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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