“Hola” & More Useful Spanish Greetings
Unsplash: Bjorn Agerbeek
There’s always room for a
hello
no matter the time of day. And when you say this hello, all your
worries go away. You can say hello in
English. You can say hello in Spanish. You can even say hello with a
wave. That’s because a simple hello is very powerful and
universal, no matter its version in any language.
In
Spanish, a friendly hello greeting comes in many varieties and
flavors. There are classic ways to say hello. There are sweet
ways to say hello. There are slang ways to say hello. Really,
there are many ways to say hello in this
romance language.
Just remember this: at the end of the day in any
Spanish-speaking place, it is always going to be nighttime and these Spanish hellos
all mean the same thing – it is an acknowledgement, that kind of
acknowledgement that makes you feel good and nice.
- Hello: Hola (oh-lah)
- Greetings: Saludos (sah-loo-dos)
- Hey: Hey (ey)
- Hey: ¡Oye! (oh-yeh)
- Welcome: Bienvenidos (buen-veh-nee-doos)
- What’s new: ¿Qué hay de nuevo? (keh ay de nwevoh)
- What’s up: ¿Qué onda? (keh on-dah)
- What’s new: ¿Qué hay? (keh ay)
- Good morning: Buenos días (bwenos dee-yas)
- Good afternoon: Buenas tardes (bwenos tar-des)
- How are you [informal]: ¿Cómo estás? (co-mo es-tas)
- How are you [formal]: ¿Cómo está? (co-mo es-ta)
- How’s it going: ¿Qué tal? (keh tal)
- What’s happening: ¿Qué pasa? (keh pa-sa)
- How’s everything: ¿Cómo va todo? (co-mo va toh-doh)
- Good day: Buen día (bwen dee-yah)
- What happened: ¿Qué hubo? (keh ooh-boh)