I cannot get a clear understanding of these two greetings. Are they equal?
Printable View
I cannot get a clear understanding of these two greetings. Are they equal?
More or less but I have never heard "Que va" used before although I am sure it might be. Como va is usually used...
"Que tal?" and "Que va" can be translated as "how do you doing?". They are informal ways of greeting
In Bogota, frequently greetings are an exchange of a series of questions. When one first encounters this, the tendency is to attempt to answer all of the questions but it is the ritual of the questions that is the greeting.
Que tal? Como está? Como le va? Que me cuenta? Como le ha ido? Como amaneció? etc. etc.
Penningdcp, you made a very interesting observation. It's difficult for American learners to grasp this concept. In English, if you hear a question, you answer it. If you hear two, you answer two. But not in Spanish. "¿Qué tal? ¿Cómo te va? ¿Qué has hecho?" (and endless variations) is a very common greeting.
¿Qué tal? can also mean something along the lines of What do you think? The speaker is asking for an opinion.
I bought this shirt at the mall yesterday. ¿Qué tal? (What do you think of it? How does it look on me? Did I do the right thing? Do you like it?)
¿Qué tal si vamos al cine? (What do you think of the idea of going to see a movie? How would it be if we went to see a film? How about going to the show? Here's an idea, let's go to the movies.)
Actually, maybe it's not so different in English. A common greeting might include several of the following:
How are you? How's it going? What's new? What have you been up to?
And in reality it is not usually appropriate to answer at length with details. Most likely one would reply with just " I'm fine" or "not much" and return the question. It's the same ritual that penningdcp mentioned.
One difference I found, in Bogota especially, is that it was usual to respond with a similar set of questions, rather than an answer.
Muchas gracias a todos. I am a new user, and am very pleased to encounter a site that can help with all the subtle meanings of a phrase or a word.
Solo añadir que Qué va? no se usa como una pregunta.
Te gustan las salchichas? No, que va, las odio.
Tiene razon. You make sense. Yo he encontrado la expresion usado por una exclamation. I have found the expression usually used as an expression, not a question. (En el libro"For Whom The Bell Tolls", by Ernest Hemingway)
Muchas gracias