Bonjour, buongiorno, bom dia, guten tag
Buenos dias, good day, good day? good day?
nobody says that now. Unlike in some
other languages we don't usually say
GOOD DAY in English these days except
perhaps in Australia I believe. In
English we usually just say HELLO or HI
but why? why is English different to
other languages and HELLO you might only
know it as a greeting but did you know
that HELLO has many different meanings
depending on how you pronounce it? If you
are learning English you need to know
the 8 different meanings of hello. That's
right, 8 different meanings and today
we're going to explain it all so stay
tuned... oh by the way Spanish speakers why
do you say your greeting in the plural
BUENOS DIAS - "good days" when in all other
languages it's singular if you know the
answer to that then do let me know in
the comments I'd be fascinated to know the answer
Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk now
HELLO is a very important word probably
the most important word in the English
language. It's usually the first word we
use when meeting a stranger
you'll never get a second chance to make
a good FIRST impression.
now when you first encounter somebody he
or she will look at your appearance, your
body language, your eye contact and
listen to the words that first come out
of your mouth which is usually HELLO
psychologists have shown that most
people form an impression of a person
within the first few seconds of meeting
them. So, if you like it or not, that
is the reality, so you had better get it
right! But the word hello is important in
other ways too. By using the word hello
you are acknowledging another human
being. Say it nicely and you will boost
the other person's self-esteem and you
will warm their heart and make them
smile.
Don't underestimate HELLO it will leave
a lasting impression. This simple
greeting is more powerful than most
people realize so usually (I stress
usually) when you say HELLO you want to
come across as trustworthy and likeable
most of the time. But there is more in English the word HELLO can be pronounced
in different ways each with a nuance of
meaning. Now if you're learning English
you need to know these distinct HELLOS
and this is what we are going to look at
today. But first let's have a look at the
surprisingly interesting
history of the word HELLO.
So using hello as a greeting is
relatively new before the 1900s
English-speaking people used another
word to greet people. When you met
someone for the first time you would say
"How do you do?" and the response would be
"How do you do?" that's right you respond
to "How do you do?" with "How do you do?"
You knew that didn't you? you could say
"good morning" you could say "good
afternoon" you could say "good evening" or
"good day"
but before being replaced by HELLO, "good
day" was the standard way of greeting
someone the word HELLO or sometimes HULLO
was in use as far back as the 19th century but then it had a different
meaning. It was used to show surprise "oh hello! why is there a fish in my hat" or
to attract attention "hello hello over there it's me your uncle Bob". So the word
HELLO didn't mean HELLO so what happened to make the word HELLO the everyday
greeting that we use today?
So the answer is the telephone. When you pick up the telephone you say HELLO. Now
you do but at the beginning it wasn't clear nobody knew what to say with this
new technology when it was invented. Now the inventor of the telephone was
Alexander Graham Bell, at least he was the first to patent the telephone and
his company sold some of the first telephones in the 1880s so Alexander
Graham Bell recommended that you answered the phone by saying AHOY HOY
AHOY-HOY
Now AHOY. if you don't know the word, is a nautical term that you use to
greet someone on a ship or on another ship "Ahoy there you on the other ship"
So why do we say HELLO? Ah because Thomas Edison a fellow inventor and a rival
recommended using HELLO when answering the phone it was kind of logical because
it still had the meaning at the time of attracting someone's attention which is
what you wanted to do with a new piece of technology and you couldn't see the
person at the other end you wanted to know they were there so you
said HELLO, HELLO, HELLO. So anyway, by the way in an early handbook of
telephone etiquette they recommended that you end a call you end a call not
with GOODBYE but with THAT IS ALL before you hung up. So we use HELLO. HELLO has
entered the English lexicon as a greeting thanks to Thomas Edison
and although HELLO became the standard phrase Alexander
Graham Bell wasn't happy and he continued to use AHOY-HOY
when answering the phone, for the rest of his life. So gradually in the 20th
century HELLO moved from the telephone to becoming the
greeting we all used today but as I said earlier HELLO has many different
meanings if you are only using HELLO as a greeting then you are short-changing
yourself so let's have a look at the 8 different
meanings of HELLO. Ok so the first meaning well, we've already looked at
HELLO is as a greeting, "hello how are you," "hi". We've already looked at the second
meaning too to show surprise "hello! What's this? there is a giraffe in my
garden that's strange." and we've already looked at a third
meaning too to attract someone's attention "Hello, hello I'm lost in the
forest, is anybody there? "Hello Phil are you
listening to me? I was telling you this story about my uncle's prostate
examination". Now, the fourth meaning is to show suspicion "Hello,
that's strange somebody used my credit card to buy an iPhone in Vladivostok",
hello, why is the tap water brown?" Number 5 to ask if the person is
still there. Maybe you've been disconnected. "Hello,
you still there? hello, hello," 6 to make someone aware of your presence when you
can't see anyone. "Hello anybody there? hello I just arrived in the hotel it's
anybody at reception?" number 7 to show that a person is disconnected from
reality. "You're going to the interview for the job in the bank in that tie
hello!". what you gave a complete stranger on the street a £100 for that
'gold' ring? hello!" and finally number 8 to flirt with someone someone you just
met and someone you find very attractive. "Hello hello what's your name?" "Hello would
you like to join me on the couch?" "Hello would you like to go for a ride on my
yacht?" And a little footnote before I go Alexander Graham Bell refused to have a
telephone in his study because he didn't like interruptions and that was in the
1880s and maybe in this day in the age of smartphones and omnipresent technology
we can learn something from him today. so there you are so now go out and
try those different uses of HELLO especially the one about flirting and
let me know in the comments how it goes... ...did I tell you that my new invention it's
called the toothpick and it's very good for removing bits of food from between
your teeth and this month we've got a special offer the first 200 people
who sign up will get 20% off if they use the code "stay mellow" and they get
one extra toothpick absolutely free! how can you resist
That is all.