English with Darren

Don't answer 'How do you do?' with 'I'm well thanks. And you?'.  Why not?

Read this extract from Conversation A below.  How does Karin respond to David? 

A

She responds to David with Nice to meet you.  Do you know another phrase we can use for How do you?  See if you can find the answer in Conversation B.

B

It's important to remember that How do you do? has a similar meaning to Nice to meet you and that we use it when we meet someone for the first time. 

Why isn't the following example correct?

David:  Nice to see you again, Heike. How do you do?

It's not correct because David and Heike already know each other.

When you meet someone for the first time in business, you can use both How do you do? and Nice to meet you. 

How do you do is more formal, but some people still use it at work, so it's important to understand what it means.

In the extract from Conversation C, you can see that when someone says How do you do? it's also possible to respond with How do you do?

C

However, when you meet someone for the first time in your leisure time, it's better to use Nice to meet you because it's less formal.  

Interested in learning more?

In the phrase How do you do? we say the second do a little louder than the first.  It is stressed. 

Stressed words help listeners to hear the most important words in a sentence.  We call this sentence stress. Tell me more!