Whether you’re addressing a friend, an acquaintance, a family member, or multiple people you have just met, “how was your day?” is a very useful phrase. If you’re learning Spanish, it should be one of the first things you learn.
So, with that in mind, how do you ask “how was your day” in Spanish?
Let’s take a look.
How to Say, “How Was Your Day?” in Spanish
There are multiple ways to ask “how was your day” in Spanish.
- How was your day? = ¿Cómo estuvo tu día? (informal; friend, family member)
- How was your day? = ¿Cómo estuvo su día? (formal; teacher, business client)
If you’re learning from language apps and YouTube videos, the one you will see the most is ¿cómo estuvo su día?, which is a formal way of asking the question.
¿Cómo estuvo su día? is how you address a teacher, a client/customer, or someone you have just met.
If the person you’re addressing is a friend, loved one, or even an acquaintance, you would use ¿cómo estuvo tu día?, which is informal.
The informal vs formal thing is not something that’s easily translatable in English, although it is something you will find in many other languages. We do tend to use different greetings depending on who we are addressing, though.
For instance, you might address a friend with a casual nod and a “you good?” or “alright?”, whereas you’d use something like “how are you doing?” and “how are you today?” for business acquaintances.
It’s not exactly the same as ¿cómo estuvo tu día? and ¿cómo estuvo su día?, but if the informal/formal thing confuses you, it helps to think of it in that context.
Other Ways to Ask, “How Was Your Day?”
In English, there are seemingly hundreds of greetings that involve asking someone about their mood, health, or day. You can keep it clean and formal with “how are you?” and “how was your day?”, you can opt for a colloquial, “what’s new?”, or if you’re from the 1990s, you can use “wazzup?”
Spanish has many different variations as well. Here are a few of the most common:
Formal Questions
- How did today go? = ¿Cómo le fue hoy?
- How are you? = ¿Cómo está usted?
- How are you today? = ¿Cómo estás hoy?
Informal Questions
- How did today go? = ¿Cómo te fue hoy?
- How is it going today? = ¿Qué tal el día?
- How’s it going? = ¿Como te va? (also ¿Qué tal?)
- What’s up? = ¿Qué haces?
- What’s happening? = ¿Qué pasa?
- How do you find yourself today? = ¿Cómo te encuentras hoy?
- How did it go today? = ¿Qué tal tu día?
- How have you been? = ¿Cómo has estado?
- How is everything going today? = ¿Cómo va todo hoy?
How to Answer “¿Cómo Estuvo Su Día?” in Spanish
Someone has asked you ¿cómo estuvo su día?, you recognize the phrase, and now you’re ready to answer. So, what should you say?
Here are a few short answers:
| Spanish Word | English Translation | Pronunciation |
| Bien | All right | Bee-en |
| Tranquilo | Calm | Tran-qui-lo |
| Excelente | Copacetic | Ex-ce-len-te |
| Excelente | Excellent | Ex-ce-len-te |
| Buen Estado | Good Condition | Bu-en Es-ta-do |
| Buen Estado | Good Shape | Bu-en Es-ta-do |
| No Esta Mal | Not Bad | No Es-ta Mal |
| Bien | Okay | Bee-en |
| En Buen Estado | Sound | En Bu-en Es-ta-do |
| Estupendo | Super | Es-tu-pen-do |
| Fenomenal | Swell | Fe-no-me-nal |
| Estupendo | Terrific | Es-tu-pen-do |
| Muy Bueno | Very Good | Muy Bue-no |
| Bastante Bien | Well enough | Bas-tan-te Bien |
| Maravilloso | Wonderful | Ma-ra-vi-llo-so |
| Muerto | Dead | Muer-to |
| Enfermo | Ill/Sick | En-fer-mo |
| Malo | Bad | Ma-lo |
| Indifferente | Indifferent | In-di-fe-ren-te |
| Pesimo | Lousy | Pe-si-mo |
| Deprimido | Low | De-pri-mi-do |
| Triste | Miserable | Tris-te |
| Entumecido | Numb | En-tu-me-ci-do |
| Patetico | Pathetic | Pa-te-ti-co |
| Terrible | Terrible | Te-rri-ble |
| Descontento | Discontent | Des-con-ten-to |
| Infeliz | Unhappy | In-fe-liz |
| Muy Bien | Very well | Muy Bee-en |
Using Phrases like ¿Cómo Estuvo Su Día? and ¿Cómo Estuvo Tu Día? in Spanish
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when learning a language is to learn some basic phrases and questions, ask them, and then immediately switch to English.
They can show off their Spanish-speaking skills without actually engaging, thus avoiding the awkwardness that comes with speaking a new language. But you should be embracing that awkwardness. It’s part of the process of learning a new language.
So, don’t just ask the above questions, actually listen to the replies, be prepared to answer any questions that are asked, and follow it up with a few questions of your own.
Check out our guides to saying a little and a lot, as well as one of the most important phrases to learn in any language. We have many other helpful guides for you to explore as well. See our blog for more information.
Etymology Check
Dia, the Spanish word for “day” comes from the Latin dies, which itself comes from the word diem, the accusative form of the word. We still use diem today in several common phrases borrowed from Latin, such as carpe diem (seize the day) and per diem (per day).
It’s thought that diem comes from a Proto-Indo-European word for “sky/heaven” that shares a cognate with the Greek word Zeus, the main god in the Greek world and thus the ruler of the heavens.
There are also many English words loosely connected to diem. For instance, the Latin word diurnalis came from diurnus, meaning “of the day” and eventually morphed into the Old French jornel and then into the English word “journal”. “Diary” follows a similar journey, as does “circadian”, which literally means something like “about a day”
Incidentally, the Latin phrase carpe diem comes from the word carpere, which means to “pull/pluck”. The expression was actually a harvesting reference and means something like “pluck the day while it is ripe”. It is from carpere that we get the English word “carpet” (via the Italian for “woolen counterpane”, which evolved from carpere).