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English with Lucy
36 Smart and Interesting Responses to 'HOW ARE YOU?'
36 Smart and Interesting Responses to 'HOW ARE YOU?'
English with Lucy
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12:18 · Dec 11, 2019
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0:09
(soft music) - Hello, everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy.
0:13
Today I'm doing one of your requests.
0:16
Somebody asked me how to respond to "how are you".
0:20
And they don't just want to say I'm fine or "I'm good",
0:24
some more advanced, interesting and creative ways to answer "how are you".
0:29
Now I've mentioned before this question,
0:32
"how are you" does not always mean what do you think it means.
0:37
It's not always necessary to reply to "how are you" with "how you are."
0:43
In this lesson, I'm going to tell you all about how to answer this
0:48
very common and important question
0:51
and I'm going to help you sound more advanced
0:54
and more like a native speaker.
0:56
For get started, I would just like to thank the sponsor of today's lesson
1:00
it is italki.
1:01
If you haven't heard of it before it's a huge online database of both
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tutor or a language Academy.
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So many people messaged me
1:32
and asked me how they can meet
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and chat with native speakers.
1:36
I talkie is a really great option
1:39
because not only do they have their qualified teachers,
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they also have community teachers who will practise conversation with you.
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They've given me an offer to pass on to you,
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you can get $10 worth of it credits in your student wallet 48 hours
1:55
after making your first purchase of any amount.
1:57
All you've got to do is click on the Link in the description box
2:00
and sign up.
2:02
Right.
2:03
Let's get started with the lesson.
2:06
Firstly, I want to discuss some common mistakes
2:09
that non native speakers often make
2:12
and some native speakers
2:15
as well.
2:15
And there's also a perceived mistake,
2:17
natives will tell you
2:19
that you're wrong but you're actually right
2:21
and we'll go through
2:22
that.
2:23
Many people will tell you
2:25
that it's incorrect to respond to "how are you" with,
2:29
"I'm good."
2:30
They say it's wrong.
2:31
It's not wrong to any natives who are listening and thinking, Oh, my word,
2:35
my mother told me it was wrong my whole life.
2:37
Your mother was wrong, I'm sorry.
2:39
Even my own parents told me that it was wrong to say "I'm good",
2:44
I should say, I'm well.
2:46
However, in this case, good can be used.
2:51
I think my parents probably told me not to say it
2:54
because it sounded too American
2:55
and as a child,
2:57
I had this terrible habit of picking up phrases
3:00
that I'd seen on American TV shows
3:02
and using them in a tiny little British accent
3:05
and they hated it.
3:07
Saying "I'm good" is grammatically correct
3:11
if you are not directly referring to your health.
3:14
So if you're just saying in general, I am good, it's fine.
3:18
Just as if you would say, in general, I am bad.
3:21
"I'm well" is also fine
3:24
and it normally means
3:25
that you're referring to your health for saying good
3:27
or satisfactory.
3:30
However, this is where people get confused.
3:33
If you say "I'm doing well" that's fine,
3:37
but be careful when responding with "I'm doing good."
3:41
Because if you say I am doing good,
3:46
it means you are doing good things like visiting homeless shelters
3:51
and donating toys to children's hospitals,
3:54
good things.
3:55
You aren't talking about how you are.
3:58
Now, let's take a look at some easy ways to say I'm good
4:03
or I'm fine.
4:04
I'm good, I'm fine, I'm well, I'm pretty overused they're very, very boring.
4:10
So if you want to impress an examiner will impress a native speaker
4:14
or just your friends
4:15
and family,
4:16
take a look at these.
4:17
We can add pretty.
4:20
So we'd say, I'm pretty good, I'm pretty well, you could say pretty fine.
4:26
Maybe not as much in the UK, but maybe more in America.
4:30
Pretty in this case means fairly.
4:33
I'm fairly good, I'm fairly well.
4:35
You can also say quite, I'm quite good, I'm quite well,
4:39
but that sounds much more formal.
4:42
"I'm quite well, thank you," very formal to me.
4:45
If you want to emphasise how good you are, you can say really,
4:51
I'm really good, really well.
4:54
Now those are still pretty basic.
4:56
So what about some more interesting ways to respond to "how are you."
5:00
Well, one I really like is I've never been better,
5:04
shorten to never been better.
5:07
This means that you are feeling truly great.
5:11
You could also say, so far so good.
5:14
This is also commonly used
5:16
if you're doing a task you're talking about the progress until now it's been
5:21
going well,
5:22
your life has been going well.
5:24
Another one one that I'm seeing a lot nowadays is can't complain.
5:30
And this can be said in more than one way,
5:32
it depends on the tone of voice.
5:34
If I say can't complain,
5:37
it means my life's amazing but I don't want to brag about it,
5:40
so I'm just gonna say can't complain.
5:42
If I said, "can't complain,
5:45
I guess I can't complain," it means could be worse.
5:50
The more common use is the sort of self deprecating,
5:54
not wanting to show off kind of use.
5:56
And another one is, "Better than I deserve."
6:01
I like this one, it's quite funny.
6:03
This is quite a tongue in cheek one.
6:06
Okay, I'm going to give you a couple of silly ones
6:09
as well if you want to make people laugh
6:10
or cringe.
6:11
If you're a dog lover, and someone asks you how you are,
6:17
you could say, "if I had a tail,
6:19
I would wag it." (laughing)
6:23
And you can also have a couple of flirty ones.
6:28
If someone says "how are you," you could reply with Word on the street
6:32
is "I'm pretty good." (chuckling)
6:37
Or I'm great,
6:40
but I'm totally biassed.
6:41
I love those ones,
6:45
I'm standing on my own in my studio dancing alone how much I like
6:49
these ones.
6:50
Now, what do you say if you're neither good, nor bad?
6:54
If you are, okay, I'm okay is really, really boring, though.
7:00
Let's look at some other more exciting ones like,
7:03
I'm all right. (laughing) Now I wanted to mention I'm all right,
7:08
because it's a unique one in the sense
7:10
that it can be both a question
7:11
and an answer.
7:12
I might say to someone, all right, and they'll say, All right.
7:17
So it's like, "how are you"?
7:18
Yeah, I'm okay.
7:20
It's very, very frequently used
7:23
and just be careful on the pronunciation we don't always pronounce the "L".
7:27
We say all right.
7:29
Another one is, so so, so so, could be better.
7:29
The next one, not too bad, is again,
7:29
one that depends on tone of voice.
7:29
If I say, not too bad, it means good, but in this case,
7:30
not too bad, it means, I'm not great.
7:30
Another one, could be better, could be better,
7:30
but I could also be worse
7:30
that something you can add on to the end.
7:30
If everything's just really boring and average, you can say, same old,
7:30
same old really.
7:30
Another couple which mean you just this close to being bad is I'm alive,
7:30
or I'm surviving. (laughing) And the last, good enough, good enough.
7:30
There used to be a teacher at my school Mr.
7:30
Good Enough and I thought, what a I don't wanna say his name,
7:30
but just who named him in the past.
7:30
He's not great, but he's good enough, let's call him Mr.
7:30
Good enough.
7:30
A couple of funny ones, especially sarcastic ones, they're quite useful.
7:30
You could say I'm all right now,
7:30
but there's still time for everything to go horribly wrong.
7:30
Or a flat one, better now, that I'm talking to you.
7:33
That's quite a charming one.
7:33
Now what should you say if you are bad, if you feel terrible,
7:33
just you're not having a good day for whatever reason.
7:33
Well, quite a good way to start off a complaint
7:33
or a negative phrase is to start with,
7:33
I'm not going to lie...
7:33
That is a nice way to prepare someone for the negativity
7:33
that is about to escape your mouth.
7:33
I'm not gonna lie, I feel terrible.
7:33
You could also say, I'm not doing so well or I'm struggling a bit,
7:34
these to imply that you're struggling,
7:34
maybe a little bit mentally or emotionally as well.
7:34
So it's important to watch out for somebody who says these to you,
7:35
because they might need a bit of support.
7:35
The same way with "I'm snowed under" to be snowed under means you've just
7:35
got too much work,
7:35
you're completely under pressure.
7:35
Or it's been a tough day, week or year.
7:35
It's been a bit of a tough week.
7:35
Another one, I'm not having an easy time at the moment.
7:35
Watch out for people who say those phrases
7:35
because sometimes they're reaching out a little bit
7:35
and might need support.
7:35
Now what happens if you feel bad,
7:35
but you don't necessarily want to talk about it?
7:35
Well, I have some phrases you can use to avoid the question.
7:36
If someone asks, "how are you", you could say you don't want to know.
7:36
Or don't ask, honestly, just don't ask me.
7:36
Another one, "Do I have to answer that?"
7:36
Maybe if they know that you're not having a good time, and they've asked,
7:36
"how are you" anyway, which is a bit annoying, you could say,
7:37
"Do I really have to answer that," I think you already know.
7:37
Or what happens if somebody asks "how are you" really early in the morning,
7:38
you could say, "it's too early to tell."
7:40
And if you are feeling ill a nice idiom we can use is,
7:40
I'm a bit under the weather.
7:40
I'm feeling a bit under the weather, I'm not feeling very well.
7:40
And finally, a couple of funny ones, you could say, "overworked and underpaid!"
7:40
I remember there was a teacher who would always say
7:41
that when I asked him how he was,
7:42
"how are you," overworked and underpaid, but I'm doing Okay, thank you.
7:42
You could also say, slowly but surely dying actually.
7:42
Aren't we all?
7:42
If you want to be really sarcastic, you could say,
7:42
somewhere between blah and meh or if you just need a hug,
7:42
you could say, just hug me and leave it at that.
7:42
Right, that's it for today's lesson,
7:42
I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned something.
7:42
Don't forget to check out italki you can get your $10 worth of italki
7:43
credits for free in your student wallet 48 hours after making your first purchase
7:43
of any amount.
7:43
And don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media,
7:43
I've got my Facebook, my Instagram, my Twitter and my personal channel,
7:43
Lucy Bella Earl.
7:44
I will see you soon for another lesson. (kisses) (soft music)
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