“Hello (polite)” in Chinese: how to say it and how to write it
Hello (polite)
The polite way to say hello in Chinese is 您好, nín hǎo. It is the same greeting as 你好, but with a respectful “you” in place of the everyday one — literally “you (respectfully) — good”. English has a single “you” for everyone; Chinese has two, and 您 is the one you use to show respect.
What the phrase is made of
- 您nínyou (polite, to one person)
- 好hǎogood, well
The character 您 is 你 “you” with 心 “heart” underneath: a “you” said with respect. nín is second tone, the voice rises; hǎo is third tone, low. So the melody is “up — down”.
您好 or 你好: which one to use
works almost everywhere and is never rude. 您好 is for when you want to show respect:
- to people noticeably older than you — a friend’s grandmother, an elderly neighbor;
- to a teacher, a boss, a customer, a stranger you are dealing with on business;
- in service: this is how you will be greeted at a hotel, in a bank or by a support line.
Don’t say 您好 to friends or people your age: it sounds cold, as if you were keeping your distance. In the north of China, especially in Beijing, you hear 您 more often; in the south, less. Other ways to greet people are collected in the article “Hello in Chinese”.
How to greet several people
- 大家好dàjiāhǎohello, everyone
- 你们好nǐmenhǎohello (to you all)
- 老师好lǎoshīhǎohello, teacher
您 is only ever about one person, so it can’t greet a room. For a group you say 大家好 — that is how a lesson, a talk or a message to a group chat begins. People are also greeted by their role: the title plus 好. 老师好 is how students greet their teacher; with a surname — 王老师好, “hello, Teacher Wang”.
Greetings for the time of day follow the same pattern: the time plus 好. How to say “good morning”, “good afternoon” and “good evening” is on the page “Good morning in Chinese”.
How to answer 您好
With the same greeting. To someone older, answer 您好. Even if an older person says 你好 to you, you still answer 您好: they can be casual with you, you stay polite with them. Next you can ask their surname — .
Common mistakes
The first is saying nín as “ning” or as “nee”. It ends in a short, clean “n”, the tongue touching behind the top teeth, as in “pin”. The second is saying 您好 to everyone “just in case”. It won’t make you more polite, and it will puzzle people your age. The third is a flat tone: without the rise on nín the phrase is easy to hear as 你好.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say “hello (polite)” in Chinese?
“Hello (polite)” in Chinese is 您好, in pinyin nín hǎo.
How do you pronounce 您好?
您好 is read nín 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 (polite)” in Chinese characters?
您好 is 2 characters. What each one means and how the phrase is put together is explained on this page.
What does 您好 mean?
您好 (nín hǎo) means “hello (polite)”.
Say hello out loud
Greetings are the first lesson of the course: 你好 and 您好 come up in a dialogue, you repeat them and hear whether the tone came out right. Free during the beta.
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