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I'm having a rough time finding the best translation for this J. Taylor tweet made during Fernando Alonso's first stint in the 24 Hours of Daytona race:

This [Alonso] guy seems alright.

This [Alonso] guy seems alright.

Ok, so we all know 'alright' means bien:

In these examples, 'alright' is used to describe the state of something/someone -- the kind that'd force you to use "estar" instead of "ser" in Spanish.

In the above tweet, however, 'alright' is being used as a trait: the kind we use "ser" with — like saying Alonso seems "OK at racing" (at least that's how I understood it).
And this is where the rough part begins, because everything I come up with seems slightly off. For staters, Google Translate seems to disagree with my interpretation, and translates it as just "Este chico Alonso parece estar bien", but that looks like we're talking about his health. As for me, I've tried:

  • "parece bueno", but I think someone being "bueno" at something is a tad over being just 'alright' at something;
  • "parece aceptable", "parece decente"... but those don't give the same informal vibe that 'alright' does.

Maybe I'm just overthinking this, but whatever.
What would be the best translation for 'alright' in this context?

EDIT: Looking at the current answers, it seems like there are more types of 'alright' than I thought!
Please notice that I'm asking specifically about being 'alright' at something:

[...] like saying Alonso seems "OK at racing" (at least that's how I understood it). [...] I've tried "parece bueno", but I think someone being "bueno" at something is a tad over being just 'alright' at something.

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  • It seems to me that this may be an example of meiosis and in fact the tweeter thinks he is really very good. I am not sure how widespread that figure of speech is in Spanish.
    – mdewey
    Jan 28, 2019 at 16:13
  • "Joe Bloe is alright at racing" = Fulano... no está mal [y el contexto nos dará lo demás]. Esto me parece una traducción bastante precisa, de hecho. O si quieres un variante un poquito más entusiasmado: Fulano...no está nada mal. // La expresión en inglés podría ser un tanto irónica (pero quizás ya sabías).
    – aparente001
    Feb 7, 2019 at 5:19

2 Answers 2

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Maybe you can use:

Parece un tío majo/legal/guay.

I have seen a comment in the Urban Dictionary that says:

[When] you call a person 'alright' you are saying that they are amazing, awesome, brilliant, and you want to love them.

If this is true (it seems so according to @mdewey's comment) you can even say:

Parece un tío genial/fantástico/etc.

After your edit it seems that we misunderstood your question. You actually wanted to translate "being alright at something", so I will stick to @mdewey's comment then and propose the following.

No se le da mal a Alonso [eso de conducir].

I think this sentence keeps the feeling of saying that he is actually very good at it while stating that he is just "not bad".

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Your last examples seem close to what you mean; but if you're looking for an informal touch, I'd say

Parece buen tipo.

Or variations like parece un buen tipo.

This denotes a friendly deal and trust, so you can also use more formal adjectives like fiable or confiable, or more informally: parece de fiar.

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