STOP Saying GOODBYE 33 ways to say BYE
Hi, I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Goodbye.
See you never.
Just kidding.
Let’s talk about it.
I’ve heard many English learners say, “Goodbye,”
but, oh boy, this sounds so serious.
Not every time that we say goodbye is serious.
We only use goodbye when we’re feeling angry
and we want to slam the door.
“Goodbye.”
Or maybe if we’re really sad, “Goodbye,” and
we might not see someone for a really long
time.
Never fear, I’m here to help you say goodbye
in a natural, real way with style, with class,
and also with a lot of laughs.
There are a lot of slang ways to say goodbye
so brace yourself.
Let’s get started with the most basic.
“Bye.”
By itself, by as a little bit lonely.
I might say, “Oh, I think my car is almost
finished at the mechanic, I need to go.
Bye.”
Doesn’t that seem a little abrupt?
Maybe I need a little bit more?
You might notice that at the end of all my
videos, I say, “Thanks so much for learning
English with me.
I’ll see you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel.”
What was that expression I used?
See you the next time or we could say see
you next time.
This is similar to “See you later, talk to
you later.”
When we say talk to you later, this is often
on the phone or Facetime or Skype.
When you’re not physically in a room with
someone, you’re just using some kind of device
to talk to them, you might say, “Talk to you
later.”
A common reduction for see you later is see
ya later, the word you changes to ya.
See ya later.
See ya late sounds really natural.
Did you notice my pronunciation for the word
later?
Does it sound like later or lader?
Sounds like a D here and this is common in
American English that when you have a T with
a vowel on both sides, your T is going to
change to a D. See ya lader.
If you’d like to check out some more tips
about how to sound like an American when you
speak English, you can check out this video
up here and it goes in depth to some of these
ideas.
Let’s talk about a few fun ways that you can
reduce, see you later, to be more casual.
You could just say, “See ya.
See ya.
Notice this is the same reduction.
Not see you but see ya.
See Yy.
Or if you want to have a little fun, you can
say, See ya later alligator.
Then the other person says, “In a while crocodile.”
Just rhymes.
It’s silly.
Or you can make it really short and just say
later.
Or you might hear some people say, laters,
with an S at the end.
This is just a silly way to say it.
Or You could say, “Catch you later.”
Catch your later.
Here again, we’re reducing you to ya, catch
ya later.
It just means see you later.
Or if you want to make this even more casual,
you could say, “Catch you on the flip side.”
Flip side means technically tomorrow but it
could just mean at another time.
Catch you on the flip side.
If you want to be a little bit more formal,
you could say, “Have a good day, have a good
morning, have a good afternoon, have a good
evening,” depending on what time it is.
You could say this to the cashier at the grocery
store, to your mother-in-law on the phone,
to your boss.
This is a pretty common, a little bit more
formal expression that you might not want
to use with your husband as you’re saying
goodbye to him because that’s a more personal
relationship.
It’s common to use multiple expressions together
like, “Bye.
See you later.
Have a good day.”
Really common.
What about have a good night.
We only use this when that person is going
directly to bed so this is really common to
say to your child, “Have a good night, bye.
Have a good night.
Sweet dreams.”
Or if someone you know is spending the night
at your house, you could say this because
you know they’re going directly to bed.
Have a good night.
If you are having dinner and drinks with your
co-workers and you are trying to say goodbye
to them and you’re going home, you probably
wouldn’t say have a good night.
You might say, “Have a good evening,” or you
might say, “Have a good one.”
Have a good one.
This is generally have a good day but you
can use this at any time during the day.
It’s a little bit more casual but it’s no
problem to use with your boss or in other
formal situations.
“Have a good one.”
The next two expressions are, “Take it easy.
Take care.”
I wouldn’t use these on the phone with a client
but if it’s a Friday and the day is finishing,
you’re finishing up your work and you want
to say goodbye to your coworkers, this is
no problem.
You could say, “Take care.
Take it easy.”
That’s a great way to say goodbye to your
coworkers.
You could say this to someone that you are
a little bit closer to, maybe a friend.
As your friend’s leaving your house, you could
say, “Bye, take care.”
The rest of these expressions are all slang,
casual, funny ways to say goodbye.
I recommend do not, do not use these at work;
but if someone uses this to you, maybe you
go to someone’s house and they use this or
if you hear it on a TV show, you need to know
the sight nuances, the slight specific meanings
for each of these expressions so that you
know exactly what they mean when they say
them.
Even if you don’t feel comfortable using them
yourself.
Maybe you feel like you’re old too old to
use slang, well, it’s important to know them
so let’s start.
Peace.
Peace out.
Usually you make the peace sign when you say
this.
Just a casual way to say goodbye.
Peace.
I’m out of here.
I’m out.
Out.
If you’ve ever watched a baseball game, you
might see the referee use this gesture when
one of the players is out.
You don’t have to use this thumb gesture,
“Out I’m outta here,” but it’s pretty common
you might see this.
“Toodaloo, tootles.”
This one is really silly, kind of ditzy but,
I don’t know, for some reason I love using
it.
“Toodles.
Bye bye.”
We only use this for children.
Please do not, do not use this with your boss
unless you want to get fired.
If you have small children or if you interact
with small children, you might hear other
people say, “Bye bye.”
That’s really common.
I think that we often repeat things two or
three times in expressions with kids to help
them remember it so when you say bye bye it
helps them to kind of remember that expression.
The next three expressions are in Spanish
and French, but we use them in really specific
situations that might not be used in their
original language.
The first one is, “Hasta la vista, baby.”
If you use this, make sure you do that waving
gesture.
“Hasta la vista, baby,” and you use that same
tone of voice, “Baby.”
It’s just a silly way to say goodbye to your
friends.
You don’t need to use this with your girlfriends
specifically, like your baby, your love, you
could just say this to someone who is … You’re
in a casual relationship with them, your friends,
“Hasta la vista, baby.”
Or you might say, “Adios amigos.”
In Spanish, if all of your friends are girls,
you should say amigas, but in English we always
say, adios amigos.
I’m sorry, Spanish speakers.
This is incorrect Spanish but that’s how we
use it.
You can use this to casually say goodbye to
your friends.
Make sure you say it with a little bit of
a laugh, “Adios amigos,” and a little bit
of a wave.
Just a fun way to say goodbye.
“Au revoir, adieu.”
Can you tell from my tone of voice what I’m
trying to show with this?
A great word to describe it is melodramatic.
You’re just trying to be over dramatic.
You’re pretending that you won’t see your
friends for a really long time but really
you probably will.
Let’s imagine that you’re having a dinner
party and it’s time for you to go.
You might say, “Au revoir, adieu.”
So serious.
Make sure you have that serious tone of voice
but it’s just a joke, you’re just being over
dramatic.
Farewell.
This also has this say melodramatic feel.
You’re pretending that you’re going off to
war and you won’t see your friends for a long
time but really you’re just going to your
house; so you can say, “Farewell, until next
time.”
Until the next time.
We use this to have a fake formal feeling.
We don’t use this in formal situations.
The only time we use this is to have a fake
formal feeling.
Let’s imagine that you’re at that dinner party
with your friends and you’re leaving.
You might say, “Until the next time,” kind
of pretending that you just finished a serious
business meeting and you’re telling them,
“Continue with the good work my friends, until
the next time.”
Wow, that was a lot of ways to say goodbye
without actually using the word goodbye.
Now I have a question for you.
In the comments, let me know which one of
these goodbye expressions was new for you.
Thanks so much for learning English with me
and I’ll see you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
Peace.
Farewell.
Au revoir.
See Ya.
The next step is to download my free eBook,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.