How are you? How do you do?

[Conchita]

[Jamie (K)]

"How do you do?" is very seldom said in the US, and so if you said to an American, "How do you do?" he would probably answer, "Fine. How are you?" When I tell classes of American students that in Britain the answer to, "How do you do?" is, "How do you do?" They're very surprised.

If you watch old westerns or talk to some Americans, you'll hear the greeting, "Howdy!" It just means "hi", but it comes from, "How do you do?" When we're being funny or talking to children, we may lengthen "howdy" to "howdy-doody".