How do you say "hello"?

Dear Friend,

Good morning or is it in the afternoon when you are reading this? Did you know that in English we usually don't say "good day"? It's either 'hello', 'good morning' or 'good afternoon'. If you want to learn more about greetings in English, you should read Alan's essay Well, hello! As for our grammar lesson number 8 -- let's take a closer look at the present simple. This time you are going to learn how to ask "closed questions". A closed question starts with the help word "do" or "does". Here are some examples: "Do you speak English?" "Do you play chess?" "Does your husband work for IBM"? Sunny has created a forum lesson that explains the simple present even more here. As always, I'm waiting for you to create your own questions in the simple present -- please post them on the forum in the discussion Sunny has started.

In our audio session you will hear expressions related to telephoning, especially the equipment and devices you use to make phone calls: telephone expressions. Friend, do you remember what the word 'extension' means? Yes, the telephone number of a person within an organization. If you want to call a particular person at a large company, you need to know their extension, that is, you need to know their particular telephone number. What about you? Do you have your own extension at work? As you know, I always want to hear about your current situation so I can help you even better improve your English. Speaking of which -- my friend and tutor Alan Townend created a wonderful telephoning test for you. It's called On the phone.

Friend, how many of the ten questions did you answer correctly at the first attempt? Some of our students have asked me how they can ask a question regarding the expressions or words in the test. Well, here is how: Next to each test question there is a link called "Do you have a question?" When you click on that link, a little window comes up where you can enter your question. (The window is called "Post Your Message.") Once you have entered your question, click the "send" button below the message window. Now your question appears on the forum and you will get an answer soon.

OK, that's it for today. Speak to you soon.
Torsten