Greetings!

Hello, everyone!

Today we will learn a few, simple expressions you can use in your everyday life to say hello and goodbye in Spanish.

Please, keep in mind that there are a lot of expressions you can use for that, and I won’t write them all in here today. We will start with the most used and simple ones first.

Also, Spanish is spoken in many different countries. In each country, different expressions might be used. Don’t worry about that! Even if there are a lot of Spanish dialects, all the expressions I’m about to show you are valid and no matter where you use them, people will be perfectly able to understand you!

Okay then, let’s start!

The basics

• Hola: Hi/Hello. We use this one in most situations when we meet someone. It doesn’t matter of it’s morning, afternoon…
• Adiós: Goodbye/Bye bye. It can also be used 100% of the time to say goodbye to a person or group of people.

Buenos…

• Buenos días: It literally means «good day». It’s used to say hello, but always before noon.
• Buenas tardes: It means «good afternoon». We use it to say hello too but, well… after noon this time.
• Buenas noches: It means «good night». We don’t use this one to say hello when we meet at night: we use it to say goodbye when we (or someone we’re talking to) are going to bed.
• Buenas: It’s an informal way to say «buenos días» or «buenas tardes». It can be used both before and after noon.

*At formal meetings, it’s always preferable to use «buenos días» and «buenas tardes» instead of «hola«

Asking some questions

• ¿Qué tal?: It can be translated as «What’s up?». Sometimes we say «¿qué tal?» instead of «hola«, and sometimes we say both: «Hola, ¿qué tal?«
• ¿Cómo estás?: It means «How are you?» and you can use it as you would use it in English.
• ¿Cómo te va?: This could be translated as «How is it going?» or «How are you doing?». Sometimes we also say «¿Cómo te va todo?» (todo = everything). It’s common to say it when we meet someone we haven’t seen for a long time.

Saying goodbye

• Hasta pronto: It can be translated as «see you soon», though it literally says «until soon».
• Nos vemos: This one means «see you». You can also say «nos vemos pronto«, which means «see you soon».

And that’s it for today! I hope you find this information useful. Do you know any more greetings in Spanish? Please, let me know!

¡Hasta pronto!