FORMAL AND INFORMAL GREETING

Formal and informal greetings

 
 
When we first meet someone, or we found someone we allready know in the street, we use the greetings to start a conversation or to introduce ourselves. But there are different types of greetings depending of the situation we need to use them.
 
There are formal and informal greetings. We use formal greetings when we meet an important person and we use informal meetings when we meet someone we allready know or when we meet someone familiar. 
 
Here's a video where we can learn some formal and informal greetings and when we can 

 

Greetings

In Spanish the formality of greetings is more pronounced than in English. In English we might say Good morning, Hi, or Hello to anyone. We know that Good morning tends to be more formal, and Hi tends to be less formal but we tend not to pay much attention to the difference.

In Spanish, they are not as interchangeable. Good morning is for people you would NOT call by first name, and Hi is for people you would call by first name and family members. The Spanish language does not allow the speaker to mix these back and forth between the different groups.

Here is a sample list of greetings.

Formal/Informal Spanish English
Formal

Buenos días

Good day/good morning
Formal

Buenas tardes

Good afternoon
Formal

Buenas noches

Good evening
Formal

¿Cómo está usted?

How are you?
     

Informal

Hola

Hi

Informal

¿Qué tal?

How's it going?

Informal

¿Cómo estás?

How are you?

 

Goodbyes

Goodbyes are not quite as rigid as greetings. The Spanish speaker will use most goodbyes to anyone. It is more important that the goodbye say what you want. I for example, “see you later”, is not the same as, “see you soon”.

Here is a sample list of goodbyes.

Spanish

English

Hasta luego

See you later

Hasta pronto

See you soon

Hasta la vista

Until we see each other

Hasta mañana

Until tomorrow

Nos vemos

We'll see each other

Buenas noches

Good night

Adiós

Goodbye

Notice that they are not divided up onto formal and informal.