Response to "how are you doing?"

Question

As a response to the question "how are you doing?" how do you say the following in Spanish?: 1. I am fine. 2. I am well. 3.I am doing well. 4. I am feeling good. 5. I am doing great.

Answer 1

You are trying to do word-for-word translations. Not a particularly good idea, especially when most of those sayings mean the same thing.

Are you saying that all of the above can be translated to éstoy bien?

I am trying to say that Spanish may have phrases that have that same meaning without utilizing the same words (ir, anda, estar) so that you should concentrate on context, not specific words. Here, most of these the context is the same so, yes, one phrase like estoy bien could satisfy most of those phrases, but so could anda bien or va bien, etc..

Speaking of context...."I am doing well" can mean "life is treating me well"", "my health is good" or that "I am making good progress trying to do something." You need to consider which phrase fits the context rather that worry about what each particular word translates as.

I am fine and I am well can be synonymous in meaning so it is useless to try to find one word for fine and another for well, because when translated the context may employ a word that in other contexts does not mean either fine or well.

I realize that I'm not being too clear here. Let's see how others approach the translations..

If you care to be literal:

sentir-feel (sentirse...me siento)

hacer=to do (hago- I am doing, but there are intransitive usages using hace)

bien=well

Estoy=I am

bueno=good

great=fantástico Me siento estupendo. and a thousand other wordings.

Are you saying that all of the above can be translated to éstoy bien? - Stella-Tiongson, Jul 2, 2011