Speaking Exercise: English Pubs

If you travel to Britain, make sure you visit a pub! This is where you can socialise and meet people – and try out your English speaking skills.

You’ll need to know some special expressions. Here are some common ones for you.

Offering drinks to people

A common way to offer a drink is ”What are you having?”
People often order “a pint”, which is a large beer. If you reply ”half a lager” or “half a pint”, you’re asking for half a pint of lager or beer. (A pint is about 500 ml.)

You can say ”same again?”, to offer the other person another drink. (If your friend offers you a second drink, you can accept with ”I’ll have the same again, please.”

“It’s my round” / “It’s your round” means its my / your turn to buy the drinks.
Buying a ”round” of drinks is very common. It means that one person buys drinks for everyone in the group; then a second person buys drinks for everyone, and so on. If it’s ”your round”, it’s your turn to buy!

”Get the beers in!”. If someone says this to you, it means that you should buy the beer. (Only say this to your friends!)

”Cheers” is the most common salutation when we drink together.

At the bar

”Are you being served?” means ”Have you already given your order to someone?” If you’re still waiting, tell the barman / barmaid what you want. (Say ”please” at the end!)

“One for yourself!”: Because we don’t give tips in a pub, we can offer the bar staff a drink (or the price of a drink) instead. We say ”And one for yourself!” or ”Have one for yourself”. (The person serving will often ”save” the drink for the end of the evening, rather than drinking it immediately.)

Pub activities

”Pool” is a common game played in pubs and bars, similar to snooker. Another common pub activity is “darts”.

At the end of the evening

The landlord / landlady (pub owner) make two announcements at the end of the evening:

‘Last orders” is an announcement about 20 minutes before the pub closes for the evening.
”Time please” = ”Please leave as soon as possible!”

English Pubs

Choose the correct answer.

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