In this blog, we will cover how to respond to formal and informal greetings and different ways to introduce ourselves in English. Learn new and interesting ways to introduce yourself in English. Also you can go on some English speaking course and learn all of these things.
Table of Contents
A greeting is when we say something that means ‘hello.’ The opposite of a greeting is a farewell. A farewell is when we say something that means ‘goodbye.’
‘Hello’ and ‘goodbye’ are standard greetings in English. They are neither formal nor informal and we can use them in either context. However, ‘hello’ is on the formal list of greetings because most native English speakers do not say ‘hello’ in informal situations.
This is the best formal greeting in English. We can never go wrong when saying ‘hello’ to greet people formally.
This is a common morning greeting that means ‘hello.’ We can shorten it to ‘morning,’ ‘good day,’ or ‘g’day!’ – depending on where we are in the world.
Native English speakers around the world say ‘morning’ instead of ‘good morning.’ ‘Good day’ is common in British English and ‘g’day’ is usually used in Australian English.
Usually, questions that replace greetings are informal. However, there is one question greeting that is formal. ‘How do you do?’ is a very formal question greeting that means ‘hello.’ It’s not common in American English, but it’s good to learn when and how to use it.
We say ‘how do you do?’ as a way of saying ‘it’s a pleasure to meet you.’ It is an outdated and old-fashioned greeting, however, it’s a formal greeting nonetheless.
Traditionally, the response for ‘how do you do?’ is ‘how do you do?’ In recent years, it’s more common to respond with ‘I’m fine and you?’ or ‘I’m fine. How do you do?’
Most Americans don’t use formal greetings. It’s more common for native English speaking Americans to use informal greetings in most scenarios.
The two most common informal greetings are:
“Hey!”
“Hi!”
Informal greetings in English are also usually questions:
“What’s up?”
“How’s it going?”
“What’s good?”
“What’s new?”
“Howdy?”
‘What’s up?’ means ‘what’s happening?’ or ‘what’s new?’ We use this question as a greeting without expecting an answer. The other person can respond with ‘what’s up?’ or they can choose to tell you if something has (or hasn’t) happened in their lives recently.
If you’ve listened to English songs or watched English movies and TV shows, you’ve probably heard this greeting before; and it can be confusing to answer.
There are a few different options. The first, and most common answer, is:
“Hey, what’s up?”
This may seem strange because we’re answering a question with another question. But the question is simply another way to say ‘hello.’ It is a greeting – it isn’t really a question.
If you don’t want to answer the question with another question, there are other options to answer ‘what’s up?’
Example:
“Not much. What’s up with you?”
This means that nothing has happened and there is no news to report.
‘What’s up?’ means ‘what’s happening?’ and ‘what’s news?’ so we cannot answer with ‘good,’ ‘OK,’ or ‘fine.’
Remember: we didn’t ask ‘how are you?’ or ‘how are you doing?’
The key difference is that we asked ‘what’ instead of ‘how.’
“There’s nothing much happening.”
“Nothing new!”
“In my life, everything is old and boring.”
‘How’s it going?’ means ‘how is everything in your life at the moment?’ We can answer ‘how’s it going?’ with the adjective that best describes our lives.
Examples:
Good!
Great!
Wonderful!
Spectacular!
Terrible!
Bad!
Horrible!
So-so.
Fine.
‘Hey,’ ‘hi,’ and ‘yo!’ are informal replacements for ‘hello.’ In American English, it is common to use these informal greetings when meeting someone – even if they’re meeting each other for the first time.
‘What’s good?’ is an Americanism. It means ‘what’s new?’ or ‘what’s happening?’ It is an informal greeting that essentially means the same as ‘what’s up?’
‘Howdy’ is a Southern American greeting that means ‘hello.’ It’s commonly used in Texas and we can use it as a fun, less formal, and creative replacement for ‘hello.’
Greetings like ‘hey,’ ‘hi,’ and ‘yo,’ shouldn’t be used in formal situations like a job interview. It’s a good idea to stick with formal greetings in a job interview.
However, informal greetings like ‘how’s it going?’ and ‘how are you doing?’ are suitable greetings in an interview too.
The main difference between formal and informal greetings is that formal greetings don’t have abbreviations and reductions. When we greet someone formally, we use the full form of the sentence.
Example:
‘How are you?’
NOT: ‘How’re you?’
Informal greetings have abbreviations and reductions such as ‘how’s’ and ‘what’s.’ These shouldn’t be used in formal greetings.
It’s important to learn how to introduce yourself in English. Once we’ve greeted someone new, we may want to tell them something else about ourselves.
“I am…” is the best introductory phrase to introduce your name. We can shorten “I am…” to “I’m…”
Examples:
“I am Kris.”
“I’m Kris.”
We say “I am…” when we introduce ourselves. If someone else wants to introduce us to another person, they can use “it is…” or “it’s…”
Examples:
“Hey everyone! It is Kris!”
“It’s Kris. Here he is!”
“It is…” and “this is…” are two phrases we can use to introduce two strangers to each other. We introduce other people with “this is…” when the two people haven’t met before.
Example:
John is talking to Mike, but Kris doesn’t know Mike. John can say:
“Hey Mike, this is Kris.”
This leaves an opportunity for Kris to introduce himself to Mike and speak to Mike for a bit.
‘It’s…’ and ‘this is…’ can both be used when talking on the phone. If we don’t think the person on the other side of the phone knows who we are because they don’t have our number, we can introduce ourselves with ‘it’s…’ or ‘this is…’
Example:
(on the phone)
“Hey Mike. It’s Kris. Do you remember me? We met yesterday.”
“Hey Mike. This is Kris from John’s party.”
We can share more information by telling the people we meet where we are from.
We can say:
“I’m American.”
“I’m from the United States.”
“I come from the United States.”
“I was born in the United States.”
We use ‘I’m from…’ and ‘I come from…’ when we are not in the country we are from. It is unusual to say “I’m from America” or “I come from America” as an American is in America.
These questions are usually asked when there is a group of foreigners and they’re introducing themselves.
Example:
“Hi everyone. I’m Jorge and I come from Mexico.”
Just because we are born in a country, it doesn’t mean we are from that country. We use ‘I was born in…’ only to talk about the place or country we were born in.
‘I am from…’ is used to talk about the place we feel is our true home. It’s the place where our families are from, where we speak the language and where we have most of our childhood life experience.
Example:
“I was born in Germany but I’m from the United States.”
‘Live’ refers to any place that is our current home. We can move around a lot throughout life, but the new place isn’t where we are from.
Example:
If you moved to New York and someone asks:
“Where are you from?”
You wouldn’t say:
“I live in New York.”
This is not useful information. The other person has noticed your accent is different and wants to know which country you’ve come from originally.
You could say:
“I was born in Italy, but I live in New York now.”
“I’m from Italy” or “I come from Italy.”
You could also say:
“I’m originally from Italy and I live in New York now.”
When we introduce ourselves, we can tell people our names, the country we’re from, the place where we were born and we can tell them a bit about our work life too.
We usually introduce ourselves by our profession. We can do this by using ‘I’m a/an…’
Example:
“I’m an English teacher.”
“I’m a teacher.”
We can use either one of these introductory words to introduce our profession.
We can say:
“I am a teacher”
“I work as a teacher.”
We CANNOT say ‘like.’
“I work like a teacher,” means I’m not a teacher, but my job is similar to a teaching job.
We can use both “I work at…” and “I work for…” with the name of a company.
Examples:
“I work at krisamerikos.com”
“I work for krisamerikos.com”
We can say “I work in…” when we want to talk about the field or area of knowledge we work in. It doesn’t include the specific role that we perform – it refers to the area of work in general.
Examples:
“I work in education.”
“I work in I.T.”
“I work in the medical field.”
“I work in sales.”
We can add more information to our introductions. We can tell people about our experience, our hobbies and our age.
“I’ve been working as a teacher for over 10 years.”
“I’ve been working as a travel agent for the last 5 years.”
“I’ve been living in America for 5 years.”
“I’ve lived in Rome for 10 years.”
“I like teaching English.”
“I enjoy teaching English.”
“I’m into playing football.”
“I’m a fan of going jogging.”
Note: we use a gerund (verb + ing) after ‘like’ ‘enjoy’ ‘am into’ and ‘am a fan of.’
“I’m 34 years old.”
“I’m in my mid-thirties.”
We use early when we are at the beginning of a decade:
Early-twenties (21-24)
We use mid when we are in the middle of a decade:
Mid-forties (44-45)
We use late when we are close to the next decade:
Late-fifties (56 – 59)
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