What to Reply When a Friend Says "Hey Stranger"

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When a friend greets you with, “Hey stranger,” you might be unsure as to how your should respond. It's easy enough to decode the meaning of this greeting so that you can reply appropriately.

1 Proactively Acknowledge the Meaning

Generally, when a person says, “Hey stranger,” to you, it means that she is missing your friendship and would like to see more of you. However, instead of saying something sappy to you like, “Hey, why haven’t I heard from you? I miss you,” she's taking a more indirect approach. A good way to reply to this greeting is to acknowledge that you haven’t seen her in awhile and that you would like to talk soon. You might say something simple like, “Hey! It’s good to see you. I know we haven’t hung out in awhile, so let’s figure out a time to catch up that works for us both.”

Nina Edwards holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and has been writing about families and relationships since 2000. She has numerous publications in scholarly journals and often writes for relationship websites as well. Edwards is a university lecturer and practicing psychologist in New York City.

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