Fixed Expressions: Social Situations
Fixed expressions for social situations are the formulaic phrases native speakers use without thinking — and that learners often miss because they’re not predictable from general vocabulary. Nice to meet you. How do you do? Long time no see. Take care. Have a good one. Have a safe trip. Best of luck. Sorry to hear that. Congratulations! Well done. Cheers (thanks). No worries. My pleasure. Don’t mention it. Each phrase has a specific social function — greeting, parting, sympathising, congratulating — and a register that matters. The worksheet trains B1 learners to deploy the right phrase for the social moment.
This worksheet builds B1 fluency with high-frequency fixed expressions in social-interaction contexts.
Worksheet preview
What’s inside:
- Fixed-expression bank with 25+ phrases grouped by social function (greeting, parting, sympathy, congratulation, response)
- Dialogue completion: choose the right fixed expression for the social moment
- Register sort: classify each phrase by formality level (formal, neutral, casual)
- Cross-cultural comparison: how do these social functions work in your language?
- Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes with role-play extension
Common challenges: Cultural translation is the central issue — How are you? in English is a greeting (expects Fine, thanks), not a genuine enquiry; many languages take the greeting literally. Cheers in British English replaces thank you in many casual contexts and is also a parting word. Register: How do you do? sounds formal-to-archaic; Hi, nice to meet you is the modern default. Response pairs matter: Thanks → No worries / My pleasure / Don’t mention it.
For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B1, in intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Fixed expressions are core to Cambridge B1 Preliminary (PET) Speaking and are directly tested in everyday-conversation listening. Part of the Word Building & Style collection — the natural next step is Collocations: Make and Do, which returns to the foundational collocation-pair work.
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