Better Alternatives to 'Hope You’re Doing Well'
Hope you’re doing well (or hope you are doing well) is a common expression in email communication and other correspondence. It’s used to start an email, greeting the addressee and showing interest in their well-being.
The expression is clear and friendly in tone, so there’s nothing wrong with using it. You can use the phrase both formally and informally, but it’s often used in the context of professional communication.
But since the phrase is so frequently used, it can come across as insincere or cliché. You may want to use an alternative every now and then, especially when you communicate with the same people. Below, we explain alternatives to help you vary your language and strike the right tone in every context.
I hope this email finds you well
This alternative is more traditional than ‘hope you’re doing well’, which makes it appropriate for a more formal setting. You could use this expression for messages to customers or business partners or in a context where your relationship with the person is not close.
I hope this email finds you well. I am reaching out to you to discuss your son’s grades.
After failing biology and chemistry, he is now also failing maths. I would like to set up a meeting for the three of us to discuss our plan going forward. Would 3 p.m. next Friday suit you?
With kind regards,
Mr Ryan
Hope all is well
This expression is used interchangeably with ‘hope you’re doing well’, although it can convey a rushed tone. It’s a good casual alternative for short messages to people you’re on good terms with or contact frequently.
Hope all is well!
Could you send me the presentation slides ASAP?
See you this afternoon,
Lucy
I hope you’re having a good week
This phrase is similar in tone to ‘hope you’re doing well’, but a bit more specific, which makes it a good alternative. You can use it to vary your language in casual correspondence with coworkers.
I hope you’re having a good week! I just wanted to ask if you have time for a short call later today.
Thanks!
Justine
How are you doing?
‘How are you?’ and ‘How are you doing?’ are very common alternatives to ‘hope you’re doing well’. They work best in somewhat informal communication, although they’re not overly informal.
However, these phrases are also frequently used and might come across as insincere or automatic – people often use these questions as a standard greeting, without any expectation of a sincere answer. You can choose to emphasise the sincerity of your greeting by adding another phrase.
How are you? We haven’t caught up in weeks!
I wanted to ask if you can assist me in setting up the new antivirus software. I’ve tried for an hour, but I can’t figure it out.
Thanks in advance!
Patrick
Other variants on the phrase
Using hope you’re doing well as a sentence on its own is technically not grammatically correct, since the sentence lacks a subject. This is not a problem in most cases, since the implied subject is clearly ‘I’, but it’s something you might want to avoid in a formal context.
Besides using the expression in a full sentence with a subject (‘I’), you can also add words or vary punctuation to better fit the context. Some examples are shown below.
I hope you are doing well.
I hope you’re doing well today!
I hope you’re doing well on this beautiful day!
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Merkus, J. (2023, January 02). Better Alternatives to 'Hope You’re Doing Well'. Scribbr. Retrieved 10 February 2025, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/strong-communication/i-hope-youre-doing-well/