Hello!
Russian learners tend to say "so-so" or "fifty-fifty" when they are asked how things are going, but I've been struggling a bit with these expressions in terms of trying to find out whether they are locally invented or whether natives do say so.

Thanks for your answers in advance.

Question

Hello!
Russian learners tend to say "so-so" or "fifty-fifty" when they are asked how things are going, but I've been struggling a bit with these expressions in terms of trying to find out whether they are locally invented or whether natives do say so.

Thanks for your answers in advance.

Answer

"So-so" is normal as a response to a question about how things are going.  It means things are just okay -- not great, but not really bad.

"Fifty-fifty" is also common, but not in this context.  We say "fifty-fifty" to describe something that is divided exactly in half, or contains an equal amount of two things.  For example, if two people each pay half the cost of a meal, we say they are splitting the bill "fifty-fifty."  "Fifty-fifty" is mostly used for talking about money or quantities of things, but you might also occasionally hear something like:

A: "Were most of the people at the party vegetarian?"
B: "I guess it was about fifty-fifty."

... meaning that about half of the people were vegetarian, and half of them were not.

I've never heard anyone say "fifty-fifty" to mean "just okay" or "so-so."  (If I asked someone how they were doing and they said "fifty-fifty," I would probably assume that they hadn't heard my question correctly.)

Answer

"So-so" is never used in English. You can say "kind of" or "sort of" for this.
:)

Answer

I'm good
I'm fine
I'm OK
I'm alright

These tend to be the common response to how are you.

Answer

Both expressions are common among natives, as I know.

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