9 Useful English Greetings for Every Day

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about some

English greetings and their responses

this lesson has been prepared to present

American English greetings let’s get

started

okay I first want to begin with the most

basic and most casual greetings that we

use I’ve marked some of these with a

star like you’ll see here that means

that when you respond to this greeting

you can use the same word you don’t need

to worry about a special response just

use the same word that you heard the

person use when they greet you so these

two the casual friendly hey and hi are

very common we use these with friends

co-workers colleagues it’s fine to use

at any time of day I included yo here as

well yo is very casual probably don’t

use this one at work but you can use

this with your friends your close

friends and your family members if you

like it yo so when someone says hey just

say hey or if someone uses hi just

respond with hi hi sounds a little more

stiff then hey hey sounds a little more

relaxed a little more friendly yo is

really relaxed super casual

you might hear young people use yo a lot

more than older people the next

expression here is hello hello you can

use hello to greet people that you meet

face-to-face that’s fine but we usually

use Hello as the standard phone greeting

it’s used when we pick up the phone

hello and you can say my name is or

hello this is or hello Alicia speaking

for example you can use hello on the

phone we tend to use it mostly on the

phone it can be used it is correct to

greet someone with hello in everyday

life face-to-face but it might sound a

little less friendly than hi or another

greeting I’ll talk about later so Hello

is good for the phone usually I would

recommend using hello for the phone

okay then let’s go to these three

questions we can respond to these three

questions with the same response

let’s read their questions first first

one how are you how are you

you’ll hear native speakers reduce this

a lot this question is not clearly

pronounced as how are you but we’ll say

how are you how are you it sounds much

shorter how are you instead of how are

you how are you how are you the answer

good you good you this is the standard

response another question how is it

going how’s it going how is it going

it means your life how is it going how

is it going how’s it going how’s your

life in other words good you we can use

the same response my life is going good

everything is good so going means like

happening how was your life happening

how are things in your life another one

how are you doing how are you doing very

similar to how are you just a slight

variation we added doing here how are

you doing just like how are you is

reduced to how are you we can make this

how yeah how you doing so you’ll notice

I used this apostrophe mark apostrophe

is this - here so it makes a short sound

I removed the G in doing how are you

doing how are you doing how you doing

sounds more casual and it’s much more

commonly used than how are you doing how

are you doing

again the answer good you so I chose

good here because this is the most

common response to these questions you

can say great you can say all right you

can say not bad all of those are fine if

you give a negative response for example

if you say not so good or I feel sick or

I’m really tired or I’m upset you should

be prepared to explain that it’s like

you’re starting a conversation this is

the standard response the other person

will probably say

good and then they’ll continue to the

next part of their conversation

so these are some listening points how

are you changes to how are you and how

are you doing changes to how are you

doing a little more natural a little

more friendly - okay let’s continue -

some time of day greetings

they are good morning good afternoon and

good evening these tend to sound a

little bit more formal than just hey or

hi or other greetings I’ll talk about

later so good morning used in the

morning very commonly used at work when

you arrive at the office and you see

your coworkers we use good morning to

say hello first thing in the morning

good afternoon is a little more commonly

used in workplaces or in perhaps in like

client or customer relationship

situations so for example if I’m

teaching a lesson and I see my students

in the classroom I come to the classroom

I say good afternoon to my students

because it’s sort of there’s a little

bit of distance there good evening as

well good evening would begin like a

formal event we could begin a formal

event with good evening we could use it

at a restaurant for example again in a

customer client relationship you could

use it with friends and co-workers I

suppose but it might sound a little too

polite good evening so it’s not wrong

but it might sound a little bit formal

we would probably with friends in the

evening we would probably just say hey

or hello or how are you that sounds a

little more friendly so to respond to

these just repeat again I’ve marked this

with a star here just repeat if someone

says good morning to you you can say

good morning something else we do here

is we remove good so this is to make it

a little bit more casual and we’ll

remove as I did with doing down here

this apostrophe will drop this G sound

and add an apostrophe here it’s more

difficult to do with afternoon

but instead of saying good morning like

clearly pronouncing everything we’ll

often drop good and say morning so

there’s no G sound there morning I end

on the end

sound or just afternoon or evening so it

sounds much more friendly and it’s not

quite as polite actually so if someone

says this to you like morning you can

just say morning you can use the G sound

as well it’s up to you to choose some

people ask what’s the difference between

good evening and have a good evening

the difference is good evening is a

greeting to a way to say hello have a

good evening is a way to say goodbye so

when you say have a good day have a good

evening you’re saying goodbye actually

so that’s the difference if you want to

say hello please use good evening if you

want to say goodbye you have a good

evening

also please be careful you’ll notice

good night is not here

good night is also a way to say goodbye

or especially like for children like

from parents to children a way to say

like the day is finished just before bed

so good night is used just before we go

to sleep as well so again a goodbye so

please be careful not have a good

evening or good night these are

greetings we can use good evening is a

much better greeting and well it’s the

correct grating to you so please use

good evening

don’t use good night okay let’s continue

to the next couple these are related

you might not know at first but what’s

up what’s up this is a question that

causes people a lot of nervousness I

think how do I respond to this so just

answer not much not much this is the

standard reply just like good if the

standard reply here use not much to

answer what’s up what’s up not much

what’s up nothing is also okay nothing

what’s up nothing

nothing or again will often drop this G

sound nothing or nothing so that sounds

more casual so what’s up not much you

nothing

or not much the other person will

probably say the same thing again if you

choose to use something like oh I had a

bad day or you start to explain like a

difficult situation or you hint that

something bad happened you should

probably be prepared to talk about that

so what’s up not much you know nothing

that’s a very typical greeting actually

ok so then this sup this sup comes from

what’s up it comes from this s u P

what’s up

so this is a very casual way of saying

what’s up what’s up is casual this is

even more casual so so you can say not

much or you can just reply to sup with

sup so you might use this again very

close friends sup sup that’s it it’s

like saying hello saying what’s up

what’s new with you but just really

quick really short sup ok let’s move

along then to kind of some more special

use greetings depending on the situation

you might need to say hello to someone

you have not seen for a long time these

are expressions you can use to do that

first one I haven’t seen you in so long

or I haven’t seen you in ages ages and

age is a very long time so ages shows a

very very long time so I have not seen

you I have not seen you in so long

another one very common a long time no

see long time no see

one more it’s been a while it’s been a

while where this it’s is actually it has

been a while it has been a while since I

last saw you

it’s been a while since I last saw you

but we only say it’s been a while we

drop the last part of that one more nice

to see you again or it’s nice to see you

again nice to see you again

so these all are my greetings we can use

when we haven’t seen the other

for a long time so how do we answer this

we can’t answer all of these with the

same pattern first agree yeah it’s been

a long time so again you can use these

expressions you know yeah a long time no

see or yeah it’s been a while or I said

yeah it’s been a long time

so first agree with the person and then

ask a follow-up how are things how are

things you can use this similarly to how

are you or how is it going how are

things means how is your life how are

things good the answer it’s good how are

things good or how are things

busy how are things all right those are

all very common very standard responses

to use others if you want to level up

your grammar a bit how have you been how

have you been and what have you been up

to

so you’ll notice here the grammar here

is very similar to these expressions

that we talked about over here how have

you been this is like a past perfect way

of asking how are you so how are you now

how have you been in the period since I

saw you last since the last time I saw

you up until now how have you been

that’s how we can ask about that same

thing what have you been up to what have

you been up to is like the past perfect

question of what’s up what’s up so

you’ll see this up what is up now what

is up with what have you been up to so

in other words since I last saw you

until now what did you do what have you

been doing so asking about those

activities in that period since you last

met that person so this will change

depending on your activities you can say

for example for this one what have you

been up to you can answer with for

example nothing just work

mm if you have no special news what have

you been up to man nothing just work so

that’s fine if you have special news you

can say you know I got married or I

moved or I got a new job something quick

is the best way to answer this for this

one how have you been

go back to this good you so very very

simple answers are the best okay let’s

go on to two more kind of special youths

greetings then first one it’s great to

finally meet you it’s great to finally

meet you so you’ll see if I remove

finally here this becomes a very common

greeting it’s great to meet you it’s

nice to meet you but if you’re meeting

someone that you admire or you really

respect or you were really excited to

meet that person like you’re a fan

they’re a famous musician or a celebrity

or an artist or an athlete for example

you’re really excited to meet that

person you can say it’s great to finally

meet you

this shows the listener that you were

really looking forward to meeting them

to having the chance to meet with them

if someone says this to you or if you

use this with someone a typical response

is thank you it’s nice to meet you too

so they’ll typically say something like

thank you or that’s really nice it’s

nice to meet you too so this is just the

same as any other first greeting first

time meeting someone it’s nice to meet

you too Thanks it’s nice to meet you too

another one this one you might hear

actually when talking with friends and

meeting new people especially if you’re

studying or working in another country

the expression is I’ve heard so much

about you I’ve heard so much about you

this I’ve I’ve I have I’ve heard so much

about you

and sometimes I’ve heard so much about

her doubt you from my colleagues or I’ve

heard so much about you from my roommate

so using from here shows where that

person got the information so this may

or may not be included

I’ve heard so much about you a typical

response is really I hope nothing bad or

I hope you haven’t heard anything bad so

this is kind of a very casual way to

respond I hope nothing bad meaning I

hope you haven’t heard anything bad

about me so this shows that the speaker

has gotten information has gained

information about the person they’re

meeting but this is still the first time

meeting that person so this tends to be

used in situations where the speaker has

heard positive information if you’ve

heard negative information about a

person I don’t recommend using this

expression this has a positive feel

about it I’ve heard so much about you

tends to sound very happy and cheerful

so you can say really I hope nothing bad

or I hope it’s good so that’s kind of a

friendly way to start a conversation

with someone who already has some

information about you so this is a quick

introduction to some very common English

greetings I hope that that was helpful

for you and I hope that you got some

ideas for responses to these greetings

of course if you have any questions or

comments or want to practice greetings

please feel free to do so in the comment

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much for watching this lesson and I will

see you again next time bye

you

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