English Greetings and Introductions Spoken English
Hello.
Hi.
What’s your name?
My name’s Kasia, and you are?
My name’s Olivier.
Nice to meet you.
And you.
What are we doing in this lesson?
We’re going to talk about greetings and introductions
in English.
Hi.
I’m Olivier.
Welcome to Oxford Online English.
What’s the first word you learned in English?
Probably ‘hello’, right?
‘Hello’ is the most basic way to greet someone
in English.
There are many different ways to greet people
and introduce yourself in English.
In different situations, you’ll need to
use different words and phrases to greet people
or make introductions.
In this lesson, you can learn about greetings
and introductions in English and see which
language you should use in different situations.
Imagine that you’re on a business trip,
and you’re meeting some important clients
for the first time.
Or maybe you work in service, for example
in a hotel, and you need to talk to guests
and customers.
In these situations, you’ll want to use
more formal language.
Good morning!
You must be Olivier.
Yes, good morning!
I’m sorry, and your name is…?
My name’s Kasia.
Very nice to meet you.
Welcome to Madrid!
Thank you.
How are you today?
Very well, thank you, and yourself?
I’m good, thanks for asking.
This dialogue uses more formal language.
Can you see what makes it formal?
First, I started by saying good morning.
The greetings good morning, good afternoon
and good evening are quite formal and are
generally only used in formal situations.
There’s one exception: you can sometimes
use good morning informally with people you
know.
However, it’s common in this situation to
simply say ‘morning’.
Can you see any other examples of formal language
in this dialogue?
There are many.
Firstly, I asked Kasia’s name by saying,
and your name is…?
This is more formal than asking what’s your
name?
After she introduced herself, Kasia said very
nice to meet you.
Saying nice to meet you is neutral—neither
formal nor informal.
However, adding very makes it sound much more
formal.
One word can make a big difference!
I introduced myself with a full sentence:
My name’s Kasia.
When speaking less formally, you’d use a
shorter introduction, like I’m Kasia or
just Kasia.
After I introduced myself, I said Welcome
to Madrid.
Does this sound formal or informal to you?
It’s quite formal.
Do you know why it’s formal?
Again, it’s a small change which makes a
big difference.
Saying welcome by itself is neutral—it’s
not formal.
However, adding to and a place makes it sound
much more formal.
So, if you say, Welcome to our office! that
sounds formal, while if you just say, Welcome!
it doesn’t sound so formal.
It’s common when greeting someone in English
to ask some kind of how are you question.
Do you remember what Kasia asked me?
She asked How are you today?
Again, one word makes the difference—do
you know which one?
It’s today.
Asking how are you is neutral.
Adding today makes it sound more formal.
My answer, Very well, thank you, also sounds
quite formal.
If I was speaking more neutrally, I’d say
something like, Well, thanks.
Adding very and saying thank you instead of
thanks makes it sound more formal.
Finally, Olivier asked me how are you back.
Do you remember how he did it?
He asked, and yourself?
This is more formal than asking and you?
I replied and said thanks for asking.
You wouldn’t say thanks for asking in a
more informal situation.
So, you’ve seen here how small changes can
make a big difference to how formal your language
sounds.
Remember that formality doesn’t just depend
on the words you use; other things like tone
of voice and body language are also important.
Next, let’s look at how to handle greetings
and introductions in a neutral way.
‘Neutral’ means neither formal nor informal.
For example, imagine you’re at work, and
you meet a new colleague.
You’re the same age and you’re in the
same department.
This is an example of a neutral situation.
You don’t need to be very formal, but you
also wouldn’t want to sound too casual.
Hello!
Hello!
Are you Olivier?
Yes, that’s right.
What’s your name?
Kasia.
Nice to meet you.
And you.
How are you?
Fine, thanks, and you?
I’m good, thanks.
First, compare this dialogue to the formal
one from part one.
They follow the same pattern, but this dialogue
is much less formal.
Can you see the differences?
First, we started with a neutral greeting,
hello.
You can use hello in any situation.
Then, I asked Olivier his name with a simple
question, What’s your name?
Hello, what’s your name… pretty easy,
right?
That’s because neutral language is generally
the simplest language.
If you compare the two dialogues, you can
see that this neutral dialogue is shorter
than the formal dialogue you saw in part one.
This is very common: formal language is often
longer and more complex.
Neutral language is short and simple.
You can see this throughout the dialogue:
we use the basic words and phrases that you
probably learned in lesson one of your English
classes at school: nice to meet you; how are
you; fine, thanks; and so on.
Okay, so now you’ve learned about the differences
between formal and neutral greetings and introductions.
What about informal greetings and introductions?
Informal greetings and introductions are useful
if you know someone well, or if you’re meeting
someone in a casual situation.
For example, if you’re hanging out with
some friends, and your friends introduce you
to one of their friends, you would probably
use informal language.
Let’s see how this works:
Hi!
Hey!
Olivier?
Yeah.
Your name?
Kasia.
Good to meet you.
You too.
How you doing?
Yeah, not bad.
You?
Pretty good!
So, what do you notice here?
The first thing you can see is that the dialogue
is even shorter than the neutral dialogue
you saw in part two.
We both used a lot of short questions and
sentences.
For example:
Olivier?
Your name?
How you doing?
You?
These are fine in informal speech, and native
speakers often shorten sentences and questions
like this.
However, you wouldn’t do this in a more
formal situation.
There are also several phrases which you wouldn’t
use in a more formal setting, such as:
Hi/Hey
Yeah
Not bad
Pretty good
These are all good words and phrases to use
in an informal situation.
At this point, you could go back and review
the three dialogues.
Each dialogue has exactly the same structure—only
the language is different.
See how you can use different words and phrases
to greet people and introduce yourself with
different levels of formality.
Okay?
Let’s look at one more thing.
When you’re making introductions, you might
also need to introduce another person.
Let’s see how you can do that in formal,
neutral, or informal ways.
Here’s a very formal introduction.
Let me introduce my colleague, Kasia.
Here’s another very formal way to introduce
someone:
May I introduce my colleague, Olivier?
What about neutral introductions?
This is Kasia.
Here’s another way to make in introduction
using neutral language.
Have you met Olivier?
Finally, what about informal introductions?
In informal situations, you might not introduce
people at all.
You might just let them introduce themselves,
or you might prompt them to introduce themselves
by asking something like:
Have you guys met?
Do you two know each other?
If you want to make an informal introduction,
the most common way is just to say the two
people’s names, then say them again in reverse.
For example, imagine you’re introducing
two people called John and Emma to each other.
You could say:
John, Emma.
Emma, John.
So now, you should understand how to greet
people and introduce yourself or someone else
in different situations.
Do you want more practice with this topic?
Check out the full version of this lesson
on our website: Oxford Online English.com.
See you next time!
Thanks for watching!