{"id":147975,"date":"2023-10-02T09:11:17","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T13:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/learn-english-phrases\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T11:16:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T15:16:57","slug":"learn-english-phrases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/english\/learn-english-phrases\/","title":{"rendered":"5 English Phrases Everyone Learns but No One Should Use"},"content":{"rendered":"

You have been taught some English phrases<\/a> that you should never use.<\/p>\n

I’m talking about some simple, basic phrases that everyone learns, but are usually never used\u00a0in actual conversations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They provide a base to help\u00a0beginners understand grammar<\/a> and sentence patterns. It’s only a problem when students keep using these simple phrases instead of using authentic words.<\/p>\n

Don’t worry though, we’ll tell you exactly why you should stop using these five phrases, and give you several options that you can say instead.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hello. How are you?<\/h2>\n

It’s an innocent question, right?<\/p>\n

It’s a question that students tend to ask their teachers every day at the beginning of class. Every English teacher has heard this question asked hundreds of thousands of times. That’s the problem\u2014it’s used too often by ESL students.<\/p>\n

It’s such a common and overused\u00a0question that it’s no longer a good question.\u00a0At best, the speaker sounds like a robot and at worst, the speaker sounds bored.<\/p>\n

The easiest fix\u00a0is to make the\u00a0question longer.\u00a0The longer the question, the\u00a0better. Not to mention, you’ll sound like you really care about the answer.<\/p>\n

Here are a few alternative questions to ask instead:<\/p>\n