你好吗？

[Demonic_Duck]

Outside of textbooks, is this phrase ever used? I've come across 你好/您好 plenty of times as a general greeting for strangers, despite its textbookish reputation, but now I think of it I don't think I've ever heard 你好吗 used outside of a classroom in my life. In what context would anyone ever say this?

[Guest realmayo]

I'm pretty sure I've heard people using it in a more formal or business context, particularly on the phone actually.

[roddy]

Yeah, you hear it - like realmayo says, it's a little more polite, but it does get used. It's not a greeting like 你好 though, it's an actual asking after how someone is. 

[muyongshi]

Where I have noticed used, or rather, how (in addition to the above) is not at the initiation of a conversation but a farther but into the conversation.

For example:

A: 好久没见到你！

B: 就是了！最近我都在__

A: 我最近也都比较忙，你好吗？

B: 我还好吧！

Okay, so it's not the best example but eat I can think of right now but hopefully you see where I typically hear it used.

[Demonic_Duck]

Ah, sorry for the confusion, I wasn't implying that I thought it was a greeting like 你好, just that both phrases have the "textbook" reputation. I guess I either haven't been party to many of the types of discussions in which it would get used, or I'm simply not too observant.

 

Actually the only authentic context I can think of that I've heard it in is a song, 十年 by 脑浊乐队

 

哦嘿，十年的光阴一闪，

你好，

属于我的都市，

哦嘿，十年的光阴一闪，

你好吗？

属于我的都市，

Come on now...

[roddy]

Keep your ears open. I heard an authentic use of "您贵姓？" once...

[imron]

I've heard that all the time. Especially with people on phone calls.

[ThatOneOtaku]

I find that my friends (foreign-exchange) from China tend to use 你好吗 when I talk with them. I find that the responses is it can tend to vary from what you may see in the text. I love to use the response 我不错 as apposed to others because it's how I would respond normally, and they seem to be similar. It's also often present in colloquial speech, alongside others. Granted this is only around a small group of friends, but I hope this helps a little.

[tysond]

Make a restaurant reservation and you will hear 您贵姓.  

 

I heard a 马马虎虎 the other day. 

[Guest realmayo]

劳驾 anyone?

[muyongshi]

劳驾 anyone?

Only ever heard as 疲劳驾驶 with a 不要 in front as one person talked on the phone to another late at night asking when they were returning to our city.

[lingo-ling]

勞駕 is something I've never heard in 13 years of living in a Mandarin-speaking environment. But 貴姓 is something I hear all the time, working in an office where people field calls from customers.

[Lu]

 

I heard an authentic use of "您贵姓？" once...

I once got an authentic 我免贵姓张 in return when I asked that.

 

I seem to recall hearing 劳驾 and that hearing it in the wild was where I learned the expression in the first place, but I don't remember where or what the context was. Might have been in Taiwan, where more politeness is used.

 

 

I heard a 马马虎虎 the other day.

I first learned this one from my Korean roommate as mama-fufu and was pleasantly surprised when I heard someone from Jiangsu saying exactly that the other day.

[imron]

I once got an authentic 我免贵姓张 in return when I asked that.

This is not that uncommon either. Though it depends a lot in the upbringing and manners of the person.

[陳德聰]

The only time I can specifically remember hearing 劳驾 was when I let some guy pass me on the downward 电梯 in Walmart once. Though I think that finding it a completely regular and unexotic term probably means I'm not going to commit to memory every time someone says it to me. I am pretty sure it's really common on the Mainland too.

[skylee]

What does "我免贵姓张" mean?  Does it mean "小姓張"?

[陳德聰]

Relevant.

[skylee]

I find the term "免貴" extremely strange.  But perhaps it is just me.

[OneEye]

Also relevant. Watch at 6:40.

[lingo-ling]

Never heard 免贵姓 or 小姓, but I have heard 敝姓 on several occasions.