Conversation skills are very important and each conversation starts with a greeting. These greetings are mostly verbal. People exchange greetings everyday regardless of culture, age, gender and country. But in a situation, choosing a better greeting will show your improved communication skill and helps to have a good impression.

A greeting is a simple way of saying hello to someone. If two people of the same community are greeting each other, the process will be easy compared to people from different backgrounds greeting each other. Greeting a person means you are initiating a conversation with the person and It is important to be able to select the appropriate greeting for the situation. English language has different ways of greeting people. But greetings can be broadly classified in two sections of formal and informal greeting.

formal greeting

As we know, formal greetings are used in a formal conversation like in a business meeting or meeting a important person. These are also used while addressing the audience of formal functions like conferences. We use some of the formal greetings everyday. Good morning/afternoon/evening are used so frequently. These work as replacement for the word Hello. How do you do? is a old greeting but used in very formal situations. How are you doing? is the another form of the greeting. How is it going?, Good to see you, Its an honor to meet you are some of the other formal greetings.

informal greeting

This type has more number of greetings than the former type for obvious reasons because people have more informal conversations than formal ones. And also people face informal situations everyday. Hi, the word which is kind of informal version of the word Hello, widely used by everyone. We here this word very frequently. Hiya is the another form of the word Hi, mostly used in UK. Hey is another greeting which I feel is very upbeat. sup? is more commonly used in USA, which is the slang term for the word what’s up. Yo is the word mostly used because of its light heart feel. How’s life? is the informal way of asking how are you?. Howdy and how is everything? are also in the category.

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

-John Muir

why should i greet?

Why should I greet? Can`t I start a conversation without greeting? well, you can. But that will be weird. Just randomly starting conversations from nowhere will introduce confusions. To create a friendly environment you should choose a good greeting. It is a fact that greeting is also a gentleman and ladies gesture. A greeting can turn a stranger into a friend. And greeting also help to maintain relations. If a person refuses to greet the other, for some reason we all know that they are not in good terms. Greeting is a part of courtesy. It will help to show that you respect the person. When you greet someone you are acknowledging their presence and this will make the other person feel good.

Not for all other reasons, just greet to be good person!