Did someone ask you, ‘how have you been?’ What does this mean, and how should you reply to it?
‘How have you been’ is an informal way to ask how life has been for someone since the last time you saw them. There are many appropriate replies, ranging from simply saying ‘not bad’ or ‘good’ to giving a brief summary of your life since the last interaction you’ve had with the person asking.
‘How have you been’ is a way to ask someone how their life has been since the last time you saw or talked to them. Usually, when someone asks, ‘how have you been,’ there is an implication that it’s been some time since you’ve spoken or seen each other.
In short, this is a casual conversation starter when two people haven’t seen each other in a while. The person who is asking the question isn’t typically expecting that they will receive a thorough and detailed response. However, it’s certainly appropriate to answer with a brief sentence or two about what you’ve been up to since the last time you saw them.
It’s worth noting that a person asking this question in person or over the phone might say, ‘how’ve you been?’ rather than ‘how have you been?’ ‘How’ve’ is simply a contraction of ‘how’ and ‘have.’
Though ‘how have you been’ does appear to be a more prodding question than a simple ‘how are you,’ that doesn’t mean that you have to answer in a lengthy or complex way.
Many of the standard responses you would give to answer ‘how are you’ are suitable as responses to ‘how have you been,’ including:
Depending on the situation, you might choose to give a few details about your work, hobbies, family, relationships, or anything else that’s been going on in your life.
If you know the person well, you might decide to offer a more honest and less canned response. If you really haven’t been doing well and you want to communicate this to the other person, you could also choose to say something like “I’ve been better” or “honestly? Things have been a bit rough lately.”
If it’s appropriate to give a longer response, you could choose to mention activities you’ve been doing recently. Rather than rattling off every detail of your life, it can be nice to pick one or two things that you’ve been working on recently to share with the person.
Here are some examples:
You don’t necessarily have to give any details of your life if you don’t want to or if it doesn’t seem appropriate in the context. In these cases, you can simply reply with “good” or another standard response and then introduce a new topic to help keep the conversation flowing.
For example:
Additionally, you can ask the other person how they’ve been after you respond with your simple answer. This helps to continue the conversation as it shifts the attention back to the person initially asking you how you’ve been.
‘How have you been’ is only one of the many ways that you can greet someone you know. Some other examples include:
‘How have you been’ is a nice way to greet someone when you haven’t seen them in a while. For example, if you run into a friend at the store that you haven’t seen in a few weeks, you might ask them ‘how have you been?’
This isn’t a question you would ask someone you’ve never met before. Instead, you can simply ask, ‘how are you?’ or something a little more specific such as ‘how’s your day going?’
Responding to ‘how’ve you been’ doesn’t need to be stressful in the slightest. You can just answer with ‘good’ or ‘great’ and then ask the other person how they’ve been doing.
If it is a person that you know well or that you feel is actually interested in what you’ve been up to, you can talk about one or two things that have been going on in your life recently.
Are you ready to learn more English phrases? Make sure you check out our idioms blog for idioms, expressions, adages, and more!
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