To have a conversation with your new American friend, you’ll need to learn conversational American English. Conversational English is casual and natural, and uses many common expressions and phrases. By learning these phrases, you can sound more natural when you speak, too—just like a native American English speaker.
You know the grammar and the vocabulary, now it’s time to learn some conversational American English.
McGraw-Hill is a well-known textbook publisher, so you can expect good things from their book “Conversational American English.” The book is organized into themes and contains more than 3,000 common phrases and expressions used in almost any situation.
The themes in this book include conversational ways to say hello and goodbye, agree or disagree, and even deal with polite and impolite people. Each situation is followed by a list of phrases you might say in that situation. There is no explanation with the phrases though, so it’s probably not the best for a beginner.
Like McGraw-Hill’s book, Amy Gillett’s conversational American English books are full of many expressions for everyday experiences in both casual and professional settings.
Gillett’s books don’t just list the expressions, though. Each lesson has a conversation where you can see the phrases in action, followed by a list of the expressions, their definitions, and a few more examples. You can test your understanding of the expressions by doing the short worksheet at the end of each chapter.
If you’re interested in learning a variety of American English idioms and expressions, this book is a useful resource with over 900 to learn.
Under each idiom in this book, you’ll not only find the meaning but also an explanation of the origin of the idiom as well as an example sentence so that you can see it in context. This is a great way to understand the background of common idioms as well as how they are used in conversations.
Educational books are a great resource for learning new phrases and expressions, but to really read about Americans having conversations, try reading a Young Adult (YA) novel. A novel is a fictional book, and a YA novel is specifically written for teenagers around the age of high school.
Many YA novels have realistic conversations and dialogues. Since the books are meant for a younger audience, they try to sound like younger people. And teenagers use a lot of expressions and slang! A few other Young Adult books that have natural-sounding conversations like in this book are Rick Riordan’s “The Lightning Thief” and Ann Brashare’s “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”
Although this website is British, the sayings listed on this page are American. Clicking on any of the sayings takes you to a page that explains the meaning of the expression, as well as where it originally came from.
The site isn’t meant for English learners, so some of the language might be tough to understand (some of the definitions need definitions!). If you’re a more advanced learner, or are interested in where words and phrases come from, give it a try.
FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
It uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the English language and culture over time. You’ll learn English as it’s spoken in real life.
FluentU has a variety of engaging content from popular talk shows, nature documentaries and funny commercials, as you can see here:
FluentU makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.
For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you'll see this:
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It even reminds you when it’s time to review! Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.
This website is like a podcast aimed at English learners. Here, you can find people having real conversations about different topics and themes. The speakers have a clear pronunciation and speak naturally, so you can pick up a lot of expressions about each topic. Each lesson also has some great tips and tricks for learning English.
Not all the content on Real English Conversations is free, but you can listen to a number of sample topics to see if this is the right website for you.
The United States Department of State has an excellent website with resources for students and teachers of English as a second language. There are a few American English lessons and resources, like the one linked to above.
It’s a good idea to look around the website—you can find some great lessons here!
This website is a useful resource for American English learners of all levels.
If you click on the “American Speech” page, you’ll find a range of common American English expressions, idioms and even a vowel and consonant pronunciation page with audio.
This website will not only help you learn expressions used in American English, but also see how they are used in context with example sentences.
Check out this post to discover more English learning websites.
ELSA is a great app for learners who would like to practice and improve their American English pronunciation and accent.
This app has thousands of lessons for English learners to choose from. You can record your pronunciation and receive specific feedback about each individual sound to help you start perfecting your pronunciation and work toward sounding more like a native American English speaker.
VOA Learning English (Voice of America Learning English) is a news podcast with a huge number of topics for you to choose from—so you’re sure to find something you’re actually interested in. Although this is not specifically a learning app, it’s a good way to hear American conversations about whatever topic you choose.
As you listen to the news segment being read on the app, the text will be highlighted, allowing you to follow each section and pause the audio whenever you want. In addition, you can also increase or decrease the speed of the audio to adapt it to your level.
You can also access the VOA Learning English platform on your browser.
If you’re interested in learning English with apps, this post has the 23 best apps for learning English.
How to Have an English Conversation
What if we told you to stop worrying about grammar? Of course you still need to learn grammar so that you know the rules, but when you’re speaking conversational English, sometimes it’s better to be understood than to be correct.
Think about it: When you speak your native language, how often do you stop to think about the grammar? You probably don’t. In fact, there are probably times when you knowingly use incorrect grammar, because that’s how it’s actually used in conversations.
Imagine if an American came up to you and said, “Hey there, how’s it going?” How do you respond to that?
You can think back to what you learned about English vocabulary and grammar, and respond “I am doing fine, thank you.” Of course, this is not incorrect, but it doesn’t sound quite right.
For this reason, fluency is even more important than grammar in conversational English. Fluency is the ability to speak without having to pause too often. You can improve your fluency by listening to and reading a lot of English conversations, by learning phrases instead of single words, and by practicing as often as you can.
How Different is American English?
American English is not that different from other types of English, like British or Australian English. One of the biggest differences you notice right away is the accent and pronunciation.
Even though these differences are small, they’re important for sounding really natural in a conversation.
With these resources, you’re not just learning English—you’re learning to speak “American”! Now you’ll know exactly how to answer the next time someone asks you, “How’s it going?”
If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.
The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.
FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.
For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:
FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.
The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.
