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, and you'd like to see more
topics like this on my speak, Confident English channel,
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one of my future lessons. Thank you so much for joining me and
we'll see you next time for your Confident English lesson.
