Well…. many.
And not only to simply say “hello”, but also to ask “how are you?”, even though sometimes they are merged and we kinda say “how are you” to actually say “hello” and we don’t mean to ask a question.
I know, that’s confusing sometimes 😀
Ok, so what I did is I racked my brain and pulled out all of the expressions to greet people that I could possibly think of – plus one that I have recently heard of for the first time.
1. Hi (most common)
2. Hi there!
3. Hello
4. Good morning / afternoon /evening (more formal)
5. Hey!
6. Hiya!
7. Alright? (this one deserves an explanation. The Brits use this to just say hello, so when they see each other they’ll just go like “Alright?” “Alright!”. End of story.)
8. How’s it going?
9. How are you? (surprisingly, not the most used of the bunch)
10. What’s up? (mostly American, but it’s entering the UK as well)
11. What’s going on? (US)
12. Well hello! / well, hi there! / Well, hello there! (you are surprised)
13. yo, what’s good? (US, hip-hop slang still used today, found this the other day and didn’t know about it – not an expert of hip-hop slang but I find it absolutely fascinating!)
14. Look who it is! (again, you weren’t expecting to see that person or you haven’t seen them for a long time)
15. How’s life? (abbreviation of no. 16)
16. How’s life treating you? (you haven’t seen the person for quite some time)
17. How are things? (same as 16)
18. Long time no see! (seemingly ungrammatical way to say “I haven’t seen you in ages!)
19: Haven’t seen you in ages!
20. How have you been?
21. Nice to see you! / Glad to see you again! (this is more formal)
22. What’s new? (same as 16)
23. What have you been up to? (again, maybe it’s been a few days or weeks that you haven’t seen the person)
24. Howdy (rural Southern US, I must admit I love this one!)
I’m sure there are more out there, but this is just to give you an idea of how many variants you could actually incorporate into your conversations so you’re not always using the same greetings.
Hope this was useful!
If you want to read more about English language please read the other articles in my blog:
https://www.yourlifeinenglish.com/blog/
Info on my English courses:
adults
kids and teens
Business English
Take care
Ilaria
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