8 Creative Ways to Answer How Are You in English

oh great tie everybody welcome back to

our weekly live stream my name is Alisha

and this week we’re going to talk about

responding to greetings creatively

creatively so the goal for today’s live

lesson is to give you some ideas to help

you go from like how are you good how

are you not bad to giving like a more

creative response so today I’m gonna

introduce a few like common greetings

during the day and at night and I’m

going to share some ideas just a few

ideas for how you can respond more

creatively like to be more personal so

if you have ideas during the lesson

please send your ideas in the chat I’m

also going to in for a couple I’ll break

down some grammar points inside these

creative answers so we’re going to start

in a couple of minutes as you join

please make sure to like and share the

video and send a message in the chat I

see Facebook and YouTube are up hi

Facebook guilhom and Cesar Lila be gem

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hello everybody Lonny hi everybody

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maybe check things look okay on our end

hello and hi YouTube I see lots of

people on YouTube now hello YouTube

Felipe and khadijah Gloria

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hi thank you very much for joining us

again this week as I said this week’s

topic is responding to greetings

creatively so in part one of today’s

lesson I’m going to talk about actually

part 1 and part 2 about greetings that

are common during the day and in the

last part of today’s lesson I’ll talk

about like past tense greetings

so like greetings you might hear at the

end of the

day and past tense responses but today

we’re going to focus on like more

creative personalized ways to say hello

so we’ll give a couple more minutes

maybe one or two more minutes for people

to join as always please don’t forget to

check out the free stuff that we have

every week from the link below the video

on youtube or above the video on

Facebook we have lots and lots of free

pdf lessons with vocabulary and phrases

these are great if you are a beginner

student or just want to refresh there

are many topics so please check the link

from our side I have one thing I wanted

to share I tweeted about there’s a new

episode of know your verbs if you have

not seen the know your verbs series in

each episode I focus on one verb and I

talk about different ways to use the

verb so the verb set has a lot of

different meanings that’s the focus verb

for this new episode of know your verbs

so please check the English class 101

YouTube channel to watch this video

there are many people who have seen this

already I was really surprised and lots

of good example sentences in the

comments from you all as well so please

check out the new episode of know your

verbs I hope that it’s helpful for you

alright with that I’m going to get

started with this week’s lesson I’m

going to share the video and then I’m

going to begin so again as I said please

make sure to send your ideas in the chat

throughout the lesson so if you have an

idea for a response if you have an idea

for how to answer one of these greetings

please send it in the chat and we can

take a look I’ll try to check as many as

possible as always but sometimes there

are many people in the chat so it’s hard

to see everything okay I will

oh I will share and be

so today we’re gonna talk first about

the greeting how are you how are you how

are you can be used at any time of day

of course but I’m going to focus for now

on like greetings maybe in the morning

or maybe with someone you haven’t seen

for a while how are you

basic responses - how are you are good

fine

not so good those kinds of greetings

those one-word greetings those are great

you can totally use those no problem

they are fine they are correct

and they are natural to use but if you

want to maybe try to be a little funny

or if you want to be more personal about

your response these are a few ways to do

that so I’m going to explain these and

talk a little bit about the grammar -

the first one here is hanging in there

hanging in there so here one point we

will see this point throughout today’s

lesson actually this hang in this is

actually an ing word hanging hanging but

in casual speech we drop the final G

sound and it sounds like hanging hanging

so you’ll often see this with like an

apostrophe

so this apostrophe means it’s like a

rough or short sound hanging instead of

hanging so hanging in there sounds like

maybe I have some challenges in my life

or I’ve had some trouble maybe but I’m

okay like it’s maybe been a really busy

week or I have a lot of homework I have

a lot of work to do but I’m doing my

best I’m hanging in there it sounds a

little a little bit like there’s some

trouble but you’re okay so how are you

hanging in there that’s the like the

voice we would use how are you hanging

in there that’s how we would use this

Bonz teach us how to respond angrily

okay try though to a greeting I’m not

sure we’ll see we’ll see

let’s look though at this next one if

you are feeling sick if you’re feeling

sick you have a cold or you’re very

tired or you’re maybe upset usually

though we use this next one when we feel

sick this is common for feeling sick and

in very casual situation so don’t use

this with your boss or someone above you

the expression is I feel like death I

feel like death so this is a

pronunciation point death so don’t

pronounce this as deaths with an S sound

death death I feel like death so death

death is a concept yes so means like

something dying yes but to say you I

personally I feel like death it shows

like my physical condition right now is

so bad it’s just really really terrible

I feel awful

when we want to express that like it’s

like dying but it’s a little bit funny

and and quite casual you can say I feel

like death I feel like death so again

this is not a very positive phrase no

and there are some other phrases more

kind of rude words we can use here I

feel like something I can’t talk about

them on this channel but you can use

some more rude words here in in place of

death to describe your sick feelings so

I feel like garbage you could say I feel

like trash you could use that do okay so

this is one you can use when you feel

sick very sick someone wrote I feel like

death warmed over a nice one nice one

death warmed over so like slightly

recovering from death yeah on Facebook

NEPA porn said I’m feeling sick yes

you can use that I’m feeling sick okay

on to the next one the next one an

important grammar point here is I’ve

been better

so the answer I’m sorry how are you the

response I’ve been better

or you will often hear native speakers

drop I’ve we say been better so the

conversation sounds like how are you

I’ve been better been better which means

I’ve been better

so I’ve this is the reduced form of I

have I have been better so what does

this mean

better better is the comparative form

but what are we comparing here so this

means I’ve been better than this or

better than better than I am now so this

means my condition now is not so good in

the past I have been better than I am in

this moment so in the past my condition

was better than now my condition now is

not good

I’ve been better but we often drop I’ve

how are you I’ve been better

so this this is not a good thing this is

a negative one actually been better

Josie says can I use it could be better

up close you can say I could be better

I could be better so how are you the

question is about you your condition I

could be better

so the subject here is I in these cases

okay another one are sorry another

person wrote I’ve seen better days yeah

yeah yeah I’ve seen better days it’s

good I’m well yes is nice I’ve been

hungry interesting I’ve been hungry

that’s a pretty good one so the reason

why I laughed control just laugh did

I’ve been hungry and you say I’ve been

hungry it sounds like maybe starting

earlier in the

day or the day before you started being

hungry and you’re hungry hungry hungry

hungry hungry until this moment so it

sounds like maybe you didn’t eat for

some reason so if someone says if you

say I’ve been hungry someone will

probably laugh like we just did so

that’s what it means that’s why we left

so it’s not incorrect not incorrect but

it sounds a little bit funny okay let’s

go on to the next one someone used could

hear so this is I could use a coffee I

could use a coffee so I’ve chosen coffee

for my example sentence because I like

coffee and when I feel like low energy I

usually I want coffee so you can replace

coffee here with whatever makes you feel

good like I could use an energy drink or

I could use some chocolate or I could

use some tea whatever it is that makes

you feel good and that’s socially

appropriate to talk about you can put

that here so how are you I could use a

coffee so the idea here is my energy is

a little low if I have this thing I

would be happier it would be good I

would be like in a better condition yeah

yeah Arturo hi Arturo says I feel better

then I did early in the morning I feel

better than I did early in the morning

yeah so I could use a coffee or I could

use some chocolate whatever your thing

is you can replace it here someone wrote

I could use chai perfect nice one DK

eighteen mmm I don’t see comments on

Facebook water yeah water is good I

could use some water good okay someone I

feel like death okay all right nice nice

okay I’ve got it

I could use a tequila says dude be

careful be careful if you’re gonna use

alcohol in this

correct yeah but I’ll talk about this

later using that is more common at the

end of the day if you use I could use a

tequila at like 9:00 in the morning it’s

probably not gonna miss probably not a

good idea so this is one be careful what

you choose and consider the time of day

I could use some chicken your answers

are very creative everybody I like it I

like it okay let’s move along to the

next one here and if you have ideas

please send them along ah someone wrote

Abdul wrote I could use a cup of joe cup

of joe is a slang expression cup of joe

cup of joe means coffee so joe is a

slang word for coffee cup of joe means

cup of coffee nice one okay let’s go on

to this last one which is simply alive

alive how are you alive so it’s just

very neutral how are you alive so it’s

just I’m here I’m like existing I’m

continuing I’m alive so it’s just a very

like neutral there’s not really a

positive it’s not a negative you could

use your voice to like if you feel bad

you could say alive

and it sounds kind of negative if you

use positive like a positive voice how

are you alive like it sounds a little

more excited so you can use alive as

well a very simple response so maybe

these maybe this one for feeling sick

you can make your own statement here

we’re placing death with your feeling or

you could explain what you want with

this pattern okay other things yeah lots

of people said I could use some coffee

great great great I could use a tea nice

okay

so let’s move on to the second question

the second type of greeting I talked

about how are you we can use these let’s

talk about what’s up what’s up how do we

respond to what’s up so basic response

• what’s up are just not much nothing

that’s it what’s up not much what’s up

nothing other responses there are a lot

of ways to respond to this you can use

this one this is a very common response

that’s very natural it’s same old same

old same old same old we say this twice

yes it sounds strange I know what’s up

same old same old so this means same old

stuff the same old things in my life

that’s what’s up that’s what I’m doing

that’s my news

same old job same old news whatever same

old same old and we use that intonation

what’s up

same old same old so you can use that if

nothing has changed nothing is new just

the same thing as always same old same

oh good some lots of people are writing

nothing much not too much not much good

good so those are basic responses -

what’s up yes you can absolutely use

those not much yeah poor hang on

Facebook wrote this ceiling the ceiling

yes we are going to talk about such

creative responses later so I’ll come

back to this in just a moment nice one

Jorge this is a this is a common school

child joke let’s go back to here for a

second though what’s up

some people will respond to this

question with a recent news topic

actually so like what’s up president

Trump’s new speech something like that

or what’s up like the price of tea in

China or something I don’t know so some

people will use a recent news topic they

are interested in to respond to this so

what’s a news topic like a really quick

like introduction to the news topic you

can do this if there’s something you are

interested in and it’s appropriate for

the people you’re talking to you could

use a recent news

topic to respond to this what’s up

what’s a good recent news topic what’s

up the Academy Awards yeah I don’t know

so I personally don’t really like this

one I don’t use this one very much but

some people do choose to use this yeah

the price of tea in China okay good so

let’s move on to Jorge on Facebook had a

great another example of this some

people like to make a joke about this

question so this question if we

understand this question directly what’s

up like actually what is above you

what’s up so of course we know what’s up

means how are you but some people

especially children like to make a joke

and respond with something above us so

for example what’s up the sky or what’s

up the ceiling so ceiling means like the

top the top of a room so the ceiling the

ceiling what’s up the sky what’s up the

ceiling so if there’s something above

you you could say what’s up a lamp that

kind of joke it’s a small joke so I

don’t recommend using this with adults

you can use this with like close friends

when I say adults I mean like your

co-workers or your colleagues you don’t

have to do that all right

last points for this part this one it

says here company stock prices what’s up

company stock prices I’ve heard this now

and then from people who are interested

in business finance investing so for

example like Apple Apple is a company so

if someone says what’s up Apple stock

prices so stock prices refers to so

stock is like the part of a company that

you can buy so that people can buy so

stock prices if they are up so that

shows there was a an increase in the

company’s value so what’s up Apple stock

prices I sometimes hear this from people

like business

and financial investment related work so

those kinds of industries I’ve sometimes

heard this finally a final joke here

some people use their health condition

in response to this so what’s up this is

one example like my cholesterol so don’t

worry about this word cholesterol is a

word again relating to your health

condition cholesterol is the mmm it’s

like the stuff that collects inside your

body like it’s it’s bad stuff that

collects inside your body like fatty

oily stuff causes it inside your veins

yeah that’s more specific your veins

veins are the parts of your body that

carry blood to and from other parts of

your body so cholesterol inside your

body is a bad thing if your cholesterol

is up that’s bad so like what’s up my

cholesterol so some people like to make

a joke with their health condition here

okay wow that was a long talk holy cow

I’m gonna take a break uh I will take a

break yes right now so thanks very much

for sending all your questions but as

always we do have free stuff I want to

make sure to share with you again I

chose well I just want to introduce a

lot of the different topics that I don’t

always talk about here but today we’re

talking about this like greetings topic

kind of some basic review so if you are

looking for some things to help you

refresh your vocabulary

um basic topics so this one’s about like

romance this one’s about like singing I

know many people are interested in music

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talked about recently if there’s

something a gap that you have in your oh

thank you if there’s a gap that you have

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forget to that okay so with that let’s

move on quickly Wow to the next two

parts I might have to go quickly

I’m gonna talk about two more questions

for today’s lesson

so again if you’re just joining please

make sure to like and share the video

and send your examples into the chat as

well so let’s move on to the next part

the next part is this question what have

you been up to what have you been up to

more naturally at native pace we say

what have you been up to what have you

been up to possible answers to this

question we can use creatively just plus

a crazy idea or a crazy like plan or

something and then no big deal 10 so

here’s an example of this just planning

to take over the world no big deal okay

so what does this mean why would we say

this when we don’t have any special news

to share but we want to make a joke we

want to say something funny but we don’t

have anything special to share we might

just give like some crazy idea just for

fun so here just planning so this is the

progressive form planning to take over

the world take over the world means like

to be like the master of the world

so it sound

like you you have an evil or a bad plan

just planning to take over the world

this expression no big deal no big deal

means it’s just a small thing so this is

a common style of joke we’re using just

at the beginning here to show it’s not a

big plan but this in the middle is a big

plan like taking over the world the

entire world so this is a small like

kind of funny joke style response so

work this part the beginning and the end

sound like that’s not so big it’s not a

big plan the middle part is a big plan

though so this contrast this imbalance

is there’s no balance here we we use

this imbalance to make something sound a

little bit funny it’s not super funny

but it’s just kind of a humorous answer

what have you been up to

I’m planning to take over the world no

big deal so in this answer we see this

part ing this progressive form will use

this progressive form to answer this

type of question quite a lot so I’ve got

this in the the second example here to

what have you been up to so this

question by the way this question means

like like is about your recent

activities so we use this in the

progressive because we’re talking about

something that started in the past and

that we we’ve done like it’s been a

continuous activity until this

conversation so for example work in

hanging out sleeping a lot you know you

know we end sentences with you know when

we understand the other person knows

like our what we’re talking about you

know like you understand right so again

as I talked about at the beginning of

the lesson this working is like the

rougher form of working working so

instead of working hanging out sleeping

a lot we’ll drop that G sound is a work

in hanging out

sleeping a lot so it sounds more natural

at least in American English to connect

these ideas together so I’ve been

working I’ve been hanging out I have

been sleeping a lot so there are three

activities all in the progressive tense

in answer to this what have you been up

to

we’re kin hanging out sleeping a lot

other things so I know many of you have

different different hobbies I have one

friend who is very still

we’re still very into Pokemon go this is

true not you no not you I have one

friend who’s still very into Pokemon gum

if I asked him this question what have

you been up to you could say catchin

Pokemon no actually not him no you see

but catch is he catching pokémon catch

of Pokemon so if you like to play a

Pokemon go or something like that or a

different game you could say catchin

Pokemon what have you been up to and

catching pokémon he he has given me this

response this is a true response from an

adult he is 36 years old okay then one

more for those of you who like watching

TV shows and movies on Netflix and Hulu

HBO whatever you watch binge watching

Netflix shows I’ve spoken about this

expression before to binge watch to

binge watch means to watch a lot of TV

or a lot of movies like in one weekend

earn one nighter in one day you just

watch like all of the shows in once in

one like TV show binge watching again

progressive binge watching Netflix shows

binge watching Netflix shows someone

says watch and learn English free thanks

for watching I’ve been watching English

videos on the internet that’s great

that’s great it’s so maybe if you want

to you could say that what have you been

up to

watching English videos on the internet

I think that’s good for like if you’re

talking about one day’s activity

like what did you do today that kind of

thing it’s okay but I would use more

general answers if you’re talking about

a longer period of time like a week or

like a month or something but okay let’s

continue to the last points of last the

last points for today I’m going to talk

a bit about greetings at the end of the

day now so when you have finished work

or you finish your studies for the day

you might hear this past tense greeting

so you come home to your family members

or you meet your roommates or something

like that

and they ask this question this greeting

at the end of the day how was your day

how was your day so please note how are

you present tense

now how was your day so note first past

tense how was your day then is the

question not how were you today how was

your day so your answer should be about

what you did that day what did you do

what is your opinion of that day answers

sample answers someone said earlier I

could use a tequila this is a better

time of day to respond with an alcohol

related question I’m ready for a beer or

more generally I’m ready for a drink so

depending on your voice you can make a

positive or a negative feeling here how

was your day I’m ready for a drink like

it sounds like it maybe it was a

challenging day but you’re ready to be

finished I’m ready for a drink I’m ready

for a beer someone says it was boring

fine great good answer good answer

it was great to someone else nice good

good good it was a wonderful day good I

was very busy

nice lots of good ones yeah okay check

the chats check the chat there are lots

of good answers for many people and

they’re one very quickly long-long how

was your day long so this sounds very

tired so you had a long shift at work or

you had a lot of studying to do

how was your day long so this means my

day was long but we usually say long

just a simple quick response okay

how was your day long okay how was your

day I’m ready for my bed yeah great one

great one so I’m ready for bed you could

use bed here so I’ve chosen so this is a

very common response I’m ready for a

beer or I’m ready for a drink you could

use this I’m ready for bed too

I’m ready for bed I’m ready for sleep as

well you could use that too nice then on

to it’s been a long day good be good

okay on to next one how was your day

it was a day so it was one day in other

words it was a day I’m glad it’s over so

over means finished here it was a day so

that means nothing special just one day

it was a day I’m glad it’s over

I’m or I’m happy it’s over is also okay

it was boring good awesome one Sofia on

YouTube wrote I’m ready for a bath yeah

great I’m ready for up back is break -

nice nice ideas thank you

oh I’m ready for some basketball nice

yeah if you like to play sports at the

end of the day great great you can

include that in this I’m ready for some

basketball so you could use that at the

end of the week - great someone says I’m

ready to like this video thank you okay

let’s finish then quickly with the last

two expressions some of you have written

about being busy during the day this is

a very detailed way to explain that you

are busy or that your day was busy here

how was your day so busy I

didn’t have time to eat lunch so busy I

didn’t have time to eat lunch so my day

was so busy I didn’t past tense I didn’t

have time to eat lunch so this is a very

specific way to answer to describe how

busy was the day so busy I didn’t have

time to eat lunch

finally a positive one I want to end on

a positive note today how was your day

it was awesome I have good news

it was awesome awesome is a word that

means very very very very very good so

it was super it was fantastic this is a

very positive way to talk about your day

so maybe you got a raise you got a

promotion you passed a test you received

an award you had some good feedback you

had a good day you can explain that with

it was awesome I have good news and you

can share that good news then - nice

lots of good examples - I so busy I

didn’t have time to watch TV

good my day was great so I’m very happy

excellent excellent

Alejandro said I am ready to catch some

Z’s yeah I’m ready

I’ve used for here before a simple noun

phrase I’m ready I’m ready

I’ll put it up here to catch some Z’s

Z’s what are these z we use the letter Z

because it sounds kind of like a person

snoring snoring is the loud sound people

make some people make when they sleep

and so we use Z’s to show that sound so

when I when we say I’m ready for some

Z’s it means like I’m ready for sleep

I’m ready for sleep okay um I think oh

I’m very late so I’m going to finish

there for today so thank you for all of

your example sentences I’m going to wrap

up this lesson but as I said before

please make sure to take a look

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out alright I have to finish there for

today so thank you as always for joining

us for our live lesson next week we will

be back at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

on Wednesday what’s the date it’s March

13th thank you March 13th Wednesday

March 13th I’m going to talk about how

to learn English without a teacher so

I’ve been noticing many comments about

learning alone studying alone so I

talked about this a little in January

making plans but I’ll talk about this a

little bit more next week so if you need

some ideas for studying alone please

join us again next week for that lesson

March 13th 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

New York City time if you don’t know

your local time please Google

so we’ll finish there for today thank

you as always for liking the video and

for sharing the video and for sending

your comments and questions throughout

the lesson enjoy the rest of your day

enjoy the rest of your week and I will

see you again next time bye bye

you