Informal and Polite Spanish Greetings

As we wrote in the last entry, the interchange of greetings between individuals who interact more than just once tend to have some variety and depending on who it is, a varying degree of formaility or informality. This is especially true in Spanish. Below is an hypothetical disourse borrowed form a great book I've read and re-read numerous times called "Breaking Out Beginner's Spanish" by Joe Keenan. His example imagines the arrival of Juan Doe, the assistant director of flange production, at his office. Let's assume for simplicity's sake that every male at the factory has the name Alberto Alvarez and every female Teresa Ruiz.

      • The eighty-year-old doorman
Buenos días, Don Alberto.

      • The security guard:
Buenos días.

      • The sixty-year-old elevator operator:
¿Cómo le va, Dona Tere?

      • The receptionist:
Hola, Tere. ¿Cómo estás?

      • A same-aged colleague in the hall:
¿Qué tal, Alberto?

      • A younger colleague at her desk:
Buenos días, Tere. ¿Qué hay de nuevo?

      • A visiting branch manager:
Buenos días, Señora Ruiz. ¿Cómo le va?

      • A co-worker and best friend:
¿Quiúbole, Beta?

      • The immediate boss:
Hola, Alberto. ¿Cómo estás?

      • An older co-worker:
¿Qué me cuenta, Don Alberto?

      • An employee:
Buenos días, Alberto. ¿Cómo estamos?

      • The division director:
Muy buenos días,Señor Alvarez. ¿Cómo le va?

      • The office boy:
¿Qué pasó, Beta?

      • The factory owner and CEO:

Buenos días, Don Alberto. ¿Cómo está usted?

      • The secretary:
Buenos días, Tere. ¿Qué tal?

By now it's time for Juan's coffee break....

Spanish Greetings - Hola

Most people are generally polite and wish to make a good impression - in English we have numerous ways of expressing greetings, some formal, some slang. As one might expect Spanish is similiar, and you're probably well practiced in the standard "buenos días" and "buenas tardes" along with the perfuctory exchanges, "¿Cómo está?" followed by "Muy bien, gracias". So what else can you say? What's the equivilant of "How's it going? Here's a brief list of the other things you can safely say, particulary to those you see more than once in your life.

• "¿Cómo estás?" is the tu form of How are you. Right, you knew this.
  
• "¿Cómo le va?" How's it going? or try the more familiar, "¿Cómo te va?"
  
• "¿Cómo estamos?" How are we?
  
• "¿Qué tal?" What's up?
  
• "¿Qué hay?" or "¿Qué pasa?" What's happening?
  
• "¿Qué hubo?" and "¿Qué onda?" How's it going? and What's happening? Mexico
  

Next post we'll order greeting in a hierarchy of ascending formality.