Hello and Goodbye

Hook

Every conversation in English starts with a greeting and ends with a goodbye. The words you choose depend on who you are talking to and what time it is. Choose well and you sound friendly and polite from the very first word.

Notice

  • A: Hi, Sam! How are you? — B: I’m fine, thanks. And you? (friends)
  • A: Good morning, Mrs Lee. — B: Good morning. (a teacher, before 12:00)
  • A: Hello, I’m David. — B: Nice to meet you, David. I’m Mia. — A: Nice to meet you too.
  • A: Bye! See you tomorrow. — B: See you! (friends)
  • A: Goodbye, and have a nice day. — B: Thank you. You too. (a shop)

Which greetings are for friends? Which are for people you don’t know well?

Rule

Informal (friends, family)Formal / neutral (new people, work, shops)
HelloHi! · Hey!Hello. · Good morning / afternoon / evening.
First meetingHi, I’m Sam.Nice to meet you. — Nice to meet you too.
How are you?How are you? · How’s it going?How are you?
GoodbyeBye! · See you (later / tomorrow)!Goodbye. · Have a nice day.

Time of day: good morning (before 12:00) · good afternoon (12:00–about 18:00) · good evening (after about 18:00). Good night is only for goodbye at night, never hello.

Answering “How are you?” Say I’m fine / good / OK, thanks. And you? Always return the question: it is polite.

Watch Out

  • ✗ Good night! (arriving at a party at 8 pm) → ✓ Good evening! (“Good night” means goodbye)
  • ✗ A: How are you? B: I’m fine. → ✓ I’m fine, thanks. And you? (return the question)
  • ✗ Nice to meet you. (meeting your friend again) → ✓ Nice to see you! (“meet” is only for the first time)

Practice

  1. Which is informal? a) Good evening b) Hey, how’s it going? c) Nice to meet you
  2. Complete: “I’m fine, thanks. ___ you?”
  3. It is 9:00 am. You see your teacher. What do you say?
  4. It is 11 pm and you are leaving a friend’s house. What do you say?
  5. Complete: A: Nice to meet you. B: Nice to meet you ___.
  6. Formal or informal? “See you later!”
  7. Reply to: “How’s it going?”
  8. Put in order: meet / to / nice / you
Show the answers
  1. b)
  2. And
  3. Good morning.
  4. Good night! / Bye!
  5. too
  6. Informal
  7. Good, thanks. And you? (or: Fine / OK, thanks.)
  8. Nice to meet you.

Your Turn

Write two short conversations of 4 lines each: (1) you meet a friend on the street in the afternoon; (2) you meet your new manager for the first time in the morning. Then read them out loud.

Connect

Our Match the Definition game pairs everyday words with their meanings: a quick way to review greetings and first words.

Try our Match the Definition game →

Our Sentence Builder has short everyday sentences to put in order, like the dialogues in this lesson.

Try our Sentence Builder →

CEFR A1 — Spoken Interaction: I can use basic greeting and leave-taking expressions and interact in a simple way.

Azizul Hakim
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