Some of the first words you’ll say to most people when you meet them are <em>buenos días</em> (good morning). It’s a polite and universal greeting that works with anyone.

 

This greeting changes according to the time of day, so you would use <em>buenos días</em> (good morning) until noon, <em>buenas tardes</em> (good afternoon) between noon and sunset and<em> buenas noches</em> (good night) after sunset.

 

Notice how the adjective<em> buenos</em> (good) changes to agree with the number and gender of the noun it describes.

 

When it comes to meeting people in a formal situation in Mexico, there are some key tips and vocabulary to remember:

 

1. Use <em>usted</em> (formal version of you) when speaking in formal situations.

Like in castellano (the Spanish spoken in Spain), usted is very important to show respect. Use it to address a person who you don’t know, who is older than you or who is in a position of authority over you.

 

So, let’s say you’re at a university and you’re introduced to one of the professors. A university professor is likely to fall into all three categories, so you’d definitely call him or her usted.

 

Here’s an example of how to greet them:

 

¡Hola! Qué gusto conocerlo. (Hello! What a pleasure to meet you.)

 

Note: <em>Conocerlo</em> is used when you’re speaking to a man. To a woman, you’d say, “Qué gusto conocerla” (what a pleasure to meet you). This is because the direct object pronoun lo/la has to agree with the gender and number of whomever you’re talking to.

 

2. Use <em>Señor(a)</em> (Mr./Mrs.) instead of the person’s first name.

For anyone who you’d normally call usted, it wouldn’t be polite to address them using their first name. Always call them <em>Señor(a</em>) + [surname] until they invite you to use their first name.

 

For example:

Hola, señor Ruíz. ¿Cómo le va? (Hello, Mr Ruíz. How’s it going?)

 

If you know the person has a profession, replace señor(a) with their title:

 

Buenos días, profesor González. (Good morning, Professor González.)

Perfect.

 

Now, let’s say you’re looking for someone you’ve not personally met before, and you need to check if you’re speaking to the right person. In this case, you’d say:

 

Disculpe, ¿es usted la doctora García? (Excuse me, are you Dr. García?)

 

<em>Disculpe</em> (excuse me — formal) is a super useful word, as it can be used in any situation with an adult you don’t know. When talking to someone your own age or younger, <em>disculpa</em> (excuse me — informal) is the less formal option.

 

3. Memorize the following additional formal vocabulary for meeting new people.

¿Cómo está? (How are you?)

Muy bien, ¿y usted? (Very well, and you?)

 

¡Que tenga un buen día! (Have a great day!)

 

Mucho gusto en conocerlo/la. (Nice to meet you. — male/female acquaintance)

 

Igualmente. (Likewise.)

Que le vaya bien. (Have a nice day! — for both male/female acquaintance)

 

¡Adiós! (Goodbye!)

 

1. Use the <em>tú</em> form with friends, family and people you know.

As we know, <em>tú </em>is the informal way to address people in Spanish, and this is true in Mexico as well. Use it for any casual, informal situation—think meeting people at a party, making friends in a <em>cantina</em> (bar) or any situation where there’s no sense of hierarchy among people.

 

Here are some examples of <em>tú</em> (you — informal) forms in action. Why not compare them to the usted (you — formal) versions earlier?

 

¡Hola! Qué gusto conocerte. (Hi! What a pleasure to meet you.)

 

Oye, Juan. ¿Cómo te va? (Hey, Juan. How’s it going?)

 

¿Cómo estás? (How are you?)

 

Muy bien, ¿y tú? (Very well, and you?)

 

¡Que tengas un buen día! (Have a great day!)

<em>Mucho gusto en conocerte</em> (Nice to meet you. — The object pronoun te (you) is the same regardless of whether you’re speaking to a man or woman.)

 

Igualmente. (Likewise.)

Que te vaya bien. (Have a nice day.)

 

2. Learn some additional informal phrases.

Why not add a couple of bonus phrases to your vocabulary list?

 

Cuídate. (Take care of yourself.)

 

¡Nos vemos! (See you soon!)

 

So now that you’ve made some Mexican friends, you can greet them with several Mexican slang phrases the next time you see them. Let’s learn some!

 

The most popular is <em>¿qué onda?</em> (what’s up?), to which they might respond <em>aquí nomás</em> (just chilling) or <em>nada, todo tranquilo</em> (all’s good).

 

If everything’s also going well with you, you could reply with <em>también aquí</em> (same here).

 

Just like in English, there are a ton of different ways to say “what’s up” in Mexican Spanish. Here are just a handful:

 

¿Qué tranza? (What’s up?)

 

¿Qué rollo? (Similar to the Irish phrase “What’s the craic?”)

 

¿Qué hay de nuevo? (What’s new?)

¿Qué cuentas? (What’s new?)

  

3. Mate, dude, buddy… memorize some Mexican slang words to call your friends.

Mexican Spanish is full of affectionate phrases for friends. Perhaps you’ve heard of some of these:

 

Carnal (Brother)

 

Ese (Man)

 

Güey (Dude)

 

Vato (Dude) 

 

Taken from FluentU <a href="https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/hello-in-mexican/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/hello-in-mexican/</a>;