Welcome to Day 4!

This is my favourite day because it’s all about conversation: how British people actually speak when they’re relaxed and chatting naturally.

In the Day 4 lesson, you learnt informal expressions, question tags, slang, idioms like ‘make a fool of yourself’ and ‘sick to the back teeth’, plus all those natural reductions and contractions that make speech sound fast yet natural. This is the difference between sounding like you learnt from a textbook and sounding like you actually live in the UK.

Need to review? Click below to watch the Day 4 video lesson before starting the exercises. You’ll hear these conversational patterns in action.

B1 Listening

Press the play button to listen to the full conversation from the B1 lesson.
Practise shadowing both speakers. Use the arrows at the top right to follow the conversation.

B1 Task

Understanding Question Tags

Before we jump into the exercises, let’s review question tags:

A question tag is a short question added to the end of a statement. We use them to check information or to keep a conversation going.

Form:

Question tags use an auxiliary verb (be, do, have, will, can, etc.) and a pronoun that matches the subject.

If the statement is positive, the tag is negative: It’s cold today, isn’t it?
If the statement is negative, the tag is positive: You don’t like haggis, do you?

Use:

To check something you think is true: You’re from London, aren’t you?
To invite agreement or be friendly: It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?

Remember! ‘Right’ and ‘eh’ are informal question tags, often used when we expect agreement. ‘Innit’ is an informal contraction of ‘isn’t it’ (though in very informal English, it can be used as a more general tag).

🗣️ Pronunciation Tip

The intonation changes depending on the speaker’s certainty:

Falling tone → You’re sure and expect agreement. “It’s lovely here, isn’t it?” (↓)
Rising tone → You’re not sure and really want to check. “You don’t live around here, do you?” (↑)

B2 Listening

Press the play button to listen to the full conversation from the B2 lesson.
Practise shadowing both speakers.

B2 Task

C1 Listening

Press the play button to listen to the full conversation from the C1 lesson.
Practise shadowing both speakers. Use the arrows at the top right to follow the conversation.