Learn 23 Advanced Ways to Say "Hello" in English with Style

You’ve probably learned basic greetings like,  “Hello” and “How are you?” which are useful  

in a wide range of situations,  but they are… kind of… boring.

- Morning, class! - Hello. Hi! 

- Morning, how are you? - I'm fine, thank you. And you?

Schools love teaching that!

“I’m fine, thank you, and you?” But it just doesn’t work so well in real life.  

Same thing with “hi” and “hello.” When I first  came to Spain, I didn't understand how important  

greetings were when meeting new people. I  used to greet my new friend by saying "hola"  

but people tend to use many  alternatives over this common one. 

So what's wrong with saying  "hi", "hello" and "how are you"? 

Well, not much. They’re universal and you can use  them, but it’s a good idea to know when you can  

use other options so that you match your language,  tone and attitude to the context in question. 

In this lesson, you’ll learn 23 alternatives  to the more basic “hellos” and “how  

are yous” so that you start your conversation  in style, and in a more fun and vibrant way.

When I first came to Spain I didn’t understand how  important greetings were when meeting new people.  

I used to greet my new friend by saying, “Hola,”  

but people tend to use many  alternatives over this common one! 

The result of saying this is that people  would think that I didn’t speak Spanish  

and would ask my friends questions  about me instead of asking me directly.

I was pretty annoyed by this but I realized it  was my own fault that they treated me like that  

because I didn’t greet them in a way that they  were expecting. Once I started saying things like,  

“buenos dias” or even just ‘buenas’ people  started treating me like a normal person.

Let’s start with a few:

One that you should never, ever use unless  it’s the right situation is “How do you do?”

The first moments of an interaction you  have with someone are crucial because  

they set the tone for the conversation to follow.

If you start a conversation  doubting yourself and unsure  

of what you’re saying this will affect your  performance for the rest of the conversation.

But if you can effortlessly use the right  greetings then you will feel confident  

during the rest of the conversation. If you  greet someone with confidence they will feel  

more comfortable with you and will  form a positive first impression.

The following group of greetings can  be used in any informal situation.  

To show extra enthusiasm you can add  “Hey” to the beginning of these greetings.

The pronunciation can be shortened to  “goin'" and typical response to this  

question is “It’s going good.” A few more elaborated ones are:

This one is highly informal and should  only be used with people around your  

age. The pronunciation is often shortened to  crackin'. It's similar in use to what's up.

You can also say:

All the greetings that we’ve seen so far work for  people you see regularly. If you meet a friend  

that you haven’t seen for a long time you can say… So, this one is interesting because rather than  

pronouncing each word where it would sound like  "what have you been up to all these years",  

we really reduce a lot of these words so that we  sound more fluid and natural. So it sounds like...  

so what have becomes what've and you is just  ya and been is bin. "What've ya bin up to." So  

it's got more of a flow and a melody to it. That last one is a playful way of greeting  

someone. A few more casual ways to greet  someone you haven't seen in a long time are...

This is definitely the most common.

Now that you have this list of greetings  at your disposal, go out into the world and  

start practicing them. Make sure you use them  with confidence so that you make a good first  

impression. Try to use a different greeting  every time you have English class or meet  

your English speaking friends. Now here's a  great lesson for you to continue learning with.