Greeting in Spanish.

Text books and real life.

Many students of English learn that when English speaking people greet you, they say the following: “Hello, good morning. How do you do?” Anyone who has ever lived in an English speaking country will know that this is rarely the case! Mostly we offer a simple, “Hi!” or, in our region, a brief: “Y’all right?”. I can’t recall the last time someone asked me how I did. Well, the same applies to greetings in Spanish. Quite often, what we find filling the majority of study books isn’t what we find happening in the real world. In this our first beginner lesson on greetings in Spanish, we cover the various ways that Spanish speakers really do greet each other.  

Hi and Bye.

One of the funniest things that I saw for the first time in Madrid was when two people on opposite sides of the road greeted each other. They clearly didn’t have time to say hello, so they simply shouted: “Hasta luego” at each other! (See you later.) It seemed hilarious that rather than saying Hello, they said Goodbye. Yet, when I (Gordon) mentioned it to Cynthia said to me, ” Well, you all say: “Alright?” to each other and don’t expect an answer!” And she was right. Clearly, each country will have their typical greetings in Spanish and the ones that we offer you here are general enough to be used anywhere, although the best way is to take notice of how the local people greet each other and copy that.

Spanish Horario (Timetable) for eating.

In this Podcast on greetings in Spanish we also examine a little of the unusual way the Spanish measure their day. As you listen in you will begin to understand that how you choose to greet people depends on some factors that you wouldn’t normally take into account in an English speaking country. We´ll explain to you how to know when to say: “Good morning” or “Good afternoon” and what it means when one person greets with “Good morning!” and the other answers with, “Good afternoon!. This is a great place to start your learning journey in Spanish. Getting your greetings in Spanish right can make a massive difference in how people react to you and can influence how they choose to help you going forward. Listen in and we will guide you through, step by step. ¡Buena suerte! Remember, our helpsheets will really help you better understand this very important subject.