buenos días

Buenos días is a Spanish interjection meaning good day or, more often, good morning.

Literally translated, buenos días means good days. However, even in Spanish, it is used to mean good day or good morning. This greeting is used until noon, when the common greeting switches to buenas tardes, meaning good afternoon. In the evening, buenas noches, meaning good night, is commonly used to greet someone and to say goodbye.

Example: Buenos días! How are you?

Buenos días literally translates to “good days,” combining the Spanish buenos, meaning “good,” and días, meaning “days.” Despite being written as plural, the phrase is used in Spanish and English to simply mean “good morning” or “good day.”

Buenos días is often one of the first phrases people will learn when attempting to learn Spanish, making it one of the most memorable. English speakers can often use it with other English speakers without confusion.

What are some synonyms for buenos días?

• good morning
• good day

What are some words that share a root or word element with buenos días? 

• bueno
• Buenos Aires
• buenas noches

What are some words that often get used in discussing buenos días?

• greeting
• Spanish
• interjection

Buenos días is most often used by Spanish speakers in Spanish conversation. It’s also commonly used by multilingual Spanish speakers when speaking other languages.

Buenos Dias. Voy camino a la filmacion. Abrazos. On my way to shooting day. Good morning.

— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 6, 2020

Buenos días / Good morning!! Missing the warmth today. Even when the sun is out Canada is COLD

— Carlos PenaVega (@TheCarlosPena) March 17, 2019

Buenos días. As a boy in PR, I wrote to Debbie Reynolds including a bunch of clippings. Months later I got a letter from her thanking me for the clippings. I know how imp it is to write to those who we admire. Lin-Manuel Miranda, 4768 Broadway, Unit 743, New York NY 10034.

— Luis A. Miranda, Jr. (@Vegalteno) February 12, 2020

What does buenos días literally translate to?

A. Good afternoon
B. Good days
C. Good night
D. Good mornings

Buenos días means “good morning” or “good day” in Spanish. It is used as a common, polite greeting. 

What are some other words related to buenos días?

• buenas noches
• buenas tardes
• hola

Buenos días is a common expression in Spanish—and one of the first things Spanish-language learners pick up.

Buenos means “good” and días literally means “days” in Spanish, but refers to daylight or the morning more generally. Taken together, the two mean “good day” or “good morning”.

When buenos días became a familiar greeting in Spanish is unclear. Both words derive from Latin, and the expression could have been used in post-classical Latin as early as the 400s a.d.

Today, the expression buenos días is commonly used by Spanish speakers around the world as a polite and friendly morning “hello” to friends and strangers alike. 

After lunch, people swap out buenos días for buenas tardes (“good afternoon”) in most Spanish-speaking countries. After dinner or when it’s become dark, people use buenas noches (“good night”).

Spanish speakers of all levels, from native speakers to first-time learners, use buenos días as a polite greeting in the morning before roughly 12–2pm. Spanish-language morning shows may use buenos días in their names (e.g., NBC Telemundo’s Buenos Días Miami). The phrase is sometimes even hashtagged as #buenosdias on social media.

Buenos días from the magnicient Sea of Cortez! ☀️🌊🐠
There's nothing quite like exploring a new water activity amongst friends at Chileno Bay? Tell us one activity that's on your bucket list in the comments! #ChilenoBayCabo #AlwaysAuberge pic.twitter.com/kjao3UZhrX

— Chileno Bay Resort, Auberge Resorts Collection (@chilenoauberge) May 26, 2020

Wednesday morning. #buenosdías pic.twitter.com/NvJnnQiCEf

— Luke Stegemann (@lukestegemann) May 26, 2020

Even if you don’t speak Spanish fluently, buenos días is an important and useful expression to incorporate into your vocabulary to help you interact with Spanish speakers all around the world.

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.