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Jackie Hello. Welcome to How To with me, Jackie Dalton. In this programme: how to greet people in informal contexts. 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. Now we’re going to here some other expressions, and these are for informal situations. So here we go! Listen to this short clip of Matt saying hello to Jane. What word is used here instead of ‘hello’? EXAMPLE Matt Hey Jane, how you doing? Jackie It was simply ‘hey’ – more informal than hello. EXAMPLE Matt Hey Jane – Jackie It sounds a bit like ‘hi’, which you almost certainly used before as another slightly less formal version of hello. ‘Hi Jane!’ with H-I and ‘hey Jane!’ with H-E-Y. Both sound relaxed. Now, for our next greeting: what’s this one? EXAMPLE Jane Alright Matt – how’s it going? Neil Alright Carrie! How are you? Jackie ‘Alright’ – that’s very informal. EXAMPLE Alright Carrie! How are you? Jackie ‘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! 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. EXAMPLE How are you? Jackie The most straightforward phrase: ‘How are you?’ But how else could you say that in a relaxed situation? EXAMPLE Hello Carrie – you alright? Jackie ‘You alright?’ Of course the most correct way of saying this would be: ‘Are you alright?’ But it often just becomes, ‘You all right?’ EXAMPLE Hello Carrie – you alright? Jackie And yes, you’re right, we just looked at ‘alright’ as another way of saying hello, but we also use it to ask how someone is. Now listen for another way to ask how someone is. EXAMPLE Hey Jane – how you doing? Jackie ‘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?’ EXAMPLE Hey Jane – how you doing? Jackie A variation on that, which you’re probably more likely to hear in Australia is: ‘How you going?’ EXAMPLE Neil Alright Carrie – how are you? Carrie Yeah, I’m fine Neil – how you going? Jackie ‘How you going?’ EXAMPLE How you going? Jackie ‘How’s it going?’ is another form you might hear. EXAMPLE Alright Matt – how’s it going? Jackie 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. EXAMPLES Yeah – not bad, not bad. Good, thanks! Jackie ‘Not bad!’ which means quite good and ‘good, thanks!’ are both used here. EXAMPLE Yeah – not bad, not bad. Good, thanks! Jackie 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. EXAMPLES Jane Alright Matt – how’s it going? Matt Yeah, no trouble. How about you alright? Jane Yeah, not bad. Matt Hey Jane – how you doing? Jane Good thanks. And you? Jackie You can return the question with a simple, ‘And you?’ or, ‘How about you?’ EXAMPLES Jane Alright Matt – how’s it going? Matt Yeah, no trouble. How about you alright? Jane Yeah, not bad. Matt Hey Jane – how you doing? Jane Good thanks. And you? Jackie So now, a recap of the key phrases in this programme: 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?