Want to impress your friends by knowing how to say hello in different languages? You’re in the right place!
Here, you’ll learn ways to say hello in 30 different languages. Learning to say “hi” is one of the first things you’ll want to know when learning a new language, so we’re here to help you get started on the right foot.
You’ll find the translation for hi in several languages below as well as the literal meaning of these different ways to say hello and a link to the audio so you can hear how these phrases sound.
Ready to learn to say hi in different languages? Let’s get started.
In Arabic, you say مرحبا (marhaba) to greet someone or say “hello”. You can also use it to say “welcome” or “bravo”. It’s literal meaning is “God is love”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Arabic.
Hi in Cantonese is (hāi). It’s a loan word from the English “hi”. It’s said with a high tone. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Cantonese.
The Danish word for hello is hej and it sounds similar to the English word “hey”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Danish.
The Dutch word hoi means the same as the English word “hi” and is slightly less formal than another way to say hello in Dutch--hallo. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Dutch.
The Brazilian Portuguese word for “hello” that you’ll commonly hear in Brazil is oi. It literally means “hi”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Brazilian Portuguese.
The Castilian Spanish word for “hello” is hola. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in European Spanish.
The Esperanto word for “hello” is similar to the English greeting “salutations” or the French salut. In Esperanto, “hello” is saluton. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Esperanto.
While oi is the most common greeting in Brazilian Portuguese, olá, the Portuguese word for “hello”, is what you’ll most likely hear in Portugal. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in European Portuguese.
To say “hello” in French, you literally say “good day”. The French word for “hello” is bonjour. The word bon means “good” and jour means “day”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in French. Learn 11 more ways to say hello in French in this article.
The German word for “hello” is very similar to the word in English. It’s hallo. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in German. Here are eight more ways to say hi in German.
The literal meaning of aloha, the Hawaiian word for “hello” is “the breath of life”. The greeting carries much more meaning than a simple “hello” and implies a degree of respect and love. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Hawaiian.
Want to know how to say hello in Hebrew? It’s היי (hyy). Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Hebrew.
To greet someone in Hindi, you say नमस्ते (namaste). In Hinduism, the greeting means “I bow to the divine in you." It’s derived from the sanskrit namah and te. It is often said with a slight bow and the hands pressed together. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Hindi.
The Hungarian word for “hello” can mean either “hi” or “bye” depending on the context. It’s szia. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Hungarian.
The Danish word for hello is hæ and much like the Danish hej, it sounds like the English word “hey”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Icelandic.
If you’d like to say hello in Indonesian, it’s “hai”. You can also say “halo”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Indonesian.
Like Hungarian, the Italian word for “hello” can mean either “hi” or “bye” depending on when you say it. To say “hello” in Italian, you can say ciao. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Italian.
The Japanese word for hello is こんにちは (konnichiwa). It literally means “this” (kon) “day” (nichi) “as for” (wa). Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Japanese.
To greet someone in Korean, you would say 안녕하세요 (annyeong haseo), or in less formal situations, more simply 안녕 (annyeong). It literally means “peace be with you”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Korean.
The Latin American Spanish word for “hello” is the same as the word in European Spanish. It’s hola. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Latin American Spanish.
If you want to say “hello” in Mandarin Chinese, you say 你好 (nǐ hǎo). It literally means “you good”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Mandarin.
The Maori word for “hello” is kia ora. It can also mean “cheers”, “good luck”, “thanks” or “best wishes”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Maori.
The Norwegian word for hello is hei and much like the Danish hej, or the Icelandic hæ, it sounds much like the English greeting “hey”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Norwegian.
The Polish word for “hello” is cześć and it’s believed to be derived from the Proto-European word for honor. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Polish.
One way to say “hello” in Russian is Привет (privet). It’s slightly less formal than здра́вствуйте (zdravstvujte) and was passed down from an older Slavic language. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Russian.
Saying “hello” in Swedish is the same as Danish--it’s hej. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Swedish.
The Tagalog greeting kumusta is derived from the Spanish ¿cómo está?. This means it can also mean “how are you?” in Tagalog as well as “hello”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Tagalog.
To say “hello” in Thai, you use สวัสดี (sà-wàt-dee). It is usually followed by is usually followed by kha when spoken by a woman and by khrap when spoken by a man. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Thai.
The origin of the Turkish greeting merhaba came from the Arabic word for hello. It, like it’s Arabic equivalent, means “God is love”. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Turkish.
If you want to say “hello” in Vietnamese, you would say xin chào. Visit this link to hear how to say hello in Vietnamese.
Now you can say hello in 30 different languages. You can surprise your friends, impress your coworkers, or get to know new people in all of these languages.
What languages can you say hello in? Do you know any other ways to greet someone in the languages in this article?
Want to learn more words in these languages? Visit our visual dictionary to learn thousands of new words in 33+ languages.
