greetings

Question

cómo este usted
cómo sean usted
que tal

which would be the correct greeting to ask someone how they are doing.

Answer 1

Hi Jim,
Follow Gustavo's suggestions. Here are a few more:

¿Cómo estás? (Informal, tú form)
¿Cómo está usted? (Formal)

¿Qué tal? How are things? What's up?

¿Qué hay de nuevo? How's it going?

¿Qué te pasa? or ¿Qué le pasa? What's wrong? What's wrong with you'

Answer 2

Mucho gracias.
A menudo nosotros olvidese cosas básico.

Answer 3

Jim
Shouldn't that be nosotros olvidamos

Answer 4

Hi, Jim.

It would be better to say:

Muchas gracias.
A menudo olvidamos las cosas básicas.

Remember to make your nouns and verbs agree in number and gender.

Answer 5

thank you very much.. I really think making an attempt even though it is incorrect is an important part of the learning process.

Those grammatical rules are so important. I am trying to graduate from baby talk to junior

Answer 6

I really think making an attempt even though it is incorrect is an important part of the learning process.

You bet! I don't want to discourage you. ¡Sigue hablando! (o sea, escribiendo...)

Answer 7

Olvidar + noun is not grammatically correct. In this instance it should be "nos olvidamos de las cosas básicas."

Grammar rule:
olvidar + infinitive = to forget to (do something)
olvidarse de + infinitive = to forget to (do something)
olvidarse de + noun = to forget about (something or someone)

Answer 8

Jim
If people like me and you didn't post our inputs, then this would remain a chat room for the experts. I don't mind being corrected, suffice it to say in the right manner. I do not want to be in Spain and have a Spaniard ask in Spanish "how is your wife" and I reply in Spanish "HE'S OK". See what I mean, gender is important.

Answer 9

Very good point. I thought about mentioning that, but I was correcting Jim's Spanish, and wanted to make it as simple as possible, given his level. But you are probably right that I should have made it more correct.

And, to add to your rule, to say "I forgot my keys in the house," for example, we can use "dejar": Dejé mis llaves en la casa.

Answer 10

That's the only way we learn a foreign language...by making mistakes, becoming aware of them and then correcting them. Don't ever be afraid to post your questions. This is a forum to get help.

Answer 11

Exactly! And it's best to develop good habits at the beginning of the language learning process because these little mistakes have a mean way of becoming cemented in our brains if we don't root them out early on. Then it becomes that much harder and frustrating to speak the language at a higher level.