How are you? Asking, answering and keeping a conversation going

How are you? is a widely useful neutral option. How’s it going? is a relaxed question common between people who know each other. How are you doing? can also ask about life or well-being, not just a task the person is performing.

Their meanings overlap. Fine, thanks can answer any of these questions, so the reply alone does not identify one exact question. Informal does not mean impolite: choose according to the relationship and situation.

In How are you?, are comes before you. You addresses one person or several, and are stays the same. In How is Sam?, the name of one person takes is.

In How’s it going?, how’s means how is. The subject is it, so use is. Treat this as an established question about how things are going, rather than interpreting going as physical movement. How are you doing? has you as its subject, so it takes are.

Do not add do to these questions with be. However, conversational You’re tired? can be a valid checking question or a way to confirm a guess. It has a different structure and purpose; it does not mean every question without inversion is wrong. Here we practise neutral questions beginning with how.

In a full sentence about yourself, use I am or I’m: I’m fine, I’m good, I’m okay, I’m tired. An adjective can follow be, so I’m good is a normal correct response, not an error because of good. I’m well is also possible, especially when referring to good health.

For a negative, put not after am: I am not very well or I’m not very well. You can join two assessments with but: things are generally okay, but you are tired. When answering for two people, use we are / we’re, and do not assign both people a condition that applies to only one.

Fine, thanks. / Pretty good. / Not bad. / A bit tired. are natural short replies in this kind of conversation. They are not errors because I am is absent: the clear context allows a shorter response. A full sentence is needed only when a learning task explicitly requests one.

Not bad generally gives a reasonably positive assessment, but it has no fixed numerical value and does not automatically mean either very good or bad. Context and intonation affect the nuance. Do not infer an exact mood from those two words alone.

How are you? asks for information about someone’s state. Yes or No alone does not provide that information. Distinguish it from Are you okay?, which can be answered Yes, I am. That is a related construction, not the required answer pattern here.

After your answer, you can add And you? or How about you? You can also ask the full How are you? These hand the conversation to the other person; they are not different compulsory levels of politeness.

Both thanks and thank you are appropriate, with thank you sounding fuller. A return question often keeps the conversation going, but it is not obligatory in every situation. If a task specifically asks you to return the question, thanks alone is insufficient.

A correct answer can be positive, negative or mixed. You need not hide a bad day, explain the reasons or disclose private details. In exercises, you can always speak as an invented character.

A useful pattern is: ask about someone’s state → give a short, meaningful answer → ask in return if you wish. Choose familiar words. A brief, clear exchange meets the purpose without a long story.