¿Cómo estamos?

[Caballero]

What are the implications of using this to ask someone how they are. I know it literally means "How are we?"

[aleCcowaN]

It depends on the context. It may imply that the answer affects you or concerns you more than what's usual. It might be a trick to promote empathic reactions, the same way a bum addressing you "guvnor" or some people from one or two Spanish speaking regions calling you "amigo".

[poli]

This is only by ear but I think ¿a cómo estamos? may mean what is today's date. I may be wrong, so please wait for a native speaker to confirm this.

[Perikles]

Have a look at my post no. 5 on this thread. That is one way of using it (although it doesn't follow that it applies elsewhere).

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by poli

This is only by ear but I think ¿a cómo estamos? ...

Hay cosas que se oyen pero que no deben repetirse .

Perikles se me anticipó... el evitar definir si tú o si usted en un uso muy común en todas partes, pero no el principal.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by poli

This is only by ear but I think ¿a cómo estamos? may mean what is today's date. I may be wrong, so please wait for a native speaker to confirm this.

It's a colloquial expression. Some people prefer to avoid it, and ask "¿qué fecha es hoy?" instead.


@Caballero: In many ocassions, that use of "nosotros" implies some solidarity or empathy.
For example, when you visit a friend at the hospital and ask "¿Cómo estamos?", it's obviously not an alternative to "tú"/"usted", but it's rather expressing you feel for them and you hope they're doing better.
If you say hello to a group of close friends and ask "¿Cómo estamos?", somehow you're asking them all how they are doing while expressing you feel a part of that group and that you feel identified with them.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by Caballero

What are the implications of using this to ask someone how they are. I know it literally means "How are we?"

"How are we today?" is quite common in English. Nurses ask that to their patients all the time. I find it particularly annoying, for some reason. Why can't they just ask "how are you (feeling) today?"

I don't think I've heard, let alone used, "¿cómo estamos?" in Spanish, but I would say that yes, it's close to the English term.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by Luna Azul

"How are we today?" is quite common in English. Nurses ask that to their pacients all the time. I find it particularly annoying, for some reason. Why can't the just ask "how are you (feeling) today?"

Yes, for some reason it sounds very patronizing to me, as though the patient were a small child or somebody not quite a whole person.

(By the way - it's not often I could correct your English - the underlined is interesting )

Anyway, this is not how it comes across with cómo estamos here in Tenerife, when there is clearly an awkwardness about using formal or informal.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Yes, for some reason it sounds very patronizing to me, as though the patient were a small child or somebody not quite a whole person.

(By the way - it's not often I could correct your English - the underlined is interesting )

Anyway, this is not how it comes across with cómo estamos here in Tenerife, when there is clearly an awkwardness about using formal or informal.

Apart from the typo (pacients ), how would you say that? It sounded peculiar to me but I was too tired to bother to try to find a better way.

Thank you!!!

[poli]

"ask that to their patients" sounds natural to me
ask their patients that sounds even better