When in doubt, a useful test involves substituting pronouns. Consider How is they? versus How are they? Say the wife and kid live in different places—maybe the latter is away at school—and you want to express this independence, you might use How is the wife? The kid? Any more explicit and the repetitiveness will be tiresome.
grammaticality - "How are" or "How is" the wife and kid? - English ...
In my experience as a native speaker in the Middle Atlantic region, there is a slight difference. "How are you?" is a bland greeting for someone you haven't seen for a while, while "How are you doing?" spoken in full (as opposed to being shortened to "Howyadoin?") may be an actual inquiry. The latter is more common when there is some expectation that the subject might not be doing well. For ...
The answer to this question would vary in different situations. In most cases you should reply with neutral: "Fine. What about you?" "Great! How are you?" Even if you had a really bad day, when you have a business meeting, you wouldn't answer something like this to the question you mentioned: "Oh, I had a really bad day..." "Bad, what about you?" On the other hand, if you are talking to your ...
idioms - What do you mean when you ask "How are you?" - English ...
The 'we' in "how are we" is the same 'we' used when a teacher asks a child "Why don't we put down the toy and wash up for lunch?" Dictionary.com: you (used familiarly, often with mild condescension or sarcasm, as in addressing a child, a patient, etc.): We know that's naughty, don't we? It's time we took our medicine. "How are we?" Is the question a nurse might ask you when entering the room ...