cómo te sientes
/komo te sjentes/from spelling rules
In Spanish, the phrase for "how you are feeling" is cómo te sientes.
This phrase is used to ask someone about their current emotional or physical state. While it focuses specifically on internal sensations, it is a more targeted way of inquiring about someone's well-being than the general greeting cómo estás.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase literally translates to "how you feel yourself" because it utilizes the reflexive verb sentirse.
Which one should you use?
The form cómo te sientes is used when focusing on specific internal emotional or physical sensations. This differs from cómo estás, which is a more general way to ask "how are you".
How does it change in a sentence?
The form changes depending on who you are addressing. If you are asking a group of people how they are all feeling, use cómo se sienten. In written Spanish, always begin the question with an inverted question mark: ¿Cómo te sientes?
Did you know?
- In some regions, people use the phrase ¿Cómo andas?, which literally means 'how are you walking', as a casual alternative to asking how someone is feeling.
- The word cómo comes from the Latin cōmō̆, which was a colloquial and non-literary version of the more formal word quōmodo.
- Because the verb sentir can mean both 'to feel' and 'to regret', using a similar structure to cómo te sientes without the reflexive pronoun can accidentally imply someone is feeling regret.
Examples in context
- ¿Cómo te sientes hoy?How are you feeling today?
- Dime cómo te sientes de verdad.Tell me how you are really feeling.
- No sé cómo te sientes tú.I don't know how you are feeling.
Example conversation
Elena visits Mateo at his house because he was sick.
- ElenaHola Mateo, ¿cómo te sientes?Hello Mateo, how are you feeling?
- MateoMe siento mucho mejor, gracias.I feel much better, thank you.
- Elena¿Todavía te duele la cabeza?Does your head still hurt?
- MateoNo, ya no me duele nada.No, it doesn't hurt at all now.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries cómo, te, CC BY-SA 4.0.
