Greetings in English
How you start a conversation can be important to set the right tone. Let’s discover how to greet people in English in the following situations: Formal, Informal, Slang, Emails, How to respond to different greetings, and also how to say goodbye in English.
Good Morning/Good Afternoon/Good Evening
Good Morning, Good afternoon and good evening are very common greetings in English. They can be used in any situation, formal or informal, and are a good way of opening a conversation with someone. It is a very friendly greeting and people will probably respond with the same phrase.
Nice to meet you or Pleased to meet you
Nice to meet you is a great expression to use when someone introduces you at a formal meeting or a wedding. You can also use “Pleased to meet you” but I prefer “Nice to meet you”
How do you do?
How do you do is very very formal and is not common anymore. I personally would never use this because it is too formal. It is more common in British English than in my home country Ireland.
How have you been?
This is similar to asking someone “How are you?” The conversation is normally like this:
Notice that there are 2 main types of greetings in English
1 How are you?
2 What’s up?/ What’s the story?
These 2 types of greeting really have the same meaning. We use them to start a conversation. We are not really asking the question “How are you?”. You can answer “I am fine” but the real idea behind this question is to start the conversation, so it is better to say something else too.
American vs British Greetings
American and British greetings are often more or less the same. You can use any of the greetings above apart from the informal and slang greetings. Slang is different around the world and this is no different in English. If you are arriving in the U.S.A or U.K, use a standard greeting like “Hello” or “Good morning” and listen to the native people to learn their slang greetings.
How to respond to greetings
Remember….
People want you to talk and lead the conversation. This is a great opportunity to practice your English and speak! So it is a good idea to tell the other person something about your life and then ask the other person some Wh questions.
Notice that American people are often more enthusiastic and use stronger responses like “Awesome, Fantastic”. In the U.K and Ireland people usually respond with something more neutral like “I’m fine”, “not bad”
How to respond to How are you doing?
I am good, and you?
How to respond to What’s up?
Not much!
When someone asks you this question, they are giving you an invitation to talk about your life.
Example:
Hello
Hi
Hey
How are you?
How is it going?
How you going?(Australia)
How are you doing?
How do you do?
How have you been?
What's new?
Nice to see you!
How nice to see you
Long time no see
What’s up?
How are you doing?
Good morning.
Good afternoon.
Good evening.
