How are you?

Upon their first real-world English experience, many English students are surprised by the variety of greetings people use. In the world of 英会話, the standard is "How are you?", but this is only the beginning.

Just by making a few small changes to "How are you?", you can make a great palette of greetings to choose from.

"How are you doing?" ("I'm great")
"How have you been?" ("I've been great")
"How are things?" ("They're fine")

If you want to be more casual, try one of the following.

"What's up?" ("Not much")
"How's it going?" ("Pretty well")
"What's happenin'?"

Among young people, you will also hear "Sup" often. This is short for "Wassup", which is short for "What's up". Give it a try if you want to sound like you're saying 「うっっっす」 in English. You probably shouldn't use this one at work!