what's up in Esperanto

“What’s up?” in Esperanto is Kio nova? (KEE-oh NOH-vah), literally “what’s new?”. It is the closest casual greeting; we found no separate slang for “what’s up”. You can also ask Kio okazas? “What is happening?” or simply Kiel vi? “How are you?”

Other ways to say it

• Kio novas?What’s new? / What’s up?
• Kio okazas?What’s going on?
• Kiel vi?How are you? / What’s up?
• Kiel vi fartas?How are you?

How to reply

• Nenio speciala.Nothing special.
• Nenio aparta.Nothing in particular.
• Ne malbone.Not bad.

Example sentences

• Kio nova?What’s up?
• Kio okazas? Kial vi estas malfeliĉa?What’s up? Why are you sad?

Esperantopedia · Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR

A word-for-word translation such as Kio estas supre? would mean “What is up above?”, so use Kio nova? instead.

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