Spanish expression · Updated October 10, 2026

Entonces

Entonces means “so” or “then”. It shows a consequence (no vino, entonces me fui: “he didn't come, so I left”) and a moment in time (en ese entonces: “back then”). In conversation it's also a filler that moves a story forward, far more often than English “so”. ¿Entonces? alone means “so…?”: what now?

How people really use it

Telling a story.

1. Camila

   Llegué al aeropuerto y no encontraba el pasaporte.

   I got to the airport and couldn't find my passport.

2. Mateo

   ¿Y entonces?

   And then what?

3. Camila

   Entonces lo busqué por todos lados… y estaba en mi bolsillo.

   So I looked everywhere… and it was in my pocket.

Making a decision.

1. Diego

   No hay mesa hasta las diez.

   There's no table until ten.

2. Valentina

   Entonces vamos a otro lado.

   Then let's go somewhere else.

Picking a conversation back up.

1. Javier

   Entonces, ¿qué decidiste? ¿Aceptas el trabajo o no?

   So, what did you decide? Are you taking the job or not?

2. Lucía

   Todavía no sé. Pregúntame mañana.

   I still don't know. Ask me tomorrow.

🤷 Depende del País

Entonces is neutral and heard everywhere. What changes is how much it shrinks in fast speech, and what sits next to it.

• 🇲🇽 Mexico: In relaxed speech it can shrink to 'tons: ¿'tons qué, vamos? (“so, are we going?”).
• 🇨🇴 Colombia: ¿Entonces qué? is a common way to open a conversation: “so, what's up?”.
• 🇪🇸 Spain: Pues often does the same job: pues nada, me voy (“so, anyway, I'm off”).
• 🇦🇷 Argentina: Entonces, plus a lot of y bueno, nada… while we look for the end of the story.

Register and sound

Register. Neutral. Fine in any setting, from a family dinner to a meeting. In writing, por lo tanto (“therefore”) is more formal.

Sounds like. en-TON-ses, stress on TON. In Latin America the c sounds like s; in most of Spain it's a “th”.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between entonces and luego?

Both can mean “then”. Luego is about order in time (first this, luego that). Entonces is about consequence or the moment: “so”, “in that case”, “at that time”.

Is entonces a filler word?

Often, yes. In stories, people say entonces to keep going, the way English speakers say “so” or “and then”. It's one of the most common Spanish fillers.

What does ¿entonces qué? mean?

“So what now?” or “so, what's it going to be?”, asking for a decision. In Colombia it's also a casual “what's up?”.