How are you? in Spanish
The most common way of greeting someone in Spanish by asking how she/he is is with:
Depending on the level of formality required with the person, you will use:
¿Cómo estás?
- to greet someone that you already know, for example a young person, a child, your parents, or a friend.
OR
¿Cómo está?
- to greet someone you don't know very well, for example an elderly person or someone in a more formal context, like in a bank or interview.
There is also a slightly more colloquial way to greet someone with the same meaning: "How are you?" This is common for both informal and formal situations:
A simple answer to these greetings would be:
Note: Greeting someone by using "Señor...", "Señora...", "Don...", "Doña...", which are the equivalent to "Mr...", "Mrs..." etc, is a clear sign of formality. However, even when we greet a person using their first name, we can still use a formal greeting as a sign of respect for an elderly person or because we feel that person prefers a more formal approach - in this instance we can still use the formal question: "¿Cómo está?", for example:
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