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What does qué onda mean?

Say itKEH OHN-dah/ˈke ˈonda/phrase (greeting or question)

Where you’ll hear it
  • Mexico
  • Central America
  • Argentina
  • Chile
  • Uruguay

An informal greeting that means “what’s up?” or “how’s it going?”, and also a casual question that means “what’s going on?” or “what’s the deal?”

Written by the Second Language TeamWritten

Qué onda is a casual way to say “what’s up?” or “how’s it going?” People also use it as a real question that means “what’s going on?” or “what’s the deal?” The online dictionary bab.la labels it as informal Spanish from Mexico and Central America [2]. You hear it from friends, in group chats, in Mexican TV shows, and from coworkers you know well. Word for word, it’s “what wave?”, but nobody means a wave.

Say it KEH OHN-dah. The Spanish e is short, like the e in “bet,” not “kay.” For the d, touch your tongue to the back of your top teeth. In writing, Spanish puts question marks at both ends: ¿qué onda? The phrase never changes. You say it the same way to a man, a woman, or a group. It’s friendly and casual, not rude, but it belongs with friends, not in a job interview.

Word stats

How casual
Made for friends, classmates, and people you know. With someone you just met, it’s a little too relaxed.
OK at work
Fine with the coworker you eat lunch with. Opening an email to a client with “¿qué onda?” is a bold choice.
Abuela-safe
Nothing bad in it, so abuela (grandma) won’t mind. She may still like a proper “buenos días” (“good morning”) better.
Rudeness
Not rude. In an annoyed voice, “¿qué onda contigo?” (“what’s going on with you?”) can sound like a complaint, but that’s the tone talking.
Freshness
It goes back to at least the 1960s, and more people look it up every year.

Spotted in the wild

Group chat · weekend plans
  1. Diegoqué onda!! ¿salimos el sábado?
  2. Youqué onda 😄 yes! where?
  3. Diegotacos y luego vemos

What it means here: Qué onda is a quick hello, like “what’s up!” Diego asks “are we going out Saturday?” and then says “tacos, and then we’ll see.”

Text from Mariana · Thursday night
  1. Marianaoye, ¿qué onda con el concierto? ¿sí vamos?
  2. Youtickets sold out 😭
  3. Mariananooo, qué mala onda

What it means here: Here qué onda is a real question: “hey, what’s the deal with the concert? are we going?” Qué mala onda means “what a bummer.”

Work chat · Monday morning
  1. Luisqué onda! ¿cómo estuvo tu fin de semana?
  2. Yougood! I finally made salsa from scratch
  3. Luisqué buena onda, bring some 🌶️

What it means here: Luis greets a coworker he knows well: “what’s up! how was your weekend?” Qué buena onda means “how cool.”

How to use it

  • ¿Qué onda? as a hello, often with a second question¿Qué onda? ¿Cómo estás? (“What’s up? How are you?”)
  • ¿Qué onda + a name?¿Qué onda, Ana? (“What’s up, Ana?”)
  • ¿Qué onda con + a thing or person? (what’s the deal with…)¿Qué onda con la fiesta? (“What’s the deal with the party?”)
  • Answering ¿qué onda? with a short reply—¿Qué onda? —Todo bien, ¿y tú? (“—What’s up? —All good, you?”)
  • Qué onda inside EnglishQué onda, I haven’t seen you in forever!

Don’t say it like this

  • Sounds off¿Que honda?

    Say this¿Qué onda?

    There’s no h in onda. Honda is a different word that means “deep” (for something feminine) or “slingshot.” The accent on qué shows it’s a question word.

  • Sounds off¿Qué onda, señor? (to the interviewer at a job interview)

    Say thisBuenos días, ¿cómo está? (“Good morning, how are you?”)

    Qué onda is informal. Keep it for friends and people you know well, not for a first meeting with someone older or in charge.

  • Sounds off¿Qué ondo? (to a man)

    Say this¿Qué onda? (to anyone)

    Unlike words such as amigo and amiga (“friend”), this phrase doesn’t change. Onda is a feminine noun, and it stays the same for men, women, and groups.

  • Sounds off“Qué onda” means “what wave?”

    Say this“Qué onda” means “what’s up?”

    “What wave?” is only the word-for-word version. Nobody is asking about the ocean.

qué onda or not?

Is each of these qué onda? Pick an answer to find out.

  1. You join a group chat and a friend writes “qué onda!”

  2. Your friend texts: “¿qué onda con tu hermano? no contesta” (“what’s up with your brother? he’s not answering”).

  3. You open a formal job interview with “¿qué onda?”

  4. In physics class, the teacher asks, “¿qué onda tiene más energía?”

The qué onda family

  • buena ondaCool, nice, a good vibe. Ser buena onda means to be a nice person.The best review a Mexican friend can give your new partner.
  • mala ondaNot nice, or a bummer. Qué mala onda means “what a bummer.”What everyone says when the concert sells out.
  • quiúboleAnother casual greeting, close to “what’s up?”Qué onda’s cousin, with different sounds and the same energy.

Where it came from

  1. Mid-20th centuryOnda phrases, qué onda among them, start to appear in writing in books by the Mexican authors of the Literatura de la Onda (“Wave Literature”), who wrote the way young people talked. The phrases came from casual speech, so their exact origin is unknown [1].
  2. 1960sWriter Ignacio Trejo Fuentes, quoted by the AML, says young people, especially in Mexico City in the 1960s, used onda as a filler word [1]. The AML page suggests one possible source: a metaphor from onda in physics, “wave,” like being on the same frequency [1].
  3. TodayThe online dictionary bab.la lists qué onda as informal Spanish from Mexico and Central America [2]. More people look it up every year.

Qué onda, buena onda, mala onda: what is the onda?

On its own, onda is a feminine noun that means “wave,” like a wave of sound or light. In casual Mexican Spanish it can also mean “matter” or “thing,” as in no sé nada de esa onda (“I don’t know anything about that thing”). In some phrases it works more like “vibe.”

The Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (AML), the academy that studies Mexican Spanish, puts qué onda in a family of onda phrases [1]:

PhraseWhat it means
ser buena ondato be cool or nice (“tu mamá es muy buena onda”: “your mom is really cool”)
ser mala ondato be not nice; “qué mala onda” means “what a bummer”
¿cuál es la onda?“what’s the deal?” or “what’s the plan?”
agarrar la ondato get it, to catch on
estar fuera de ondato be out of the loop or out of touch

These phrases come from everyday speech, so nobody knows exactly how they started [1]. You may read online that qué onda is a translation of English “what’s up?” or that it comes from music. No evidence backs those stories.

Qué onda isn’t the only casual hello. Wikcionario, a dictionary that anyone can edit, lists qué tal (“how’s it going?”), qué pasa (“what’s happening?”), cómo estás (“how are you?”), and quiúbole as near matches. It also lists qué onda for Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, not only Mexico and Central America [3].

Sources

  1. Qué onda (Consultas frecuentes)Academia Mexicana de la Lengua
  2. ¿QUÉ ONDA? - Definición en españolbab.la
  3. qué ondaWikcionario

More slang to decode

Articles

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