How Are You? (3)

SCENARIO

Today, we contemplate a set of wide ranging scenarios. However, in order to facilitate getting the point across, we will try a little bit of simplification. Thus, imagine you find yourself in either of the following situations:

1. You are are greeting someone (a relative, a friend or a colleague/ business associate).
2. You are talking to a relative, a friend or a colleague/ business associate. Imagine your conversation reaches a point at which the other person wants to enquire about how you are feeling. His/ her enquiry relates to you physical state/ emotional state/ psychological state/ etc.

In both cases above, the other person could decide to ask: "how are you?".

He/ she could choose to be a bit less formal and say:

¿Cómo estás?

Alternatively, he/ she could choose to be a little bit more formal and say:

¿Cómo está usted?

---

OUR TIP

You DO NOT need be concerned about the degree of formality in the question you are asked. Whether the other person uses the more/ less formal question is irrelevant to your choice of answer. Your answer depends only on what you want to say. However, you need to remember that in some cases your answer will depend on whether you are MALE or FEMALE.

There are many different ways in which you could reply. Maybe you would like to reply saying that you are:

• Generally very well/ Well/ Not very well
• In good health/ Ill
• Happy/ Not happy
• Tired/ Not tired
• Feeling sleepy/ not feeling sleepy
• Thirsty/ Not thirsty
• Hungry/ Not hungry
• Hot/ Cold
  

Here are some examples which deal with those basic possibilities:

• Estoy muy bien (I am very well)
• Estoy bien (I am well).
• No estoy muy bien (I am not very well)
• Estoy bien de salud (I am in good health)
• Estoy enfermo (I am ill)-Male
• Estoy enferma (I am ill)-Female
• Estoy contento (I am happy)-Male
• Estoy contenta (I am happy)-Female
• Estoy cansado (I am tired)-Male
• Estoy cansada (I am tired)-Female
• No estoy cansado (I am not tired)-Male
• No estoy cansada (I am not tired)-Female
• Tengo sueño (I am feeling sleepy)
• No tengo sueño (I am not feeling sleepy)
• Tengo sed (I am thirsty)
• No tengo sed (I am not thirsty)
• Tengo hambre (I am hungry)
• No tengo hambre (I am not hungry)
• Tengo calor (I am hot)
• Tengo frío (I am cold)

Now you should practice answering the question:

¿Cómo estás?

This is another Free online Spanish lesson from Love-Spanish.com. We conduct lessons online on this and many other topics using the latest video conferencing facilities. Online lessons are the ideal way to improve listening and speaking skills. For more details on our lessons online and how to book them, please visit:

Love-Spanish.com/ Lessons-Online

© Copyright 2011 Love-Spanish.com. by JM González. All Rights Reserved