Saying “Hello”
(Common Greetings In English)
For the first lesson in the English Usage series, it seemed that the most appropriate place to start is with the first thing that a person would have to do when communicating with another: Saying “Hello”… In other words, making common English Greetings.
. This can be done in a lot of different ways – with a lot of different words, phrases, expressions, etc.. Actually saying the word, “Hello” is quite often considered to be fairly “formal”… (although it doesn’t have to be… it is still the best way to greet someone if you want to sound intelligent) 😉
. As you will see in the video below – the most common, informal way of greeting another person in The Common Tongue of English, is with the phrase…
.
“What’s Up”
.
(which usually sounds like “…t’sup“)
But There’s More… So Watch The Video!
Of course not everyone in America speaks like the guy in the video. He does seem to have a little bit of the
“frat-boy”/”college-guy” thing going on (especially with the awkward head-tilt), and that’s perfectly fine… Just a different social-group. But, it’s not his accent or dialect that is important, but that He is showing you REAL, Authentic greetings in the way that they are actually pronounced by a great deal of the population.
Example:
“What’s Up?” – turns into – “Sup” or “t’sup” or “Wassup” / “Wazzup”
“How’s It Goin'” – turns into – “Hah-zi-go-wən?”
Another thing that the speaker in the video mentioned was that the “proper” (or at least most common) way to respond to someone who says, “What’s Up?” – is to respond by simply saying, “What’s Up?”…
. This is usually the response for people who know each other fairly well… And are probably “frat-boys”, those who are really into hip-hop, and those very scary people who actually like the show, “Jersey Shores”.
For situations where you don’t know the person very well, and don’t want to sound like a douchebag (for a brief explanation of the slang term, “Douchebag” – See This Post) – Then the exchange could go something like this…
If They Say…
“What’s Up?”
Then You Can Say…
“Not Much… What About You?”
“Not Much… How About You?”
“Not Much… You?”
…or simply…
“Not Much”
If They Say…
“How’s It Goin’?” – (which usually means, “How are things in general?”)
Then You Can Say…
“It’s Goin’ Good” – or just – “Goin’ Good” – (for when things are actually going well)
please note that grammatically one should use the word, “Well” – rather than, “Good” – but most people just say, “Good”
You Can Also Say…
However, if things are not really going very well for you at the moment, it is probably a good idea to just say…
.
“I’m Doing Well… Thanks” – (or something like that)
The reason for this is that most people aren’t actually interested in hearing about your problems. Everyone else is dealing with enough of their own problems. So if you are actually going through a tough time, and respond to this greeting by saying something like…
“Well, actually things are quite difficult for me right now, but I’m sure I’ll make it through. However, I really appreciate your concern. Thanks for asking. Would you like to hug?”
Then, even though, you are being honest… and actually, they did ask you a question… they will still probably want to get as far away from you as possible. I’m not saying that this is “right”, but it is the way that most people are at this point in human evolution. So, I mention it here to save you from a possibly embarrassing or un-comfortable situation.
Finally… If they say…
Then it is best to just follow the same philosophy as with the greeting, “How’s It Goin’?”… (Unless they are saying it like Joey from “Friends”… then you might want to walk away, being careful that the hungry animal is not following.)
The only difference would be…
You would say…
“Doin’ Good”
“Doin’ Great!”
“I’m Doin’ Freakin’ Awesome!”
And then you can follow it up by sending them the same greeting, but only after you have responded by actually answering the question… Because, after-all… “What’s Up?” IS… a question.
How’s It Goin’?
Freakin’ Great!… How About You?
Doin’ Good!
Sweet!
Or…
How You Doin’?
Pretty Good… You?
Same…
Nice!
(And then high-five each other and act like you are completely un-affected by how cool you both are)
As a final note (in case you couldn’t tell), this kind of speech is incredibly colloquial and should NOT be used in “formal” situations like job interviews, or meeting the parents of your new American or English girlfriend.
. And this also goes for the girlfriends of any of the other native English speaking countries as well. I just couldn’t figure out a good way to list them all in the same sentence. 😀
Have An Excellent Day!… Dude
😉
If You Would Like Help Preparing For The TOEFL Exam…
