28 Ways to Say Good Morning in Spanish
One of the first things that you should learn if you’re planning a visit to a Spanish-speaking country is how to greet in Spanish. This is so because when you say hello in the local language you are not only showing respect to the people and culture but also starting a communication that could lead to a life-long friendship.
In this lesson, you will learn 28 different ways to say good morning in Spanish, so that you can start your days greeting everyone you might come across during the morning in an appropriate manner.
1. The Correct Way to Greet Someone in Spanish in the Morning: ¡Buenos Días!
In Spanish, the morning is called “la mañana”, but Spanish speakers do not say “buena mañana”, that’s not Spanish at all – even though it's grammatically correct. Another reason why translating word-for-word from English (and focusing too much on grammar only) doesn't work.
PS . If you find yourself translating in your head a lot, this intro to Conversation Based Chunking™ will be interesting to you 🙂
The correct way to greet someone in the morning, be them family, colleagues, or the paperboy is “Buenos días”. This translates as good morning in English, and can be used both in formal and informal contexts.
In Latin America, it is also very usual to hear the singular version of this phrase: ¡Buen día! The meaning is exactly the same, and can be used in the exact same contexts.
If you are with close friends or with your family, you could even use the highly colloquial ¡Buenas!, a shortened version of:
- buenos días
- buenas tardes or
- buenas noches.
This expression (¡Buenas!) is not appropriate at work, in a business meeting, nor in any formal or semi-formal situation.
There are many other ways to say good morning in Spanish; in this video from Spring Spanish (a language learning platform I co-founded), teacher Paulísima gives several alternatives:
Now, depending on to whom you are saying good morning in Spanish, you can add an appropriate title to your greeting. Depending on whether you’re addressing a man or a woman, a professional, or your boyfriend or girlfriend, the title will change. Look!
2. Saying Good Morning in Spanish to a Man or to a Woman
When saying good morning in Spanish to a man, especially one that is older than we are, or that is higher in hierarchy, we can add the title señor, or señor + name/surname.
When greeting a woman, we need to take into account their marital status, although this has been changing over the years and especially younger women don’t like to titles related to their civil status.
Married women, or older women (even if we don’t know whether they are married or not) are señoras (Mrs.), unmarried young women are señoritas (Miss/Ms.)
When saying good morning in Spanish, you can also address a group at work or in a class, for example:
Saying good morning in Spanish to your significant other
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Buenos días, mi amor. | Good morning, my love. |
| Buen día, cariño. | Good morning, darling. |
| Buen día, mi vida. | Good morning, my sweetheart. |
| Buenos días, querido/querida | Good morning, my dear. |
| Buenos días, mi sol. | Good morning, sunshine. |
| Buen día, preciosa. | Good morning, beautiful. |
| Buenos días, guapo. | Good morning, handsome. |
Saying good morning to a group or a class
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Buenos días a todos. | Good morning, everyone. |
| Buen día, alumnos. | Good morning, students. |
| Buen día, niños. | Good morning, children. |
| Buenos días, señoras y señores. | Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. |
3. Other Expressions to Say Good Morning in Spanish
Even though the phrase buenos días is the most specific one, there are other Spanish sentences and expressions that work well as morning greetings. They can be used alone, or accompanying the usual buen día, and they usually show interest for the other person’s rest, or convey good wishes for the day ahead.
Specific morning greetings in Spanish
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¡Arriba, arriba! | Time to get up! |
| (Es) hora de levantarse. | (It’s) time to get up! |
| ¿Cómo dormiste? | How have you slept? |
| ¿Dormiste bien? | Did you sleep well? |
| ¡Arriba, que es un día hermoso! | Get up! It’s a beautiful day! |
| ¿Cómo amaneciste? | How did you sleep? |
| ¿Cómo estás hoy? | How are you this morning? |
If you’re leaving after breakfast, or another person is doing so, don’t forget to say:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¡Que tengas un buen día! | Have a nice day! |
| ¡Que tengas lindo día! | Have a nice day! |
And if you come across a colleague, you can say:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Cómo va la mañana? ¿Cómo va tu mañana? | How’s your morning going? |
| ¿Qué tal va todo esta mañana? | How’s everything this morning? |
| ¿Cómo estás hoy? | How are you today? |
| ¡Qué linda mañana! | What a nice morning! |
4. Learn Other Spanish Greetings With Conversation Based Chunking
There you have it: 28 ways to say good morning in Spanish! Start out with a simple buenos días; afterwards, you can gradually add in some of the fancier alternatives to sound more natural in Spanish.
Make sure to get your free Spanish Chunking Starter Pack, where I show you a 4-step method to learn Spanish without having to memorize word lists and grammar rules. It comes with tutorial videos for Conversation Based Chunking™, resource lists to get you started, and much more. Conversation Based Chunking™ is currently being used by hundreds of thousands of students across the world with great results. If you want to get fluent in Spanish, I recommend you check out the free starter pack and start implementing the methodology in your studies 🙂
