How emphatic is "Estoy muy bien" as a response to "¿Cómo estás?"

Question

From the point of view of someone just learning (me), "Estoy muy bien" seems rather emphatic like saying "I´m great!" or "I´m excellent!" because the literal translation is "Very well" or "Very fine". SpanishDict also translates it as "Very well". However, my grammar book as well as other websites and people I´ve talked to say it is not emphatic at all and is best translated as a rather routine "I´m fine" response.

So, I´m a bit confused. If "Estoy muy bien" amounts to nothing more than a routine "I´m fine", what does "Estoy bien" amount to (and does anyone use it)?

Answer 1

Yes "muy bien" means "very well" and is a "stock" answer to ¿Cómo esta(s)?". I do not often hear estoy being used with this.

Answer 2

It depends. What does it depend on? You!

If you say it with a non-emphatic tone of voice, then yeah, it's not very emphatic. If you say it with an up beat, positive attitude and a smile then it's very emphatic.

Ever started the day off bad and someone says "how are you?" and you answer with a very sarcastic "I'm doing great". But based on the tone of your voice and the look on your face the person you're speaking to knows you're really not doing great.

It's not always what you say, it's how you say it. Spanish is no different.

Thanks rodneyp. That makes good sense to me. - Trieltor, Apr 29, 2013

Answer 3

We can use "muy bien" in other cases to mean something similar to "very good!" If someone does something very well, we normally say "Bien hecho" (well done) but we can also say "¡Muy bien!" which in this case has a stronger feeling of praise if the proper intonation is used.