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) | 嗨 | 嗨 | hāi | "hi" |
Hello (loanword) | 哈喽 | 哈嘍 | hā lou | "ha low" |
Hey (loanword) | 嘿 | 嘿 | hēi | "hey" |
Hello? (phone) | 喂 | 喂 | wéi | "way" |
- Pinyin: a standardized way to write Chinese characters in the Latin alphabet.
- Effective Pinyin: pinyin that represents the tones as they are actually articulated in speech.
- Tone: the pitch of a word, of which there are 4 distinct patterns represented by 4 different diacritics (accent marks); if there is no diacritic, it indicates a neutral or absent tone.
- Simplified: Chinese character set with less strokes.
- Traditional: Chinese character set with more strokes.
If needed, you can also check out our refresher on Chinese tones.
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 - 你好
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 + 好
You'll notice that the above greeting 你好 is formed with a pronoun 你 and the character 好. This is actually a construct that applies to more than just the above hello.
For example, you can also say 您好 as a more formal variant meaning hello. This consists of 您 + 好. However this is not as common and more formal.
Note: The pronoun 您 is a formal version of 你.
Additionally, there is the very common greeting 大家好 which contains 大家 + 好, meaning "Hello, everyone."
Note: The pronoun 大家 literally has the characters for "big" and "family" but refers to all of the people present.
Lastly but less commonly you can also say 老師好 which consists of 老師 + 好. In this case we have the noun 老師 (teacher) + 好. As you may assume, this means "Hello, teacher."
Hi (loanword) - 嗨
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) - 哈喽
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) - 嘿
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) - 喂
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!