Phraseology and Culture in English

10. Friday send-offs and Monday morning greetings 
Before we wrap up, it is important to say a few final words about two very 
Australian “salutations”, both of which are commonly used throughout the 
continent. One of them is mentioned by Tom Dusevic, in the article quoted 
in our preamble. The switch from past to present tense is noteworthy (we 
repeat in part the excerpt reprinted above): 

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Australian perceptions of the weekend
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Saturday and Sunday had a different rhythm. The weekend was your own 
time, the rest of the week it was the boss’s. It’s little wonder that the stan-
dard Friday send-off between workmates is ‘Have a good weekend’. 
The same phrase, as well as variants with other adjectives such as nice,
great, fantastic, etc., are used by radio and television presenters, who often 
embed them in larger, but highly routinised, discourse. The other one is 
heard on Monday mornings; it is somehow surprising Dusevic didn’t pick it 
up. Those who, on Friday afternoon, wish one another a good weekend, 
meet again on Monday and ask: “How was your weekend?” (variants: “Did 
you enjoy your weekend”, “Did you have a good / nice weekend?”, or, ellip-
tically, “Did you have a good / nice one?”).
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It is a simple matter of creat-
ing a friendly atmosphere, a good understanding; and as in the case of that 
other “greeting”, How are you?, Australians prefer a “short and good” an-
swer given without too much enthusiasm: 
One usually avoids stating that the weekend went wrong (if indeed it did). 
But this does not mean that, alternatively, one is free to tell how absolutely 
fantastic it was (even in cases where it may have been quite special): the 
answer in fact usually amounts to variations on saying it was ‘good’. (Béal 
1992: 28) 
Hence, there are typically Australian interactions such as the following 
(ibid.):
How was your weekend? 
Great.
The wedding? 
A lot of fun. 
If more detail is provided, it is usually on request – unless the detail con-
sists of fairly predictible events such as a day on the coast or in the country, 
meals, barbecues, an evening spent in front of the television, etc. (Béal 
1992: 30): 
How was your weekend? 
‘T was good, nice and quiet. In fact, I did nothing. We went to a party last 
night, did nothing on Friday night, all day Saturday, spent most of the day 
in bed, watched telly Saturday night, nothing yesterday. Then we went to a