“Let’s Go Into Town Tonight” – Ways Of Recommending Where To Go

Sasha was at home wondering whether to stay in or go out. His girlfriend looked over to him and suggested that they head out somewhere:

– “Let’s go into town and catch that new film, Insurgent. I’ve been dying to see it! Ohh, Four..”

– “Ok, that sounds like a plan. But I hope it’s not one of those rom-coms, I’ve had enough of those!” He sighed.

The topic of making recommendations and suggestions came up last week in a class when someone suggested going out for lunch:

“My suggestion is to go to a restaurant nearby…”

The thing is, in regular everyday speech, learners of English often sound quite formal compared to ‘native’ speakers of English.

For recommending doing something with a friend or someone who you speak with in a more friendly manner, try using some of these phrases:

Phrases For Recommending

• Let’s go to that new exhibition in town.
• So let’s go for a bite somewhere.
• So you want to grab a coffee down the road?
• Hey maybe we can go clubbing.
• What about/how about catching a film? [+_ing form]
• What about/how about a film tonight? [+ noun]
• We should check out that bar by the river. [we use ‘that’ for when we know what we’re referring to – maybe we talked about ‘that bar’ last week]
• I’d love to see that new film, ‘Great Facebook Selfies’. What do you think/reckon?
• I’m going to the restaurant at the station. Come and join me if you’re free.
• I’ll be at the big match later. You should come too. [You can say this to someone you know well – I personally wouldn’t use this to ask a girl out for the first time, but I know some people who do.]
• Why don’t we check out the new Cat Cafe..?
• Let’s just go somewhere close.. [using ‘just’ sounds like you don’t want a big night, just something cool and relaxed]

Expressing Agreement And Responding

Sounds great
Wonderful | Awesome | Cool
I’m down with that – I’m ok with that, I agree [used more in the USA]
I’m up for that [used more in Australia and Britain]
Yeah, why not.

Verbs Used To Talk About Going Out

Stay in – stay at home
Eat out (at a restaurant)
Head out somewhere – to go somewhere, to another place
Head off – leave: “What time should we head off..?”
Go into town – to go to the centre
Bar-hop – go from bar to bar all evening
Go clubbing – go to a club and dance
Have a quiet drink – go for a drink and a quiet chat
Go for a drink | a bite | a stroll (walk)
Go on a date
Grab a coffee – go for a coffee
Take a photo | selfie – note that this is with ‘take’, not ‘make’
Dress up – dress nicely, not in casual clothes
Queue up/line up outside a club
Pop in – go inside a cafe/bar eg “This looks nice. Let’s pop in.”
Come along – join me/us: eg “Do you want to come along with us?”
Check out – have a look, go inside: eg “That place looks great. Let’s check it out!”

This Bar v. That Bar

If you’d like to suggest a place that you haven’t mentioned before to your friend, and which you don’t think they know about, we often use ‘this’ to refer to it:

I know this great place next to the park. What about going there? 

If you both spoke about a place or are some way familiar with it, you can use ‘that’ to refer to it:

I went to that cafe by the river. It’s got the best cake in town! 

Wordbank

I’ve been dying to see it = I really want to see it, and have wanted to see it for a while
That sounds like a plan – (fixed phrase to express agreement) that sounds good

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