1
In México, I occasionally posed the following to a local: If I don’t wear a watch, so don’t know what time it is, how do I know when to stop saying buenos días and start saying buenas tardes?
Invariably, the answer came back: at noon. To which I invariably replied, but if I don’t have watch and don’t … never mind.
Here, say buen día and you’re good all day long. (At least in our area of México, that was – rarely – used in parting, as in have a nice day. Blech.)
2
How ya doin’? In México, that simple question involves determining whether your relationship with the askee is formal or informal. ¿Como esta? or ¿Como estas? Here, the second can be the same as the first thanks to the Uruguayos’ habit of dropping The letter S.
Better still, ¿Que tal? works just fine in all but very formal situations.
The Uruguayans don’t drop the “s” at the end, they use some sort of english “h” sound, so it sounds something like “como estah” (sound the h here). It is softer than the h in home, let’s say. Foreigner in particular don’t notice it, but to the locals, it is there!
Buenos dias is used until noon. You know that you have to switch to buenas tardes after you have your lunch, which comes just before your siesta. So, when you wake up at let’s say 2 or 3 o’clock, you say “buenas tardes”. You don’t need a watch for that!
Well, the s is definitely not there, but when my son’s friends instructed me how to say Punta del Este correctly 🙂 I did pick up a little bit of something like that.