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“What Did You Get Up To This Weekend?” – Weekend Phrases

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It’s 10 am on a Monday morning at an office in Prague. Pavel walks into the kitchen, fixes himself a coffee, and then he sees Kate walk in:

– “How was your weekend, Kate? Get up to much..?”

In English-speaking countries it’s common to ask the people you meet on a Monday at work or at university about their weekend. It’s part of small talk, polite and friendly conversation about everyday topics.

NEW 2017! You can now download a mobile-friendly version of this post by clicking on the image below: 

Asking A Friend Or Colleague About Their Weekend

You can ask simply: How was your weekend?

You’ll also hear:

  • What did you get up to at the weekend? [= what did you do]
  • Did you get up to much at the weekend?
  • Get up to much at the weekend?
  • How did you spend your weekend?

note: Brits favour at the weekend whereas in Australia and the USA they say on the weekend. You’ll also hear during the weekend and over the weekend.

The Short Response: Give Them An Adjective!

One way to talk about your weekend is to give them an adjective which says more about how it was. A weekend can be:

  • wonderful, great, awesome, fantastic, exciting,
  • beautiful, romantic
  • unforgettable
  • busy, hectic
  • not so bad, pretty good, quite good, nice, good
  • boring, dull, nothing special, terrible, not so good, awful

How much you say will depend on how you feel and how well you get on with the person asking. For example, you might not want to tell your boss that you were out clubbing all Saturday night and got drunk, in which case you might reply with:

“It was really great, thanks. What about you?”

What Does ‘This Weekend’ Refer To?

On a Monday you might refer to the previous weekend as “this weekend”:

“What did you do this weekend..?”

However once Thursday and Friday come along, “this weekend” usually refers to the weekend which is coming:

“Hey what are you planning this weekend, anything special?”

Weekend Activities

Quite often we say one or two things which we did at the weekend. Choose wisely 🙂

At home:

I had a night in (= I stayed at home)
I cleaned up all day Saturday.
I tidied up my bedroom.
I stayed in and read a book.
I slept in (= I slept longer than I usually do)
I lay in bed all morning.
I spent the whole weekend studying.
I did some gardening
I just chilled out at home | I took it easy.
I had friends over for dinner.
I just flicked through my iPod and put on some songs.

Going out:

I had a great night out.
I met up with friends.
I caught up with friends (= meet up with them to find out the latest news, as you haven’t seen them for a while)
I saw a film.
I bumped into | ran into   an old school friend (= it wasn’t planned, it just happened while I was walking down the street or going shopping)
I got drunk | hammered | smashed | trashed | wasted (slang for you drank a lot and was very drunk)

I went out.
I went out with a bunch of friends.
I went away for the weekend (= I left my city and went to another place)
I went to a yoga class.
I went to the opera | the cinema | the theatre | the pub.
I went to a get-together at the Swamp Bar.
I went clubbing | shopping | bowling.
I went bar hopping with friends (= to go from bar to bar, to go to quite a few bars in one evening)
I went on a date.

A Common Problem: When To Use ‘we’ v. ‘I’

Many Czechs say “We went skiing with my boyfriend.”

But be careful here what you mean:

“I went with my boyfriend” = my boyfriend and I went -> there were 2 of us
“We went with my boyfriend” = my boyfriend came with us (eg my sister and I) -> there were 3 of us

Other Collocations With ‘Weekend’

“What are you doing for the long weekend?” – when the Friday and/or Monday is a public holiday, we call it a long weekend.

You might also call it a 3-day weekend or even a 4-day weekend. [not a 3-days weekend]

Depending on the country you’re in, some weekends involve a public holiday or special occasion. For example:

  • Easter Weekend
  • Australia Day weekend
  • Grand Final weekend (in the AFL the last Saturday in September is a very special weekend 🙂 ).
  • Labor Day Weekend (USA)
  • Memorial Day Weekend (USA)
  • Thanksgiving Weekend (USA)
  • The holiday weekend

Some newspapers feature a weekend puzzle or have special weekend comics.

A weekend warrior is someone who parties hard at the weekend.

What about you – how was your weekend? Feel free to write a comment below on what you did, or to ask me if you’re not sure of about any of these phrases.

Please feel free to share this post with your friends!

 

Read more

Small talk phrases – download

Photo credits

Image: Martin Fisch
Licence: CC by 2.0

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Marcelo says

    February 15, 2012 at 00:12

    Hi, David, these expressions are very useful.
    Thanks.

    Reply
  2. Hanka says

    February 15, 2012 at 16:27

    Thats funny, I did not actually know about the ‘we’ versus ‘I’ difference in the ‘We went skiing with my boyfriend’ sentence 🙂 Czech is sometimes just so much easier 😀

    Reply
    • David Sweetnam says

      February 20, 2012 at 23:00

      Hey Marcelo and Hanka

      Please excuse the late reply. Thanks to both of you for your comments – I’m surprised Hanka that you hadn’t come across this before, maybe we’ll find one or two other mistakes to look at which are presently hidden in the closet ; )

      David

      Reply
  3. Magnus says

    March 9, 2013 at 00:36

    Hi, David.
    Those phrases are really handy.
    But I’m still not sure once my f txt me
    “U up to much over the weekend?”
    Does he still mean the same?

    Reply
  4. an says

    November 23, 2016 at 18:17

    Thank you!
    It was really useful and fun.
    By the way, can you say I had a full-on weekend?

    Reply
    • David Sweetnam says

      November 23, 2016 at 21:14

      Hi! Good question – usually “full on” doesn’t take an object, which means we can say “it was full on”. With a noun it seems less common..

      Reply
  5. Francisco Javier says

    November 8, 2018 at 20:37

    Great stuff, David.

    Actually, I think I’ll use that PDF to go over all those phrases in my next class after the weekend! Teaching a C1 class involves a lot of discussion and conversation so vocabulary is the students’ main concern when they want to express their thoughts (they usually have a good command of grammar at this level).

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Who are your customers? | Link in English says:
    April 25, 2012 at 00:33

    […] talk phrases – download Talking about your weekend Categories: Business […]

    Reply
  2. Small talk phrases – “It’s been ages since I saw you” — Get into English says:
    April 6, 2014 at 21:43

    […] How Was The Flight? What Did You Get Up To This Weekend? What Are You Up To […]

    Reply

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