19 Most Common And Useful Chinese Idioms (You Can Actually Use)
Do you know what Chengyu means? Well, if you aren't a Chinese learner, you probably don't know.
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There’s no doubt that all of you are familiar with the meaning of the word Hello.
And at least half of you know how to say Hello in Chinese, French, Spanish or German.
But how many of you know how to greet someone in languages like Polish, Malayalam or Hebrew? Not many, right?
So, let’s learn how to say it. As a matter of fact, today we’re going to teach you how to say Hello in 100 different languages.
It’s a well-known fact that languages are extremely important. They allow people to communicate with each other and express their thoughts, feelings and opinions.
Today, there are around 6.500 languages in the world. Around 2.000 of them have fewer than 1.000 speakers.
It means that some of the languages are considered ‘small,’ while others, such as Mandarin Chinese (with around 1.200.000.000 speakers) or English (with around 1.000.000.000 speakers) are considered ‘big.’
Every language is beautiful in its own way. Every language is worth learning too.
When you take on a new language, Hello is among the first words to learn. Knowing how to greet someone in their language is important because it shows respect and willingness to get to know them.
When you go aboard, local people always appreciate tourists that try to talk to them in their language. Why wouldn’t you be that tourist?
It’s not that hard. It just takes a couple of minutes of your time. If you decide to take it one step further, then it might take you hours or days to learn more phrases.
But if you want to impress them, knowing how to greet them can be sufficient.
That is why we decided to teach how to say Hello both formally and informally in 100 different languages.
And if you’re looking to work with another native speaker to learn a new language, then check out our professional tutors. All tutors are native speakers that can help you not only with basic phrases, but with grammar, vocabulary etc.
In some languages, there are different ways to say ‘hello.’
Some languages have a formal and informal way of speaking.
And some of them are so similar, that you might think that they are the same.
Let’s dive in.
Formal: Goeie dag
Informal: Hallo!/ Haai!
Formal: Mirëdita!
Informal: Përshëndetje!
Formal: ሰላም ጤና ይስጥልኝ (selam tena jistilign)
Informal: ሰላም (Selam)
Formal: Asalaam alaikum (Peace be upon you)
Informal: Ahlan
Formal: Barev dzez
Informal: Barev
Formal: Arratsalde on
Informal:Kaixo
Formal: আসসালামু আলাইকুম (Assalamu alaikum) for Muslims; নমস্কার (Nômôskar) for Hindus
Informal: Hyālō
Formal: Dobar dan, Zdravo
Informal: Ćao, Bok
Formal: Добър ден ( Dob’r den)
Informal:Здравейте (Zdraveĭte)
Formal: Min-ga-la-ba shin- said by a woman; Min-ga-la-ba khin-bah- said by a man.
Informal: Ming-gah-lah-bahr
Formal: 你好 ( nei5 hou2)
Informal: 哈囉 ( haa1 lo3)
Formal: Bon dia
Informal: Hola
Informal: Hello/ Hoy/ Uy
Formal: 您好 (Nǐn hǎo)
Informal:你好( Nǐ hǎo)
Formal: Dobar dan
Informal: Zdravo/ Bok
Formal: Dobrý den
Informal: Ahoj/ Nazdar! ( this one usually use young people when meet each other)
Formal: Goddag
Informal: Hej, Halløj
Formal: Goedendag
Informal: Hoi, Hallo
Formal: سلام عليكم ( Salaam ‘aleikum), أهلا وسهلا ( MarHaba)
Informal: اهلا ( Helo)
Formal: Hello
Informal: Hi
Formal: Saluton
Informal:Sal, Ahoj hoj
Formal: Tere
Informal: Halloo
Both formal and informal: Alekay
Response to ‘Alekay:’ Miledzi
Formal: Ni sa bula/Ni sa bula vinaka
Informal: Bula
Formal: Magandang Hapon
Informal: Kamusta/ Musta
Formal: Hyvää päivää!
Informal: Haloo/ Hei
Formal: Bonjour
Informal: Salut
Formal: Boa tarde
Informal: Ola
Formal: დილა მშვიდობისა! (Dila mschvidobisa!)
Informal: გამარჯობა (gamarschoba)
Formal: Guten Tag
Informal: Hallo, Hi
Formal: Γεια σας (Yassas)
Informal: Γεια σου(Yassou)/ Γεια (Ya)
Formal: નમસ્તે ( Namaste)
Informal: કેમ ચો (Kem cho)
Formal: Salama alaikum, A gaishai ka (ki)
Informal: Sannu
Both formal and informal: Aloha
Formal: שלום ( Shalom)
Informal: Hey
Formal: नमस्ते (Namaste),नमस्कार ( Namaskar)
Informal: Hai, Helo
Formal: Nyob zoo (Nyaw zhong)
Informal: Halo
Formal: Szervusz/ Szevasz
Informal: Szia
Formal: Ndeewo
Informal: Kedụ
Formal: Halló ( pronounced as hallaw)
Informal: Saell
Formal: Selamat siang
Informal: Hi/ Halo
Formal: Dia dhuit
Informal: Heileo
Formal: Salve
Informal: Ciao
Formal: Konnichiwa
Informal: Yā, Yō
Formal: Nggoleki
Informal: Halo
Formal: ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ (Namaskāra)
Informal: Hi
Formal: Chom Reap Sour
Informal: Susadei
Both formal and informal: ھیلو
Informal:Ni kwega/ Natya
Informal: Anyoung
Formal: Merheba!
Informal: Rojbaş!
Formal: Saibaidee ton sao
Informal: Sabaidee
Formal: Salve, Ave
Note: Since Latin is a dead language, there is no difference in formal, or informal way of speaking.
Formal: Sveiki
Informal: Labas
Formal: Misawa; Misawa ahinya (reply)
Informal: Ber; Ber ahinya (reply)
Formal: Добар ден ( Dobar den)
Informal: Здраво (Zdravo)
Formal: Selamat tengah hari
Informal: Selamat
Formal: നമസ്തേ (namastē)/ നമസ്കാരം (namaskaram)
Informal: Hei
Formal: Bongu
Informal: Elow
Formal: Tēnā koe
Informal: Kia ora
Formal: Namaskār
Informal: Hĕlō
Formal:Сайн байна уу ( Sain baina uu)
Informal: Сайн уу (sain uu)
Formal: اسلا عليكم ( ssalamū 'lekum)
Informal: السلام ( Selam)
Formal: नमस्कार ( Namaskar), नमस्ते (Namaste)
Informal: Halo
Formal: God dag
Informal: Hei
Formal: Akkam
Informal: Naqaa
Formal: سلام دې وي (Salaam alaikum)
Informal: سلام (Salam)
Formal: سلام, ظهر بخیر ( Salām, zohr bekheir)
Informal: سلام (Salām)
Formal: Dzień dobry
Informal: Cześć, Witaj
Formal: Olá
Informal: Oi
Formal: Sat sri akaal (ਸਤ ਸੀ੍ ਅਕਾਲ)
Informal: ਹੈਲੋ ( Hailō)
Formal: Bună ziua/ Salut
Informal: Ciao/ Neata
Formal: Здравствуйте ( Zdravstvuyte)
Informal: Привет (Privet)
Formal: नमस्का (Namaskaaraa), नमस्ते (Namaste)
Informal: किं भो ( Kim bhoho )
Formal: Добар дан (Dobar dan)/ Здраво (Zdravo)
Informal: Ћао (Ćao)
Formal: ආයුඛෝවන් ( āyubūvan)
Informal: හෙලෝ ( Helō)
Formal: Mhoroi/Kwaziwayi
Informal: Ndeipi.
Formal: Dobrý deň
Informal: Ahoj
Formal: Živjo, Pozdravljeni
Informal: Zdravo
Formal: Salaam alaykum/ Always reply with: Wa alaykum salaam
Informal: See tahay
Formal: Hola!
Informal: Que tál?
Formal: Shikamoo
Informal: Habari, Hujambo
Formal: God dag
Informal: Hej, Tjena
Formal: Mabuhay
Informal: Kamusta
Formal: வணக்கம்! (Vaṇakkam)
Informal: Alo
Formal: Isänme, Sawmı
Informal: Sälam
Formal: నమస్కారం (namaskārām)
Informal: హలో(Halō)
Formal: สวัสดี (Sà-wàt-dii)
Informal: หวัดดี (wàt-dii), ดี (dii)
Formal: Dumela- to one person; Dumelang- to a group of people
Informal: Hallo
Formal: Aslema
Informa: Hello
Formal: Merhaba
Informal: Selam
Formal: Maa ha
Informal: Ete-sen
Formal: Здравствуйте ( Zdravstvuyte)
Informal: Привіт ( Privit)
Formal: السلام علیکم (‘assalam-o-alaikum)
Informal: ہیلو ( Hello)
Formal: Assalomu alaykum
Informal: Salom
Formal: Xin chào
Informal: Chào
Formal: Sawubona- to one person; Sanibonani- to a group of people
Informal: Ninjani
Formal: Helô, Hylô
Informal: Haia
Both formal and informal: Salaam aleekum
Always respond with: Malekum salaam
Formal: E nle ma, E nle sir
Informal: E nle o
As you can see, languages aren’t boring. In fact, they can be quite fun.
To show you that languages can be a blast, we also put together a list of some interesting facts about them. Check them out:
Chinese is the most spoken language in the world with more than 1.2 billion speakers. It is also the hardest language to learn.
Most of the languages are spoken in Asia and Africa. In Europe only 3% of the world’s languages are spoken, 225 of them.
Half of the population is bilingual or plurilingual, which means that they can speak two or more languages.
Every language has around 50.000 words. For everyday conversations, people use only a few hundred words.
The English language used to borrow many words and phrases from other languages. Today; it’s happening vice versa. Many other languages borrow English words and phrases.
Almost every day one language in the world is lost because of the death of its last speaker. That's why we say they are endangered. For example, there are at least 20 languages with only one speaker left.
Esperanto was made with a purpose to bring peace in the world. Unfortunately, that didn’t work.
In Papua New Guinea there are around 800 languages.
Tamil is the world’s oldest language that is still spoken.
If you think that Basque is a member of the Romance language family, along with Spanish, you are wrong. No matter if it’s spoken in Spain, it doesn’t belong to any language family.
This was the list of 100 different languages. Do you think it’s too long?
Then imagine 6.500 different languages. Compared to that number, 100 is just a tiny number.
It’s always nice to see how some countries have different ways of saying ‘hello’ or how much similarity there is between some languages.
If you decide to learn a language, you might check this article first and see which one seems the most fascinating for you. Also, what’s your mother tongue? Start from there, maybe there’s a language that’s similar to yours. Good luck!
Which language on this list seems the easiest for you? Share with us in the comments below!
Do you know what Chengyu means? Well, if you aren't a Chinese learner, you probably don't know.
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