.
.
.
Man: Not bad.
Woman: Just fine.
Man: Very nice.
Man: That’s great.
What does “just fine” mean?
Which is correct:
-
very good.
-
good.
-
something else…
Thank you
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These are just greetings that don’t really mean much. Most people (in the US) have a standard answer to the question “How ya doing?”. Most people will answer the same way no matter how they actually feel.
People might answer:
Fine
Just fine
Good
Pretty good
Not bad
etc
None of them mean much.
I have heard of people from other countries say this is dishonest since they aren’t truthfully answering the question of how they are doing. But it’s not really dishonest. It’s just something to say when people meet so they are staring at each other with nothing to say.
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Thank you so much, NearlyNapping 
Very nice explanation.
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I’ll just add a little bit here.
The reason the answers have no literal meaning is because the original question is similarly meaningless. “How are you doing?” Is just a social statement. If someone were to respond “Well, my sciatica is acting up.” The first person would probably think “Oh, no, what have I gotten myself into?”
As another example, when a doctor enters an examination room and asks “How are you, today?”, he’s just being polite. Then he will ask something like “What brings you in here today?”
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Thank you so much, Arinker
Very nice.
2 Likes