Learning greetings in English

Below is the link to Podcast #2. It will help you learn various greetings in English and when to use them.

Here is the script of the podcast in case you need to follow along:

Hi, my name is Yvonne. This is The English Guru podcast #2. Today I will be speaking about various greetings in English. There are a lot of them and you use them in various situations.

For example, you can say, “How do you do?” when you meet someone, but in the USA, we don’t use this as much anymore.

What we usually say is “Hi, How are you?” The response would be, “Fine” or “I’m fine, thanks and you?”

So, let’s practice.

“Hi! How are you?”

“I’m fine too, thanks!”

Another greeting would be to just simply say “Hi” or “Hey” or “Hello.” You can say those as you pass someone on the street. It is a polite way to say that in the United States if you see someone in your own neighborhood in the grocery store, for example.

“What’s up?” is a greeting that is used more now. You would use this with people you know fairly well. You wouldn’t use it with your boss or someone you have just met.

You can also say, “How’s it going?” You can say this with friends or people you have just met.

People also use, “Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night,” depending on the time of day.

“Good morning” can be used from the wee hours of the morning until about 10am.

‘Good afternoon” and “good evening” are not used often in English, but you can still say them and some people do.

Good night is used right before you go to sleep. You would not greet someone with “Good night.” It’s more of a way of saying, “good-bye.”

Next time I will talk about different ways of saying good-bye in English. Have a great day!