Hay Que – One has to

In this topic we will look at meeting and greeting in Spanish. We will learn how to exchange basic pleasantries in Spanish, such as saying hello and goodbye, how to ask someone their name and how to state our own name, and how to ask someone how they are feeling and how to describe how we are feeling.

Firstly, let’s look at different ways to greet someone in Spanish:

Hola: Hello/Hi
Buenos días: Good morning
Buenas tardes: Good afternoon
Buenas noches: Good evening/night

Hola can be used at any time of the day. Spanish people usually eat between 2pm and 4pm so buenos días is used up until 2pm. After 2pm we use buenas tardes and buenas noches is used after around 9pm until we go to bed.

If you wish to say that you are pleased to meet someone, you can say:

Mucho gusto: Pleased to meet you
Encantado/a: Charmed (you will say Encantado if you are a man and Encantada if you are a woman)

To ask someone their name you can say:

¿Cómo te llamas?: How are you called? (informal)
¿Cómo se llama usted?: How are you called? (formal)
¿Cual es tu nombre?: What is your name?

To respond we will say:

Soy…: I am…
Me llamo…: I am called…
Mi nombre es…: My name is…

To ask someone how they are you can say:

¿Qué tal?/¿Cómo estás?: How are you? (informal)
¿Cómo está usted? How are you? (formal)

There are many ways to respond. Here are some of the most useful:

Bien: Well
Todo bien: All is good
Muy bien: Very well
Como siempre: As always
Más o menos: Not bad
Mal: Bad

If you wish to ask the other person how they are, after they have just asked you, you can say:

¿Y tú?: And you? (informal)
¿Y usted? And you? (formal)

When you want to say goodbye to someone in Spanish you can say:

Adiós: Goodbye
Chao: Bye
Hasta luego: See you later
Nos vemos: See you later
Hasta pronto: See you soon