How to greet in different ways

When you started learn English, “Am fine” is probably one of the first thing you learnt. It’s the simple way of answering the question.

-         “How are you?”

You can answer:

·       Fine      or

·       Well fine.

But if you use it all the time it get very repetitive and little boring. Does this look familiar to anyone?

Monday

-         Hi, how are you?

Am fine thank you and you?

Tuesday

-         Hi, how are you?

Am fine thank you and you?

Wednesday

-         Hi, how are you?

Am fine thank you and you?

Thursday

-         Hi, how are you?

Am fine thank you and you?

Friday

-         Hi, how are you?

Am fine thank you and you?

I think you get the idea, even if the language is very simple. Its better if you language is varying. So how can you make this more interesting? Here are few ideals.

PART ONE

Ways to answer “How are you?”

-         Hi, how are you?

§  Am good thanks you?

-         Hi, how are you?

§  Am pretty good.

-         Hi, how are you?

§  Am okay.

-         Hi, how are you?

§  Not bad thanks.

-         Hi, how are you?

§  Am very well.

-         Hi, how are you?

§  Am great.

Remember that is also polite to ask other person how they feel too.  You can do this by simply adding “you” or and “and you”. For example

-         Am very well and you? Or

-         Am great you?

Notice that international rise at the end to show you are asking the question.  Now you have learn way to answer the question “How are you?”.  What about the question itself?

PART TWO

Ways to ask “How are you?”

Like “am fine” there are many ways to ask “how are you?” and you should try to add variety to your English when you speak. By the way you probably wouldn’t ask a person to see regularly “How are you?” If you see them often it may sound strange because nothing has since the last time you saw them.

Here are few alternatives you can use. These are more formal but they are very common in everyday situations.

-         How’s it going?

-         How’re things?

-         How’re you doing?

-         How’s life?

In informal spoken English you should use contractions and link words to sound natural so make sure say.

-         How’s it going?

With the contraction of (’s). You can’t use the form “How is it going?” unless you want to sound like a robot.

Similarly

-         How’re you doing?

You need to pronounced with the contraction are (‘re) “How’re you doing?” even you can leave out the word are and just say “How you doing?”

Next let’s see how you can put these greeting together in real situation.

-         Alice: Hey, how’s it going?

§  Bob: Pretty good thanks you?

-         Alice: Yeah, Not bad.

Or

-         Bob: Hi Alice, How are things?

§  Alice: Good thanks and you?

-         Bob: Am good.

Next let’s look at some even more informal ways of ask or answering the question “How are you?”

PART THREE

Informal ways to ask and answer ‘How are you?’

Here are three very informal questions you can use to ask ‘How are you?’

- How’s tricks?

- What’s up?

- What’s new?

-Alright?

Remember that these are very informal. It doesn’t mean they rude or you shouldn’t use them, but you can use them in more formal situation.  And ‘How’s tricks?’ is grammatical incorrect but that is the phrase which people use. These are common between friends or people who know each other well. Remember what you learn about linking words early is also important here. You don’t say ‘what is up?’, you say ‘What’s up?’. And you don’t say ‘What is new?’ you say ‘What’s new?’.

These different question can also have different responses. Let’s look,

-         Alice: Alright?

§  Bob: Yeah, you?

-         Alice: Yeah, not bad.

-         Bob: What’s new?

§  Alice: Not a lot, you?  

-         Bob: Nothing much.

It might sound negative to you to just say ‘nothing’ but it’s very common expression to say that you are well. Because thing are very informal ways to ask ‘How are you?’ sometime they use these greetings. This means that sometime these question don’t need an answer. When using these phrase you can simply answer with informal routine like this:-

-         Bob: What’s up?

§  Hey, what’s up?

-         Bob: Alright?

§  Hey.

What else do you need to thing about in this situation? It is important that you continue with conversation after you answer the ‘How are you?’ question. How can you do that?

PART FOUR

How to continue you conversation.

Even if you are a master of greeting phrase in English. What will help you if this happen?

-         Bob: Hi, how’re you?

§  Alice: Am fine thank you and you?

-         Bob: Fine thanks. ):

So what can you say after the initial greetings. You have so many chooses, basically you can make a statement or ask a question or ask a question. For example you tell the other person something about yourself and your life like this:-

-         Actually, work was pretty stressful, but now I’m forward to…  or

-         I had really good day today, because… or

-         I’ve just been to… or

About the atmosphere.

-         It’s really hot today, isn’t it?

-         It’s been so wet the last few days.

Hopefully it’ll be brighter this weekend!

Most people love to talk about the weather if you haven’t realize yet.

You can also ask another question such as:-

-         How was your day?

-         How’s your day going?

-         How was your weekend?

If you’re even more confident and you more about the person you talking to can go into more details and ask more specific questions. For example:

-         How was your trip to Dodoma last weekend?

-         Did watch the football last night?

-         Is your brother visiting your next week, or it the week after?

Now you should know how to greet people, how to ask and answer how you are in a different ways and how to continue the conversation. Let’s see how you can everything together.

PART FIVE

Review: putting everything together.

-         Alice: Hey, how’re things?

-         Bob: Am good thanks but a little tired today busy at work how about you?

-          Alice: Am well but I’ve get a lot work too, how you trip to Dodoma last weekend.

-         Bob: Fantastic, it’s really great City. What do you do last weekend?

-         Alice: Nothing much just relax on beach.

-         Bob: Very nice.

OR

-         Bob: Hi, What’s new?

-         Alice: No much you?

-         Bob: Yeah, Alright?

-         Alice: You look a bit tired.

-         Bob: Yeah, I didn’t sleep well last night.

-         Alice: Ooh, no why not?

-         Bob: My neighbor had a big party and it was really loud.

-         Alice: I hate when people do that?

-         Bob: Yeah, me too. Anyway how’s your day going?

Now it your turn to practice imagine somebody ask “How are you?” can write down five possible things could say? Take pen and paper and write down those answer now.

Ready? Let’s look. Of course there are more than five possible answers. These are just suggestions.

-         Am good.

-         I’m pretty good.

-         Not bad.

-         A little bit tired.

-         Great, thanks!

And about different ways to ask ‘How are you?’ What can you say? Take pen and paper and write down five different ways to ask the questions.

Okay, again these are just suggestions there are many possibilities.

-         How’s it going?

-         How’re you doing?

-         What’s up?

-         How’s life?

-         How’re things?

And what do you do next? Will you stop talking? No, keep going ask the question or make a statement to continue the conversation.

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