10 Creative Ways To Express Friendship In English

This is a guest post by Chad Emery from Langoly.

Today we’re going to improve your conversational English by learning some of the best ways to express friendship. When you’re speaking in English to people – whether they are your friends, family, or coworkers – they may be curious to learn about your friends. 

You may still have friends from your childhood, and you’ve probably made friends recently. You have a different relationship with each person, so how can you describe the different kinds of friendships you have with people? 

Here are 10 of the best ways to express friendship in English. You will hear these phrases in common English conversations. When you learn them, you’ll be one step closer to speaking English fluently! 

To Be Friends With Someone

This is the most common phrase you will hear to express friendship in English. It’s also one of the easiest phrases on this list! When you are friends with someone, they are someone you have fun with and can trust. You could be best friends since childhood or maybe you just met them a couple weeks ago. You can use this phrase for any type of friend.

To Be Close With Someone

To be close with someone doesn’t always mean physically close. When you’re talking about a friendship, this phrase means you know a lot about a person and are good friends. If you’re close with someone, they may have helped you during a difficult time. You may have also known each other for a long time. This phrase can be used to describe your family and coworkers, too. For example, you can be close with your sister, your manager, and your best friend.

To Go Way Back With Someone

To go way back with someone means that you have known a person for a long time. If you go way back with a friend, you have known each other for many years, and you probably know a lot about each other. Maybe you know about each other’s jobs, past relationships, and different successes and struggles during the past. If you have known your best friend for a long time, you can say “we go way back!” 

To Turn To Someone

Turning to someone can have two different meanings. The first is to physically turn and face someone. The second meaning describes someone whom you ask for help or advice. You can use this phrase to describe the friends you trust the most. Whether you are moving to a new city, starting a new job, or experiencing another life change, you probably have a friend who can help you through the situation. Everybody has someone they turn to when they need advice. You can also express your extreme emotions to them!

To Be Here/There For Someone

This phrase is related to the previous one. To be there for someone means that you are happy to give someone advice during a difficult time. If your friend loses a job and needs to talk to someone, you can say “I’m here for you” to comfort them. When you say this phrase, your friend knows she can talk to you about her feelings. Usually, the people you turn to during a difficult time are the same people you are there for when they experience a difficult situation. 

To Hit It Off (With Someone)

You can say you hit it off with people when you meet them and feel an instant connection. If you talk to someone in the grocery store and immediately start laughing and joking, you have really hit it off! If you can hit it off with someone from the moment you meet each other, this is usually a sign that you have found someone who may become a friend over time.

To Form A Bond With

To form a bond with someone means to grow or build a friendship. There are a lot of ways to form a bond with people, like sending them a card on their birthday, helping them complete a task, or giving them advice. When you hit it off with someone, you feel an instant connection to each other. To turn this instant connection into a friendship, you can form a bond with each other. 

To Develop A Friendship With

To develop a friendship with someone is the same as forming a bond with someone. This phrase is another way to describe growing a friendship. It takes time to develop a friendship with someone, and there are a lot of ways to do this. A friendship develops when two people find ways to bond with each other.

Easy To Get On/Along With

The verb “get” is commonly used in phrasal verbs, and this is just one example. If someone is easy to get on/along with, she is relaxed, laid back, and fun. People who are easy to get on with usually have a lot of friends. This is because it is fun to spend time with these people! If someone is not easy to get on with, they may be stressed, negative, mean, or angry.  

To Befriend

This verb has a similar meaning as some of the phrases on this list. Simply, to befriend someone means to become friends. If you hit it off, form a bond, or develop a friendship with someone, you are befriending them. If you are easy to get on with, people probably want to befriend you! 

These are some of the best ways to express friendships in English. A lot of people use them in daily conversations, so it’s important to remember them. When you know these phrases, you will be able to describe your friendships accurately, effectively, and fluently!

Chad Emery is the founder of Langoly, an online resource to help people learn and teach languages more effectively. He is an avid language learner, and he knows how difficult it can be to learn another language. For Langoly, Chad finds and reviews language learning apps, websites, and courses to help you find the best tools to become fluent in another language. Be sure to check out his list of this year’s best language learning apps!

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