20 Ways to Ask 'How Are You' in English [Expand Your Vocabulary]

Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

This is exactly where you want to be every week to get the confidence you want

for your life and work in English. Let's talk about the question.

How are you imagine you're outside taking a walk in the neighborhood.

You see one of your neighbors outside watering her garden and she says, Hey,

how are you?

Except those are not really the words that she'll probably use

in English. We have a variety of ways that we ask that question,

'how are you' particularly in casual conversations with friends,

neighbors, and coworkers we see every day.

Although you probably learned to ask,

how are you in almost every grammar book or traditional classroom,

it's very rare that you'll actually hear those words

used.

And how you answer that question will depend on what is really asked both in

casual and professional conversations.

In today's Confident English lesson,

you'll learn 20 different ways that Americans are likely to ask that question.

How are you? We'll focus on casual conversations,

professional and what you'll likely hear or what you can say when you

haven't seen someone for a long time with each example,

I'll tell you exactly what the question is.

Really asking how you can best respond.

Plus the pronunciation that Americans are likely to use.

So you recognize the question when you hear it, because the truth is,

Americans are not likely to use every word or say every

word clearly. Then at the end,

I'll share with you how you can know when an American

really wants a full answer to the question.

How are you, when do they really want to know how you are doing?

When do they want the full story?

Let's get started with 12 ways we can ask, how are you for casual conversations.

When I say casual, what I mean is anyone that you know, well, for example,

coworkers,

you spend a lot of time with or neighbors that you've developed a friendship

with, or people you see regularly. For example,

if there's someone you see every Monday, Wednesday,

and Friday at the yoga studio. In those situations,

the first common way that you'll hear someone ask,

how are you is how's it going? How's it going?

Listen carefully to the pronunciation I'm using there. How's it going?

What words am I really using? I'm really saying,

how is it going?

But I'm not saying all those words clearly instead I'm using the

contraction how's for how is,

and I'm blending it with that word.

It how's it going when someone asks, how's it going,

they're really asking how are you? Or how is everything?

It's a very general question. And when we answer,

we usually respond with good. I'm good. Everything's good.

Question number two is what's up.

Or sometimes you might just hear sup, for example,

if you walk by someone, you might hear them say sup,

or what's up as a way to say hello. It's just a form of politeness,

but it's extremely casual.

What's up can also be used just like the question, how are you,

a general question of what's going on or how things are going when

someone is using it. In that context,

we typically respond with something like not much,

which means there's not a lot going on or nothing's really happening.

Similar to not much.

We might also say nothing or nothing much or not a whole lot.

In other words, I really have nothing to complain about. I'm not doing anything.

There's not a lot going on. That might not really be true.

You might actually have a lot happening in your life.

But when someone asks the question, what's up, they're looking for a quick,

simple answer. Like not much.

There's one more situation when we often ask the question, what's up.

But before I talk about it, I want to remind you that at the end of this lesson,

I am going to share how you can know when an American

really wants to know how you're doing.

So we'll talk about that toward the end of the lesson,

but let's get back to this question. What's up.

If you're at work and someone knocks on your door and says, Hey,

do you have a quick second? Or do you have a minute? I have a quick question.

Our usual response is, yeah, what's up. In other words, yes,

I have a moment what's going on or what do you need to talk about?

Question number three is what are you up to? This is one I use all the time.

Especially when I call my brother or my sister on the telephone.

When someone asks, what are you up to? They're asking,

what are you doing right now?

And that means we have so many options for how to respond.

If my sister calls me right now and says, Hey, Annemarie, what are you up to?

I would say, I'm working or I'm recording a video.

Whatever's happening in the moment is how you respond.

So you could also say things like I'm watching a movie, I'm cooking dinner,

I'm doing laundry, I'm taking a walk. And so on,

similar to what are you up to is what have you been up to?

What have you been up to? These are the words I'm using.

What have you been up to? What have you been up to when I ask,

what have you been up to?

It means what have you been doing or what has been going on in your

life since we last, or since I last saw you?

So let's go back to this example of me calling my sister.

If I call and I say, Hey, what are you up to?

She will tell me what she's doing in the moment. But if I say, Hey,

what have you been up to?

She will tell me what she has been doing over the last few

days or for the last week, since I last spoke to her.

And usually we focus on whatever has been the top priority or has

kept most of our focus.

So you might answer with things like I've been getting started on a new project

at work.

Or the kids and I have been spending a lot of time outside for the summer.

The next two questions are very similar to what are you up to

and what have you been up to. Question number five is what's going on?

This is exactly the same is what are you up to in other words,

what are you doing right now? Question number six is what's been going on.

And this is just like, what have you been up to?

They're asking about what has been happening in your life.

What have you been focused on? How have you been doing,

since we last spoke.

Question number seven for casual ways to say, how are you is how ya been.

What do you think I'm really saying there,

what words should I really be using?

What I'm really asking is how have you been?

Or how have you been since I last saw you,

but when we're speaking casually, we blend our sounds together.

And it sounds like how ya been. And when we answer, we keep it very simple.

Good. I've been good. Everything's fine.

Question number eight is what's new or what's new with you.

We typically ask this when we haven't seen someone for a while and we want to

find out what the latest news or information might be.

When we answer this question,

we have two options and it depends on what has really been happening in our

life. If something significant has happened,

something big changed in your life, like getting a new job,

buying a new home or apartment,

or maybe you're making plans to move to a new country.

Then you could respond with something like I just started a new job or we're

getting ready to move. But if nothing significant has happened,

if there haven't been any major changes in your life,

then when someone says what's new, we usually respond with not a lot,

not much. Question number nine is everything good?

You might also hear some people ask is everything okay?

And when they ask everything good,

it's a way to check in on you to make sure that things are fine.

And that means they're assuming maybe things are not fine.

Imagine you and your coworkers are having a meeting to discuss issue.

That's been going on at work. Things have been tense. Everyone's stressed.

And even the discussion in the team meeting is a little bit difficult.

But at the end of the discussion,

there is some resolution to finish the meeting to make sure

everyone is okay,

your boss or someone on the team might ask everything good?

In other words, is everyone okay? Is everyone happy? And the response would be,

yeah, everything's fine. Question number 10 is how's things.

This one is absolutely grammatically incorrect. How's things.

What do you think is wrong with this question?

The word things is plural,

but I'm using the verb is how is how's things.

If I wanted to make this grammatically correct, I would say, how are things?

And we can certainly use that.

But casually you'll also hear how's things.

If someone asks how's things or how are things it's

extremely general, it means they don't really remember.

Or maybe they just don't know anything specific about what's happening in your

life.

So they're just asking a very general question and your answer would be

everything's good. Everything's fine.

Question number 11 for how to casually ask how someone is doing is how are you

holding up? This question assumes that something difficult,

unpleasant or even tragic has happened.

It assumes that you have not been doing well.

And they're asking this question because they want to know, are you doing okay?

Are you feeling okay? Things have been difficult, something terrible happened.

And I'm checking in to see if you're doing okay.

The reason this is considered a casual question is if something

terrible or difficult happened in someone's life,

you probably only know that because you have a close relationship.

Similar to how are you holding up is how are you feeling? And again,

this question implies that maybe someone hasn't been feeling very well,

either due to an illness or again, some difficult or tragic situation.

If you know someone has been ill, you might ask, how are you feeling?

I heard that you had the flu.

This question is the perfect place to end casual questions for how are you?

Because we can also use it professionally.

How are you feeling is also a question we ask just

before someone does something that they feel nervous about.

For example,

if you have a coworker getting ready to do a presentation in English before they

give the presentation, you might ask, how are you feeling? Do you need anything?

Let's continue with five more questions for how are you that are used in more

professional or formal situations? And the first one is, how are you doing?

This is perfect. If you're meeting a potential new client,

if you're at a networking function,

or if you see a coworker you don't know very well.

And because this is a professional situation. When we respond to this question,

we keep it simple and positive. I'm fine.

Everything's fine. Everything's good.

Question number 14 on our list is how is ______

going? This is where we insert something specific that we know,

for example, how's work going. How's your new project going?

Similarly, we can ask,

how are things at work or how are things with your new client?

These two examples allow you to ask about something very specific happening in

someone's life. Question number 16 on our list is how've you been?

Or how have you been, if you remember question number seven was how,

ya. How ya been, all of these are asking the same thing.

How you been, how have you been? How have you been?

But when we're in a more professional or formal situation,

we make sure that our pronunciation is clear.

We're more likely to say each word clearly.

How have you been or use simple contractions?

How have you been?

But we're not as likely to blend any sounds together like we

did with some of the casual questions. So if someone asks,

how have you been again?

They're simply asking how have you been doing since I last saw you

once again, your response will typically be, everything's been fine.

Everything's good.

The last question on our list for professional or formal situations is what have

you been working on? Not only is this a good alternative to asking how are you?

It's also a great conversation starter because it opens the door to a

more detailed or in depth answer,

not something like I'm fine or everything's good. If someone asks,

what have you been working on?

They're asking you to go into detail about something that has been occupying

your time, whether it's at work or at home. Now,

before we talk more about how you can know when someone really wants to

know how you're doing, there are three more questions I want to focus on.

These are three questions you can use to ask.

How are you when you haven't seen someone for a long time in those

situations,

we often start with a statement that acknowledges that it has been a very long

time since we've seen someone. And then we follow that up with a question.

Here are three common ways that we do that. Number one,

I haven't seen you for ages. How have you been? Number two,

It's been way too long since I've seen you,

or it's been way too long since we've spoken. What have you been up to?

And number three, I remember the last time I saw you,

you had just _____,

and then we insert something specific that happened at that time.

For example, I remember the last time I saw you, you had just bought a new home,

or I remember the last time we spoke, you were just starting a new job.

How's that going with? All three of those questions?

When we respond, we usually give a more detailed or specific answer,

but it still stays focused on the positive.

I'm sure you've noticed by now that when responding to any of these questions,

the answers are very general and usually very positive.

We don't go into a lot of detail about what's happening in our life.

The truth is in casual conversation or small talk,

when someone asks a question related to how are you,

they're not looking for a long story. They just want something quick and simple.

Like, I'm fine. Everything's good. So how can you know,

when someone really wants to know what's happening or what's going on or how

you're feeling? There are generally two ways you can know.

The first is if someone asks a question about something very specific,

for example, if someone asks, how are things going at your new job,

or how are things at the new company. The second way you can know,

if someone really wants some detailed information is they will ask you two

times. The first time will be a general form of politeness.

It's just part of a greeting. And the second time they ask,

they really want to know what's going on. Here's how that might sound.

If I see one of my neighbors outside, the first thing I'll say is, Hey,

how's it going? When I say that it's really just a long greeting.

It's a long way to say hello. So when my neighbor responds,

they might say, Hey, good to see you. How's it going?

They'll actually repeat the same question back to me without answering

again. This is really just a long greeting, a form of politeness.

Once both of us have done that after we've greeted each other and had that

polite exchange, then I might ask a second question.

And this time I really want to know how my neighbor is doing.

So I might ask something like,

how have things been going since you started working from home? Do you notice,

I'm asking a really specific question in this situation,

I'm asking for a more in depth, more detailed answer.

And I really want to know how things are going.

If I don't know my neighbor very well,

maybe I don't know that they've been working from home,

but I do want a more in depth, more meaningful conversation.

Then I can ask, how are you, or how have you been doing,

or what's been going on a second time.

And here's what that would sound like. First, I see my neighbor and I say, Hey,

how's it going? My neighbor responds and says, Hey, how's it going?

Good to see you. Then I'll use some kind of a transition word.

Like, so how are you doing? Because I've asked a second time,

I'm signaling that this time.

I want to know how they're doing and what's happening in their life.

So that opens the door for my neighbor to start talking about what's happening

in his or her life. And that's how you know,

if someone really wants to hear what's going on either,

they'll ask about something specific or they'll ask a question the second time.

If you found this lesson useful to you,

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