15 Great English Phrases For Valentine's Day

Hello everyone!

It's actually been a few months since my last post on this site, but I do have a good excuse. I've been trying to move Sitzman ABC to a different internet domain, but it's taken a lot more time than I imagined. When that is finished, I'll tell you, but I wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive by writing this post today.

Today is Valentine's Day. Love it or hate it, it's a very well-known holiday in many parts of the world. So I decided to talk about 5 good phrases that you can use today, even if you're not romantic.

1. to flirt

The verb "flirt" means to talk romantically to a person that you're interested in. It could be to start a relationship, or it could just be for fun. Sometimes this action is also called "hitting on." Note that "to hit on" is very different from "to hit"! For example, you can say:

"Tony got in trouble with his girlfriend Jenny last night. Jenny saw him talking to Sally, and Jenny thought he was flirting with her."

OR

"Maria doesn't like to go to bars because guys always try to hit on her, even when she's not interested in them."

2. to date, to go out, to ask out

The verb "date" indicates that two people are in a relationship. It usually indicates a longer period of time:

"Tommy and Gina have been dating (each other) for about a year."

"Date" can also be a noun, as in: 

"Tommy and Gina are going on a date tonight."

A very similar phrase is "to go out," as in: 

"Tommy and Gina are going out."

Finally, "to ask (out)" means that one person asks another to go on a romantic date, or to an event like a dance:

"Tommy met Gina at the gym. She was flirting with him, so he asked her out on a date."

3. to be in love

This phrase is usually used when two people love each other. For example:

"Romeo and Juliet just met each other last week, but they both already say they're in love."

If you start to love a person, you "fall in love." Fall is an irregular verb, conjugated fall-fell-fallen. If people fall in love immediately, it's called "love at first sight":

"Romeo and Juliet fell in love immediately. It was love at first sight."

OR 

"I don't really believe in love at first sight. I think people need to spend time together before falling in love."

If the romantic relationship is very short, not very serious, or immature for some reason, it's sometimes called "puppy love" (a puppy is a baby dog). For example, you can say:

"Romeo and Juliet say they're in love, but I think it's just puppy love. Both of them fall in love with new people all the time, so I don't think it's serious."

4. to break up, to dump

Sometimes love doesn't last forever. When that happens, here are some phrases to use when a relationship ends. If both people decide to stop the relationship, you can say that they "broke up" ("broke" is the past form of "break"):

"Did you hear the news? Melissa and her boyfriend John broke up last week."

However, if only one person makes the decision, you can say that he or she "dumped" the other person. With this phrase, one person dumps, the other person gets dumped. Note: "dump" is also a verb used with trash, so be careful using this phrase around a person with a broken heart! 

"Did you hear the news? John got dumped last week! Melissa said she saw him hitting on a girl in the park, so she dumped him!"

Well, that's a lot of vocabulary to remember, so let's list the words one more time just to review.

Can you explain what each of these phrases means and give an example of how to use them?

-love it or hate it

-to flirt (with someone)

-to hit on (someone)

-to be interested in (someone)

-to date, to be dating

-to go on a date

-to go out

-to ask (someone) out

-to be in love (with)

-to fall in love

-love at first sight

-puppy love

-to break up

-to dump

-to get/be dumped

That's all for today. If you're in a relationship, then have a happy Valentine's Day. If not, then you may enjoy this Queen song (turn the volume all the way up before starting the video):

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!