when u meet a person we

a) casually enquire about someone's well being
by asking 'how do u do?' 'how is ur health lately?'

b)or might complement by saying 'u look lovely..' 'u have a wonderful home..'

what are the different words(one for casual enquiry and other for complement) that can be used to fill the blank in the context below

the guests after exchanging initial..........,moved on to talk about more serious matters.

One of the words most commonly used to fill in that blank is "pleasantries"


the guests after exchanging initial pleasantries,moved on to talk about more serious matters.

ah yes...pleasantries is a good word
any more words that deals with more genuine concern like:

1. Are u alright?
2. how is ur health doing?

greetings

the guests after exchanging initial niceties, remarks, banter, inquiries, moved on to talk about more serious matters.
Or
after some polite conversation, casual conversation, general conversation, the guest move on to talk about more serious matters.

Ah, but suppose you run into an old friend who you know has been undergoing some severe circumstances, say a beloved sister has just died. You may well say, as an opening line, "How are you doing?" with a tone of voice that makes it clear that this isn't just a pleasantry. Dunno if there is a single word for this but I would say it is an example of showing concern.

reference:www.grevocabulary.org

In school we learned that when someone says "you how do?" your not supposed to really get into the matter.
When someone asks "how are you doing?", then it is a real question and you should give a reaction.

While "How do you do?" will pretty much always be understood as a verbal pleasantry, "How are you doing?" would be very dependent on how you say it. "Ha ya doon?" would be a verbal pleasantry. "How are you doing?" said with somewhat exaggerated intonations and given that there is the knowledge that something has been amiss would be considered a real question looking for an answer other than "Just fine."

O.K. Just fine!

Hey Brannie
If you were taught to say "you how do?" you might want to consider different English teacher.

Hello Zed
If I had teacher teach me "you how do" I would say "you how do".
So, "do how you?"

I suppose formalities would also fit the bill.

me do fine, how you do?

>I suppose formalities would also fit the bill.

If formalities would fit bills, what a wonderful world it would be.

Or opposite: If too many bills had not been accounted for by just formalities we would not have had the present WW complications.