What's the difference between "¿Como estas?" and "¿Como esta?"

Question

What determines when I should use "¿Cómo estás?" or "¿Cómo está?"

First one friends and young people etc. second one: elderly people, strangers, superiors etc. - kenwilliams, Apr 20, 2012

Answer 1

¿Cómo está? is also the polite/formal form of the second person singular (How are you?). E.g. when you're talking to your boss or to the president.

¿Cómo estás? is the familiar/informal form, used with your close friends and family. The concept is unknown to the English speaking world because the singular Thou/Thee (tú/te) was replaced by You a long time ago.

To add to what you said, the formal form's subject name is Ud. or usted. - missy8888, Apr 20, 2012

¿Cómo está? = third person singular (Usted) not second person. - babs_irish, Apr 20, 2012

Um, yeah, babs_irish, it's actually second person singular. - inkubzz, Apr 21, 2012

Answer 2

you use ,,

¿Cómo está? as how are you in formal and ¿Cómo estás? as how are you informal.

Answer 3

Estar

I - yo - estoy you (familiar/informal) - estás he/she or you (formal/business) - está

¿cómo está? and ¿cómo estás? are the same When you addressing certain people, you have to decide which you'll use.

Answer 4

When using ¿ Cómo estás ? It indicates that you are taking "to" someone.

When you use ¿Come está ? it mean that you are talking about someone or something

estas would be the tu form and esta would be the el/ella/ud. form

I think he was asking about the usted (polite) form. - inkubzz, Apr 20, 2012

¿Cómo está? is indeed the polite usted form asking someone how they are and Antoineta ifyou were inquiring about a third party it would be ¿Cómo está tu padre? for instance, hows your father? on the other hand ¿Cómo es tu padre? would mean what is your - kenwilliams, Apr 20, 2012

like? His physical and characteristic traits etc. Es alto, es amable etc. - kenwilliams, Apr 20, 2012

Answer 5

In Spanish "You" has two meaning: tû(for your friend and buddies) and usted (Ud.) (for your boss,elders, and new friends). So, in the present tense we add -as for tû and -a for el/ella/usted. because usted takes -a, we say Como esta? But when we talk to our friends our family members we say: Como estas?