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.
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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.
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Photo credits
Image: Martin Fisch
Licence: CC by 2.0
Hi, David, these expressions are very useful.
Thanks.
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 😀
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
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?
Thank you!
It was really useful and fun.
By the way, can you say I had a full-on weekend?
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..
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).