comó está

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

Hola Valerie L.

It’s true that in Spain today informal forms are very widely used, including in many situations where formal address might have been more common in the past.

However, formal usted forms such as ¿Cómo está? are still used in Spain, particularly when a speaker wants to show respect, politeness or social distance. How often they are used can also depend on the speaker, situation and region.

At Kwiziq, we cover both Peninsular and Latin American Spanish, as well as formal and informal usage, so learners will encounter all these forms.

Thanks for sharing your perspective!

Silvia