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Learn about the best greetings and introductions to use in English.
Often, introducing yourself to people you don’t know can make you nervous. If you are worried about your English too, that can make you even more nervous!
On our Instagram account @learnenglishontheinternet we showed you a lot of different phrases that you can use in a conversation to introduce yourself or to introduce other people.
In this blog, we will show you an example conversation using the phrases from our Instagram posts and then we will explain more in detail about the language we have used.
Transcript
A: Hey Helen
B: Hi, what’s new?
A: Not much, just been working. What’s new with you?
B: I’m fine. Caitlin, have you met Esteban?
C: Hello Caitlin, good to meet you.
A: Hi Esteban, nice to meet you too. How’s it going?
C: Good thanks! I start my new job on Monday, I’m really excited.
B: Sorry Caitlin, we have to go. We’re meeting friends in 20 minutes. Have a good day!
C: Yeah. Bye.
A: See you later.
There are some words and phrases that can be used in any English-speaking country: hello, hi, and hey are used by all English speakers.
English is spoken in so many places now that there are many ways to say the same thing, and often it is a bit different in each place. For example ‘How’s it going?’ and ‘What’s new with you?’ have very similar meanings but ‘What’s new with you?’ is used more often in America and ‘How’s it going?’ is common in Australia. ‘How are things?’ and ‘How are you?’ are both common in England.
On our Instagram we also gave you the question ‘How are you holding up?’ Again, this is a similar question to ‘How are you?’ but we only ask this question when we know our friend has had a bad or negative experience recently. For example, if my friend lost her job, I could ask ‘How are you holding up?’ which means are you managing in your current situation?
It’s not only the country where you are that can change the question that you should use, if a conversation is formal (between you and your boss) you should use different language than if a conversation is informal (between friends). ‘Hi’ and ‘Hey’ are more informal, so they are both usually used when talking to people we know. ‘Hello’ can be used in formal situations.
Practice More
Are you ready to practice your greetings and introductions in English to make sure they are perfect and you make a wonderful first impression? Book a lesson with Teacher Caitlin now!
Do you have questions? Post them in the comments and we’ll answer them!