Do you want to know how to say hello in Argentina? Spanish gives us lots of choice when it comes to greeting others, but what phrases do we use in greetings?

To kiss or not to kiss

Foreign visitors to Argentina are sometimes surprised to be greeted with a kiss. However, this only happens with people you are acquainted with and in informal settings. You are not going to be greeted with a kiss at your hotel or at a restaurant!

It was somewhat disorienting to avoid the kissing during the pandemic but gone are the times of covid and kisses are back. Women kiss women, women kiss men, men kiss men. One kiss on the cheek.

Asking and answering to ‘How are you?’

Moving on, Argentine Spanish greetings are not hard to master.

Besides the ‘standard’ greetings which will work well, in friendly, informal contexts we like to say HOLA or BUENAS + one of the following ‘how are you’ phrases:

Even when trying to translate these phrases might get you puzzled, think of all of them as equivalents of “how are you?” or “all well?”.

HOW ARE YOU

• ¿qué tal?
• ¿cómo estás?
• ¿cómo te va?
• ¿cómo va?
• ¿qué hacés?
• ¿cómo va eso?
• ¿cómo andamos?
• ¿qué contás?
• ¿qué onda?

ALL WELL?

• ¿todo bien?
• ¿todo tranqui?
• ¿todo bien?

Having these two groups means you should only change your answer when you need to include “SÍ”.

-¿Todo tranqui?
-Sí, todo tranqui

-¿Qué tal? ¿Todo bien?
-Sí, todo bien.

In fact, I’d suggest you use “Hola, ¿qué tal? ¿todo bien?” as your go-to phrase. In Argentina, if someone walks into a shop or their place of work, they’ll most probably greet the shop attendant or their co-workers with “Hola, ¿qué tal? ¿todo bien?”.

When you have to answer to “how are you?” questions, your go-to options are:

• Bien, gracias, ¿y vos?
• Todo tranquilo, ¿y vos?
• Todo bien, por suerte.

If you want to master, Argentine Spanish greetings and much more, please head to the Spanish beginners’ course and take a look.

Hope to hear from you!

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