In America, it is customary to "greet" a person we know when we see them. A greeting is not necessarily meant to begin a conversation; it can be meant to acknowledge a friend or acquaintance as we pass by them.
There are two kinds of greetings; informal and formal.
1. An informal greeting is one that is used when you see a friend, colleague, younger person, someone having the same position or lower than you do at work, etc. We usually begin a greeting with "hi", and then can include one of the following:
"How's it going?"
"What's new?"
"What's up?"
"How's everything going?"
"What's going on?"
"How are you?"
2. A formal greeting is one that is used with people of importance, such as your boss, president of your company, someone that you hold in high regard, etc. We also can begin these greeting with "hello" or "hi" and follow it with one of the following.
"How are you today?"
"It's nice to see you this morning"
"How are you?"
"Good morning"
"Good afternoon"
Please remember that when someone you know acknowledges you by greeting you, you MUST respond. If a person you know greets you and just walk right past them, they will think you are either rude or upset with them for some reason.
Let's look at how you can respond to greetings.
1. Examples of responses to informal greetings can include the following:
"What's up?": "not much, and you?"
"What's new?": "same old, same old"
"How's everything going?" "pretty good, and you?
"Hi": "hi", how are you?"
"How are you?": "great,
and you?"
2. Examples of responses to more formal greetings can include the following:
"How are you today?": "very well, thank you, and you?".
"It's nice to see you this morning": "thank you, you too".
"How are you?": "fine, thanks, and you?"
"Good morning": "good morning"
"Good afternoon": "good afternoon"
