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Hi, everybody! Join Monica each week as she shares communication tips for non-native English speakers. Also, be sure to follow along on YouTube for the full lesson with video! Thanks for being here.
00:00:10:15 - 00:00:37:08
Speaker 1
Hi everybody. It's Monica with American English with Monica. I'm so glad you're here. Welcome back. Let's get started in today's class. It's important that you learn the difference between good evening and good night. There are different. We use them for different things. Now, I teach business English and I teach the American accent. So some of these rules are different in different parts of the world.
00:00:37:10 - 00:00:52:29
Speaker 1
Make sure you watch the whole video because I'll tell you, some other countries that use them differently than American accent. Okay. It's good to know. All right, let's get started.
00:00:53:02 - 00:01:21:15
Speaker 1
So we have greetings, greetings, ways that we start a conversation. Things that we say to people when we first see them. We might walk into a shop or a restaurant. We might be starting a phone call. We might be typing an email or a text message. And these are common ways we start a conversation. Good morning. Good afternoon and good evening.
00:01:21:18 - 00:01:44:07
Speaker 1
Those are the three greetings. I'm going to put a line here because we're going to start with these top three. Good morning. Good afternoon and good evening. These are all ways that we start a conversation. They are greetings. Okay. Greetings. Just.
00:01:44:09 - 00:02:13:04
Speaker 1
It's important to know that in the morning. It's the morning time. It's before lunch. Usually we use this phrase. It's very common. When the sun is up, when you're up and it's before lunch, you could technically use it in the dark hours of the morning. But I'm still sleeping. But if you're not, if you're at work and it's 4:00 in the morning, you might say to your colleague, good morning.
00:02:13:06 - 00:02:36:15
Speaker 1
Okay, so before noon, we use this greeting before noon, the word noon. Do you know that word? It's a special time on the clock. It's 12:00. It's very common in America. Before noon. Before 12:00 to say good morning or to write good morning.
00:02:36:18 - 00:03:02:29
Speaker 1
And then after 12:00. After noon. After 12 is when we would say or write. Good afternoon. It's a little bit of formal, but it's very common. I say it all the time, even with my friends, even though it's a little bit formal. But like I said, I teach business English, and this is very typical ways to speak to your colleagues.
00:03:03:01 - 00:03:31:20
Speaker 1
To start an email is to to greet people as a greeting with good morning or good afternoon. Okay. The third one that's also a greeting is good evening. Good evening. Again, if you work hours that aren't typical office hours, there's a lot of industries where you work in the evening. It might be seven, eight, 9:00 at night. It's dark outside and you might tell your colleague.
00:03:31:20 - 00:04:06:06
Speaker 1
Good evening. It's a way to start a conversation. Or if you walk into a restaurant, you're there for dinner at night. You might say, good evening. Okay, so this is typically after the sun goes down. It's dark out. So after sunset, it's not exact. I can't give you an exact time because it changes throughout the year. I live in North America, and in the winter it becomes dark much sooner than in the summer.
00:04:06:08 - 00:04:33:00
Speaker 1
So I might say good evening at 5:00 in January. But if it's 5:00 in July, I might say good afternoon, because the sun is still very bright. So that's okay, as long as you understand that these three are greetings. It's a way to start a conversation. Now, I put this line here for a reason. Do you have any guesses?
00:04:33:02 - 00:05:10:20
Speaker 1
Good night. Is not a greeting. Do not start a conversation or a text or an email or a speech with good night. Because it's actually a way to say goodbye. This is really important. I'm teaching this lesson because I had a student who had to give a speech at a dinner presentation at night for his job. And he started the speech with ladies and gentlemen, good night.
00:05:10:22 - 00:05:43:04
Speaker 1
Now, in the American accent, that sounds very strange, because good night is how we end the conversation. It's a farewell. Okay? So it's how we say goodbye when it's dark outside. So we changed his speech. He has me as a teacher, and he was practicing, and we changed it to. Ladies and gentlemen. Good evening. At the end of his speech, he thanked everyone and said, good night.
00:05:43:07 - 00:06:13:07
Speaker 1
That makes sense. Really important. Okay. So the only other thing I want to tell you is you can make any of these, farewell. A way to say goodbye by adding two words. If you add two words before any of these, you. It means goodbye. And it's have.
00:06:13:09 - 00:06:36:09
Speaker 1
Have a good morning. I'm going to say that at the end of the conversation. Have a good night. Have a good afternoon. Have a good evening. Have a good day. We're going to talk about good day right now. But I do want you to know it's very common to end a conversation with have, good day or have, good morning.
00:06:36:12 - 00:07:13:05
Speaker 1
Okay. Good day is not used with the American accent very often. In fact, if you use Good Day in America, it sounds very odd because it's old fashioned, it's formal, and it almost sounds like you're being rude or sarcastic. You want to end the conversation. That's right. It's a way to say goodbye. It's a farewell. It ends the conversation.
00:07:13:08 - 00:07:36:08
Speaker 1
Good day. It means you're. You're bothered by the person. You don't want to talk to them anymore. You want them to leave the room or you want to leave the room. So I do not recommend saying this in the American accent. Certainly not as a greeting. It wouldn't make sense, and not as a farewell, because it sounds like you're being funny or sarcastic.
00:07:36:10 - 00:08:03:10
Speaker 1
Now, do you remember I said that I teach the American accent? So these rules might be different in different parts of the world. And one example I'd like to give you is in Australia. In Australia, if you walk into a shop at any time, day or night, they're going to say good day. That's a very common, polite way to greet other people.
00:08:03:12 - 00:08:29:07
Speaker 1
That is not the case in America. Don't start an email with good day. Don't end an email with good day. It's odd sounding in the American accent. Okay. Now, if you're not sure of the time of day when there are people who will receive the email, it's okay. It's better to start an email with hi everyone or hi everybody, because you don't know what time zone they might be in.
00:08:29:10 - 00:08:53:03
Speaker 1
And if you want to start a conversation that it's morning, maybe it's just for your local colleagues, that's fine. But if you're sending an email to a wider audience, you don't know when they'll read it. Some of these might not work right because you don't know their time zone. So I'm really glad you were here and I hope you now know the difference.
00:08:53:05 - 00:09:17:17
Speaker 1
Good evening is a greeting. Good night is a farewell. You don't want to use the wrong one. It can sound rude. You don't want to start a conversation or a speech with good night. So let me know if you have any questions. Just put them in the comments. I'm so happy to be back making videos. I will be putting out a new video every week, probably on Friday.
00:09:17:19 - 00:09:41:07
Speaker 1
I think that's what I'll aim for. If you have certain topics you'd like to see, put them in the comments and I'll make some videos that will be helpful for you. And of course, it would be great if you could like and subscribe and comment and share my videos with your colleagues and friends who are also non-native English speakers, because it helps me to know that there are people watching.
00:09:41:07 - 00:09:46:02
Speaker 1
It helps me make more videos. Okay. I'll see you next time. Bye.