"How ARE you?" or "How are YOU?"?

Do you place stress usually on the "are" or on the "you"?

  • "How ARE you?"

    Votes: 8 26.7%
  • "How are YOU?"

    Votes: 11 36.7%
  • Either one

    Votes: 4 13.3%
  • Hickboy

    Votes: 7 23.3%

  • Total voters
    30

Calboner

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I have noticed that some people pronounce the phrase "How are you?" with stress on the second word--"How are ya?"--and some with stress on the third--"Hower you?" I am speaking of instances in which one is addressing the phrase to someone who has not already addressed the same phrase to oneself; if one is replying to someone who has done that, almost everyone will put the stress on the "you."

I suspect that the variation in the frequency of the use of the one or the other phrase varies not just according to the individual or the whim of the moment but also according to region. Where I grew up, in Seattle, it seemed to me that the emphasis was almost always placed on "you"; but having lived in the northeastern US, I have the impression that here it is more often placed on "are." I have also noticed that the Irish actors in the television series Father Ted always place the stress on the "are," which makes me wonder if that habit in certain regions of the US has any correspondence with historical centers of Irish immigration.

So I ask two questions: (1) When initially saying "How are you?" to someone (i.e., NOT using it in reply to someone who has addressed the phrase to you), do you usually (or always) place the stress on "are," on "you," or with pretty much equal frequency on the one or the other? And (2), assuming that you grew up speaking English, where did you grow up?

If you speak English as a foreign language, then in place of question (2) just explain how or from whom or on what model (e.g., American, British, etc.) you learned English.
 

Hoss

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I

So I ask two questions: (1) When initially saying "How are you?" to someone (i.e., NOT using it in reply to someone who has addressed the phrase to you), do you usually (or always) place the stress on "are," on "you," or with pretty much equal frequency on the one or the other? And (2), assuming that you grew up speaking English, where did you grow up?

If you speak English as a foreign language, then in place of question (2) just explain how or from whom or on what model (e.g., American, British, etc.) you learned English.


first question, I rarely say How are you? Usually more of How you/ya doing? No heavy stress on any part of it.
When I say HOW are you? the emphasis goes on How because I am attempting to get the person to be honest when they have said they are fine when clearly they aren't.

second question, I grew up in Idaho and western Pennsylvania.
 

Calboner

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first question, I rarely say How are you? Usually more of How you/ya doing? No heavy stress on any part of it.
When I say HOW are you? the emphasis goes on How because I am attempting to get the person to be honest when they have said they are fine when clearly they aren't.
I'm sorry if my typographical devices were misleading, but I was not speaking of any particularly heavy stress. Stress is a natural feature of English, and nobody can say "How are you?" without stressing at least one of the three syllables, except at the cost of sounding like a robot. The stress naturally falls somewhere. If you place primary stress on the "how," there will be secondary stress on the "you," but I am doubtful that you actually do that, as placing the stress on the first syllable makes the phrase sound as if you were correcting someone who had misunderstood you to be asking "Who are you?" or something of the sort.
I'm great thanks Mr Calboner, I didn't grow up at all
I knew you were in the pink.
 

EllieP

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My Mum broke me of saying "Howdy" when I was around 6. That's Dad's greeting. Now I usually just say Hi, but it takes up two syllables when I say it! Mum could never get rid of my Texas drawl.
 

nudeyorker

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I voted Hickboy also. I either put emphasis on both words (if I really care) or don't emphasize either word if I'm just making polite conversation.
 

ConanTheBarber

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I put emphasis on the ARE.
I am a Canadian child of the Great Plains.
(My mother was half Irish, if that accounts for anything here.)
 
7

798686

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The former.

Actually, looking at it again - I do both, in different cirumstances. :/
If I genuinely want to know, it'll be the former - if it's more off-hand, then the latter.
 

Calboner

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The only thing that is clear to me is that I made a mistake in assuming that people could make reliable reports of their own speech habits on this point. Anyone who says that they place no stress on any word is deluded. As I said before, it is impossible to pronounce the sentence "How are you?" with equal stress on all three words without sounding like a robot: primary stress has to fall on one of the three words; further, nobody will place it on the first word except to correct a misunderstanding. The problem is that most people are not practiced in observing word stress, so many of them don't know that they do it, let alone how they do it. That was my mistake. But it wasn't feasible to set up a sound-recording input for the survey. :frown1:
 
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nudeyorker

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The only thing that is clear to me is that I made a mistake in assuming that people could make reliable reports of their own speech habits on this point. Anyone who says that they place no stress on any word is deluded. As I said before, it is impossible to pronounce the sentence "How are you?" with equal stress on all three words without sounding like a robot: primary stress has to fall on one of the three words; further, nobody will place it on the first word except to correct a misunderstanding. The problem is that most people are not practiced in observing word stress, so many of them don't know that they do it, let alone how they do it. That was my mistake. But it wasn't feasible to set up a sound-recording input for the survey. :frown1:

Clearly you have never spent much time in either LA or NYC or you would know about the hellohowareyou? with absolutely equal emphasis throughout the entire one word question. How arrogant are you to say we are deluded when you clearly do not know what you are talking about.
 

Calboner

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Clearly you have never spent much time in either LA or NYC or you would know about the hellohowareyou? with absolutely equal emphasis throughout the entire one word question. How arrogant are you to say we are deluded when you clearly do not know what you are talking about.
I don't know about the phrase that you mention, but if you will post a recording of yourself uttering the phrase that I asked about, I will (and others will) be able to judge whether you actually do utter it without placing any stress on any word.
 
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Clearly you have never spent much time in either LA or NYC or you would know about the hellohowareyou? with absolutely equal emphasis throughout the entire one word question. How arrogant are you to say we are deluded when you clearly do not know what you are talking about.
Wales is more... 'Alright? 'Ow-ya-doin' - alrigh'?'
 

Enid

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Clearly you have never spent much time in either LA or NYC or you would know about the hellohowareyou? with absolutely equal emphasis throughout the entire one word question. How arrogant are you to say we are deluded when you clearly do not know what you are talking about.

I do agree about the "hellohowareyou"! But I also sound like a robot so maybe there is that. I still dunno if my chirbit recording worked. Hrmph. If I had to say which word I placed emphasis on I guess it'd be "how."
 

Penis Aficionado

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I agree with calboner. Most people may not recognize the stresses in their own speech or someone else's, and if this is the first time you've ever thought about it, it's probably much more subtle than you think.

But if it were possible to pronounce English sentences without stressed and unstressed syllables, there would have been no such thing as English poetry.
 

Calboner

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The default stress pattern is iambic pentameter. So in nudeyorker's one-word "hellohowareyou," the stresses, however slight, are on the "o" in "hello" and the "are."
It may be, but it may also be on the "hell" and the "you," with secondary stress on "how." Or perhaps some other combination. (There are so many more options with five syllables than with three.) There's no way to tell without hearing it uttered. (By the way, I think you mean "iambic," period, not "iambic pentameter," which is a meter consisting of five feet (stressed patterns, in this case iambs) per verse.)