In the UK at least, ‘you alright?’, shortened to ‘right?’ is just used as a greeting. In the same way that ‘how are you doing’ got shortened to ‘howdy’. It’s just another form of greeting or pleasantry.
If you’re actually interested how someone is, you’ll ask without the contraction (‘are you alright?’), and with a different intonation.
I think that’s a fairly reasonable way of doing conversation; I don’t have a problem with it.
My Scandinavian friend said it was difficult when he came here because he would start to respond but the person had already walked past.
It’s something you say when you first arrive at a meeting, or greeting someone. You also say it to strangers when you walk past each other with your dogs.
The response if you’re staying to chat with someone you know is ‘good, how’re you?’ and they say ‘good’ and that’s about it - you either move on, or start an actual conversation.
but in passing with strangers or colleagues in the corridor, it’s also ‘howyagoin’, smile maybe a nod and you keep moving.
In the UK at least, ‘you alright?’, shortened to ‘right?’ is just used as a greeting. In the same way that ‘how are you doing’ got shortened to ‘howdy’. It’s just another form of greeting or pleasantry.
If you’re actually interested how someone is, you’ll ask without the contraction (‘are you alright?’), and with a different intonation.
I think that’s a fairly reasonable way of doing conversation; I don’t have a problem with it.
Yeah, Australia it’s ‘howyagoin’.
My Scandinavian friend said it was difficult when he came here because he would start to respond but the person had already walked past.
It’s something you say when you first arrive at a meeting, or greeting someone. You also say it to strangers when you walk past each other with your dogs.
The response if you’re staying to chat with someone you know is ‘good, how’re you?’ and they say ‘good’ and that’s about it - you either move on, or start an actual conversation.
but in passing with strangers or colleagues in the corridor, it’s also ‘howyagoin’, smile maybe a nod and you keep moving.