I’m pretty sure you know how to say Hello in Spanish: Hola!. But, as in English, Spanish has a lot of options to say hi, to greet, especially when it comes to regionality. Different countries, or even different cities, have different ways to say Hello in Spanish. So let’s see some of them!
Greeting in Spanish: different ways to say Hello
So, the common way to say Hi is to say Hola and that’s not wrong and is completely normal to use it. But, people in Latin America also use these expressions when they have to great someone, for example, in a store or shop situation:
- Buenos días: Good Morning (actually it means Good Days, plural). Alternative: Buen día (it covers just one day, haha)
- Buenas tardes: Good Afternoon (actually it means Good Afternoons, plural)
- Buenas noches: Good Night (actually it means Good Nights, also plural)
- ¿Qué tal?: How are you?
- In many countries they say “Aló” when they pick up the phone.
Let’s go to a more informal situation, for example, you bumped into someone in the street. Before you say Hola, you can say:
- Ey! Hola! (Hey, Hi!)
- Ey, ¿qué onda? (Hey, what’s up?)
- ¿Cómo estás? ¡Tanto tiempo! (How are you? So long!)
Now let’s see some examples of different ways to say Hello in Spanish, according to the region:
- Buenas, buenas (very common in Argentina)
- ¿Qué hubo? (but pronounced as “Quihubo” in one word. This is very common in Colombia and it means literally What happened?)
- ¿Qué onda? (What’s up? very common in Mexico and Argentina)
- Wena (very common in Chile, short way for Buenas)
- ¿Cómo estái? (very common in Chile, it means How are you?)
Greetings to say Bye Bye in Spanish
I’m pretty sure you know the classic Adiós. But let’s say that’s too formal sometimes. We also use these ones:
- Chau: Bye
- Hasta luego: See you later
- Hasta mañana: See you tomorrow. This applies for ever, say Hasta… the next day you’ll see that person (good time to learn The Days of the Week in Spanish)
- Nos vemos: See you!
We hope you enjoyed this post. Do you want to learn more? Try a free class, contact us and schedule it! Nos vemos in the next post!
