CHAPTER 2
Being Polite
Tener buenos modales

¿Cómo?—
Say What?

Expressions like ¿Cómo estás? and ¿Qué tal? are good to use when you’re talking to a friend. But if you’re talking to an adult, you would need to use the formal version: ¿Cómo está usted? If you are talking to more than one adult, you would say, ¿Cómo están ustedes?

Hi, how are you?—Hola, ¿cómo estás?

What’s the first thing you say when you greet a friend? Probably, “Hello,” right? In English, there are lots of ways to greet people. For example, you can say “Hi,” “Hey,” or “What’s up?” Just like English, Spanish has several different ways to greet people. Here are some common greetings:

English	Spanish
Hi, Hello	Hola
Good morning, Good day	Buenos días
Good afternoon	Buenas tardes
Good evening	Buenas noches

The Spanish language has all kinds of different ways to ask “how are you?” too.

English	Spanish
How are you?	¿Cómo estás?
How's it going?	¿Qué tal?
What's new?	¿Qué hay de nuevo?
	¿Qué hay de bueno?
	¿Qué cuentas?
	¿Qué es de tu vida?

If someone asks you how you are doing, you can answer with one of the following responses:

English	Spanish
I'm good	(Estoy) bien
I'm great	(Estoy) muy bien
Nothing (is new)	Nada
No news	Sin novedad
Nothing much	Nada de particular