Language

English: textbook vs. reality

What a textbook chapter on English gets right, what it skips, and the slang, ellipsis, and tone shifts native speakers actually use day to day.

English textbooks generally do a decent job with the basics, but they tend to over-rely on one register — clean, polite, complete sentences. Real spoken English has a wider range: contractions are standard (not optional), responses are shorter than textbook dialogues suggest, and some very common phrases are introduced late or not at all.

Greetings

What textbooks teach

Hello

"Hello"

Standard greeting taught in most textbooks — perfectly fine and widely used

normal very common

Good morning / Good afternoon / Good evening

"Good morning / Good afternoon / Good evening"

Time-of-day greetings, common in professional and polite settings

normal common

What they often miss

"Hi"

The most common everyday greeting — slightly less formal than "Hello" but perfectly appropriate everywhere

normal universal

Hey

"Hey"

Very common among friends and acquaintances. Not appropriate in formal settings (job interviews, presentations)

casual very common

What's up?

"What's up?"

Common casual greeting, especially among younger speakers. Not a real question — the expected response is "not much" or just "hey"

casual very common

The full picture

"Hello" is perfectly fine — the textbook gets this right. What textbooks often miss is "Hi," which is the most common everyday greeting in English and works in almost any situation. They also rarely explain that "What's up?" is not actually a question — it's a greeting that expects a brief response, not a detailed answer.