Requesting a better translation for: Què ondas

Question

Hola Christina, què ondas translates to: Hi Christina, which waves. This doesn't make sense. Can someone provide a better translation.

and for me it makes sense 'Which wave? (good wave/vibe or bad wave/vibe) beh I think :) - 003e54f5, Sep 4, 2014

Drop the "s". It is ¿Qué onda? - gringojrf, Sep 4, 2014

Answer 1

But I think that it's right Hola, que onda amigo (Hi, which wave friend) hehe something like 'Hi what's up friend', And for instance 'Uh mala onda (bad wave)' and 'eh ¡buena onda! (good wave)' - 'ese chico es mala onda (that boy is bad wave)' etc jaja

Answer 2

So think of it as purely slang- with the general sense:

What's up, what's happening, what's new, what's cool.

In English you could say- we're on the same wavelength and be almost as equally slangy.

Answer 3

This is one of those idiomatic expressions that does not translate well into English. Basically it would be like the English "What's up?". Other Spanish expressions would be "¿Qué tal?", or "¿Qué pasa?".

I guess we were answering at the same time. :) - bosquederoble, Sep 4, 2014

Answer 4

Pablo´s translations are correct, but in Mexico we never think of these expressions as "wave", but ie: "Él es buena onda .... He is a good guy".

Also as an idiom onda is always singular, ie: "Hola ¿qué onda? .... Hi, what´s happening? / ¿Qué onda contigo? ..... What´s your problem?"

#

I just remembered this one: Se me fue la onda ........ I lost my train of thought.

They are all Mexican slang.

Julian 'se me fue la onda' es como decir 'ya no tengo onda' o 'ya no estoy en onda? todas las que dijiste también las usamos acá - 003e54f5, Sep 4, 2014

no se si también dicen (probablemente si) ¿y que onda? como ¿y que paso? :) - 003e54f5, Sep 4, 2014

Sí Pablo, también se dice con ese sentido. En cuanto a tu primer comentario, se me hace que hemos dicho lo mismo. Lo que no sabía es que estas jergas también se usan en Argentina. Saludos - 005faa61, Sep 5, 2014

Answer 5

Dictionaries are really very cool things. They have buena onda.

Onda

• (expresiones) (informal)
• estar en la onda = to be hip
• estamos en la misma onda (informal) = we're on the same wavelength
• me da mala onda (informal) = I've got bad vibes about him/her/it
• tus primos tienen muy buena onda (informal) = your cousins are really cool