Click Here to ListenGreeting someone you know is usually done in an informal way. In my existing greeting lesson, I primarily focus on informal greeting that is usually associated with someone you already know.
In this short lesson, let's focus on greeting someone in a formal way. Situations where you would greet someone in a formal way is common when you are the host of an event, or if you are working at a place like a hotel. Since I already have sentences related to hotels, restaurants, etc, let's use this time to create some sentences when you are the host of an event.
Hosting a party at your houseIf you are having a party or basically expecting guests, the best way to greet them when they enter is to say,
'Hi John. Thank you for coming.'
'Hi Sarah. I'm glad you made it.'
'Welcome to my home. Please, come in.'
You can also combine some of these sentences by saying,
'Mike, I'm glad you made it. Please, come in.'
When the party or event at your house is over, it is very common to say the same thing you said when they came in except for the third sentence. If you said one sentence when they came in, you can say the other when they leave.
'I'm really glad you made it.'
'Thanks so much for coming.
Hosting an Event or Conference When you host a large event, you have to be both polite and formal. When you greet someone at an event, use 'we' instead of 'I'. Because the person greeting is representing the whole event, 'we' is more appropriate. Also, it is more formal to use 'we' instead of 'I' because the person greeting does not know everyone. Finally, 'we' is better because it will sound like the person is being welcomed by more than one person. Here are some sentences.
'Welcome to the 2nd Annual Human Resource Conference. We're glad that you can join us today.'
You can also make the greeting longer if you need to give seating instructions or if you need to point them to refreshments.
'Hello and welcome. Thank you for attending the Human Resource Conference. You may take a seat over there.'
'Hello. My name is Steve. Thank you so much for coming. We will be starting in 15 minutes. We have refreshments over there, and if you can't find anything, please don't hesitate to ask.'
In cases where a guest is required to sign in, you can say the following.
'Welcome to our special event. If it's not too much trouble, can you sign in over here?'
'Welcome to our event. Can I get your name please? (small pause while you write it down) Mr. Johnson, thank you for coming. You may have a seat over there.'
If you need to make someone wait for something, you should always indicate that you are working on it.
'I'm terribly sorry for the delay. Let me find out when seating will begin.'
During the conference, if you have technical difficulties and need to make everyone wait, here is a sentence you can use.
'We are currently experiencing some technical difficulties. We apologize for the delay and we will begin as soon as we correct the problem. Thank you.'
There are many different scenarios and for each one, we would have a new sentence. I hope this lesson points you in the right direction on how to speak formally when hosting a party at your house or at a large formal event.
