English Vocabulary in Use Pre-intermediate and Intermediate » Unit 69: Greetings, farewells and special expressions
When we are introduced to a stranger [told the name of someone we have never met] in a formal situation, we usually shake hands and say hello, or perhaps hello, nice to meet you. In an informal situation, we usually just say hello or hi.
When we greet friends, there are no real rules in Britain. Men may kiss female friends [girls/ women] on one cheek [side of the face], on both cheeks, or not at all. Women may kiss male friends and female friends once, twice, or not at all. We usually say things like this:
A: Hello. How are you?
B: Fine, thanks. How about you?
A: Hi. How’s it going? / How are things? (infml)
B: Not (so) bad, thanks. And you?
* saying hello
To someone we have just met for the first time we can say Goodbye. Nice to meet you.
With friends we can say bye, cheers (infml), take care (infml), or see you (soon/later/tomorrow, etc.).
When we say goodbye to a school or work friend on Friday afternoon we usually say:
A: Have a nice weekend.
B: Yeah, same to you. (NOT same for you)
* saying goodbye
We use Thank goodness when we are happy that something bad did not happen. A synonym is Thank God (infml), but there are some people who may not like the use of this expression. We can use Goodness on its own to express surprise, e.g. Goodness, is it ten o’clock already?
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