Cómo iniciar una conversación en español
When you are learning a new language or travelling around the world, it is always useful to know how to start a conversation. In this blog post, I’m going to share the most common ways to have a basic conversation in Spanish.
Depending on the context and who you are going to talk to, we have a formal and informal way to express ourselves. Let’s start with the greetings: If you are going to talk to someone older than you, or you are in a business meeting, probably you would like to use a formal tone.
Good Morning! ¡Buenos días!
Good Afternoon! ¡Buenas tardes!
Good Evening! ¡Buenas noches!
If you are talking to some friends or just having an informal meeting, probably you would like to use an informal tone. As in English there are more than one way to ask how are you?
Hi, how are you? Hola, ¿cómo estás?
What’s up? How’s everything? ¿Qué más? ¿todo bien?
How’s life? ¿Qué hubo?
How’s it going? ¿Qué tal?
Depending on how long you want the conversation to be and who are you talking to, you can use these questions and reply to them as follows.
Formal tone:
How are you? ¿Cómo está?
I’m fine. Thanks. You? Estoy bien, gracias. ¿Y usted?
How’s everything going? ¿Cómo va todo?
Everything is fine. Thanks. For you? Todo va bien, gracias. ¿Y para usted?
How’s your family? ¿Cómo está la familia?
Everyone is fine. Thanks. And yours? Todos están bien, gracias. ¿Y su familia?
Informal tone:
What’s new? ¿Qué me cuentas?
Nothing new, everything the same. You? Nada nuevo, todo igual. ¿Y tú?
What’s going on? ¿Qué has hecho?
Studying. You? Estudiar ¿Y tú?
How’s life? ¿Qué ha sido de tu vida?
Finally, ending a basic conversation with some common phrases,
See you soon! ¡Nos vemos pronto!
See you later! ¡Hasta luego!
Nice to meet you! ¡Un placer conocerle!
Bye, bye ¡Chao!
¡Adiós!
If you want to sound very natural, you can practice the pronunciation with the video, try them out and check how it goes. ¡Hasta pronto!