36 Smart and Interesting Responses to 'HOW ARE YOU?'

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- Hello, everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today I'm doing one of your requests.

Somebody asked me how to respond to "how are you".

And they don't just want to say I'm fine or "I'm good",

some more advanced, interesting and creative ways

to answer "how are you".

Now I've mentioned before this question,

"how are you" does not always mean

what do you think it means.

It's not always necessary to reply to "how are you"

with "how you are."

In this lesson, I'm going to tell you all about

how to answer this very common and important question

and I'm going to help you sound more advanced

and more like a native speaker.

For get started, I would just like to thank the sponsor

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Right.

Let's get started with the lesson.

Firstly, I want to discuss some common mistakes

that non native speakers often make

and some native speakers as well.

And there's also a perceived mistake,

natives will tell you that you're wrong

but you're actually right and we'll go through that.

Many people will tell you that it's incorrect

to respond to "how are you" with, "I'm good."

They say it's wrong.

It's not wrong to any natives who are listening

and thinking, Oh, my word, my mother told me

it was wrong my whole life.

Your mother was wrong, I'm sorry.

Even my own parents told me that it was wrong to say

"I'm good", I should say, I'm well.

However, in this case, good can be used.

I think my parents probably told me not to say it

because it sounded too American

and as a child, I had this terrible habit

of picking up phrases that I'd seen on American TV shows

and using them in a tiny little British accent

and they hated it.

Saying "I'm good" is grammatically correct if you are

not directly referring to your health.

So if you're just saying in general, I am good, it's fine.

Just as if you would say, in general, I am bad.

"I'm well" is also fine and it normally means

that you're referring to your health for saying good

or satisfactory.

However, this is where people get confused.

If you say "I'm doing well" that's fine,

but be careful when responding with "I'm doing good."

Because if you say I am doing good,

it means you are doing good things

like visiting homeless shelters

and donating toys to children's hospitals, good things.

You aren't talking about how you are.

Now, let's take a look at some easy ways to say

I'm good or I'm fine.

I'm good, I'm fine, I'm well, I'm pretty overused

they're very, very boring.

So if you want to impress an examiner

will impress a native speaker or just your friends

and family, take a look at these.

We can add pretty.

So we'd say, I'm pretty good, I'm pretty well,

you could say pretty fine.

Maybe not as much in the UK, but maybe more in America.

Pretty in this case means fairly.

I'm fairly good, I'm fairly well.

You can also say quite, I'm quite good, I'm quite well,

but that sounds much more formal.

"I'm quite well, thank you," very formal to me.

If you want to emphasise how good you are,

you can say really, I'm really good, really well.

Now those are still pretty basic.

So what about some more interesting ways to respond

to "how are you."

Well, one I really like is I've never been better,

shorten to never been better.

This means that you are feeling truly great.

You could also say, so far so good.

This is also commonly used if you're doing a task

you're talking about the progress until now

it's been going well, your life has been going well.

Another one one that I'm seeing a lot nowadays

is can't complain.

And this can be said in more than one way,

it depends on the tone of voice.

If I say can't complain, it means my life's amazing

but I don't want to brag about it,

so I'm just gonna say can't complain.

If I said, "can't complain, I guess I can't complain,"

it means could be worse.

The more common use is the sort of self deprecating,

not wanting to show off kind of use.

And another one is, "Better than I deserve."

I like this one, it's quite funny.

This is quite a tongue in cheek one.

Okay, I'm going to give you a couple of silly ones

as well if you want to make people laugh or cringe.

If you're a dog lover,

and someone asks you how you are, you could say,

"if I had a tail, I would wag it."

(laughing)

And you can also have a couple of flirty ones.

If someone says "how are you,"

you could reply with Word on the street is

"I'm pretty good."

(chuckling)

Or I'm great, but I'm totally biassed.

I love those ones, I'm standing on my own

in my studio dancing alone

how much I like these ones.

Now, what do you say if you're neither good, nor bad?

If you are, okay, I'm okay is really, really boring, though.

Let's look at some other more exciting ones like,

I'm all right.

(laughing)

Now I wanted to mention I'm all right,

because it's a unique one in the sense that it can be both

a question and an answer.

I might say to someone, all right,

and they'll say, All right.

So it's like, "how are you"?

Yeah, I'm okay.

It's very, very frequently used

and just be careful on the pronunciation

we don't always pronounce the "L".

We say all right.

Another one is, so so, so so, could be better.

The next one, not too bad, is again,

one that depends on tone of voice.

If I say, not too bad, it means good,

but in this case, not too bad,

it means, I'm not great.

Another one, could be better, could be better,

but I could also be worse that something

you can add on to the end.

If everything's just really boring and average,

you can say, same old, same old really.

Another couple which mean you just this close

to being bad is I'm alive, or I'm surviving.

(laughing)

And the last, good enough, good enough.

There used to be a teacher at my school Mr. Good Enough

and I thought, what a I don't wanna say his name,

but just who named him in the past.

He's not great, but he's good enough,

let's call him Mr. Good enough.

A couple of funny ones, especially sarcastic ones,

they're quite useful.

You could say I'm all right now,

but there's still time for everything to go horribly wrong.

Or a flat one, better now, that I'm talking to you.

That's quite a charming one.

Now what should you say if you are bad,

if you feel terrible, just you're not having a good day

for whatever reason.

Well, quite a good way to start off a complaint

or a negative phrase is to start with,

I'm not going to lie...

That is a nice way to prepare someone

for the negativity that is about to escape your mouth.

I'm not gonna lie, I feel terrible.

You could also say, I'm not doing so well

or I'm struggling a bit,

these to imply that you're struggling,

maybe a little bit mentally or emotionally as well.

So it's important to watch out for somebody

who says these to you, because they might need

a bit of support.

The same way with "I'm snowed under"

to be snowed under means you've just got too much work,

you're completely under pressure.

Or it's been a tough day, week or year.

It's been a bit of a tough week.

Another one, I'm not having an easy time at the moment.

Watch out for people who say those phrases

because sometimes they're reaching out a little bit

and might need support.

Now what happens if you feel bad,

but you don't necessarily want to talk about it?

Well, I have some phrases you can use to avoid the question.

If someone asks, "how are you",

you could say you don't want to know.

Or don't ask, honestly, just don't ask me.

Another one, "Do I have to answer that?"

Maybe if they know that you're not having a good time,

and they've asked, "how are you" anyway,

which is a bit annoying, you could say,

"Do I really have to answer that,"

I think you already know.

Or what happens if somebody asks "how are you" really early

in the morning, you could say,

"it's too early to tell."

And if you are feeling ill a nice idiom we can use is,

I'm a bit under the weather.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather,

I'm not feeling very well.

And finally, a couple of funny ones,

you could say, "overworked and underpaid!"

I remember there was a teacher who would always say that

when I asked him how he was, "how are you,"

overworked and underpaid, but I'm doing Okay, thank you.

You could also say, slowly but surely dying actually.

Aren't we all?

If you want to be really sarcastic,

you could say, somewhere between blah and meh

or if you just need a hug, you could say,

just hug me and leave it at that.

Right, that's it for today's lesson,

I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned something.

Don't forget to check out italki you can get your $10 worth

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Lucy Bella Earl.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

(kisses)

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