cómo

Cultural Note

'¿Cómo estás?' (informal) and '¿Cómo está usted?' (formal) are the standard greetings in Spanish. Note that '¿Cómo te llamas?' literally translates as 'How do you call yourself?' — Spanish uses the reflexive construction rather than 'What is your name?' Without the accent, 'como' means 'like/as': 'blanco como la nieve' (white as snow).