re: Three Questions For Natives. page 2

Hello WA,

Some alternative answers:

1. For starters, when a friend of yours tells you that he had has bought some new product (or got something new for his birthday, for example), what do you tell him?

— If I'm interested, "Oh, really? I wouldn't mind having a look at that". If not, "Oh, really?"

2. Moreover, when you arrive in at a birthday party, what do you tell say to the guy who holds is giving the party (how do you greet him, and I'm not talking about a terse 'hi').

— "Happy birthday, old chap! Many happy returns of the day and all that!"

3. Furthermore, the one who has whose birthday it is? How What is he called?

— I'm not sure there is a word. (Some people would call him "birthday boy", I'm sorry to say. But that would probably embarrass him, and irritate everyone else.)

4. Let's say that you sit are sitting in a restaurant, and the waitress inches towards you comes over. She asks you what would you you would like to order, and you want to drink some carbonated drink something carbonated , so:
Is it possible to say: I would like to have a carbonated drink?
Is it natural to say: I would like to have a light drink, let's say....Coke?
— I'd like a soft drink, please. Do you have any Coke?

All the best,

MrP

WesternAmericanThanks, brother!
I understand now.
Hope you like it is clearly much more polite.
By the way, perhaps you could explain to me the phrase 'at best'? How can I use it? What exactly does it mean?

It means " even with the best scenario" or "with the highest probability".

If you give someone a gift and he or she says "thank you," you say "I hope you like it" or "Use it in good health" or simply "You're welcome."

If someone tells you that they got something new, but it's not from you, then simply "Oh really" (as said above) is fine.

Greet your host with "Hi Peter - happy birthday" or "Hi Mary - happy birthday."

When you leave, you say "Thank you for inviting me. I had a great time."

If you said "carbonated beverage" at a restaurant you would sound quite unnatural. In the US, it's a soda, or pop, or even "Coke" (regardless of the actual type), depending on what part of the country you are in.

Hi, Western American! I think most of your questions have been answered, but I will still put in my 2 cents' worth.

For starters, when a friend of yours tells you that he had bought some new product(or got something new for his birthday, for example), what do you tell him?

If this is someone my age or younger, I would probably say something like "Hey, that's great!" or even "congratulations!" if I knew it was something the person had wanted for a long time (like a new car). For an older person I might use a somewhat more formal, rather old-fashioned expression -- "use it in good health!" (or if it was a new article of clothing, "wear it in good health!") I think of this as a somewhat Jewish expression -- I would actuallly probably say "Mazal tov! (Or 'Congratulations!') Use it in good health!" -- but maybe that's just because everything I think of as "old-fashioned" in my family is really "old-fashioned Eastern-European Jewish Immigrant" style. It reflects a sort of superstition against taking good fortune for granted. I'll be curious to hear if any of the other native speakers here would ever use these expressions.

Moreover, when you arrive in a birthday party, what do you tell the guy who holds the party(how do you greet him, and I'm not talking about a terse 'hi').
Furthermore, the one who has birthday? How is he called?

Here, I think you're assuming that the host of the party is not the one who is having the birthday, while most of the answers have assumed it was the same person. If John is giving a birthday party for Bob, you would say "Hi, John. Thanks for inviting me!" to John at the beginning and maybe "Great party! Thanks again!" at the end. If it's Bob's birthday but he is not the host, you might refer to him as "the guest of honor."

Thank you guys, I've learned a lot.
Toda to you too, Khoff!

WesternAmerican, it's really hard to answer these questions without knowing more about you and the person you're talking to. There are many factors to consider: Gender, age, relationship, how well you know the person, how formal the setting is, etc. Even given that information, how you would express yourself in America would be different from how you would do it in, say, England. Some of the responses natives have posted above would sound strange where I live and might even make people laugh at you. It's not that one way is correct and another is wrong, it's just that people in different parts of the English-speaking world express themselves differently in these situations. Even some of the people residing in America who have responded have suggested things that would sound out of place to someone of my gender and age. What you're asking really has more to do with culture than grammar.