q tal
/q tal/from spelling rules
To say wsp in Spanish, use q tal. It is the text message form of qué tal, a casual way to ask how someone is doing.
q tal works both as a greeting, like hi and as a real question about how someone is.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
q tal is informal text speak used in digital messaging, so keep it for chats with friends.
How does it change in a sentence?
Standard Spanish puts an inverted question mark at the start of a question, but in the shorthand q tal it is almost always left out.
When do people say it?
A common reply is bien, ¿y tú?, which means good and you?
Did you know?
- In some Spanish-speaking regions, ¿qué tal? can be used to express surprise or indignation, acting more like 'what is this?' than a greeting.
- In digital chats, a Spanish speaker might shorten the phrase even further than q tal by sending only the letter q to stand in for 'qué'.
- The word tal is a linguistic relative of the English word 'such', and both trace their ancestry back to the Latin word tālis.
Examples in context
- Le mandé un whatsI sent him/her a WhatsApp message
- Oye, ¿q tal todo?Hey, how is everything?
- ¿Q tal, amigo?What's up, friend?
Example conversation
Mateo and Lucía run into each other at a park.
- MateoHola Lucía, ¿q tal?Hi Lucía, what's up?
- LucíaMuy bien, ¿y tú?Very well, and you?
- MateoTodo bien por aquí.Everything is good over here.
- LucíaMe alegro, Mateo.I'm glad, Mateo.
Sources
- IPA marked “from spelling rules” is derived from standard Spanish spelling, where Wiktionary gives none.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries tal, CC BY-SA 4.0.
