Hello, all.
In today’s lesson, we will look at how to greet in different ways in Chinese. It is really important because you do not want to be disrespectful and say ‘Hi’ to an elderly person in China instead of pretty much ‘How do you do?’ as it was the case in English before. The Chinese are extremely polite and I would like you to learn these differences. So, below, I have put different ways of saying ‘hello’ in both pinying and Chinese with their translation into English. I would like you to listen to the podcast where I’m recording the greetings one by one.
If you have any comments, please leave them below.
How to greet anyone in China
A: Nǐ hǎo ！
A: 你 好 ！
Hi!
B: Nǐ hǎo ！
B: 你 好 ！
Hi！
How to say ‘hello’ to people older than you or in a position of power
A: Nín hǎo ！
A: 您 好 ！
Hi!
B: Nín hǎo / Nǐ hǎo ！
B: 您 好 / 你 好 ！
Hi!
How to say ‘hello’ to your friends
A: Nǐ hǎo ma ？ / Nǐ zuì jìn hǎo mɑ ？
A: 你 好 吗 ？ / 你 最 近 好 吗 ？
How are you? / How have you been lately?
B: Wǒ hěn hǎo / Hái bú cuò / lǎo yànɡ zi， xiè xiè!
B: 我 很 好 / 还 不 错 / 老 样 子 ， 谢 谢 !
Fine/Good/As usual,thank you!
How to say ‘hello’ to your teacher
A: Lǎo shī hǎo ！
A: 老 师 好 ！
Hi, teacher!
B: tóng xué men hǎo
B: 同 学 们 好
Hi!
If you want to say ‘hello’ to a group of people
A: Dà jiā hǎo ！
A: 大 家 好 ！
Hi,everyone
B: Nǐ hǎo ！
B: 你 好 ！
Hi!
