Greeting what do you say

Bye, now. Informal farewells. At a more informal level too, on first meeting, it would be quite normal to say: Nice to have met you.

This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving. You are in:. Greetings and farewells. Roger replies:. Formal greetings How do you do? If you say this to someone when you meet him or her for the first time, it will make you seem courteous.

Remember to only use these greetings the first time you meet someone. This greeting question is only asked by people who have already met. This greeting is VERY formal, and quite uncommon, but it may still be used by some older people. Slang greetings are extremely informal, and should only be used with people that you know very well, and feel very comfortable with. Keep in mind that a lot of slang is regional, and using Australian slang, for example, in America can sound quite strange.

This extremely informal greeting is common in America. This greeting should only be used with very close friends, and never in a business setting. I hope you enjoy trying out these new English greetings. If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU.

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FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities. Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. In BE How do you do? Apparent Question: How do you do? Apparent Answer: How do you do? Of course the inexperienced and the unwary and the foreigners often fall into the obvious trap and answer: I'm very well thank you.

Do you have similar problems in AE? I seem to remember you are very meticulous about making sure you've got the other person's name right, something many of us are probably too vague about.

Very interesting.. Thanks for sharing! Thomas Tompion said:. I was taught to say "How do you do? As a practical matter, however, I never hear it. Usually people say "nice to meet you" or something similar that is not a trap for the unwary. Sometimes they say "how are you doing?

Nice that you brought that back to my mind, I've always wondered whether this expression was actually used or not. I was also taught to answer with the same question but I'm not sure I've ever used or heard it. I remember they told us at school that it is used in quite polite situations , what do you think? Does that really fit?

I would imagine it would only be used in "polite" settings such as business meetings maybe? And I was not aware that the proper response was "How do you do" in return.

In my mind, I picture a refined gentlemen tipping his hat and saying "how do you do" to a lady as he passes by her and the lady I guess would just nod or say hello. I didn't realize it was something used in introductions.

How interesting. When my colleagues and I visited the USA to meet business counterparts that we had never met before we were greeted with: "Hiya! How y'all doin' "? We all just looked at each other, bemused, not knowing whether to reply "pleased to meet you" or "fine, thank you. How are you"? We just shook hands and none of us said anything.

Was that bad manners? I know it was embarrassing. I suppose it works both ways. What's the correct answer to "Hiya! I would love to know! Tresley said:. It has been ingrained in my brain to respond, "I'm fine, how are you? I probably would have answered by saying, "Hi! I'm fine, thank you, how are you? Thank you to Icetrance and Caballoschica for your replies.

This unfortunate greeting happened in Atlanta. My colleagues and I were totally bemused! In the UK it's normal to say 'how do you do' or 'pleased to meet you'. Things were fine after that - it was just a bad start. We all got on like a house on fire after that and our American colleagues loved our Yorkshire accents!

Thank you. Do you realise some natives fall into this trap too? It is just that one is more accustomed to hearing "How are you? If someone said 'How do you do? Hi All, I come from a non-english background, I want to know, what is the reply of this phrase- How do you do?

There are many possible replies to "How do you do? If you are using the phrase not as a question about someone's health, but merely as a standard thing to say upon a formal introduction, one can respond with any other phrase used as a standard formal greeting or introduction.

For example, Mrs. Smith is introducing several people to Mrs. Greatname: Mrs. Smith: Mrs. Greatname, may I present Mr. Greatname to Jones : How do you do?

Jones: How do you do? Greatname to Brown : How do you do? Brown: Good morning. Greatname to Green : How do you do? Green: It is a great pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Under such circumstances, the phrase need not be regarded as a genuine question seeking information. If you look for greeting in the WordReference dictionary, you will find many other threads about this topic.

I have changed the name of this one to match the rest.