How nice to see you.
How was your journey?
Those are a few useful greetings for English speakers. If you're talking Alsatian then you might instead say buschur, if you're taking Eritrean you might say tadiyalä, and if you're talking Klingon you might say nuqneH.
For the grumpy ones among you, a grunt performs the same function as any of these greetings, as does a glare.
But even if you hate absolutely everybody absolutely all the time then sometimes it's necessary to be charming. If you're trying to sell your house, for instance, then they say that greeting prospective buyers with the scent of baking bread is likely to be more effective than a fierce greeting growl from a bull mastiff.
Still, whatever happens, it's no good greeting (if you're a Scot that means weeping or lamenting). So pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and go off and find a friend to cheer you up.
'Hey!'
'Oh, hi. How are you?'
Beware of that last greeting, though. Because unless it's your best friend, your doctor or your mother asking how you are, then you know something?
Yep. No one really wants to know.
Thing To Do Today. Possibly. Greet. These two completely different words were both written grētan in Old English. The one meaning hello is related to the Old High German gruozzen, to address, and the one meaning to weep is related to the Middle High German grazen.
ē
Well, hello there!
ReplyDeleteHow are you? No, really, how are you?!
That's a question for those whom you do care how they are doing! I learnt that the hard way! :)
If I'm asked, I usually say I'm doing just fine. I figure if I can answer the question, I must be!
'All right, I think. I haven't noticed anything dropping off.'
DeleteIt is funny in English how, if one properly answers greetings such as "How are you?", "How's it going?", etc, you often get a blank look back, a look that says "Oh ... you thought I was really asking ..."
ReplyDeleteIf you're looking to annoy someone properly then heave a long-suffering sigh and say, bravely, "bearing up!"
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