comó está

Question

Hello,

In the test for this lesson, when it asked for a formal answer to ask Gerardo how he's doing, I selected "Comó está" and it said the response was nearly correct, and that "qué tal" is the correct response.

Why is "qué tal" considered more correct in this scenario than "comó está"?

Silvia Píriz · Accepted Answer

Hola M. S.
In this case, “¿Cómo está?” is actually perfectly correct and appropriate for a formal greeting, especially with someone older like Gerardo.
The reason it shows as “nearly correct” is that the exercise was expecting the more neutral greeting “¿Qué tal?”, which works for both formal and informal situations. The system sometimes marks alternative correct answers as “nearly correct” when they are not the main expected one.
So just to clarify:

¿Cómo está? → formal and polite (very appropriate here)

¿Qué tal? → neutral and very common greeting

Both can be used to ask how someone is doing, so your answer was absolutely valid.
Thanks for pointing this out!
Silvia