Posts Tagged ‘Bueno’

Many students struggle with the differences between muy/mucho and bueno/bien.  At least part of the blame lies in English, as its speakers have come to use adjectives as adverbs in everyday speech. For example:

Question:  “How are you?”                                  Answer:    “I’m good, thanks.”

When asking how someone is doing you are asking for their state of being. Therefore an adverb should be used in the answer as it is modifying the verb ‘to be.’ However, in English we generally respond using an adjective. The same exchange in Spanish is as follows:

Question:  “¿Cómo estás?”                                  Answer:    “Estoy bien, gracias.”