How to Say Good Afternoon in Spanish

One of the most important aspects you should learn in the Spanish language is how to greet someone correctly, and saying things like buenas tardes (good afternoon) is a perfect way to do so.

In Spanish-speaking countries, phrases like buenas tardes and related expressions are an easy way to greet just about anyone you come across. 

In this quick article, we’ll be going over the proper vocabulary of how to say things like “Good Afternoon”, “Good Morning”, “Good Evening”, etc. This way, you’ll be able to politely greet someone without always needing to fall back on the basic, “hola”. 

So let’s get started:

Buenas Tardes & Similar Phrases

Just like in English, the Spanish language uses different types of greetings for different times of the day. If you want to say “Good Afternoon” in Spanish, that would be different than saying “Good Morning” or “Good Evening”. 

The tricky part for Spanish learners is that there are different forms based on the grammatical rules, which is why we say buenas tardes, but buenos días. 

Saying something like Good Afternoon in Spanish can also be just slightly confusing for some people because, depending on the country, the people there may have a different perception of what counts as the afternoon. 

So here are some of the most common ways to say “Good Afternoon” in Spanish, as well as some alternatives for different times of the day:

As you can see, these five ways to say Good Afternoon are all very similar, but they change slightly because of how the Spanish language works with adjectives. So let’s go over each phrase and see why they’re different. 

Buenos Días 

This is the first time-dependent phrase and one of the most common ones to hear. You might hear people say this expression for both Good Afternoon and Morning, depending on the time. 

Typically, in a Spanish-speaking country, you could use this phrase from early in the morning until around 3 p.m. This is because, in many countries, lunch is a little later than it is in English-speaking countries. And until lunchtime, many languages still consider it to be the morning. 

Also remember, Días is a plural masculine noun, so you’ll need to use Buenos to accompany it. 

Here are a few common examples:

• Buenos días, ¿has dormido bien? – Good morning, did you sleep well?
• Buenos días, quería hablar con … – Good afternoon, I wanted to speak with…
• Buenos días, Patricia, ¿cómo estás? – Good morning, Patricia, how are you? 

Buenas Tardes

To say Good Afternoon in Spanish when it is very clearly the afternoon, you’ll use “buenas tardes”. 

You can use Buenas Tardes anytime between 3 p.m. to around 8 or 9 p.m. This may vary between countries and even the time of the year. Basically, between lunchtime and (Spanish) dinnertime, you’ll say Buenas Tardes. 

Remember that Tardes is a plural feminine noun, so we’ll stick to Buenas to go with it.

• Buenas tardes, ¿qué tal? – Good afternoon, how’s it going?
• Buenas tardes, quisiera reservar una mesa para esta noche. – Good afternoon, I would like to make a reservation for tonight.