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Small talk

       ¿Qué tal? – How are things?

      Whether you’re going to be working in a Spanish-speaking country or spending some time with your Spanish-speaking friends, you’ll want to be able to chat with people and get to know them better. The phrases in this unit will help you communicate with acquaintances, friends, family and colleagues in a variety of everyday situations.

GREETINGS

      To get you off on the right footing, you need to know how to say hello to people properly. Just as in English, there are several ways of doing this in Spanish. You can simply use hola (hello or hi) on its own. You can also use buenos días (good morning), buenas tardes (good afternoon or good evening – provided it’s still light), and buenas noches (good evening – once it’s dark). Spanish-speakers often use both together, as in hola, buenos días and hola, buenas tardes.

      Hello

       ¿LO SABÍAS?

      When you pass friends and acquaintances in the street and don’t stop to talk, rather than saying hola you say hasta luego or adiós.

      You’ll also want to ask the people you know how they are. The simplest way to do this is by using ¿Qué tal? This is quite informal, and suitable when you know the person quite well. If you want to be more formal you say ¿Cómo está? to someone you speak to as usted.

      How are you?

      Use adiós (goodbye) or hasta pronto (see you soon) to say goodbye to people you don’t know well. You can just say hasta luego (see you) if you want to sound more informal.