In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Hi!
A: What’s up? ←
B: Nothing much, what’s going on? ← ← ←
A: I’m having a party this Friday.
B: Oh, really? That’s nice.
A: I wanted to see if you wanted to come.
B: This Friday? Sorry, I already have plans.
A: Doing what?
B: I’m going to dinner with my family.
.
.
What does “what’s going on?” mean in this dialogue?
(This question is in response to the question of “What’s up?”.)
Thank you
In this dialogue, “what’s going on?” is another way of asking “what’s up?” or “what’s happening?” It is a casual way for Speaker B to continue the conversation and ask if there is any news or something happening with Speaker A.
Thank you so much, Torsten 
Very nice.
I have one more question:
A: I wanted to see if you wanted to come. ←
Is this a question sentence?
If yes, do we need a question mark “?” at the end?
Thanks
Grammatically, “I wanted to see if you wanted to come.” is a statement, not a direct question.
Even though it expresses an inquiry, it is structured as an indirect question (embedded within a statement), so a question mark is not needed. A direct question would be:
“Do you want to come?” (Needs a question mark)
But since the sentence is phrased as a statement, it correctly ends with a period instead of a question mark.
Thank you so much, Torsten
Very nice.
In British English alternatives to ‘what’s up’ could be:
Yet, I heard Whoopy Goldberg in her role as cat burglar say in a scene: ‘Hé, hé, hey man, wha’s ha’enin’ man?’ As far as I’m concerned she did not pronounce the letter p & g or she voiced these consonants just a little, making ‘p’ sound like an ‘m’. As she also pronounced ‘probably’ as ‘proaly’. I think she did it on purpose, of course my perception could have been wrong too. However, that’s the way I feel.
I used an apostrophe where she did not voice or pronounce, for that matter- probably on purpose - some consonants.
Shakespeare did the same as in, for example, ‘I ne’er knew’, meaning ‘I never knew.’
I don’t think it’s always possible to put BrE and AmE expressions into neatly separate boxes. Of course this has its historical roots and how words and sentences came into being as we hear and speak them now, would take me years, decades, if not centuries to explain. Fortunately, I won’t grow that old. I do say fortunately, because life begins for all of us and then, suddenly, we don’t realise anymore that we haven’t opened our eyes one morning…but what gives me enormous strength is, life goes on and so do we (for as long as nature allows it).
I remember my aunt Hilda giving me the Abba single ‘Dancing Queen’ as a present when I was 5 years old and when I listened to the text I started singing along;
Ninety-nine and nights are young - Friday night and the nights are low…
She was so young and optimistic and then one day - in 1985, 27th, two days after my birthday, she said farewell…It’s always left an enormous void in my life…Seventeen years later, 2002, her sister Rachelle, my mother passed, another void and seventeen years thereafter, in 2019 daddy dearest passed. One of my best friends, who passed away on 9th November 2023, said to me: 'Are you still consulting psychiatrists, because they say you have to forget all about it, put it aside, give it a place, but considering what you’ve been through from the day you were born, you cannot forget, perhaps forgive…but you know Torsten ‘Diese Zwei gehen Hand in Hand.’ Forget and forgive cannot exist apart…If you cannot forget certain wrong doings that happened to you, you cannot forgive…after all, God is the only one, who can forgive and I’m not the Almighty, nor would I want to be HIM. Remember I told you about that doctor, that piece of filth…I don’t care if it’s out in the open, but I have the impression that he hid behind Kohyoongliat’s face and that of others…Don’t be afraid of him, because I’m not and if I had to give my life, literally, to root him and others of his kind out, I would, no doubt about it. All the more so, because he has two young, talented doctors bowed under his yoke…he’s a bloody coward. I will protect those two young ones, because in more than one way he wants to prevent them from improving themselves…but somehow they’re managing to evade his yoke and do and show the best in themselves. Forgive me, if I get a bit emotional, but I love Benny and Michaël.