Learn Australian English in this episode of Aussie English where I teach you guys 21 ways to greet someone like a native English speaker!
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21 Ways To Greet Someone Like A Native
Blue text = Pronunciation tips using English spelling
G’day guys. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. I’m Pete, and today I’m going to be teaching you 21 ways to greet someone like a native. Let’s go!
So, let’s start with the simple ones guys.
1. Hello
HA LOW
Hello. Hello. Hello, mate! Hello. So, Hello is the kind of greeting that I would use as a native when answering the phone, you know, *ring* *ring*, “Hello? It’s Pete speaking.”, if I was answering the door and I didn’t know who it was, someone’s knocked on the door, “Hello? Who’s there?”. But it’s not really the kind of greeting that I would use when talking to someone face-to-face.
2. Hi
HI
Hi. Hi, mate! Hi. Hi, again, is pretty common. You’re going to hear this all the time, especially, in countries like America, probably Britain as well. You might hear it from time to time in Australia, but again, it’s not the kind of greeting that I would really use with people I know. It might be something that I say to a stranger. If someone bumps into me and I turn around and they were like, “Oh, sorry. How’s it going?”, I might say, “Oh, hi!”.
3. Hey
HAY
Hey. Hey, mate! Hey, how’s it going? Hey. Hey’s the kind of greeting that I would use all the time. This is short, sweet, very quick. Hey. Hey, how’s it going? Hey.
4. G’day
GEH DAY
G’day. G’day, mate! G’day. G’day. G’day is another greeting that you guys hear me saying all the time. This one, however, is definitely Australian. You’re not going to hear this by Americans. You’re not going to hear this by people from the UK, at least, not with that contracted “Good”. They’ll probably say “Good day” if they’re really in a formal situation. But in Australia we say “G’day” all the time, and especially the more working-class you are, as you go out into the countryside, you’re going to hear people like Steve Irwin or Crocodile Dundee, that kind of stereotypical Australian saying, “G’day mate.” G’day. G’day.
5. Howdy
HOW DEE
Howdy. Howdy, guys! Howdy. Howdy’s another one that you might hear sometimes from Australians, but I think this one is a lot more American, and the only reason that Australians might say it is if they watch a lot of American TV and they hear this all the time, or they’re kind of just being a little jovial, you know, a little humorous, like “Howdy! How’s it going? Howdy, guys!”, you know, sort of putting on that American accent a little bit, but not in a nasty way. So, that’s “Howdy”. Howdy, guys! Howdy.
Alright, before we move onto the really really good ones, the longer ones, the slightly more difficult ones, I want to get through the fact that we don’t say “How do you do?”. This’s something that I feel is taught all the time, and I have people saying this to me, but it is incredibly formal. Obviously, if you were incredibly proper, incredibly formal, if you’re in the royal family, if you’re the Queen of England you might say to people, “How do you do? How do you do sir?”, but no one is going to say that to you in real life. No natives would ever greet each other “How do you do?” unless they were being sarcastic. It’s a lot more natural to hear people saying…
6. How’re you doing? = How ya doin’?
HOW AH YU DO EN / HOW YA DO EN
How’re you doing? How are you doing? How ya doin’? How ya doin’? Good mate. How are you doin’? How’re you doing? And this one’s pronounced “HOW YA DO EN”. How ya doin’? How ya doin’?
So, now that we’ve covered that let’s move onto the next ones, and these are really common, these are really common.
7. What’s up = S’up
WOT SUP / SUP
What’s up? Hey, mate, what’s up? What is up? Not literally what is up, but more, “What is up with you? What’s going on? What’re you up to? What’s up?”, and you’ll often hear this contracted to just “S’up?”. So, I might be like, “Hey, mate, what’s up?” or I could be, “Hey mate, s’up?”. So, you’re going to hear this all the time. What’s up? What’s up? Or simply, s’up? S’up mate?
8. What’ve you been up to (lately)? = Whatcha been upta?
WAH TEV YU BEEN UP TA LATE LEE / WAH CHA BIN UP TA
What’ve you been up to lately? What have you been up to lately? So, what’ve you been up to? What’ve you been doing? What’ve you been up to lately? And you’re going to hear this contracted all the time to, “Whatcha been upta?” WHA CHA BIN UP TA. Whatcha bin upta? Whatcha bin upta, mate? G’day mate, whatcha bin upta? Whatcha bin upta? And this is just another way of saying, “What’ve you been doing?”. WHA CHA BIN UPTA?
9. What’s going on? = S’goin’ on?
WOT SGO EN ON / SGO EN ON
Another really common one is “What’s goin’ on?”. What’s goin’ on? Not much, what’s goin’ on with you? What’s goin’ on, man? What’s going on, mate? And you’ll often hear, What’s goin’ on? What’s goin’ on? What’s goin’ on?, you’ll often hear this contracted to just “S’goin’ on?”, SGO EN ON? So, we’ve just taken “What” out of the equation, left the “S” and then we’ve got “GO EN ON”. S’goin’ on? S’goin’ on, mate?
10. What’s the goss?
WOTS THA GOSS
What’s the goss? What’s the goss, mate? Not much. What’s the goss with you? What about you? What’s the goss? What’s the goss? “Goss” in this case, is short for the word “Gossip” as in rumours, what’s the news?, what’re the secrets about people? What’s the goss? What’s the gossip about you? What’s the goss?
11. What’s new?
WOTS NYU
What’s new? G’day, mate, what’s new? What’s new? What’s new, man? What’s new is just literally, “What is new with you?”, What is the news? What’s new? Can you tell me something I don’t know or that I didn’t know when I last saw you? What’s new?
12. What’s the news? = What’s news?
WOTS THA NYUS / WOTS NYUS
What’s the news? What’s the news? And this often gets contracted to “What’s news?”. What’s news, mate? Not much. What about you? What’s news? So, you’ve got “What’s new” with no “S” at the end, and then you’ve got, “What’s news?”. And when someone says to you, “What’s news? What’s news?”, they’re asking you to tell them what yours news is. Like you’re watching the news on TV and you’re hearing all of the new information for the day. They want to know what your new information is. What’s news? Tell me what’s new with you. Tell me what’s news. What’s your news? What’s news?
13. What’s been happening?
WOTS BIN HAP EN EN
What’s been happening? Hey, man. How’s it goin’? What’s been happenin’? What has been happening? And this often gets contracted all the way down from “What has been happening?” to “What’s been happenin’?” What’s been happenin’? And this is a lot similar to “What’s the news?”, “What’s the goss?”, “What’s your news?”. I’m asking you about what’s been happening in your life. What’s been happenin’?
14. How’s it going? = How’s it goin’?
HOW ZIT GO EN
Another really really common one, and this is one that you should probably focus on out of all of them in here, all of these different greetings, this is a really really common one that’s easy to remember and that you’re going to be able to use a lot and hear a lot in Australia, “How’s it goin’?”. How’s it going? How’s it goin’, mate? How’re you? How’s it goin’, mate? “How is it going” getting contracted down to “How’s it goin’?” HOW ZIT GO EN. How’s it goin’?
15. How’re you going? = How ya goin’?
HOW AH YU GO EN / HOW YA GO EN
Another one, similar to “How’s it goin'” is “How’re you goin’?”. How’re you going? How’re you going, mate? Yeah, not bad. How’re you goin’, mate? How are you goin’, and this gets contracted down to just HOW YA GO EN. How ya goin’?
16. How are you? = How are ya?
HOW AH YU / HOW AH YA
How are you? How are you? How ya goin’? How are ya? Hey, mate! How are ya? How are ya, mate? How are you? Are you good? How are you? Tell me how you are. Are you good? But this one gets contracted down to HOW WAH YA. How are ya? So, that again, that is an incredibly common one. How are ya? How are ya? Learn that one as well as, “How’s it goin’?” and “How are ya?”. How are ya, mate? How’s it goin’, mate? How are ya?
17. How’s things?
HOWZ THINGZ
How’s things? How’s things on your end? How’s things, dude? How’s things? How is things? This one’s probably incorrect grammatically because “Things” is plural and you’re saying “How IS things”, but all the same, it’s said a lot. How’s things? How’s things? This’s similar to “What’s news?”, “What’s goss?”, “What’s been happenin’?”. How are your things? What’re the things like on your end? Tell me about your things. How’s things?
18. How’re things?
HOW AH THINGZ
And then, obviously, we’ve got the grammatically correct version, “How ARE things?”. How’re things? Dude! How’re things? I haven’t seen you in ages. Yeah, good to see you too, man. How’re things? How’re things? We should catch up! How’re things? How’re things?
19. How’s it hanging?
HOW ZIT HANG EN
How’s it hanging? How is it hanging? Dude, how’s it hangin’? Yeah, not too bad, mate. What about you? How’s it hangin’? How’re you mate? How’s it hangin’? “Hanging” like you were hanging from a tree. How’s it hanging? This’s also very common. And again, with that “How’s it…” it turns into HOW ZIT, HOW ZIT. How’s it hangin’? So, it gets contracted down from “How is it hanging?” to “How’s it hangin’?”.
20. How’ve you been?
HOW EV YU BEEN
And getting to the last one here, guys, “How have you been?”. Mate, how’ve you been? How have you been? Have you been well, mate? How’ve you been, mate? This is one that also gets contracted even further. We get rid of the EV from “Have” that’s on “How” and we just say…
21. How ya been?
HOW YA BIN
“How ya been?”. How ya been? Dude, I haven’t seen you in ages! How ya been? Dude, what about you? How ya been? How ya been?
That’s it, guys. There’s at least 21 in there. They should be pretty easy. There’s a few interesting pronunciation things going on there, but definitely go back over it. Have a look at the way that I’ve outlined the real pronunciation of these phrases, and focus more on using those kinds of colloquial greetings and colloquial ways of saying, “How are you?”, “How’re you going”, “How’re you doing?”, “What’s going on?”, all of that sort of stuff. You’ll sound a lot more native and people are going to respond really definitely I think you’ll find than if you were to use things like, “Hello” and “How do you do?”.
Anyway, let me know what you guys think. Do you already use some of these in your day-to-day spoken English? Comment below, and I’ll catch you later guys. Hope you’re well.
G’day. Goodbye. See ya!
Pronunciation notes:
- As I speak more casually or with a stronger accent the pronunciation of certain vowels often shifts.
YOU [jʉː] > YA [jɐ]
BEEN [biːn] > BIN [bɪn]
-ING [ɪŋ] > EN [en]
TO [tʉː] > TA [tɐ]