3.1: Los Saludos y ¿Usted o Tú?- Forms of Address
- Page ID
- 222460
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Listen to the pronunciation of the vocabulary listed below.
AUDIO | ESPAÑOL | ENGLISH |
---|---|---|
Saludos | Greetings | |
Buenos días | Good morning | |
Buenas tardes | Good afternoon | |
Buenas noches | Goodnight | |
¡Hola! | Hi (informal) | |
¿Cómo se llama (usted)? | What’s your name? (formal) | |
¿Cómo te llamas (tú)? | What’s your name? (informal) | |
Yo me llamo… | My name is… | |
Encantado(a) | It’s a pleasure | |
Mucho gusto | It’s a pleasure | |
Igualmente | Likewise | |
¿Cómo está (usted)? | How are you? (formal) | |
¿Cómo estás (tú)? | How are you? (informal) | |
¿Qué tal? | What’s up? (informal) | |
(Muy) bien, gracias. | (Very) well, thank you | |
(Muy) mal. | (Very) badly | |
Más o menos. | So so. | |
¿Y usted? | And you? (formal) | |
¿Y tú? | And you? (informal) | |
Adiós | Goodbye | |
Buenas noches | Goodnight | |
Chau | Bye (informal) | |
Hasta luego | See you later | |
Hasta mañana | See you tomorrow | |
Hasta pronto | See you soon |
¿Usted o Tú?: Forms of Address
In general, tú is used with friends, family, and children. Usted is used to express politeness, formality, and social distance.

Para pensar
Linguistic differences can teach us a great deal about cultural differences. Do you think it is significant that Spanish-speaking cultures have two different words for “you,” while English-speaking cultures do not, or do you think it’s just a coincidence? How does English distinguish formal from informal relationships?
This section includes content derived from Introduction to French (2nd ed.), originally released under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Liberté, originally released under CC BY-NC-SA, and Francais Interactif, originally released under CC BY 3.0.