I’ve had a few flings.”

A FLING is a short term, casual relationship with someone that is sexual.

“My friend tried to set me up with this guy”

To SET someone UP means to arrange a meeting between one person and another, with the aim of encouraging a romantic relationship between them.

“Tony tried to set her up with one of his friends”

“We went on a blind date.”

A BLIND DATE is a social engagement with a person one has not previously met, arranged with a view to the development of a romantic or sexual relationship.

“We really didn’t hit it off.”

To HIT IT OFF with someone means to be naturally well suited. If you hit it off with a person it means you enjoy each other’s company.

“We hit it off the moment we met!”

“We had a fight yesterday and I nearly broke it off!”

To BREAK IT OFF means to end a relationship with someone.

You can just ‘break it off’ or ‘break off the relationship’.

“Sarah broke it off with Mark because he was never home at night”

“Do you think you’ll split up with him?”

To SPLIT UP WITH someone means to separate or end a relationship or marriage.

“James split up with his wife last week”

“I’m going to chat him up”

To CHAT SOMEONE UP means to engage someone in flirtatious conversation. When you ‘chat someone up’ you try to flirt and show the person that you are interested in him or her in a sexual way.

So now you have 7 phrases related to dating and relationships and two ways to ask someone about dating.

Write the phrases down and make sentences with them! Then go out and listen to English conversations. Try to ‘hear’ these phrases and recognize them in context. Or listen to a podcast or interview on YouTube about dating and relationships. You might learn some more useful words!

 Written by

Nick Dale