English Language Blog

So long, farewell…no, wait, don’t go yet I am just getting started!  What I meant to say was “hello” and “welcome” to today’s post about saying “goodbye!” To start out take a listen to this song from the classic American film The Sound of Music in which the children in the film are singing about saying goodbye/good night. Listening to this song you will hear a number of different ways to say goodbye in English (and one in German – the movie is about a family in Austria after all!)

In this song you heard “so long” and “farewell,” which are both nice, semi-formal ways of saying ‘goodbye.’ Another semi-formal way to say ‘goodbye’ is “take care.” All three of these ways of saying goodbye are good to use with a person you have recently met or don’t know well. Below I have a list of informal and fun ways to say ‘goodbye’ to people you know a little better.

Let’s take a look:

“See ya” or “See you later” or “Bye for now”

These are all ways of saying ‘goodbye’ to someone you expect to see again soon.

“Take it easy.”

This is a nice way to say ‘goodbye’ while expressing the hope things go well and are not too hard for the person as they continue on. It is like saying, ‘enjoy your life.’

“Have a good one.”

This is essentially telling someone to ‘have a good day’ or that you hope they have a good day.

“Catch you later.”

This is a relaxed and informal way of saying ‘goodbye’ to someone you expect to see again.

“Peace out”

This is a slang way of saying goodbye, that is sometimes, but not always, accompanied by someone showing a peace sign (using the pointer and middle fingers of their hand).

“Cheerio”

Americans think of this as a British way of saying ‘goodbye,’ but it can be used on both sides of the Atlantic or wherever you are in the world.

“Toodle-oo”

This is a silly or funny way to say ‘goodbye.’ By saying this you might make someone laugh .

“See you later, alligator.”

This is a way of saying ‘goodbye’ that children often use, but so do adults who are saying ‘goodbye’ to children. This rhyming ‘goodbye’ expression is often followed by another rhyme. Which you can see in the following conversation:

A: “I’m going now.  See you later, alligator!”
B: “In a while, crocodile!”

Alright, now it is time to say goodbye for real. I hope you enjoyed this post and will be back again soon to learn more English that you can use on an everyday basis. Don’t forget to also check out all the resources available to you at www.transparent.com as you continue on your English language learning journey.

When you first greet someone in English you can say ‘hello’ or you could spice up your greeting with a number of other ways of saying ‘hi.’ This post is all about different ways you can say ‘hello’ in English.

To start let’s look at one of my favorite ways for saying ‘hello,’ which was made famous by a cartoon carter from my childhood “Fat Albert.”

Now, if you think you can pull off a “hey, hey, hey” like Fat Albert I say go right ahead, but if you are looking for something a little more tame, take a look at some of the different options for say ‘hello’ below.

“Hey”

Use “hey” with people that you know well. This is a familiar term and though not rude to use with strangers, if you say “hey” to someone you don’t know they might wonder if they do know you.

“Yo”

This is a very short informal slang version of the word ‘hello’ that people started using in the 1980′s and 1990′s and it is still used today.

“What’s up?” or “Sup” or “Wazzup?”

Again these are casual terms, often used with people who already know one another. Although this is a question, it doesn’t need to be answered; it is just like saying ‘hello.’

“How’s it going?”

This is another question greeting that you can use instead of ‘hello’, and does not necessarily require an answer. People often just say this to one another as they pass by on the street and don’t wait for an answer from the person they say it to. But if you stop to talk, it would be nice to give an answer to this question with something like: “good” or “fine.”

“Greetings” or “Greetings and salutations”

Here is a very formal way of saying ‘hello.’ People use this in formal situations, but sometimes they also use it informally, just to be funny.

“Well hello!” or “Why hello there”

These are expression you can use to say ‘hello,’ when you are surprised to see someone, or if you haven’t seen them in a long time. Alternatively, sometimes men use these greeting when they say ‘hello’ to a beautiful woman, particularly someone they find very attractive.

“Howdy” or “Howdy partner”

This is a way of saying ‘hello’ that is associated with cowboys. It is perfectly fine to use in causal company as a substitute for ‘hello’ for non-cowboys too.

“Look what the cat dragged in!”

This is a really fun way to say ‘hello’ to someone that you haven’t seen in a long while. If you use this expression to say hello to a native English speaker (who you haven’t seen in a long while) I am sure she/he will be quite impressed. This greeting is a bit of a joke that is referring to a person like a dead mouse or some piece of trash that a cat has found outside and carried inside. It is a strange expression, but trust me, people do say this.

“Long time no see.”

This is another way of saying ‘hello’ to someone you haven’t seen in a long time. You might be more comfortable using this greeting instead of  “look what the cat dragged in,” although they are both used in the same instances.

Later this week I will have another post for you about how to say ‘goodbye’ in English in a number of different ways .See you again soon.

English is not known for having gender specific nouns like some other languages (for example Spanish or French), but gender specific nouns do exist in English.  Because English does not have many gender specific nouns, one nice thing about English is that you don’t have to worry about gender agreement between nouns and adjectives.  So, when you start thinking about how hard it is to learn English, just remember that you don’t have to worry about noun gender and gender agreement in English. (Learning how to do this in other languages is something that most English speakers find very difficult.)

There are a small number of words in English that do have different forms to indicate male and female gender though, but really these are very few.  Other than gender specific words for some animals (like: buck and deer, gander and geese) and words like man, woman, girl, boy, mother and father, English has only a few dozen gender specific nouns. Below I have listed some of the most common gender specific nouns found in English.  If a neutral, non-gender specific, form of the word exists I also listed that word too. If a neutral form of the word doesn’t exist, the male form of the word usually becomes the de facto neutral version. For some words, often words that are related to professions, if no female version of the word exists a neutral word has been created. Take a look at these and see if there are any new words you can add to your vocabulary.