You must have heard the question How are you? Even while on vacation, completely strangers may ask you for help, but at the same time they will not forget the duty officer. Hey, how are you? How can I get to ...? Perhaps this is the next phrase after Hello, which is taught in the lessons at school. “How are you?”, “How are you?”, “How are you?” Is all a translation of How are you ?.
How to answer How are you? And when to stop?
In English, this is undoubtedly a rescue question! So you can greet a colleague, start a conversation with a stranger, be polite with a visitor in a cafe, or meet a girl who you met on the street. The story that you went to the theater yesterday, ate porridge in the morning, met with a girlfriend tomorrow, and gas prices rose indecently, will not be the correct answer to the question How are you? If you were abroad or watched an American movie in the original, you definitely noticed that no one practically answers this question.
Only one correct answer
How to answer How are you? to your address? What are the options?
- I'm fine, thank you! And you? (“Fine, thank you, and you?”) Is the most common and universal answer.
- Or: very well, thanks, how about yourself? ("Very good, how about you?").
- Or: doing fine, thanks (“I'm doing well, thank you!”).
The point is to react easily and positively! Even if your car breaks down, your phone is dead, or your wife is offended again. If you met with friends or relatives, then after exchanging a similar greeting, they will ask you about any specific events, problems or plans.
But why then ask at all ?! From the point of view of a Russian person, it’s quite difficult not to embark on a lengthy narrative of what happens in life. The English greeting really looks a little frivolous, but you can think of it only if you take this for a question. But this is not quite the case. This is perfectly normal for this type of dialogue, it is an American / English way of being polite.
If you want to be convincing in English, you need to masterfully learn to conduct these mini-conversations. They will be useful to you more than you think (for example, at the checkout in the supermarket, at the reception at the hotel or when paying a bill in a restaurant). You can imagine the eyes of a waiter who is harmless at How are you doing? they will tell about torn tights, the vile character of a chef or insomnia. In the best case, the interlocutors will nod understandingly and try to support with common phrases, at worst they will feel uncomfortable. There is nothing worse for starting a conversation than the embarrassment of an unfamiliar interlocutor. You will have to make a lot of efforts to break the prolonged silence or transfer the conversation to another topic.
How to surprise an interlocutor with an answer
How to answer How are you ?, if you want to become a prankster, amuse or amaze your foreign friend:
- I could complain, but I'm not going to. “I could complain, but I won’t.”
- Do you want the short version or the long one? - Do you have a brief or full version?
- Hanging in there. - I'm doing it.
- Shhhhh. It's a secret. - Shh, that's a secret.
- Who wants to know? - Who cares?
- Somewhere between blah and meh. - Something between “bee” and “fi”.
- Overworked and underpaid. - Overworked and underestimated.
In fact, these answers are not so bad and inappropriate if you came to a friend or mother. Who, if not them, can complain from the threshold of the futility of being. Although it is also necessary to be careful with mom - she will worry!
How else?
Of course, how are you? - this is not the only way in English with which you can greet a person. For such cases there is, for example, the phrase What's up? Undoubtedly, these expressions are different. First, what's up? - This is a more informal expression, and more often young people say so. Secondly, how are you? - This is a question about the state of mind of a person, about his mood, and what's up? - about what a person does and what has happened in his life lately.
That is why the last question can be answered that you study, work, get sick or returned from vacation, although most often they answer not much - nothing. For such an answer in writing even there is an abbreviation - nm.
As an option, for closer people or in a more serious life situation (a person on the street became ill, for example) Is Is everything okey? This question implies a more honest answer.
The nuances in the use of greeting questions relate more to the peculiarities of the mentality of English-speaking countries than to linguistic rules. Therefore, if you want to differ as little as possible from native speakers and feel confident communicating in a foreign language, then it is worth paying attention to such moments (sort of like answering how are you?). But even if such an incident happened to you, do not be upset - after a while you will remember this episode with a laugh and never again make such a mistake.