You’ve probably learned basic greetings like, “Hello” and “How are you?” which are useful
in a wide range of situations, but they are… kind of… boring.
- Morning, class! - Hello. Hi!
- Morning, how are you? - I'm fine, thank you. And you?
Schools love teaching that!
“I’m fine, thank you, and you?” But it just doesn’t work so well in real life.
Same thing with “hi” and “hello.” When I first came to Spain, I didn't understand how important
greetings were when meeting new people. I used to greet my new friend by saying "hola"
but people tend to use many alternatives over this common one.
So what's wrong with saying "hi", "hello" and "how are you"?
Well, not much. They’re universal and you can use them, but it’s a good idea to know when you can
use other options so that you match your language, tone and attitude to the context in question.
In this lesson, you’ll learn 23 alternatives to the more basic “hellos” and “how
are yous” so that you start your conversation in style, and in a more fun and vibrant way.
When I first came to Spain I didn’t understand how important greetings were when meeting new people.
I used to greet my new friend by saying, “Hola,”
but people tend to use many alternatives over this common one!
The result of saying this is that people would think that I didn’t speak Spanish
and would ask my friends questions about me instead of asking me directly.
I was pretty annoyed by this but I realized it was my own fault that they treated me like that
because I didn’t greet them in a way that they were expecting. Once I started saying things like,
“buenos dias” or even just ‘buenas’ people started treating me like a normal person.
Let’s start with a few:
One that you should never, ever use unless it’s the right situation is “How do you do?”
The first moments of an interaction you have with someone are crucial because
they set the tone for the conversation to follow.
If you start a conversation doubting yourself and unsure
of what you’re saying this will affect your performance for the rest of the conversation.
But if you can effortlessly use the right greetings then you will feel confident
during the rest of the conversation. If you greet someone with confidence they will feel
more comfortable with you and will form a positive first impression.
The following group of greetings can be used in any informal situation.
To show extra enthusiasm you can add “Hey” to the beginning of these greetings.
The pronunciation can be shortened to “goin'" and typical response to this
question is “It’s going good.” A few more elaborated ones are:
This one is highly informal and should only be used with people around your
age. The pronunciation is often shortened to crackin'. It's similar in use to what's up.
You can also say:
All the greetings that we’ve seen so far work for people you see regularly. If you meet a friend
that you haven’t seen for a long time you can say… So, this one is interesting because rather than
pronouncing each word where it would sound like "what have you been up to all these years",
we really reduce a lot of these words so that we sound more fluid and natural. So it sounds like...
so what have becomes what've and you is just ya and been is bin. "What've ya bin up to." So
it's got more of a flow and a melody to it. That last one is a playful way of greeting
someone. A few more casual ways to greet someone you haven't seen in a long time are...
This is definitely the most common.
Now that you have this list of greetings at your disposal, go out into the world and
start practicing them. Make sure you use them with confidence so that you make a good first
impression. Try to use a different greeting every time you have English class or meet
your English speaking friends. Now here's a great lesson for you to continue learning with.