Spotlight - 11.2019

60 SPOKEN ENGLISH

Answers

1.A–4; B–1; C–2; D–32.A.

Hope

B.

ar

e you doing

C.

won’t

D.

night

E.

regards

F.

How

’s it going?

G.

getting

Exercise 2

Choose the correct word or phrase from the options in

bold.

A. Hope / Wish you have a great holiday.

B. How do you do / are you doing these days?

C. Drive carefully, don’t / won’t you?

D. I’m off to bed. — Good evening / night! Sleep well.

E. Give my regards / greeting to Mr Smith.

F. Hi! How’s it going? / How does it go?

G. How’s your son going / getting on at school?

Exercise 1

Match each remark below (A–D) to a suitable reply (1–4).

A. How are things at

home?

B. Have a nice evening.

C. Give my regards to

your father, won’t you?

D. Good evening, sir. Can

I help you?

1. Thanks, same to you.


2. Yes, I will, thanks.


3. Yes, I’m looking for a
   bright red tie.


4. Oh, not too bad, thanks
   — same as usual.

One of the first things you learn in English is how to say

“Hello!” and “How are you?”. But there are many other ways to

greet people and to ask how they are.

Greetings

To greet people (even strangers), you would normally just

say Hi!, Hi, there! or Hello! In more formal situations, you

would perhaps say Good morning!, Good afternoon! or Good

evening!:

⋅ Waiter: Good evening, madam! Would you like to see the

menu?

⋅ Hotel receptionist: Good afternoon! Can I help you?

At the start of the day, we often say (Good) morning!:

⋅ Morning! Have you had breakfast?

At the end of an evening, or when we’re going to bed, we say

Good night!:

⋅ Good night, Hannes! Thank you for a lovely evening.

Sometimes, we wish to pass on greetings to other people (who

are not present). Common phrases are Say “hi/hello” to... or

Give my love/regards to...:

⋅ Say “hi” to Steven from me when you see him.

⋅ Give my regards to your mother, will you?

How are you?

If you meet someone you haven’t seen for some time, you may

wish to catch up with news by asking about his or her life. You

could, of course, simply ask How are you? You can also ask in

other ways, using the noun things or the verbs do or go:

⋅ How are things (with you)?

⋅ How are you doing (these days)?

⋅ How are things going?

Or you could ask a more specific question:

⋅ How are things at college?

⋅ How are you getting on at school?

⋅ How’s work going?

In reply, you could say Fine, thanks or Not (so) bad. You proba-

bly wouldn’t say “Oh, really bad”, because that would sound too

negative. But you can imply that things aren’t very good by say-

ing, for example, (I) can’t complain or (They) could be worse:

⋅ How are things at work? — Oh, not too bad. Can’t complain.

⋅ How are you doing? — Oh, OK. Could be worse.

(Replies of this kind probably mean that things aren’t very good

at all.)

You can also ask about other people in a similar way:

⋅ How’s Joanna getting on at university? — Oh, she’s doing

really well.

⋅ How’s Paul doing these days? — He’s fine, as far as I know.

Wishes

When you say goodbye, you often wish someone well. The nor-

mal way to do this would be to say Have... or Hope you have...:

⋅ Have a safe journey!

⋅ Bye! Have a good trip!

⋅ Hope you have a nice time in Italy.

In reply, you could say Same to you! or You, too!:

⋅ Have a good weekend! — Yeah, thanks. Same to you!

You may also want to give a warning or a piece of advice. You

can do this by using an imperative form with the question tag

...won’t you? or the phrase Mind you...:

⋅ Take care!

⋅ Keep in touch, won’t you?

⋅ Mind you get enough sleep.

SPOKEN ENGLISH

How are you

getting on?

How do we greet other people and pass on wishes in

conversational English? Read the explanations and try

the exercises. By ADRIAN DOFF

MEDIUM PLUS

Spotlight 11/2019

bold [bEUld]

, Fettdruck

catch up [(kÄtS Vp]

, hier: sich auf den

neusten Stand bringen

lassen

imply [Im(plaI]

, andeuten

question tag

[(kwestSEn tÄg]

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