“I know how to say two things in Spanish, hola (hello) and despacito (slowly).”
That’s the answer I usually get when I ask my non-native Spanish speaking friends if they know any Spanish.
Hola (oh-lah) is a greeting you can use to address anyone at any time of the day, but Spanish greetings don’t end there.
There are different ways to greet in Spanish depending on the time of the day and the person you want to greet. Let’s learn some!
Basic Spanish Greetings
Let’s start with basic Spanish salutations.
• ¡Hola! (Hi!)
• Buenos días (Good morning)
• Buenas tardes (Good afternoon)
• Buenas noches (Good evening / night)
The phrase buenos días literally means “good days.”
Spanish greetings are always plural, though depending on where you are, you might sometimes hear buen día.
Buen día, the singular form of buenos días, is a popular greeting in Argentina and some parts of Spain.
• Buen día (Good day)
Formal Greetings
There are three different ways to address a person in Spanish.
One way to address someone is with the word usted. Usted means “you”.
Spanish speakers usually use usted when the person they talk to is in a position of authority.
The following greetings belong to the pronoun usted.
• ¿Cómo está? (How are you?)
• ¿Cómo le va? (How are you?)
• ¿Cómo le ha ido? (How is it going?)
• ¿Cómo ha estado? (How have you been?)
A common answer to that question is bien, gracias (good, thanks).
Though an answer is not always expected, not responding to a greeting may be taken as evidence of bad manners.
So, here are other ways to say “good, thanks” in Spanish.
• Bien, ¿y tú? (Good, and you?)
• Todo bien, gracias (All good, thanks)
• Todo tranquilo (All good)
Informal Greetings
The verb forms in informal greetings belong to the pronouns tú or vos. These pronouns are used with family and friends.
Tú and vos have the same meaning, “you”. Tú is mostly used in Mexico and Venezuela. Vos is very common in Central America and Argentina.
However, no matter which of these two pronouns you choose to use, Spanish speakers will for sure understand you.
The following informal greetings belong to both tú and vos.
• ¿Qué tal? (How are you?)
• ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?)
• ¿Cómo te va? (How are you?)
• ¿Cómo te ha ido? (How is it going?)
• ¿Cómo has estado? (How have you been?)
What if you are having a bad day and don’t want to say bien, gracias?
It’s not common to hear no estoy bien (I am not OK) or estoy mal (I am bad).
Spanish speakers usually use any of the following expressions to mean they are not OK.
The following are literal translations.
• Por allí (Somewhere over there)
• Más o menos (More or less)
• Allí vamos (We are going)
• Allí, pasándola (Hanging in there)
Basic Spanish Farewells
Is it time to say goodbye? Adiós (goodbye) is usually followed by a handshake, a hug, or a kiss.
Other ways to say goodbye in Spanish are the following.
• ¡Hasta pronto! (See you soon!)
• ¡Hasta luego! (See you later!)
• ¡Hasta la próxima! (Until next time!)
• ¡Nos vemos! (See you!)
• Chau (Bye)
• ¡Adiós! (Bye!)
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