Formal Greetings

BBC Learning English How to … Formal greetings

Jackie:

Hello! I’m Jackie Dalton. This programme is about greetings and the language you might use if you’re greeting people in quite formal situations, hen you want to sound polite. I’d like you to start by listening to this greeting. Try to guess what the situation might be.

Clip Good morning, sir.

Jackie:

Using ‘sir’ in a greetingsounds very formal. It gives extra status or importance to the person you are talking to and there are several situations where you might hear it. One of the most common situations is in the service industry. It could be a hotel receptionist talking to a guest, a waiter talking to a customer in a restaurant. Or it could be in a shop anywhere where people are dealing with customers or clients. Ifyou were speaking to a woman, you wouldn’t say ‘sir – you would say ‘madam’.

Clip Good morning, madam.

Jackie:

It’s nearly always the people offering the service who would use this kind of language. If a waiter says ‘good evening, sir’ you would just reply with ‘good evening’ you wouldn’t say ‘good evening, sir’ back. This is because, in this particular situation, you are the one beinggiven the most importance, so you don’t need to show this extra sign of respect. Likewise, if you walk into a hotel and the receptionist says ‘good

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afternoon, madam’, it would usually sound strange to say ‘good afternoon, madam’ back.

As well is in the service industry, there are other situationswhere you might hear ‘sir’ and ‘madam’. Listen to this one and guess what the situation might be.

Clip Good morning, sir. It’s a real honour to have you here.

Jackie:

The situation that makes me think of is of greeting a VIP - perhaps a very important politician or leader who you meet. In some cases, people use it when they are greeting someone much older than they are, as a sign ofrespect. Or you may occasionally hear it used in the workplace, where employees want to show respect for their superiors. As you listen to this clip, again note how only the employee uses the word ‘sir’.

Clip Good morning, sir. Hello, James.

Jackie:

So far, we’ve looked over some of those situations where you might use very formal language in greetings, such as ‘sir’ or ‘madam’. You mightuse it in the service industry, with VIPs, with much old people and, sometimes, with bosses at work. But, as well as using these kinds of words, what else is it that makes language in greetings sound more formal and polite? We’re going to hear two different versions of a greeting between James and his boss Mr Jones. Listen and decide which one is the most formal and think about why. Here’s thefirst one:

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Clip Morning! Hi! How’s it going? Good thanks – you? Yeah, fine.

Jackie:

Now listen to the second greeting.

Clip Good morning, Mr Jones. Hello, James. How are you? I’m very well, thank you. How are you? Fine, thank you.

Jackie:

The second greeting was more formal. Why? Well oneof the most obvious differences is in how long the phrases are. ‘Good morning’ sounds more formal than ‘morning’ because ‘morning’ is shorter and it’s a slightly lazier way of greeting someone, if you like. ‘Hello’ is also a bit more formal than ‘hi’. ‘I’m very well, thank you’ also sounds more formal than ‘nine, thanks’ or ‘good, thanks’ again, mainly because it takes longer to say. Thisdoesn’t mean you should never say ‘hi’ in formal situations, it’s just that if you want to sound more polite, using more complete words and phrases will help. Listen again to the two exchanges and listen out for those differences. First, the less formal one.

Clip Morning! Hi! How’s it going? Good thanks – you? Yeah, fine.

Jackie:

Now the more formal one.

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