How to greet people in more formal situations

LESSON 1

This lesson is about greetings and the language you might use if you’re greeting people in quite formal situations, when you want to sound polite. I’d like you to start by reading to this greeting. Try to guess what the situation might be.

Good morning, sir.

Using ‘sir’ in a greeting sounds very formal. It gives extra status or
importance to the person you are talking to and there are several
situations where you might hear it. One of the most common situations is
in the service industry. It could be a hotel receptionist talking to a guest,
a waiter talking to a customer in a restaurant. Or it could be in a shop -
anywhere where people are dealing with customers or clients. If you
were speaking to a woman, you wouldn’t say ‘sir – you would say
‘madam’.

Good morning, madam.

It’s nearly always the people offering the service who would use this
kind of language. If a waiter says ‘good evening, sir’ you would just
reply with ‘good evening’ you wouldn’t say ‘good evening, sir’ back.
This is because, in this particular situation, you are the one being given
the most importance, so you don’t need to show this extra sign of respect.

Likewise, if you walk into a hotel and the receptionist says ‘good afternoon, madam’, it would usually sound strange to say ‘good afternoon, madam’ back.
As well is in the service industry, there are other situations where you
might hear ‘sir’ and ‘madam’. Read this one and guess what the
situation might be.

Good morning, sir. It’s a real honour to have you here.

The situation that makes me think of is of greeting a VIP - perhaps a very
important politician or leader who you meet. In some cases, people use it
when they are greeting someone much older than they are, as a sign of
respect. Or you may occasionally hear it used in the workplace, where
employees want to show respect for their superiors. Read below and note
how only the employee uses the word ‘sir’.

Good morning, sir.
Hello, James.



We’ve looked over some of those situations where you might use
very formal language in greetings, such as ‘sir’ or ‘madam’. You might
use it in the service industry, with VIPs, with much old people and,
sometimes, with bosses at work. But, also using these kinds of
words, what else is it that makes language in greetings sound more
formal and polite? We’re going to read two different versions of a
greeting between James and his boss Mr Jones. Try to decide which
one is the most formal and think about why.


Morning!
Hi! How’s it going?
Good thanks – you?
Yeah, fine.


Good morning, Mr Jones.
Hello, James. How are you?
I’m very well, thank you. How are you?
Fine, thank you.


The second greeting was more formal. Why? Well one of the most
obvious differences is in how long the phrases are. ‘Good morning’
sounds more formal than ‘morning’ because ‘morning’ is shorter and it’s
a slightly lazier way of greeting someone, if you like. ‘Hello’ is also a bit
more formal than ‘hi’. ‘I’m very well, thank you’ also sounds more
formal than ‘fine, thanks’ or ‘good, thanks’ again, mainly because it
takes longer to say. This doesn’t mean you should never say ‘hi’ in
formal situations, it’s just that if you want to sound more polite, using
more complete words and phrases will help.

So words that are longer tend to sound more formal and polite, while
shorter, abbreviated words are more likely to sound informal and friendly.
Now let’s look at some other handy phrases you could use in greetings.
We’re about to hear another clip. Madeleine and Angus are both at the
same dinner party. They’ve met a couple of times before, but haven’t
seen each other for a while. Listen their conversation.

Hello Madeleine. It's lovely to see you again: how are you?
Hello, Angus. I’m very well, thank you. It's been a long time, hasn't it?

How are things with you?

‘Lovely to see you again’ is a nice expression, often used when you
haven’t seen someone for a while. Madeline says ‘It’s been a long time,
hasn’t it?’ another nice thing you can say in that situation. She finishes it
with ‘How are things with you?’ another way of saying ‘how are you?

Now here’s a recap of the language from this lesson.

good morning

good afternoon, sir

good evening, madam

how are you?

how are things with you?

I’m very well, thank you.

it's lovely to see you again

it's been a long time, hasn't it?




WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT?

Now it's time for you to have a go at practising the language we've looked at in this programme. Read the context for each question, then arrange the words into sentences. Good luck!

1) Helen Works in a hotel a greets one of the guests as he approches her. She says...

_________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

MORNING - GOOD - HOW - MR - JONES, - YOU - ARE?

2) At a party, you see Rachel. You’ve met her once but haven’t seen for a while. You say....
_______ _______ _________ ________ _________ _________ _________

TIME, - IT? – VERY – BEEN - HASN’T - LONG - IT’S - A

3) Rachel replies. She says....

_______ ________ _____ _______ _______ _________ ______ ______

BEEN – IT? - LONG - HASN’T - VERY - A - IT’S - TIME,

4) What could you say in response?

______ ________ _______ _______

AGES! – IT’S - YES – BEEN