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Hey, community. Is it right to call a girl as "guys".E.g.: I arrive at a girl's group and I want to greet them. May I use "Hey, guys" and greeting?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Some people are OK with that, some people are not.

You could say something like Hi people / Hi folks!

MountainHiker · Answer

If I were meeting a group of women, I would tend to use "Hey everyone."

I wouldn't use guys because they are not males. Some might, however, use guys as a generic greeting. I wouldn't, though. There's always a chance that someone could take offense. I personally don't find guys to be terribly offensive. But I don't count. They do.

I might use "Hey girls" if I was already familiar with them and we were friendly and on very good terms. Then girls is sort of a term of endearment. But, if we had not met before, I would go back to "Hey everyone." A male calling a group of women "girls" might seem dismissive or worse. You don't want to belittle them.

"Hey women" doesn't seem to have that friendly tone to it. I don't know why.

"Hey folks" works well for women or mixed group of people.

If they are truly girls—that is, their ages are below teenage years—then you can use "hey girls" without question.

Generally speaking, err on the side of being overly correct until you know you have freedom to be more relaxed. If someone misinterprets your friendly greeting, then you need to correct a false impression. So, you could start with "hey everyone." Ask a few of them if "hey guys" is considered rude or inappropriate.

Others might have a different opinion. I would tend to be more strict until I was confident that I would not be misinterpreted and had more freedom. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and all that stuff.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

It's very common among young people with a group of people they know very well (friends.)

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