Casual Greetings

Here is a sample conversation between two friends. I am sure you have seen a conversation like this many times:

Brad: Hello AngelaAngela: Hello Brad.Brad: How are you?Angela: I’m fine thanks, and you?

Brad: I’m fine, thank you.

The conversation above is a textbook conversation. You will probably see a conversation like this in a textbook, but probably never have such a conversation in the real world. Today, let’s have a look at some real English greetings from the real world, not the textbook world.

Generally, hello is used when we when we answer the phone. It is a formal word and we don’t generally use hello when we greet our friends, classmates, or co-workers. Hi or Hey are more common

Brad: Hi Angela

Angela: Hey Brad.

We generally greet our friends by using their name, although for close friends we have some more casual greetings. Yo, hey, and dude are generally used by guys and names are not used:

Brad: Yo dude

Jack: Hey dude

In some languages, a conversation starts with a statement about the time of day or the weather. For example:

Mario: Good morning, Miguel Miguel: Good morning, Mario. Nice day today.

Mario: Yes, it’s a beautiful day

An English conversation a conversation usually starts with a question. There are two kinds of questions we use - how and what. Here are some examples of each:

• How are you? What’s new?
• How’s it going? What’s up?
• How’s life? What’s going on?
• How’s everything? What’s shaking?

The how questions ask about our feeling or condition, so the answers are something like what I wrote below. Keep in mind that each of these questions has the exact same meaning, so each of the answers could be used with each of the questions:

• How are you? → I’m ok.
• How’s it going? → Pretty good
• How’s life? → Not too bad
• How’s everything? → Great!

The what questions ask about news or information about us, so the answers are something like what I wrote below. Keep in mind that each of these questions has the exact same meaning, so each of the answers could be used with each of the questions:

• What’s new? → Not much
• What’s up? → I just finished work
• What’s going on? → I’m going on vacation next week
• What’s shaking? → I bought an iPad!

Please be careful not to confuse the type of questions someone asks:

Joe: What’s up? Bob: Fine! ← (the wrong answer, so Joe is confused!)

Joe: ???

So if we put it all together, we get something like this:

Brad: Hey AngelaAngela: Hi Brad. How’s it going?Brad: Pretty good. What’s up?Angela: I’m going on vacation next week.

Brad: Oh cool! Where are you going…..

This is much better than our “textbook” conversation up at the top of this lesson. The next time you are watching a TV show or movie, listen for how people great each other. Ok, that’s it for today’s lesson.

Happy English

Used to Vs. Be Used to Vs. Get Used to

I wasn’t always an English teacher. In fact, I used to work in the music business. I was a music teacher and also a music transcriber. That job was interesting. I used to listen to heavy metal records and then transcribe the guitar parts. Some of the music was really heavy, and honestly, I never got used to it. I think I’m much happier being an English teacher. I started doing that in Japan. At first it was a little hard living overseas, but I got used to it pretty quickly.

Today, let’s have a look at be used to and used to. These two words look similar, but they have two very different uses. Do you know how to use these words? Have a look at the paragraph above once more, and then check today’s lesson.

Used to

We use used to when we talk about our past habits or states of being. These are things that we did all the time in the past, but not anymore. The structure is used + to + verb (used + infinitive)

• I used to work in the music business. I don’t work in the music business anymore.
• Brad used to live in Florida. He doesn’t live there now.
• Jack used to smoke, but he quit. Jack doesn’t have the habit of smoking anymore.
• I used to listen to heavy metal records. I don’t listen to listen to them anymore (^o^).

Remember that used to is used to talk about past situations and circumstances which have changed. “I used to smoke” is a past situation which no longer exists. Used to indicates that a change in a situation and so we don’t use used to when we talk about what happened in the past. Compare the following:

• Jack worked for Apple for five years. This talks about a situation in the past only.
• Jack used to work for Apple. This talks about a situation in the past which no longer exists.

Be used to

We use be used to when we want to talk about situations that are familiar and/or no longer new or difficult. The structure is be used to + Ving or be used to + something

• I am used to using the subway in New York. At first it was difficult, but now I am familiar with the subway.
• Jack is used to living a smoke free life.
• Jane is from the countryside and she is not used to the noise of Manhattan.
• I am finally used to using a touchscreen phone.

You can also get used to something, which means that it becomes familiar over time:

• Joe got used to driving in London pretty quickly.
• Jack got used to not smoking by exercising at the gym.
• Anne said that she hopes she can get used to her new boss.

Let’s look at both words together:

• I used to drink black coffee. I drank black coffee in the past, but not anymore.
• I am used to drinking black coffee. Drinking black coffee is familiar to me now.

Happy English

Further versus Farther

O jeito mais simples de aprender essas duas palavras é sabendo o que elas significam e quando usá-las. Assim, anote aí no seu caderno de vocabulário que “farther” está relacionada a distância física. Em alguns casos pode ser traduzida como “mais longe” ou “mais distante”, já em outros é melhor entender o contexto. Veja os exemplos:

• It was farther than I thought. (Era mais longe do que eu pensei.)
• My house is farther than yours. (Minha casa fica mais longe que a sua.)
• I can walk farther than you. (Eu consigo caminhar mais longe que você.)
• His town is farther north than yours. (A cidade dele fica mais ao norte do que a sua.)
• I have to drive farther to get to work. (Tenho de dirigir mais longe para chegar ao trabalho.)
• We are now farther away from that than ever. (Atualmente, estamos mais longe disso do que nunca.)
• How much farther do you plan to drive tonight? (Até onde você planeja dirigir essa noite?)

“Further” por sua vez é uma palavra usada com o sentido de “mais”, “adicional”, etc. Por isso é comum vermos em anúncios a sentença “for further information, call...”, ou seja, “para mais informações, ligue para...”. “Further”, portanto, combina com a palavra “information”, para dizermos “mais informações”. Essa mesma palavra também combina com “further details” (mais detalhes), “further plans” (planos adicionais), “further questions” (mais dúvidas, mais perguntas). Veja os exemplos a seguir:

• Do you have any further plans for growth? (Você tem mais planos de crescimento?)
• Is there any further questions? (Há mais algumas perguntas?)
• Any further plans for further studies? (Mas alguns planos de mais estudos?)
• If you need further details about these organizations… (Se você precisar de mais detalhes sobre essas organizações...)

E aí!? Percebeu a diferença!? Espero que sim, pois agora tenho mais uma informação para você. Anote aí! Muitas pessoas – falantes nativos da língua inglesa – costumam usar “further” para se referir a distâncias. No entanto, para muitos, trata-se de um erro comum deles. Ou seja, é um daqueles errinhos que os nativos cometem e para o qual os professores de gramática normativa (os gramatiqueiros de plantão) torcem o nariz.

Denilso de Lima