20+ Ways to Say Nice to Meet You in Spanish
Are you looking for different ways to say “nice to meet you” in Spanish? Well, look no further. You’ve come to the right place.
Why Learn to Say Nice to Meet You in Spanish?
Maybe you’re preparing to travel to a Spanish-speaking country such as Colombia. Or maybe you come into contact with Spanish speakers in your line of work and want to make a good impression.
Whatever your reason, learning how to say nice to meet you in Spanish should be among the top items on your list of words and phrases to learn. It’s a polite formality that you’ll need to use over and over, so you’ll want to learn a variety of ways to say it to avoid being repetitive.
Fortunately, I’ve got you covered. I’m going to show you different ways to do exactly that.
So, are you ready? Let’s go!
A note about the words and phrases we’ll be discussing: they’re all pretty standard and, to varying degrees, common in Colombia.
(After all, this is a travel blog dedicated to Colombia, written by a man who’s spent a lot of time there, with input from his Colombian wife.)
However, most, if not all, of these essential phrases will be understood in any Spanish-speaking country, be it Spain, Equatorial Guinea, or somewhere in Latin America.
In short, if you learn all or some of these common ways to say “nice to meet you,” you’ll be able to say them the first time you meet any Spanish speaker!
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Ways to Say “Nice to Meet You” in Spanish
So you’ve just been introduced to a Spanish-speaker, you’ve told each other your names, and now you want to tell the other person it’s nice to meet them. Let’s start with what are probably the most common, basic phrases.
What Are Three Ways to Say Nice to Meet You in Spanish using Gusto?
🤝 Mucho Gusto
In most places, people use the short and sweet phrase mucho gusto to say “nice to meet you” in Spanish. It’s pretty much the standard way to say it.
Mucho means “much” and gusto can be translated as “pleasure.” (Gusto is actually a synonym of another word that’s the etymological cousin of “pleasure,” which we’ll get to in a minute.)
You can hear the pronunciations of several native speakers here.
You’re literally saying that it gives you much pleasure to meet the other person. In fact, mucho gusto is the short version of the following phrases: mucho gusto en conocerlo, mucho gusto en conocerla, or mucho gusto en conocerte.
Here you have the verb conocer (“to meet”) plus the pronouns lo (you when speaking to a man in a formal setting), la (you when addressing a woman in a formal setting), and te (you when speaking to anyone in an informal context, like with your close friends).
Note that there are certain cities, regions, and even some entire countries that rarely use the formal speech, preferring instead to use the informal.
Those longer forms of the sentence, while still heard occasionally, are not nearly as common as the succinct mucho gusto. It’s brief, and it can be used in informal situations as well as formal.
But if that’s not short enough for you, you can always cut it down further to…
🤝 Un Gusto
Just as in English, you can simply say “a pleasure” when meeting someone. One great way to do that in Spanish is to say “un gusto.” It can also be used with any level of formality. The pronunciation of “un” is a bit like “soon” without the “s.”
You can hear “un gusto” in this phrase.
But what if gusto feels like an understatement compared to the level of excitement you feel upon meeting someone? Maybe it’s a friend of a friend you’ve been really looking forward to meeting, or maybe even a celebrity.
Not to worry, there’s a nice way to say that too. Introducing (pun intended)…
🤝 ¡Un Gustazo!
The suffix -azo can be tacked onto the end of a word to embellish its meaning, to make it bigger, stronger, more emotional.
So if you say “¡un gustazo!” to someone, you’re not saying it’s a mere pleasure. You’re saying it’s a great pleasure, a super, mega, tremendous pleasure!
On the contrary, what if you’re not thrilled to make someone’s acquaintance, but rather you’re terrified? What if you’re meeting a mummy, a zombie, or a vampire? In that case, you could say…
🤝 Mucho Susto
…No. That’s just another bad pun. Susto rhymes with gusto and means “fright,” so this would be more like “scary to meet you.”
Sorry for that, guys. No need to show me to the door, I’ll just let myself out.
But first, let’s continue with real ways to say “nice to meet you” in Spanish, shall we?
“Nice to meet You” Phrases Involving Placer
🤝 Es un Placer Conocerlo/-la/-te
As I said before, gusto is a synonym of a word which is etymologically related to the English word pleasure, and that word is placer. So, as was the case with the long form of mucho gusto, there are different ways to say “it’s a pleasure to meet you,” depending on who you’re talking to:
Es un placer conocerlo is used if you are addressing a man formally.
Es un placer conocerla is used to formally address a woman.
Es un placer conocerte (pronunciation) is an informal way to address anyone.
These, too, can be shortened into another way to simply say, “a pleasure”:
🤝 Un Placer
Just as un gusto and mucho gusto can be used in both informal and formal settings, so too can un placer. It’s easy!
Hear it pronounced here.
Now, are you ready to introduce another layer of complication to things? I present to you…
“Nice to Meet You” Phrases Involving Encantado
🤝 Encantado/-ada de Conocerlo/-la/-te
We’ve talked about using the pronouns lo and la based on whether you’re speaking to a man or a woman. But until now, we haven’t had to pay attention to whether you, the speaker, are a man or a woman.
That all changes with the phrases encantado de conocerlo/-la/-te and encantada de conocerlo/-la/-te.
Why? If the Spanish phrases in this article all mean “nice to meet you,” then why would we need to concern ourselves with our own gender in only some of the phrases?
The reason is that, while we can translate all of these phrases as “nice to meet you,” they each have their own literal meanings and grammatical structures.
In the phrases with the nouns gusto and placer, we don’t refer to ourselves at all. We’re just saying, “it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
But in the case of encantado or encantada, you’re directly referring to yourself. You’re using an adjective to describe your feelings by saying, “I’m delighted to meet you.” (The literal translation of encantado is “enchanted” or “charmed,” but in this context it’s closer to delighted.)
In Spanish, adjectives must agree in gender with the person or thing they describe. So, to say that you’re delighted (enchanted), if you’re a man, you would say, “estoy encantado.” But if you’re a woman, you’d say, “estoy encantada.”
That’s why, if you want to say “delighted to meet you” and you’re a man, you would say “Encantado de conocerte” (pronunciation) or conocerlo, or conocerla, depending on who you’re talking to.
But if you’re a woman, you would say, “encantada de conocerte (or encantada de conocerlo /-la.”
(Note that in these phrases, you can omit the word estoy [“I am”], as it is implied.)
Better still, you can opt for an abbreviated form, which brings us to…
🤝 Encantado/Encantada
If you’re more into brevity and/or don’t want to worry about grammatical gender more than is necessary, then you can simply say “encantado” if you’re a man or “encantada” if you’re a woman.
This is like the one-word statement, “delighted” or “charmed.”
I have one more way for you to say “nice to meet you” in Spanish, and it’s going to sound like a cop-out, but it’s nevertheless good to know…
One Last Way to Say “Nice to Meet You” in Spanish
🤝 Hola. ¿Cómo Estás?
“Oh come on!” you might be thinking. “I know enough Spanish to know that doesn’t mean ‘nice to meet you.’ It means ‘Hello. How are you?’”
Yes, you would be completely right.
But the truth is, some people won’t even bother with the formality of saying “nice to meet you.” It’s not at all uncommon for someone who’s just been introduced to somebody else to simply say something else that’s friendly, like one of the many ways of asking how are you in Spanish.
Up till now, we’ve been talking about ways for you to be the first to say “nice to meet you” (you polite and friendly person, you). But what if the other person beats you to the punch? How do you respond?
Ways to Respond to “Nice to Meet You” in Spanish
You’ve just met a new person, but before you had the chance to show off your Spanish knowledge by throwing out one of the phrases above, they beat you to it! Oh, no! What do you do?
Not to worry. Fortunately, the correct response is a number of short and sweet phrases. Let’s talk about them.
General Responses
The following responses will work for any of the above statements. (Well, except for “Hola. ¿Cómo estás?” If you get that one, just tell them how you’re doing and ask how they are.)
🤝 Igualmente
This one-word response, which literally means “equally,” is the equivalent of responding “likewise” when somebody tells you it’s nice to meet you.
But what’s that you say? You want to know if it can be shortened even more? Well, today’s your lucky day! Behold…
🤝 Igual
This just means “equal,” but it’s used in the same way, to respond “likewise.”
🤝 Lo Mismo [Digo]
Another way to respond to “nice to meet you” is to say “lo mismo” (pronunciation), which means “the same.” It’s like the way some English speakers respond by saying “same” or “same here.”
(Note: in some places, people might say “lo mismo digo” (pronunciation) which literally means “I say the same thing,” i.e., “I agree that it’s nice to meet you.” In Colombia, however, I’ve pretty much only ever heard “lo mismo.”)
Responding to Mucho Gusto or Un Placer
In addition to the above responses, there are two responses that are only applicable to the variations of the phrases involving gusto or placer. They both mean “the pleasure is mine.” They are the following:
🤝 El Gusto es Mío
🤝 El Placer es Mío
You can choose the former (pronunciation) or the latter depending on whether the other person used the word gusto or placer, respectively.
Ways to Say “Nice to Meet You” in Spanish… in Past Tense
We’ve gone over what to say and how to respond at the beginning of a conversation with someone you’ve just met. But that’s not the only time we can say “nice meeting you.”
We can also say it at the end of the meeting, when we’re saying goodbye, and in that case we use the past tense.
Let’s look at different ways to do that.
Related Post: “My Condolences” in Spanish
“It Was Nice to Meet You” using Fue
There are two forms of past tense commonly used to say “it was nice to meet you” in Spanish. The first is fue (pronunciation), which is like the English simple past tense, “was.” Let’s look at a few examples of sentences using that word:
🤝 Fue un Gusto (Conocerlo/-la/-te)
Just as before, you can opt for the full phrase, fue un gusto conocerlo (-la/-te), or you can just say “Fue un gusto” (“it was a pleasure”).
🤝 Fue un Gusto Haberlo/-la/-te Conocido
Here you can see once again the three options for pronouns (-lo, –la, and –te), this time attached to the verb haber (pronunciation), which translates to “to have.” This sentence means “it was a pleasure having met you.”
🤝 Fue un Placer (Conocerlo/-la/-te)
🤝 Fue un Placer Haberlo/-la/-te Conocido
Fue un placer conocerlo/-la/-te (pronunciation) and fue un placer haberlo/-la/-te conocido work the same way as the previous two. The only difference is that you’re using placer instead of gusto.
“It Was Nice to Meet You” using Ha Sido
The second form of past tense used for this purpose is ha sido (pronunciation). This is like the English present perfect tense, “has been.” Here are some examples:
🤝 Ha Sido un Gusto (Conocerlo/-la/-te)
🤝 Ha Sido un Placer (Conocerlo/-la/-te)
Pronunciation of ha sido un placer.
The previous two both mean “it’s been a pleasure to meet you” or simply “it’s been a pleasure.”
🤝 Ha Sido un Gusto Haberlo/-la/-te Conocido
🤝 Ha Sido un Placer Haberlo/-la/-te Conocido
These last two both mean “It’s been a pleasure having met you.”
Conclusion
Okay, so now we’ve covered many different ways to say “nice to meet you” in Spanish, as well as how to respond when somebody says it to you, and also how to say it in past tense when the conversation is over.
To recap, you’ve got options for longer sentences of heightened formality, as well as brief statements that can be used pretty much anywhere with anyone. So if you don’t want to worry about the gender difference or formality, you can always opt for the abbreviations.
Just be sure to vary your speech to avoid sounding like a robot. Throw in a “mucho gusto” here, an “un placer” there, and even the occasional “encantado.”
Likewise for the responses, you can switch up the common variations. You can say “igualmente” at times, “igual” at others, and “lo mismo” the rest of the time.
Questions? Comments? Was this guide clear enough or too confusing? Do you know of other ways to say “nice to meet you” that weren’t included here? Email me and let me know!