Learn how to use some common Chinese greetings
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| Hēi , dàjiā hǎo , wǒ jiào Mǎ Yànrú . Hi everybody! I’m Yanru Ma. |
| Welcome to ChineseClass101.com’s “Sān fēnzhōng Hànyǔ. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to show gratitude by saying xièxiè. In this lesson we’ll learn some of the most common greetings used in China. |
| Zhǔnbèi hǎo le ma? Are you ready? wǒmen kāishǐ ba ! so let’s start! |
| The most commonly used greeting is: Nǐ hǎo! |
| [slowly] nǐ hǎo |
| You may remember this from Lesson 1. Nǐ hǎo means “hi”, “hello” and “how do you do?”. It’s a slightly formal expression, though, so just use it at work or similar occasions. Don’t use it with your family and friends. |
| The informal “hello” is sure to be familiar to you. You probably use it every day already: |
| Hēi |
| [slowly] Hēi |
| If it sounds familiar, it’s because it’s just like the English Hey, but make sure to say it with the right Mandarin tone: Hēi |
| When you want to greet someone in the morning, you can also say. |
| Zǎo ā! |
| [slowly] Zǎo ā! |
| It’s very commonly used, but is slightly informal. |
| What about when we leave? What should we say? |
| Zàijiàn! |
| This very common expression is similar in meaning to the English, “See you again”: |
| [slowly] Zàijiàn! |
| This is “good-bye”. Though simple, it can be used in almost all occasions. |
| Now you can greet people in many different ways in Chinese! |
| Let’s review them all again. |
| When meeting people for the first time or in a formal occasion : |
| Nǐ hǎo! |
| When meeting friends or family members, you can say |
| Hēi! |
| In the early morning, you can say: |
| Zǎo ā! |
| When leaving, no matter whether it's a formal or informal situation: |
| Zàijiàn! |
| It’s easy, isn’t it? |
| Now it’s time for Yanru’s Tips. |
| As you know, there are more and more Chinese starting to learn English. This has started to affect the language. Just like how you can say hēi instead of nǐhǎo. You can also say bàibài instead of zàijiàn. So if you forget how to say nǐhǎo and zàijiàn you can use the easy heys and byebyes and people will understand you with no problem. |
| During the next lesson. you’ll learn the meaning of the phrase 你会说英语吗？Do you already know it? I’ll be waiting to talk about it with you in our next Sān fēnzhōng Hànyǔ lesson. |
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