Popular English Greetings

English, like the rest of the languages, has different ways to say hello. You can make your greeting either official or casual with any options. Don't worry about memorizing all of them. Just knowing some will spice things up.

The choices of how to greet someone depend on whom you’re talking to and, therefore, may vary.

Formal greetings

Here’s the list of greetings for formal situations:

Good morning/afternoon/evening

You can use one of the options to greet somebody, depending on the day’s different times.

Teacher (to his students): Good afternoon, class! I’m the lab technician, and we’ll go through the practicals now.

Hello!

Can be used anytime.

Calling the hospital: Hello! Can I make an appointment with Dr. Wilson?

Nice meeting you

It is used if you are talking with a person you have never met before. If you haven’t seen them in a while, you can also use it.

A new neighbor: You know, it was nice meeting you!

Informal greetings

You can use plenty of ways to say hello while addressing someone in an informal situation and making the conversation more friendly:

Hi

It is used in any casual situation.

Hi! Are you available for the afternoon session?

Howdy!

It is an off-the-cuff, friendly word that means, “how do you do.”

Howdy, bro! Glad to see you!

Hey/Hey there

It’s not used for a stranger (only for people who have already met each other).

Hey! How have you been?

What’s up?/Sup

An informal variant of “How are you?” (it is used for people you have met before).

Hey there, George, what’s up?

There are numerous greetings you can use to mean the same as hello. These are some of the most common phrases used when greeting somebody.

Examples of popular English greetings