GREETINGS - SALUDOS
Spanish |
English |
Saying hello and goodbye | |
| Hola. | Hello. / Hi. |
| Buenos días. | Good morning. |
| Buenas tardes. | Good afternoon. / Good evening. |
| Buenas noches. | Goodnight. |
| Adiós. | Bye. / Goodbye. |
| Hasta luego | See you later. Note: In England this is taken literally. If someone says "hasta luego" in Spanish they may not mean it literally. |
| Hasta pronto. | See you soon |
| Hasta ahora. | See you in a minute. |
| Hasta mañana. | See you tomorrow. |
| Hasta lunes. | See you on Monday. |
| ¿Cómo estás? / ¿Qué tal? | How are you? |
| Bien. / Muy bien. | Fine. |
| ¿qué hay? | What's up / what's new. For many years I considered this as a very silly greeting becuase it means "what is there?" It made more sense when someone told me that it comes from ¿qué hay de nuevo? meaning "what's new?" |
| ¿Qué pasa? | How's things? / How's it going? This is commonly used in Spain as a greeting. This had me extremely confused when I first came to Spain as I thought it meant "What's the matter?" Although in other contexts it can mean this, it is really only a friendly greeting and doesn't need a reply. It is best to respond with something vague like "Bien." |
INTRODUCTIONS (meeting someone for the first time) | |
| Mucho gusto. | Nice to meet you (often said while shaking hands and as an alternative to saying "encantado" if the other person says it first) |
| Encantado. / Encantado de conocerle. A possible introduction might be: A: Encantado de conocerle. B: Igualmente. | How do you do. / Pleased to meet you. |
| no creo tener el gusto de conocerlo | I dont think weve been introduced |
| presentarle a Pablo a Juan | to introduce Pablo to Juan Note that in this context we don't say "introducir" |
| conocer | meet Note: the translation of "meet" is complicated in all the different situations and probably deserves a word of the month to itself. |
KISSING | |
| Although I can't speak about South America, in Spain, it is very common to kiss people when you meet them. This is a kiss on both cheeks. Men shake hands. People don't always kiss each other, for example in a business context. As an uneffusive Englishman I don't really understand when you should kiss someone and I only kiss people when they go to kiss me, I hope nobody thinks I'm unfriendly. | |
FORMAL LETTERS | |
| Estimado señor / Estimado Sr. León: (formal) Estimada señora / Estimada Sra. León: (formal) Estimada Srta. León: (formal) Estimados señores: (formal) Distinguido señor, etc. (more formal) Muy señor mío/señores míos: (more formal) NOTE: colon (instead of comma) after name | Dear Sir / Dear Mr. León, Dear Madam / Dear Mrs. León, Dear Miss. León, Dear Sirs, Dear Sir, Dear Sir/Sirs, |
| Le/Les saludo atentamente, Atentamente/Muy atentamente, Atentos saludos de | Yours faithfully/sincerely, |
| Reciba un cordial saludo de | This can be used to end a letter once a relationship has been established |
| En espera de su respuesta, le/les saludo atentamente | I look forward to hearing from you. Yours faithfully, |
LESS FORMAL LETTERS | |
| Estimado Pedro: Estimada Sra. León: | Dear Pedro, Dear Mrs. León, |
| Un cordial saludo, Reciba un cordial saludo de | Yours truly, |
INFORMAL LETTERS | |
| Querido Paco: | Dear Paco, |
| Un abrazo de Un fuerte abrazo, Un cariñoso saludo | Love |