What's up? — the standard Mexican greeting between friends.
Replaces "¿cómo estás?" almost entirely among people under 50. It also works as a genuine question about a situation ("¿qué onda con tu hermano?" = what's going on with your brother?) and, said sharply, as a challenge ("¿qué onda contigo?" = what is your problem?).
Literally "what wave?" — from 1960s Mexican counterculture, where "la onda" meant the scene, the vibe, what was happening.
Colombia says ¿qué más?, Cuba says ¿qué bolá?, DR says klk, Argentina says ¿cómo andás?, Panama says ¿qué xopa?
Reading a definition isn't the same as saying it to someone. Lingo Kaiava is a voice tutor set to Mexican Spanish — it uses ¿qué onda? the way locals do, corrects you in the moment, and never "fixes" the way real people actually talk into textbook Mexican Spanish.
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