No estoy mal

[Jules]

Is a reply of 'no estoy mal' to the question ¿como estás? understood by Spaniards as an equivalent of English 'not bad'?
Or is this an English mannerism that would not normally be said in Spanish? (i.e. on the basis that 'no estoy mal' means 'good' and one is expected just to say so)

[Ben]

I think it is a bit of an English mannerism that the Spanish wouldn't really say. The most like answer to the question would be 'Muy bien, ¿y tu?'

Welcome to the forum by the way!

[Jules]

Thanks for the reply & welcoming me to the forum. Have read your book & found it very entertaining (& surprisingly revealing of your 'inner self')

I have sometimes seen 'no está mal' as a reply to, for example, ¿A ti te gusta este libro?

[Ben]

Thanks for the reply & welcoming me to the forum. Have read your book & found it very entertaining (& surprisingly revealing of your 'inner self')

I have sometimes seen 'no está mal' as a reply to, for example, ¿A ti te gusta este libro?
Maybe I should read it again and see if can find more out about myself!

In this example you give here 'no esta mal' is definitely correct.

[Bolboreta]

Well... I don't think you can say "no estoy mal". I do use sometimes "No demasiado mal" (Not too bad) but a friend has already told me that it sounds a bit off. The most common answer is as Ben said "Muy bien" or simply "bien" if you don't want to be too enthusiastic. I think that if you want it to mean "not bad but not good either" the phrasing you're looking for would be "tirando."

You can use "no está mal" for things like books, movies and so on. If you apply it to a person, you're commenting on their physical appearance and saying "they're not ugly"; now... depending on your tone it could mean that you're interested on them or not (Or this might be just me, 'cause I rarely say somebody is "hot", I prefer to say "no está mal"). To make things even more confusing, if you say "Ana está mal" it means she's upset about something :o

[Marina]

It could be used as an answer to ¿Cómo estás? meaning I'm ok but not great. My father uses it sometimes, but as Ben explained it is not one of the most comon answers to this question.

[Brian]

It could be used as an answer to ¿Cómo estás? meaning I'm ok but not great. My father uses it sometimes, but as Ben explained it is not one of the most comon answers to this question.

I suppose that you would be more likely to say "asi asi" for "ok," or "so-so"?

[Jules]

Thanks everyone for providing such an interesting answer. That so many shades of meaning can come from such an apparently innocuous phrase!! It shows how much there is to learn.

Reminds me a bit of some advice I received never to use the word bueno in the context of the original question - or at least not in polite company!

[Dobbin]

So if you don't feel good could you say 'estoy mal' ?

[Ben]

"estoy malo", or 'no me encuentro bien' would be the most natural phrase if you don't feel well.

[Laguiri]

Creo que "regular" suena bien aqui.