How to Respond to ¿Cómo estás? – 19 Replies Used by Locals

Cómo estás, just like its English equivalent “How are you?”, is mostly a rhetorical question. Most times, people don’t really want to know how you are doing; they’re just being polite. But that doesn’t mean that your response has to be plain or insincere! There are a lot of options besides Bien, ¿y tú?. In this article, you’re going to learn the response to ¿Cómo está? that suits you just right. 

Read next: 18 Ways to Say How Are You in Spanish

Responses to Cómo Estás at a Glance

Want to ask What are you doing in Spanish? We’ve written an article addressing just that!

Standard responses to ¿Cómo estás?

If you want to reply to ¿Cómo estás? with ease, you should learn these standard responses. These are the most common ones, appropriate for almost any context. 

Spanish	English
Excelente	Excellent
Todo bien	Everything’s good
Muy bien	Very well
Normal	Normal
Más o menos	So-so
No muy bien	Not so good
Mal	Bad
Fatal	Awful

Read next: 100 Must-Know Basic Spanish Words For Beginners (with Audio)

Using ¿Y tú? and ¿Y usted? to Respond to Cómo estás

Always remember that, after responding, you should ask how the other person is. The polite thing to do is to follow every response with a gentle ¿Y tú? If you’re in a formal context (that is, the other person is older than you or very respectable), you may want to be a little more formal and say ¿Y usted?

Feeling confused? Don’t worry, choosing between tú and usted is easier than it seems. You just have to listen to the other person. If he or she says ¿Cómo estás?, with an “s” at the end, you can use ¿Y tú?; if he or she says ¿Cómo está? (without the final “-s”), you should use ¿Y usted? Let’s see some examples:

Informal/Casual setting:

Responses When You’re Feeling great

If you’re in a very good mood, here you’ll find an appropriate response to ¿Cómo estás?

Spanish	English
De maravilla	Wonderful
¡Genial!	Great!
Como nunca	Like never before
Nunca me he sentido mejor	I’ve never felt better

Responses When You’re Just Ok

¿Everything is just… ok? That’s ok, we can’t always be feeling on top of the world. Here are some options when things are ‘meh’.

Spanish	English
Regular	Regular
No me quejo	Can’t complain
Como siempre	As usual / Same ol, same ol

Read next: 4 Ways to Say How Are You Feeling in Spanish

Responses When You’re Not Doing Well

Everyone has a bad day once in a while. Here’s how to express it:

Spanish	English
Pésimo	Terribly
Horrible	Horribly
Destruido / Destruida	I’m destroyed
Aquí , aguantando	Hanging in there

Conclusion

As you can see, there is more than one reply to ¿Cómo está? You can use the happy, cheerful ¡De maravilla!, or the pessimistic Pésimo. It’s your choice! In any case, you can now respond when another person asks how you are in Spanish. Now, you’re ready to initiate small talk!