2

I used to hear people say "how are you doing?" in the meaning of "how do you feel" (and that's why people used to answer "very good" or something like it. As a non native English speaker it's difficult for me to understand it and it always interests me to know what is the relation between "doing" to the meaning of feeling.

Editing: I checked the question that was said to be duplicate, and I didn't find any similarity to my question. I am asking about the relation of the noun "doing" to the meaning of "feel". No relation between them for my opinion.

Improve this question
2
  • I don't know that there is a specific relation to "feeling". Could you be more specific?
    – user3169
    Jun 11, 2016 at 2:31
  • 1
    I checked the question that was said to be duplicate, and I didn't find any similarity to my question. I am asking about the relation of the noun "doling" to the meaning of "feel". No relation between them for my opinion. Sometimes questions marked as duplicate while they are not.
    – Virtuous Legend
    Jun 11, 2016 at 11:14

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

What someone is doing at any point is what activity they are engaged in, what their current state of being is. When asking "how are you doing?", in asking how you are feeling, they are asking for how you are doing whatever task you are doing.

For example, if you are doing a task, say cutting the lawn, and you are sad. You are doing your task a sad manner: you are sadly cutting the lawn. If someone asks you, "How are you doing?", as you are cutting the lawn, they want to know the adverb: you are sadly cutting the lawn, so the answer to their question would be "sad".

Improve this answer
2
  • Can the answer be "Rather slowly " or "with (some tools )?
    – V.V.
    Jun 11, 2016 at 7:34
  • @V.V. | If you are feeling slow or lazy, you could answer "How are you doing?" with "rather slow". Answering "with (some tools)", is not correct. "How are you doing?" has come to mean "How are you feeling?", so when someone asks "How are you doing?", they want to know how you are feeling. If someone asked, "How are you cutting the lawn?", you could answer: "With scissors". My answer focuses on the link between "How are you doing?" and "How are you feeling". "How are you doing?" should be answered in the same way as "How are you feeling?"
    – user33596
    Jun 11, 2016 at 18:11

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .