Greetings And Farewells

Greetings, farewells, and

special expressions

A Greetings

Neutral to formal: Less formal:

A: Hi./Hello. How are you? A: Hi/Hey. How are things? /

B: Fine, thank you. / Fine, thanks. How’s it going? / How’re you doing?

. . . How are you? / How B: Pretty good. / OK. / All right. /

about you? I’m good. . . . How about you?

We sometimes use these greetings at different times of day:

Good morning. / Good afternoon. / Good evening. [We

don’t use Good night as a greeting.]

When meeting someone for the first time, we can say:

Nice to meet you. [The answer could be Nice to meet you

too. / Same here.]

How do you do? / Pleased to meet you. (formal)

B Farewells

Good-bye. (neutral to formal)

Take care. / Take it easy. / So long. / Bye. / See you. (less formal)

See you later. / See you soon. [if you plan to see someone again, soon]

Good/Nice to see you. [a greeting or a farewell to someone you already know]

Nice meeting you. [to say good-bye to someone you’ve just met for the first time]

Good night. [to say good-bye late at night or if one or both of you is going to bed]

Have a nice day/evening/weekend. [to say good-bye to a friend or colleague or to

a customer in a store; the response could be: You too.]

C Special expressions

56

UNIT 27

Nice to meet you.

Same here.

Excuse/Pardon me. (a) To get someone’s attention. (b) To get past someone who is in

your way. (c) To say you are sorry, e.g., if you stand on someone’s

foot. [or: I beg your pardon.] (d) Say Excuse me (not Pardon me)

before you leave the room.

Excuse/Pardon me? / To ask someone to repeat what was said.

I beg your pardon?

To your health. / A toast when people have a drink together. It could also be To

Cheers. your new job. / To friendship. / To romance. etc.

Good luck! To wish someone success, e.g., on exams / a job interview / a

contest.

Congratulations. To someone who has achieved something or had good fortune,

e.g., found a job, graduated, got a raise. Also Good job! or Nice

going! (informal)

Bless you. To someone when they sneeze. They can reply: Thank you. / Thanks.

Happy birthday. / To wish someone well on their birthday / on or soon after New

Happy New Year. Year’s Day (often printed or written on greeting cards).

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press

978-0-521-63478-6 - Vocabulary in Use Intermediate

Stuart Redman

Excerpt

More information

Exercises

27.1 What would you say or write to a friend in these situations?

1. Your friend turns 21 tomorrow. Happy birthday! / Congratulations!

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