Que pasa o Que paso

Question

I have heard some native Latin American speakers say que paso for whats up. Shouldn't it be que pasa? If both are acceptable is then I am curious as to what is the distinction. Is it related to the gender of the person being addressed?

As I understand it,it's the difference between "What's happening' AND 'What happened?" - Lisacaz, Aug 13, 2014

Answer 1

¿Qué pasa? - What's happening?

¿Qué pasó? - What happened, what's up?

Answer 2

Sometimes they mean the same but in the stricktest sense, you are right. "Qué pasó" is past tense.

This phrase has nothing to do with gender.

Answer 3

¿"Qué te pasa?" o "¿Qué te pasó?" (punctuation supplied)

Surely you are joking. The former, literally, means "What is (at this moment) is happening to you?" and the latter, "What has (recently) happened to you?" Of course, the real meaning is (I haven't seen you for a day/several days/several weeks, etc.), bring me up-to-date on your current situation.

Answer 4

Since it's an idiom, it doesn't have a direct translation. I've heard Mexican people using "qué pasa", but in Argentina, we use "¿todo bien?", both meaning "What's up?"

Thta is similar to the Brazilian Portuguese Tudo bem? = How are things?/is all well? = ¿Qué tal? - FELIZ77, Apr 18, 2011