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Polite greetings are among the most basic,yet essential, forms of communication in any language. In some areas itscommon for people to greet even strangers as they pass on the street. Knowinghow to use causual greetings, and how to respond to them, opens the door tofriendly conversation。 SAYING HELLO: A simple hello is often said with of thefollowing greetings: Hi: the most common, casual way to sayhello Hey: slang greeting, orginally a regionalexpression from the South but now widely used. Hey is a general word to start asentence, to get someones attention, and as a response to many differentstatements and situations. Tone and intonation often reveal the meaning of theword。 Hi there: casual variations of Hior Hey。 After intial Hi! peoplegenerally ask How are you? or they use one of the following casualexpressions ： Possible Reply How are youdoing? Prettygood. How are you? Hows itgoin? Great, Howbout you? Hows things? Things are good, thanks. What about you? How arethings? Not bad. And you? WHATS GOING ON? AND RELATED IDIOMS The expressions in the following list mean Whatare you doing? or Whats happening here? But often theyre used as aform of Hello! or general greeting. They are usually answered with anegative expression like Not much or Nothing much. In casualsituationas, and particularly with young people, these greetings can simplymean Hi. Typical responses are shown to the right of the expression。 | 
