Today we’re going talk about what ¿Qué tal? means, and learn three ways native speakers use it in everyday conversational Spanish.
To start with, it’s a very common expression that you can quickly and easily incorporate into your Spanish toolbox. With that said, a lo que venimos (let’s get to what we came here for).
Usage #1: You can use it as an informal greeting.
If you want to add another greeting to your repertoire, this is perfect. ¿Qué tal? is a friendly and informal greeting, perfect for many everyday situations.
Hola, ¿qué tal?
While it doesn’t have a direct translation, you can think of it as:
Hi, how are you?
Or even:
Hi, how’s it going?
And guess what? You can even use it to ask about how someone else is doing.
¿Qué tal tu mamá? How’s your mom?
¿Qué tal Elena? How’s Elena?
Usage #2: To ask about how something is.
That’s right, it’s usage is not limited to just asking about people.
¿Qué tal la comida? How’s the food?
¿Qué tal el fin de semana? How’s your weekend going?
¿Qué tal el día? How’s your day going?
Sweet right? But wait, there’s more!
You can also use Qué tal in the past tense when you’re asking about how something was. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
¿Qué tal la comida? How was the food?
¿Qué tal el fin de semana? How was your weekend?
¿Qué tal el día? How was your day?
I know what your thinking, Rodney you have a major typo there. Those are the exact same sentences we used for the present tense.
Fear not, that’s the beauty of this usage of Qué tal, you don’t need to change a thing to use it in the past or present. Context will tell you which tense is being referred to.
And the best thing of all is that you didn’t even have to worry about those pesky verb conjugations. Speaking of verbs, did you notice there is no verb in any of those examples? And if you’re thinking that can’t be right, your instincts are spot on.
Let’s take a deeper dive into how Qué tal actually works.
It turns out there’s a hidden verb at play here. Or maybe assumed is a better word, and that verb is estar.
Let’s take another look at our present tense examples.
¿Qué tal estás?
¿Qué tal está tu mamá?
¿Qué tal está la comida?
And now let’s reexamine our past tense examples. Just like in the present tense, the verb is estar, but conjugated to the past tense.
¿Qué tal estuvo la comida?
¿Qué tal estuvo el fin de semana?
As you can see, behind the scenes qué tal works just like any other sentence in Spanish, but it’s colloquial usage is a nice shortcut that makes your life a little easier with the added benefit of making you sound like a native. And just to be clear, you can use it with or without the verb estar, just remember that it’s always there, even if it goes unspoken.
Ok, we have one more usage left.
Usage #3: Use Qué tal si to make suggestions
¿Qué tal sí vamos a comer algo? How about we go get something to eat?
¿Qué tal si nos quedamos en casa esta noche? How about we stay at home tonight?
Pan comida, ¿no? Easy peasy, right? Now you have three ways to use the expression qué tal that will definitely improve your conversational Spanish. It will make your Spanish sound more natural and get you one step closer to your goal of becoming fluent in Spanish.
Lastly, if this is the first time you’re hearing about Qué tal, well, you’re not alone. There are many things that you’ll only learn after accidently stumbling across them. Like the many uses of very common Spanish verbs that are often overlooked in the classroom and textbooks. And that’s why I created my All About Spanish Verbs audio series.
All About Spanish Verbs is a collection of audio lessons that fills the gap between the classroom and real world conversation.
You’ll learn many ways native speakers actually use Spanish verbs in daily conversation. No complicated grammar, just practical examples that teach you the common uses of the most common Spanish verbs.
It improves your comprehension of the language and your ability to communicate by expanding on the uses of the verbs you already know, and teaching verbs you may not have known you needed.