Greetings II Covid

Improving your English language skills involves a lot of dedication. And after you’re comfortable enough with basic vocabulary such as “hello”, it’s important to push yourself to the next level and learn how to express yourself in a number of other ways – after all, English language speakers have many different ways of saying the same (or similar) things.

With this in mind, here are some ways to meet, greet and say goodbye in English:

Next video shows some answers to greetings and farewells.

Meetings and greetings

1. Hello, hi, hey

Within the English speaking world, people often say “hi”. Some people also say “hey” – usually when meeting people they are particularly close to or have met many times before.

It’s also important to know that the word “hey” can be used to grab someone’s attention. So, if you’re using it to say “hello” to a person, try to say the word in a calm, relaxed way rather than with emphasis as you might do when trying to make them notice you from afar.

2. How’s it going? How are you doing?

As well as “how are you?” many people also say “how’s it going?” or “how are you doing?” to which the reply might be something like “it’s going well” or “I’m fine/I’m good”.

It’s important to note the pronunciation of “going”. Said quickly, “going” can sound like “go-in”.

3. What’s up? What’s new?

If you bump into someone you’ve not seen in a while, it’s normal to say something like “hey, what’s up” or “hey man, what’s new?” This is an informal way of starting a conversation and showing interest in someone’s life.  While some people will answer with “nothing” or “not much”, others will engage in a little small talk about something interesting that is happening or has happened.

If someone asks you this question, feel free to say as much or as little as you like depending on what’s appropriate at the time. Be aware, however, that in English culture, people don’t typically give away a lot of personal information during a brief, informal or accidental meeting.

3. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening

Instead of saying “hello”, you can say “good morning”, “good afternoon” or “good evening” depending on what time of day it is. To make the greeting less formal, you could also simply just say “morning”, “afternoon” or “evening” with a nod of the head, hand wave or smile. If you want to wish someone well for the night before leaving or sleeping, you can also say goodnight.

Saying goodbye

1. Bye!

Instead of “goodbye”, you can quite simply say “bye” or “bye, bye”.

2. See ya, see you soon, hope to see you soon

If you are leaving but plan to meet a person in the near future you can say anything like: “see you” or “hope to see you soon”.

3. Take it easy, take care, take care of yourself

These three ways of saying goodbye encourage the person in question to look after themselves until you see them again. While informal, they are a polite, friendly way to end a meeting.

So, how are you greeting people now, during COVID-19?

Okay! Learn about your preferences and have fun using these greetings now!

For more on greetings click here.

Simple lessons…

Beginning of a new week!

What about a great message of encouragement? That’s the farewell of HEINEKEN CEO Jean-François van Boxmeer.

Listen carefully to it! His pronunciation is so clear! Write down the transcript! Let’s look closely at the words and how they combine together. You can check how many useful words are pronounced and used, like the word: worth.

What are the few simple lessons he shared? What do you think about these tips?

Now, concerning the difficult times we’re going through, what does he say? Does his message put you in low spirits?

It rained cats and dogs!

Assim como no português, a língua inglesa possui uma infinidade de expressões idiomáticas, os chamados idioms.  

Idioms são combinações de palavras que devem ser compreendidas por seu sentido figurado, e devem fazer parte do seu repertório.

O nosso “mamão com açúcar”, por exemplo, em inglês é, “a piece of cake”. Algumas dessas combinações, têm semelhança com as da língua portuguesa. É o caso de “a cara de um, focinho do outro, ou the spitting image”. Há outras, cujo significado é expresso exatamente pelo significado de cada palavra nela contida, como: “antes tarde do que nunca, “better late than never”

Os weather idioms, podem conter vocábulos relacionados ao tempo, clima, mas serem aplicados à outros contextos, como snowed under with work.

Allowed back to work!

Okay! In times of pandemic and social distance as being the main strategy for stopping the disease, words like social distance itself , quarantine, containment and confinement, allowed or not allowed, come up all the time.

We’ve already had the chance to work with the other words in context. Today we’re going to look atallow‘ within the context of the image above.

allow verb (PERMISSION)

[transitive] 1 can do something to let someone do or have something, or let something happen [= permit]

allow somebody/something to do something

My parents wouldn’t allow me to go to the party.
Women are not allowed to enter the mosque.
Don’t allow your problems to dominate your life.

allow somebody something
Passengers are allowed one item of hand luggage each.
How much time are we allowed?

allow somebody in/out/up etc
I don’t allow the cat in the bedroom.
The audience is not allowed backstage.

something is (not) allowed (=something is or is not officially permitted)
Are dictionaries allowed in the exam?
We don’t allow diving in the pool.

2 make something possible to make it possible for something to happen or for someone to do something, especially something helpful or useful [= permit]:

This adjustment of the figures allows a fairer comparison.

allow for
Our new system will allow for more efficient use of resources.

allow somebody to do something
A 24-hour ceasefire allowed the two armies to reach an agreement.

allow somebody something
a seatbelt that allows the driver greater freedom of movement

Be careful with pronunciation!