How to say "How are you?" in spanish...

Question

I thought when you ask someone "how are you?" it is "¿Cómo esta?" but I also see that some people say "¿Qué tal?". Is it correct to use either of them?

Answer 1

¿como estas? = informal esta, estan = formal

que tal can also mean it, but I believe it's informal.

Answer 2

"¿Cómo estas?" is a very direct translation of "How are you?" and is also very common.

But "¿Que tal?" also works. So does "¿Que pasa?" and others. The more you listen to Spanish, the more you'll hear.

English is the same way.

How are you? What's up? How's it going?

Answer 3

¿Como esta? or ¿Como esta usted? is formal.

¿Como estas? is informal

¿Quétal estas? informal

¿Como esta? or Como estas? is translated to "How are you"?

¿Quétal estas? is translated to "How are you doing"?

If you don't know the person or if the person is someone in authority I would use the formal version. Does this help?

Yes this helps a lot, thanks! - robertcs, Oct 15, 2009

Answer 4

¿como esta Vd? is formal ¿como esta? is informal