Spanish Greetings: The Real Ways to Say Hello and Greet People in Spanish

You've probably got hola down. Maybe you've even memorized buenos días. But here's the thing—when you actually try to greet someone in Spanish, you freeze up. Do you kiss them? Shake hands? Is it estás or está? And what do you say when someone fires back with ¿qué onda?

Spanish greetings are one of those topics that sounds simple until you're standing in front of an actual Spanish speaker with absolutely no idea what to do with your face or your hands.

Let's fix that.

The Only Initial Greeting You Really Need

¡Hola! works everywhere. Mexico, Spain, Argentina, your local taqueria—doesn't matter. It's pronounced "OH-lah" (the H is completely silent in Spanish, which trips up a lot of English speakers), and it's neither too formal nor too casual.

Is it the most interesting greeting? No. Will you sound like a beginner? Maybe. But you'll be understood, you won't offend anyone, and you can build from there.

If you want to say hello in Spanish and you're blanking on everything else, hola is your safety net.

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Time-Based Greetings: ¿Cómo and When to Use Them

Spanish speakers greet people differently depending on the time of day. This feels a bit formal if you're coming from English, but it's just how things work:

Buenos días — Good morning (until around noon or lunch) Buenas tardes — Good afternoon (from lunch until sunset)
Buenas noches — Good evening/night (after sunset)

Here's something that might catch you off guard: in Spain, lunch often doesn't happen until 2 or 3 PM, so people keep saying buenos días way past noon. In Mexico, the switch to buenas tardes happens right at 12:00.

And buenas noches is weird compared to English. In English, "good night" is basically just for saying goodbye or going to bed. In Spanish, you can use buenas noches both when you arrive somewhere in the evening AND when you leave. It's a greeting and a farewell.

The shortcut: You'll also hear people just say Buenas as a catch-all greeting at any time of day. It's like saying "hey" instead of "good morning"—more casual but still polite. Native Spanish speakers use this constantly, especially among younger people.

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"How Are You?" — The ¿Cómo Estás? Situation

After you greet someone, you'll probably want to ask how they're doing. Here's where formality actually matters:

¿Cómo estás? — How are you? (informal, use with friends, people your age) ¿Cómo está (usted)? — How are you? (formal, use with older people, strangers, anyone you want to show respect to)

The difference comes down to whether you're using tú (informal "you") or usted (formal "you"). If you're a beginner, here's my honest advice: start with the formal version when talking to someone you don't know. Spanish speakers in Latin America especially tend to default to usted with strangers way more than people in Spain do.

Other common ways of saying the same thing:

How to respond:

Nobody expects you to give a detailed report of your emotional state. These work for basically every situation:

And then you can follow up with ¿Y tú? (And you? – informal) or ¿Y usted? (And you? – formal).

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Regional Greetings: How Native Speakers Actually Talk

The standard greetings will get you through 99% of situations anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world. But if you want to sound like you actually know what's going on, here are some regional variations:

Mexico:

Argentina:

Spain:

Colombia:

Costa Rica:

Don't stress about memorizing every regional expression. But if you're heading somewhere specific or watching shows from a particular country—which, by the way, is one of the best ways to learn Spanish—you'll start picking these up naturally.

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Formal Greetings and the Tú/Usted Thing

Look, here's the deal with formality in Spanish: it's more important than in English, but it's not as scary as textbooks make it seem.

Use tú (informal) with:

Use usted (formal) with:

The main thing that changes is your verb conjugation. ¿Cómo estás? becomes ¿Cómo está? The good news is that if you mess this up, people will usually just think you're being overly polite or overly casual—not that you're being impolite. Spanish speakers are generally pretty forgiving about this stuff.

If someone tells you tutéame (basically "use tú with me"), they're giving you permission to drop the formality. Take them up on it.

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Meeting Someone for the First Time: Introduction Phrases

When you're meeting someone new, you'll need a few more phrases:

Mucho gusto — Nice to meet you (literally "much pleasure"). Works everywhere.

Encantado/Encantada — Pleased to meet you. Use encantado if you're male, encantada if you're female. This matches your gender, not the person you're talking to. Common mistake.

Me llamo name — My name is... (literally "I call myself")

¿Cómo te llamas? — What's your name? (informal) ¿Cómo se llama usted? — What's your name? (formal)

For responses when someone says mucho gusto to you:

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The Physical Greeting Situation: Kisses, Handshakes, and Awkwardness

Okay, this is the part that actually stresses people out. Spanish-speaking cultures often involve more physical contact in greetings than English-speaking ones.

In Spain: Two air kisses, one on each cheek. Start with your right cheek (their left). The kisses are symbolic—you're not actually planting one on someone's face. More like cheeks touch and you make a little "muah" sound. This happens between women, and between men and women. Men usually shake hands with other men unless they're close friends or family.

In Latin American countries: It varies a lot. Argentina does one kiss (yes, even men sometimes). Mexico tends toward one kiss for close relationships but handshakes in formal situations. Colombia might throw in a hug too.

The safe move: In formal or professional settings, a handshake works everywhere. If you're unsure, let the other person initiate. Spanish speakers are generally warm but also understand that not everyone is comfortable with physical greetings—especially post-pandemic.

If you're likely to kiss someone hello or think you might be in that situation, just remember: right cheek first (your right, their left), light touch, don't actually plant your lips on them.

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Saying Goodbye: Ways of Saying Adiós (and Beyond)

Adiós is the textbook answer, but here's the thing—it can sound kind of final, like you're never going to see the person again. It's totally fine to use, but you've got options:

Hasta luego — See you later. This is probably more common than adiós in everyday situations, even if you're never going to see that person again.

Hasta pronto — See you soon

Hasta mañana — See you tomorrow

Nos vemos — See you (literally "we'll see each other")

Chao/Chau — Bye. Very common in Latin America, borrowed from Italian.

Cuídate — Take care (informal, kind of affectionate)

Pro tip: Adiós is also used as a quick "hi-bye" when you pass someone on the street in some regions. So if someone says adiós as they walk past you, they're not being weird—it's just a passing greeting.

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Answering the Phone in Spanish

This is a weird one because it changes completely by country:

Just use whatever's standard for the region you're focused on. If you're watching Spanish shows from a specific country, you'll pick this up pretty quickly from context.

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How to Actually Learn Spanish Greetings (Not Just Memorize Them)

Here's the honest truth about language learning: memorizing a list of different greetings in Spanish is one thing. Actually using them naturally in conversation is something else entirely.

The gap between those two things is exposure. You need to hear these phrases used by real Spanish speakers in real contexts—over and over—until your brain stops translating and just... knows.

That's why watching Spanish content is so effective. When you hear someone greet someone else on a show you're actually enjoying, your brain connects the phrase to the situation, the tone, the body language, all of it. Way different than flashcard drilling.

If you want to speak Spanish like native speakers actually speak it, you need to consume real Spanish content. A lot of it. Spaced repetition helps you remember what you learn, but immersion is what makes it stick.

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Actually Using This Stuff

Learning greetings is just the entry point. Once you've got the basics down, the real challenge is understanding what people say back to you and keeping the conversation going.

That's where most learners get stuck. You nail the greeting, the person responds with a rapid-fire sentence, and suddenly you're lost.

If you want to improve your Spanish beyond just greetings, Migaku's browser extension lets you watch Spanish shows with instant lookups—click on any word you don't understand and get a definition without leaving the video. You can add words to flashcards automatically, and our spaced-repetition system makes sure they actually stick in your long-term memory.

It's the difference between studying Spanish and actually living in it. The extension works with Netflix, YouTube, whatever you're watching. And the mobile app syncs everything so you can review on the go.

There's a 10-day free trial if you want to see how it works. Watch a few episodes of something, look up a bunch of words, and see how much faster you're picking things up compared to traditional methods.