Re: Greetings

Victoria wrote:
Hi Namek,

I am a well educated (PhD), mother tongue english speaker and I can
you tell that one can reply using either "I'm fine, how are you?", "
I'm fine, and you?" or alternatively "I'm fine, and yourself". All
three examples are correct, the second one being a more casual reply
however. So your friend's english teacher was incorrect.

Namek wrote:
Just a few days ago, a friend of mine told me that in one of her English classes, she said How are you? to all her sudents, and one
of them answered fine, and yourself. She corrected him, and he
claimed that he has heard native speakers answer in that way.

Many native speakers do speak that way, but your teacher is still
correct. As Victoria has illustrated above, native speakers can make
errors without noticing it. You can get away with "and yourself" when
speaking in a pub, but you won't get away with it in an examination.

I'm pleased to see, by the way, that you know that you should write
"English" rather than "english". That seems to be a particular common
mistake from non-native speakers. I didn't realise until now that there
are native speakers who also make the same mistake.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org

Please note the changed e-mail and web addresses. The domain
eepjm.newcastle.edu.au no longer exists, and I can no longer
reliably receive mail at my newcastle.edu.au addresses.
The optusnet address still has about 2 months of life left.
.

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