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Chinese Hellos: Essential Greetings for Every Situation

Last updated: September 2, 2024

Greetings come in many different flavors, but none is more important than the standard acknowledgement greeting of "hello." Even if you know no other Chinese words, a simple greeting in one's native tongue can go a long way towards improving an interaction or brightening someone's day.

In this blog, let's examine some of the most basic and common ways to bid someone a simple hello and pick up some key tips along the way!

Overview

Meaning

Simplified

Traditional

Effective Pinyin

Sounds Like

Hello
你好
你好
ní hǎo
"nee how"
Hello, everyone
大家好
大家好
dà jiā hǎo
"da jya how"
Hi (loanword)
hāi
"hi"
Hello (loanword)
哈喽
哈嘍
hā lou
"ha low"
Hey (loanword)
hēi
"hey"
Hello? (phone)
wéi
"way"

If needed, you can also check out our refresher on Chinese tones.

'你好'' and 'hello' written on a blackboard

In this article, we will only cover "hellos" in the sense of a brief greeting to open a conversation. In other words, these are the more archetypal greetings. For a more extensive list, check out our article on Chinese greetings.

Standard Hellos 👋🙇‍♂️

Hello - (hǎo)

Literally: you good
Sounds like: "nee how"

This is the most generic greeting in Chinese though that doesn't mean it's not a useful phrase to initiate contact with someone or just spice up a greeting to a Mandarin speaker. However, this is far from the most common way that Mandarin native speakers greet one another. It's seen as slightly formal.

Pronoun/Noun + (hǎo)

You'll notice that the above greeting (hǎo) is formed with a pronoun () and the character (hǎo). This is actually a construct that applies to more than just the above hello.

For example, you can also say (nínhǎo) as a more formal variant meaning hello. This consists of (nín) + (hǎo). However this is not as common and more formal.

Note: The pronoun (nín) is a formal version of ().

Additionally, there is the very common greeting (jiāhǎo) which contains (jiā) + (hǎo), meaning "Hello, everyone."

Note: The pronoun (jiā) literally has the characters for "big" and "family" but refers to all of the people present.

Lastly but less commonly you can also say (lǎoshī)(hǎo) which consists of (lǎoshī) + (hǎo). In this case we have the noun (lǎoshī) (teacher) + (hǎo). As you may assume, this means "Hello, teacher."

Hi (loanword) - (hāi)

Literally: hi
Sounds like: "hi"

If you want to keep things very short and sweet, then this simple loanword of the English "hi" is perfect. This a casual and personable greeting.

Hello (loanword) - (lou)

Literally: hello
Sounds like: "ha low"

While we're at it, there's also the loanword for "hello," which is rendered closer to "haa low" in Mandarin. This is considered to be slang.

Hey (loanword) - (hēi)

Literally: hey
Sounds like: "hey"

And keeping up the theme of loanwords, we have 嘿 (hēi). This one is used much like 嗨 (hāi); it's a nice simple and casual greeting.

Hello? / Yes? (phone) - (wéi)

Literally: hey
Sounds like: "way"

This is one of the most common sayings when picking up the phone, whether you know the person or not.

While a simple hello can go a long way, it's a small step on your way to learning Mandarin. If you're looking for a comprehensive approach for learning Chinese from the basic greetings all the way to fluency, we recommend you check out our Mandarin courses and software. Start your free trial today!