We have many ways to greet in Spanish, the most popular is "Hola".
If you want to be polite or show respect to someone you should use:
- Buenos días. (From 07:00 am to 11:00 am)
- Buenas tardes. (From 12:00pm to 18:00pm)
- Buenas noches. (From 19:00pm to 23:00 pm)
- ¿Cómo está?
- ¿Cómo le va?
Examples:
- Buenos dias Marta, cómo está?
- Hola, buenos días Marta.
Note: You can use it with older people, your boss or people you meet for the first time.
In the other side we have informal ways to greet to someone:
- ¿Qué tal?
- ¿Cómo te va?
- ¿Cómo estás?
For example:
- Hola, qué tal Marta?
Note: You can use it with friends, cousins, brothers, etc.
Now that you know how to say hello in Spanish, let's learn how to respond to greetings.
There are many words to answer a "¿How are you?"
- Excelente (You feel really good)
- Estupendo/a (You feel very good) (Estupendo = male) / Estupenda = female)
- Muy bien (You feel very good)
- Bien (You feel good)
- Regular (You feel good but not very good)
- Mal (You feel bad)
- Muy mal (you feel really bad)
Here are some examples for you:
- Hola Marta, cómo estás? / Hola Martha, cómo está?
- Hola Chris, estoy muy bien y tú? / Hola Chris, estoy muy bien y usted?
- Yo estoy regular, or just say Regular. it means Chris doesn't feel good but he doesn't feel bad either.
Note: When you respond to "¿Cómo estás?" you can to keep the conversation with "¿y tú?" (informal way) /"¿y usted?" (formal way)