Common Mexican Spanish Greetings and Phrases

 ¿Qué onda pues? If you're reading this, you must really want to know some Spanish phrases that are found in Northern México, or parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.  These phrases can be commonly heard during greetings, good-byes, as well as during normal conversation as "filler".  I've traveled to México many times, and I also have a lot of friends and acquaintances that commonly use these terms.  ¡Disfruten!

Everyday Greetings for Close Friends and/or Family

¿Qué onda? What's up?  

¿Qué onda pues? What's up dude?

¿Qué hubo? What's up? 

¿Qué onda guey? What's up $%^#? (The term guey, pronounced like the English "way", can be potentially offensive.  Generally, just refer to close pals with this one.)

 

Daily Expressions and Conversation

¿Cuánto cuesta?  How much does this cost?

¿Hay mucho?  Busy?  

¿Aquí está el señor/la señora ____?  Is Mr. or Mrs. ___, here? 

¿Por aquí está el OXXO?  Is OXXO around here? (*OXXO is like a 7-11 here in the States.)

Common Goodbyes

¡Qué tenga buen día!  Have a great day!

¡Qué tenga buena tarde!  Have a great afternoon!

¡Que tenga buena noche!  Have a great night! 

¡Qué le pase bien!  Hope you have a good time! 

The Future Perfect

¡Hola alumnos! Espero que estén bien.  Aquí está una lección sobre el uso del futuro perfecto, un tiempo verbal complejo que significa en inglés "will have done something".  

The future perfect is used to tell a listener that by the time something has been done, something else will already have occurred.  Let's see what we mean by that.  It's already assumed that you know how to create the future tense of a verb (in this case, and since it's a complex perfect form, the auxiliary verb haber).  Let's accompany these example verb phrases with hacer (to do, to make).  

yo habré hecho  I will have done / I will have made

tú habrás hecho  you will have done / you will have made

él/ella/Ud. habrá hecho  he/she/you(formal) will have done / will have made 

nosotros/-as habremos hecho  we will have done / will have made

vosotros/-as habréis hecho  you(informal, plural) will have done / will have made

ellos/ellas/Uds. habrán hecho  they, you will have done / will have made 

So now that you know how these complex verb phrases are implemented, let's look at some examples.  

Para el año 2021, me habré graduado desde la Universidad de Toronto.  By the year 2021, I will have graduated from the University of Toronto.  

Cuando llegues a la fiesta, Marisa ya habrá tomado muchas copas de vino.  Whenever you get to the party, Marisa will already have had a lot of glasses of wine.  

En diez años nosotros habremos vendido la casa.  In ten years, we will have sold the house.  

Para las ocho y media de la noche, Rebeca y Agustín se habrán ido.  By 8:30 PM, Rebeca and Agustín will have left.  

You will notice that in the conjugation of haber, only the nosotros form does NOT carry an accent.  This isn't a surprise because it is conjugated in the future form.  

¡Espero que esto ayude!  

Joel