Lesson 1 How to greet in informal situations (elementary)

There are lots of different phrases and expressions you can use and today you’ll learn some of the most popular and useful ones. One of the first words you probably learnt in English was ‘Hello’- a very common way of greeting someone and suitable in both formal and more relaxed situations.

Listen some other expressions:

Hey Jane, how you doing?



Alright Matt, how’s it going?
Alright Carrie! How are you?

“Hey” is a less formal version of “Hello”, another similar is “Hi”.
‘Alright Carrie!’ In England and Australia, you often here it with ‘mate’ – an informal word meaning ‘friend’ which refers to the person you’re speaking to. ‘Alright mate!’ So a reminder of our opening expressions for greeting so far:

‘Hello Richard!’ ‘Hi, Richard!’ ‘Hey Richard!’ ‘Alright Richard!’ or ‘Alright mate!’

So you’ve said ‘hi’ to someone… what next? Well, the normal thing, as in so many cultures is to ask them how they are.
The most straightforward phrase is ‘How are you?’ But how else could
you say that in a relaxed situation?

Hello Carrie, you alright?

‘You alright?’ Of course the most correct way of saying this would be
‘Are you alright?’ But it often just becomes, ‘You all right?’


Hey Jane, how you doing?

‘How you doing?’ Again, ‘How are you doing?’ would be more
correct, but we often miss out the ‘are’ so it’s just ‘How you doing?’


A variation on that, which you’re probably more likely to hear in
Australia is ‘How you going?’


Alright Carrie, how are you?
Yeah, I’m fine Neil, how you going


Alright Matt, how’s it going?

So how could you respond when you’re asked how you are? One of the
most common answers is, ‘Fine, thanks!’ But here are some more. All
of them are quite informal.


Yeah, not bad, not bad.


Good, thanks!

You could also say ‘alright, thanks!’ or ‘OK, thanks!’ or ‘very well,
thanks!’ So, to sum up those last expressions, we’ve got:





Not bad!
Good, thanks!
Alright, thanks
OK, thanks!
Very well, thanks!’

After you’ve answered that question, the most usual thing to do is to
return the question and ask the other person if they are well, as in these
examples.





Alright Matt, how’s it going?
Yeah, no trouble, how about you alright?
Yeah, not bad.





Hey Jane, how you doing?
Good thanks, and you?
Yeah, not bad, not bad.

You can return the question with a simple ‘…and you?’ or ‘How about
you?’



So now, a recap of the key phrases

Hello!
Hi!
Hey!
Alright!
How are you?
How you doing?
How you going?
How’s it going?
You alright?
Good, thanks!
Fine, thanks!
Not bad, not bad!
Alright, thanks!
I’m OK!
And you?
How about you?
What about you?


WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT?

1: Hello Mike! Great to see you again, who / how are you?


2: I'm not / so bad, thanks!

3: How are you doing / being ?

4: I'm olright / alright thanks!