Greetings and Openings Responses

“Hi (Hello). How are you? ” “Fine. And you? ”

“Hi. How are you doing? ” “O.K. How about you? ”

“Hi. How is it going? ” “Pretty good. How about you? ”

“How’ve you been? ” “Not too bad. How about yourself? ”

“Hi. How are things? ” “O.K. Can’t complain.” (very

informal)

“Hi. What’s happening? ” (very “Oh, not much. How about you? ”

informal)

“Hi. What’s new? ” “Not a whole lot” (very informal)

“How about with you? ”

After the greeting and opening, one of the speakers should ask questions in order to find something to talk about and initiate the conversation.

Phrases for Initiating the conversation:

“Hello. Where are you from? ” “Where did you come from? ”

“Do you like sports? ” “What sports do you like? ”

“Do you have a job after school? ” “What do you do after school? ”

“Do you like your job? ” “How’s your job going? ”

“Is everything O.K. with your boss? ” “How are things with you and your

boss? ”

“Do you like your class? ” “What do you think of your class? ”

Some questions which can encourage conversations are: “How about you? ” or “What about you? ” or “What do you think? ” or “What do you think of…? ”

A lot of small talk is “situational”. That is, people initiate a conversation about their common situation. This is often a starting point for further conversation. For example:

At a party: “How do you know Kate? ”

At a film: “Do you go to see international films often? ”

At a university lecture: “What do you think of Professor Adelman’s talk? ”

In English, one of the best ways of initiating and maintaining a conversation is for at least one of the speakers to ask the other questions or to add extra information to a one-word response. In the following conversation, Judi helps to maintain the conversation by giving more than a one- or two-word response:

Char: Where do you work?

Judi: I work at the university in San Diego. I’m a computer operator.

Char: How’s the weather in San Diego? I’m from San Francisco.

Judi: It’s warm most part of the time. For the past two winters, we’ve had a lot of rain.

Closing and Farewells. Sometimes Americans have trouble ending conversations with each other. This may be because there is no one way of ending a conversation. In some other cultures, there are specific ways to end the conversation, such as bowing or shaking hands. After the bow or the handshake, the conversation stops. In the U.S., people sometimes take several minutes to say “Goodbye” and, as they do, you can see them backing away from each other. By the time they are about fifteen or twenty feet apart, they’ve often said their last “Goodbye”.

Phrases and Expressions for Ending a Conversation: