Learn 10 responses to the question "How are you?"
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| Hi, my name is Erica and welcome to Filipino top words. Our lesson for today is How to Respond to “How are You?” Let’s go. |
| 1. Kamusta? “How are you?” |
| So the first word is, “how are you?” In Filipino, Kamusta. So this is very useful when you pass by someone. You want to know how they are, right? But you just want to ask someone how they are. |
| 2. At ikaw? “And you?” |
| At ikaw? Or in English, “And you?” |
| How do you usually respond when people ask you, “how are you?” “And you?” |
| So if you are trying to avoid answering this question, you can ask, At ikaw or “And you?” Probably you are already like feeling too tired from work or something, right or you can, like casually more people would say, At ikaw or just simply ikaw. Ikaw means “And you?” So it’s a kind of like a nice gesture if someone asks you how are you and then you want to ask the same question because you just want to be nice. |
| 3. Kamusta ka naman kamakailan? “How have you been recently?” |
| So if you want to be more specific about asking them how they are in a certain period of time, you can ask Kamusta ka naman kamakailan? Or “How have you been recently?” |
| So probably you would have friends that would have gone to vacation or would have found the new job or would’ve graduated from university (just like me) and then, you can ask them, “how have you been recently?” |
| 4. Mabuti ako. “I'm fine.” |
| So how do you answer all these how are you questions and variations of how are you? First, you can say if you are really feeling this, mabuti ako or “I'm fine.” Of course, you can say it if you are not fine, right? I mean if you just want to like because sometimes when you say I am not so okay. I am feeling a bit down, then they would ask you more things but sometimes if you don’t want to answer any of these things but you are not fine, you can still say “I am fine” but in Filipino, you ask people like how are you? You ask people how are you because you want to know how they are or we don’t really say this as a greeting. |
| 5. Ok naman ako. “I'm not bad.” |
| Aside from I am fine, how can you respond to how are you? |
| You can say, ok naman ako or “I'm not bad.” |
| So if you are feeling like saying that you are not so fine but you are also not, not fine. You can say, well, I am not bad. It’s okay. Everything is cool but I am crying inside. I am dead inside, okay. |
| 6. Inaantok ako. “I'm sleepy.” |
| If you are feeling sleepy, you can say, inaantok ako or “I'm sleepy.” |
| After lunch, usually that’s the time when you feel this like you are really like sleepy. Even though you have lots of work, you are feeling sleepy or sometimes you don’t have lots of work, you are feeling sleepy. So, you can say, it’s well. It’s okay. Just don’t say it to your boss. I don’t think – if your boss asked you, hi, how are you? I am sleepy. Oh, that’s not really good. Well, probably you should go home and not come back anymore, goodbye. Thank you for your service. Probably that’s how it will go right? |
| 7. Masama ang pakiramdam ko. “I'm feeling bad.” |
| Or if you are not feeling so well, you can say, masama ang pakiramdam ko or “I'm feeling bad.” |
| So, you can say this if you have a bit of cold for instance or your stomach is upset or what else? Or you have broken heart like those kinds of things. So if you want to say that you are feeling bad, you say, masama ang pakiramdam ko. |
| 8. Okey ako. “I'm okay.” |
| But what if you are just fine? What if you are just okay but you don’t want to say "I am fine" or mabuti ako, you can also say casually, okey ako, which is very casual, very simple, okey ako. |
| 9. Okey na okey ako. “I'm great.” |
| If you want to say that you are really doing great, then you can say, okey na okey ako. You would have to know that in Filipino when you repeat words, it – what’s it called? It’s like, it’s a superlative version of the adjective kind of, but it’s not. But it’s kind of like the impact of the adjective. So it’s equivalent to “very”. So you would say, okey na okey ako meaning, I am super-duper okay. Right? Or if you are really, for instance, sleepy, you would say, inaantok inaantok ako. instead of just saying inaantok ako, right? |
| 10. Salamat sa pagtatanong. “Thank you for asking.” |
| And for instance, you are feeling bad and then this person, they will ask you how are you? It made you feel happy, then you can say, “thank you for asking” or Salamat sa pagtatanong because of course you felt happy that someone asked you especially if you’re feeling bad. |
| So that’s it for the end of this lesson. Hope you learned something new and what do you usually say to your friends, your colleagues, people who ask you how you are. And how do they respond to you. Leave them in the comments section. Salamat. Hanggang sa muli. |
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