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I was told that "мне хорошо" would sound very strange as a response to "как дела", and indeed I've never seen or heard in such a context, but I don't completely understand why. I've seen it in contexts like this:

Мне хорошо рядом с тобой

What is it about the construction that makes it acceptable in this context, but not as a response to "как дела"?

Peter Olson
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3 Answers3

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This response is wrong both grammatically and semantically.

"Как дела?" literally means "How well are your deals?". So the answer should be about the deals. For example you can answer "Спасибо, мои дела идут хорошо." "Thanks, my deals are going well". When answering "Мне хорошо" you do not answer the asked question, because it refers to you rather than the deals. That's why the answer is grammatically incorrect.

It is also incorrect semantically because "Как дела?" refers to overall state of affairs of your life, while "Мне хорошо" means you feel pleasure just now. In fact your affairs can be bad but you still can feel pleasure currently.

So the proposed dialog looks like:

-How well are your affairs?

-I feel pleasure now.

Really there is no much meaning in it. It makes impression that you are a drug addict whose business is to feel pleasure.

Anixx
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    I would rather translate "мне хорошо" as "I feel good" (at least not as "pleasure"). This can be adequate answer if you are in a hospital and recovering from serious ilness. – Artemix Jul 26 '13 at 07:06
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    @Artemix no. I feel good would be "я чувствую себя хорошо". "Мне хорошо" means I experience pleasure/good feeling. – Anixx Jul 26 '13 at 08:43
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    I disagree that "Как дела?" necessarily means "Как твои дела?". It could also mean "Как у тебя дела?" (almost but not quite the same) or "Как тут дела?" (definitely not the same). – Andriy M Dec 27 '13 at 07:58
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"У меня всё хорошо" will be OK - I guess this is a phrase you are looking for actually.

"Мне хорошо" is actually close to "I feel good", not "I'm fine".

So imagine a dialog A: How are you? B: I'm feeling good.

A little bit odd, isn't it? )))

shabunc
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Just to add to everything said above: "Мне хорошо" would be a fitting answer for "Как тебе?" (I can imagine this dialog after changing some physical environment, say, opening/closing the window: -Как тебе? - Мне хорошо. - А мне холодно/жарко.)

Natalya Ovchinnikova
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