“Hello” in Chinese: how to say it and how to write it
Hello
“Hello” in Chinese is 你好, nǐ hǎo — roughly “nee how”. Word for word it means “you good”. It is the greeting you can use with anyone, at any time of day: a shopkeeper, a classmate, a stranger you ask for directions.
What “ni hao” means
- 你nǐyou
- 好hǎogood, well
The phrase is Mandarin, the common language of all of China. It is made of two words: 你 “you” and 好 “good”. Together they work as a wish — “may you be well” — not as a question, so there is no need to answer “fine, thanks”.
You will see it written “ni hao”, “nihao” and “nǐ hǎo”. They are all the same thing. Pinyin, the official romanization, writes it as two words with tone marks: nǐ hǎo. In chats and search people drop the marks and often run it together, because it sounds like one word. Spellings like “nee how” or “knee how” are only an English way of hearing it.
How to pronounce 你好
Both syllables are third tone: low, the voice dips to the bottom and comes up a little. But Chinese speakers never say two third tones in a row — the first one turns into a rising second tone. So it is written nǐ hǎo but sounds like ní hǎo: “nee” goes up, “how” stays low. Don’t stress the second syllable the way English does in “hel-LO”; and in hao the “a” and “o” glide into one sound, as in “how”. How the tones work is explained in “Chinese tones”.
How to write 你好
Two characters. 你 has seven strokes: on the left a narrow “person” 亻, on the right 尔, an old word for “you”. 好 has six: 女 “woman” on the left and 子 “child” on the right — a mother with her child is what “good” looks like. The stroke order and practice sheets are in the writing worksheets.
Other ways to say hello in Chinese
- 嗨hāihito friends
- 哈喽hālouhello (from English)mostly in texts
- 喂wèihello? (on the phone)only on the phone
- 大家好dàjiāhǎohello, everyone
- 你吃了吗？nǐchīlemahave you eaten?
嗨 and 哈喽 are borrowed from English “hi” and “hello” — people use them with friends and people their own age. 喂 is how you answer the phone; you never greet someone face to face with it. On the phone it is usually said rising, in the second tone: wéi. 大家好 is for a group: a class, colleagues, a group chat. 你吃了吗 is an old neighborly greeting: asking whether you have eaten is just politeness, not a lunch invitation.
With older people, teachers and customers, Chinese uses the polite 您 instead of 你: . When to use it is explained on the page “Polite hello in Chinese”. More greetings are in the article “Hello in Chinese”.
How to answer 你好
With the same words: 你好. If someone older greets you with 您好, answer 您好 too. To keep the conversation going, ask — the same greeting with the question particle 吗 at the end. What people answer to it is on the page “How are you?” in Chinese.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say “hello” in Chinese?
“Hello” in Chinese is 你好, in pinyin nǐ hǎo.
How do you pronounce 你好?
你好 is read nǐ 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 “hello” in Chinese characters?
你好 is 2 characters. What each one means and how the phrase is put together is explained on this page.
What does 你好 mean?
你好 (nǐ hǎo) means “hello”.
Say “nǐ hǎo” out loud
你好 is the first word of the first lesson: you hear it in a dialogue, repeat it and see right away whether you hit the tones. Free during the beta.
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