36 Smart and Interesting Responses to 'HOW ARE YOU?'

[Music] hello everyone and welcome back to english with lucy today i'm doing one of your requests somebody asked me how to respond to how are you and they don't just want to say i'm fine or I'm good some more advanced interesting and creative ways to answer how are you now I've mentioned before that this question how are you does not always mean what do you think it means it's not always necessary to reply to how are you with how you are in this lesson I'm going to tell you all about how to answer this very

common and important question and I'm going to help you sound more advanced and more like a native speaker before we get started I would just like to thank the sponsor of today's lesson it is a talkie if you haven't heard of I talked you before it's a huge online database of both native and non-native teachers who give one-to-one video lessons 24 hours a day 7 days a week you can learn English and over 130 other languages from anywhere in the world as long as you have a stable internet connection it's an incredibly affordable way of

learning a language much cheaper than an offline tutor or a Language Academy so many people message me and ask me how they can meet and chat with native speakers I talking is a really great option because not only do they have their qualified teachers they also have community teachers who will practice conversation with you they've given me an offer to pass on to you you can get $10 worth of I talkie credits in your student wallet 48 hours after making your first purchase of any amount all you've got to do is click on the link

in the description box and sign up right let's get started with the lesson firstly I want to discuss some common mistakes that non-native speakers often make and native speakers as well and there's also a perceived mistake natives will tell you that you're wrong but you're actually right and we'll go through that many people will tell you that it's incorrect to respond to how are you with I'm good they say it's wrong it's not wrong to any natives who are listening and thinking oh my word my mother told me it was wrong my whole life your

mother was wrong I'm sorry even my own parents told me that it was wrong to say I'm good I should say I'm well however in this case good can be used I think my parents probably told me not say it because it sounded too American and as a child I had this terrible habit of picking up phrases that I'd seen on American TV shows and using them in a tiny little British accent and they hated it saying I'm good is grammatically correct if you are not directly referring to your health so if you're just saying

in general I am good it's fine just as if you'd say in general I am bad I'm well is also fine and it normally means that you're referring to your health for saying good or satisfactory however this is where people get confused if you say I'm doing well that's fine but be careful when responding with I'm doing good because if you say I am doing good it means you are doing good things like visiting homeless shelters and donating toys to children's hospitals good things you aren't talking about how you are now let's take a look

at some easy ways to say I'm good or I'm fine I'm good I'm fine I'm well are pretty overused they're very very boring so if you want to impress an examiner or impress a native speaker or just your friends and family take a look at these we can add pretty so we'd say I'm pretty good I'm pretty well you could say pretty fine maybe not as much in the UK but maybe more in America pretty in this case means fairly I'm fairly good I'm fairly well you can also say quite I'm quite good I'm quite

well but that sounds much more formal I'm quite well thank you very formal to me if you want to emphasize how good you are you can say really I'm really good really well now those are still pretty basic so what about some more interesting ways to respond to how are you well one I really like is I've never been better shorten - never been better this means that you are feeling truly great you could also say so far so good this is also commonly used if you're doing a task you're talking about the progress until

now it's been going well your life has been going well another one one that I'm seeing a lot nowadays is can't complain and this can be said in more than one way it depends on the tone of voice if I say can't complain it means my life is amazing but I don't want to brag about it so I'm just gonna say can't complain if I said I can't complain I guess can't complain it means could be worse the more common use is the sort of self-deprecating not wanting to show off kind of use and another

one is better than I deserve I like this one it's quite funny this is quite a tongue-in-cheek one okay I'm gonna give you a couple of silly ones as well if you want to make people laugh or cringe if someone asks if you're a dog lover and someone asks you how you are you could say if I had a tail I would wag it and you can also have a couple of flirty ones if someone says how are you you could reply with word on the street is and I'm pretty good or I'm great but

I'm totally biased I love those ones I am I'm standing on my own in my studio laughing alone at how much I like these words now what do you say if you're neither good nor bad if you are okay I'm okay it's really really boring though let's look at some other more exciting ones like I'm alright now I wanted to mention I'm alright because it's a unique one in the sense that it can be both a question and an answer I might say to someone all right and they'll say all right so it's like how

are you yeah I'm okay it's very very frequently used just be careful on the pronunciation we don't always pronounce the L we don't say all right we say all right all right another one is so so so so I could could be better the next one not too bad is again one that depends on tone of voice if I say not too bad it means good but in this case not too bad it means like I mean I'm not great another one could be better it could be better but I could also be worse that's

something you can add on to the end if everything's just really boring an average you can say same-old same-old really another couple which mean you're just this close to being bad is I'm alive or I'm surviving and the last good enough good enough they used to be a teacher at my school could mr. good enough and I thought what a I don't want it so his name but just who named him in the past he's not great but he's good enough let's go mr. good enough a couple of funny ones especially sarcastic ones they're quite

useful you could say I'm alright now but there's still time for everything to go horribly wrong or a flirty one better now that I'm talking to you that's quite a charming one now what should you say if you are bad if you feel terrible just you're not having a good day for whatever reason well quite a good way to start off a complaint or a negative phrase is to start with I'm not going to lie that is a nice way to prepare someone for the negativity that is about to escape your mouth I'm not going

to lie I feel terrible you could also say I'm not doing so well or I'm struggling a bit these two imply that you're struggling maybe a little bit mentally or emotionally as well so it's important to watch out for somebody who says these to you because they might need a bit of support the same way of I'm snowed under to be snowed under means you've just got too much work you're completely under pressure or it's been a tough day week or year it's been a bit of a tough week another one I'm not having an

easy time at the moment watch out for people who say those phrases because sometimes they're reaching out a little bit and might need support now what happens if you feel bad but you don't necessarily want to talk about it well I have some phrases you can use to avoid the question if someone asks how are you you could say you don't want to know or don't ask honestly just don't ask me another one do I have to answer that maybe if they know that you're not having a good time and they've asked how are you

anyway which is a bit annoying you could say do I really have to answer that I think you already know or what happens if somebody asks how are you really early in the morning you could say it's too early to tell and if you are feeling ill a nice idiom we can use is I'm a bit under the weather I'm feeling a bit under the weather I'm not feeling very well and finally a couple of funny ones you could say overworked and underpaid I remember there was a teacher who would always say that when I

asked him how he was how are you overworked and underpaid but I'm doing ok thank you you could also say slowly but surely dying actually aren't we all if you want to be really sarcastic you could say somewhere between Blair and or if you just need a hug you could say just hug me and leave it at that right that's it for today's lesson I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned something don't forget to check out I talk you you can get your ten dollars worth of I talkie credits for free in

your student wallet 48 hours after making your first purchase of any amount and don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media I've got my facebook my Instagram my Twitter and my personal channel Lucy Bella L I will see you soon for another lesson [Music] you [Music] [Music]