“Good afternoon” in Chinese: how to say it and how to write it
Good afternoon
“Good afternoon” in Chinese is 下午好, xiàwǔ hǎo. Literally it is “afternoon — good”: the word 下午 “afternoon” and the same 好 “good” that is in 你好. Chinese has no all-purpose “good day”: the day is split into parts, and each part has its own greeting.
How to pronounce 下午好
- 下午xiàwǔafternoon
- 好hǎogood, well
xià is fourth tone: the voice drops sharply, as in a firm “No!”. The x is not “ks”: it is close to English “sh”, said with the tip of the tongue resting behind the lower teeth, so xià sounds roughly like “shyah”. Then come two third tones in a row, wǔ and hǎo, and the first of them rises like a second tone. What you hear is “down — up — low”: xià wú hǎo. wǔ is a full syllable, “woo” — don’t swallow it. How the other letters are read is shown in the pinyin chart.
How to write 下午好
Three characters, all simple. 下 means “below, under”, and about time “next, after”; it has three strokes. 午 is “noon”, four strokes. Together, 下午 is “after noon” — just like the English word. Its pair is 上午, “before noon”: 上 means “above”, and about time “previous”. The third character, 好, is “good”: “woman” 女 on the left, “child” 子 on the right. The stroke order and practice sheets are in the writing worksheets.
When people say it
下午好 is said after lunch and until evening — roughly from one to six; there is no exact boundary. The phrase is formal: it is how you greet an audience or customers, or open a meeting or an email.
- 大家下午好！dàjiāxiàwǔhǎogood afternoon, everyone
- 老师，下午好！lǎoshī,xiàwǔhǎogood afternoon, teacher
In everyday speech you will more often hear plain in the afternoon: it works at any time and isn’t tied to the clock. Saying 下午好 to a friend you run into at three o’clock sounds too solemn, as if you were hosting a TV show. When in doubt, choose 你好, and with someone older — 您好.
Before noon, at noon and after noon
- 上午好shàngwǔhǎogood morning (before noon)
- 中午好zhōngwǔhǎohello (around noon)
- 下午好xiàwǔhǎogood afternoon
Chinese splits the daytime more finely than English. 上午好 is said during the working morning, from about nine to twelve. 中午好 — 中午 means “noon” — is for around lunchtime, from about eleven to one; English has no greeting for that, and you hear it less often than the other two. Before nine people greet each other differently — see “Good morning” in Chinese. And once it gets dark, they switch to 晚上好: “Good evening” in Chinese.
How to answer
With the same greeting: 下午好. A simple 你好 is fine too — it won’t be a mistake. There is no need to add “you too”; Chinese has no set phrase for that.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say “good afternoon” in Chinese?
“Good afternoon” in Chinese is 下午好, in pinyin xiàwǔ hǎo.
How do you pronounce 下午好?
下午好 is read xiàwǔ hǎo. The marks over the vowels are the tones: each syllable has its own melody, so listen to the recording on this page and repeat it.
How do you write “good afternoon” in Chinese characters?
下午好 is 3 characters. What each one means and how the phrase is put together is explained on this page.
What does 下午好 mean?
下午好 (xiàwǔ hǎo) means “good afternoon”.
Greet someone in Chinese
In the first lesson you hear greetings in a real dialogue, say them out loud and see whether you hit the tones. Free during the beta.
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