What’s Mandarin for Hello or Hi?
If you know some Mandarin Chinese, I bet you know or you have heard how to say hello or hi in Chinese. The most common and easiest Chinese hi or hello is 你好 ni hao. However, just like in English, there are more than one way to say hi or hello in Mandarin Chinese. In this post, you will learn the many other ways to say hey in Chinese.
What’s Mandarin for hello in the morning
When you meet a friend or someone in the morning, there are 3 different ways you can say hello or hi. If you meet this person between 6am-9am, you can say 早安 or 早上好. But, if the meeting time is after 9am but before noon, you will then say 上午好 to mean good morning in Mandarin. In Hong Kong, they say hi to each other in the morning by saying 早晨 in Cantonese. I personally tend to use 早安 more than 早上好. What about you?
What’s Mandarin for hello in the afternoon
The Chinese phrase for afternoon is 下午. As you know morning is 上午 and 好 is good, then you should have guessed it that good afternoon is 下午好. Another way to say hello or hi in the afternoon is 午安. You may ask what is the difference between 上午, 中午 and下午? Well, 上午 normally is 9am to before 12:00pm; 中午 refers to 12pm-2pm and lastly 下午 is between 2pm to 5pm.
What’s Mandarin for goodnight?
Do you know how to say goodnight in Mandarin Chinese? The Chinese translation for goodnight is 晚安. However, you only use this Chinese phrase when you are bidding farewell to a friend after the meeting. Another occasion would be to say goodnight before you go to bed.
When you are meeting a friend during the night, you say hello or greet 晚上好 in Chinese. Its like good evening in English translation. 晚上好 wǎn shàng hǎo good evening
What other Chinese hi or hello can you say?
Have you heard your Chinese friend asking you 吃饱了吗 or 吃了吗？ If you were to translate this Chinese phrase from Chinese to English, it means have you eaten? But, the actual meaning behind this question is just a simple hello or hi in Chinese. If you are a fan of Korean dramas, which I am, you will hear them say this phrase in Korean a lot.
If you have not seen a friend for a long time and suddenly you bump into him or her on the street, the common hello phrase in Chinese is 好久不见. The literal translation from Chinese to English is “long time no see”. 好久不见 hǎo jiǔ bù jiàn long time no see
After such a long time not seeing this friend, you will certainly be interested to know his/her well being. The Chinese phrase would be 最近过得怎么样？The translation in English is how have you been lately? or how’s everything? Another way would be to ask him/her 近来身体好吗？The literal English translation is “lately body good”? 最近过得怎么样？ zuì jìn guò dé zěn me yàng? How have you been lately?
Chinese hello or hi written in Traditional Chinese
你好
早安
早上好
上午好
下午好
上午 / 中午 / 下午
晚安
晚上好
吃飽了嗎?
吃了嗎 ?
好久不見
最近過得怎麼樣?
近來身體好嗎？
Now that you have learned the various ways to say hello in Chinese, try using them rather than just saying the usual Chinese Ni Hao.
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