How do you say “you’re welcome” in Spanish?
In response to somebody telling you “thank you” -”gracias” in Spanish- you’d say
no hay de qué
Both are used in everyday speech, and are appropriate for any situation, formal or informal.
Spanish is a very rich language, and there are usually many different ways of saying the same thing. Often we find several expressions with a similar meaning, to be used at different times depending on the formality of the situation.
Writing this post I realized that the translation of “you’re welcome” is not a good a example of the flexibility of the Spanish language. While “no problem”, “not at all”, “don’t mention it”, “don’t worry about it”, “anytime”, etc. are all possible answers to “thank you”, I can’t think of any answer to “gracias” beyond “de nada” y “no hay de qué”.
Can you suggest any alternatives?
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Maria, I’ve also heard people say para eso estamos.
Hi John,
you’re absolutely right, “para eso estamos” is quite common in Spain. Be careful when you use it though, because it’s quite colloquial -you wouldn’t want to say it when talking to your boss, for instance.
I’ve also thought of another way of saying “you are welcome”, which is “un placer”. This one can be used in formal situations too, but I’d say it’s not as common as “de nada”.