Qué onda
What's up — the standard casual Mexican greeting, literally "what wave".
Related lesson: Greetings Like a Local in Spain.
Hear it in context
¿Qué onda, güey? ¿Cómo va todo?
What's up, dude? How's everything going?
¿Qué onda con tu hermano? ¿Sigue enojado?
What's the deal with your brother? Is he still mad?
Tu amiga es muy buena onda, me cayó súper bien.
Your friend is really nice, I liked her a lot.
No seas mala onda, préstame tu cargador.
Don't be mean, lend me your charger.
What It Actually Means
¿Qué onda? — literally “what wave?” — is the everyday “what’s up?” of Mexico, a relic of 1960s counterculture slang that became permanent. Like “what’s up”, it’s a greeting, not a real question: the standard reply is another “¿qué onda?”, a “todo bien”, or just a nod.
The Onda Family
Onda (“wave, vibe”) spawned a whole family of expressions you need to decode Mexican conversation:
- Buena onda — nice, cool, good vibes: “El profe es buena onda” (“The teacher is cool”). Works for people, places, and gestures — “¡qué buena onda!” means “that’s so nice!”
- Mala onda — mean, unkind, or “what a bummer”: “Qué mala onda que no puedas venir.”
- ¿Qué onda con…? — “what’s going on with…?”: genuine question about a person or situation.
- Agarrar la onda — to catch on, get the hang of it: “Ya le agarré la onda al metro.”
Register Notes
¿Qué onda? is friendly-casual: perfect with friends, fine with coworkers you know, wrong for a job interview or addressing an elder you’d call usted — there, ¿cómo está? remains the move. Note the accent in writing: qué onda as a greeting carries the question-word accent, and texting Mexicans often compress it to q onda or ke onda.