Learn how to use some common Chinese greetings
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| Hēi , dàjiā hǎo , wǒ jiào Mǎ Yànrú . Hi everybody! I’m Yanru Ma. |
| Welcome to ChineseClass101.com’s “Sān fēnzhōng Hànyǔ. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Chinese. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to show gratitude by saying xièxiè. In this lesson we’ll learn some of the most common greetings used in China. |
| Zhǔnbèi hǎo le ma? Are you ready? wǒmen kāishǐ ba ! so let’s start! |
| The most commonly used greeting is: Nǐ hǎo! |
| [slowly] nǐ hǎo |
| You may remember this from Lesson 1. Nǐ hǎo means “hi”, “hello” and “how do you do?”. It’s a slightly formal expression, though, so just use it at work or similar occasions. Don’t use it with your family and friends. |
| The informal “hello” is sure to be familiar to you. You probably use it every day already: |
| Hēi |
| [slowly] Hēi |
| If it sounds familiar, it’s because it’s just like the English Hey, but make sure to say it with the right Mandarin tone: Hēi |
| When you want to greet someone in the morning, you can also say. |
| Zǎo ā! |
| [slowly] Zǎo ā! |
| It’s very commonly used, but is slightly informal. |
| What about when we leave? What should we say? |
| Zàijiàn! |
| This very common expression is similar in meaning to the English, “See you again”: |
| [slowly] Zàijiàn! |
| This is “good-bye”. Though simple, it can be used in almost all occasions. |
| Now you can greet people in many different ways in Chinese! |
| Let’s review them all again. |
| When meeting people for the first time or in a formal occasion : |
| Nǐ hǎo! |
| When meeting friends or family members, you can say |
| Hēi! |
| In the early morning, you can say: |
| Zǎo ā! |
| When leaving, no matter whether it's a formal or informal situation: |
| Zàijiàn! |
| It’s easy, isn’t it? |
| Now it’s time for Yanru’s Tips. |
| As you know, there are more and more Chinese starting to learn English. This has started to affect the language. Just like how you can say hēi instead of nǐhǎo. You can also say bàibài instead of zàijiàn. So if you forget how to say nǐhǎo and zàijiàn you can use the easy heys and byebyes and people will understand you with no problem. |
| During the next lesson. you’ll learn the meaning of the phrase 你会说英语吗？Do you already know it? I’ll be waiting to talk about it with you in our next Sān fēnzhōng Hànyǔ lesson. |
Comments
HideHi listeners! Let's practice greetings here!
你好 robert groulx,
谢谢 for posting and studying with us. If you have any questions, please let us know.😄
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for lesson transcript
Zàijiàn!
robert
Hello April,
The original pronunciation for the character 嘿 is hēi, with the first tone. To say hi/hello/hey, you can say it with the fourth tone, as the 嘿 is used for translation to mimic the pronunciation of 'hey'.
Hope it clarifies. Let us know if you have any questions.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
So should we pronounce "Hei" meaning hi/ hello in the 4th tone, as she does, or in the 1st tone, as in the vocab notes and pronunciation? I'm confused.
Hi, Aziz,
You got it, exactly!
Actually, in Chinese, the character 嘿 is 1sth tone, means someone smile like "?,?,?".
But in the text, it is a Chinese translation for "hey", so exactly she just said "hey", but we use 嘿 just for the translation.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
I think she says 'Hei" in 4th tone...
Hi, Yei quin,
Nice to meet you and thank you for your message.
We greet close friends or families with "你饭吃了吗？（Nǐ fàn chī le ma ?/ Traditional: 你飯吃了嗎？）" , which literally means "Did you have the meal?(Good afternoon./ Good evening.)"
(你饭吃了吗？＝饭吃了吗？＝饭吃过了吗？＝吃饭了吗？)
And "What's up?"/"How's it going?" equals to "最近好吗？（Zuìjìn hǎo ma ?/ Traditional: 最近好嗎？）".
(最近好吗？＝最近怎么样？)
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
hi im from america and im under 15 so i need somemore greetings and goodbyes thx
Hi, G.Erden,
Thank you for your comment.
Have a good day!
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you.
Hi Arthur,
Thank you for posting!
Please, let us know if you have any question regarding our lessons :smile:
The "Absolute Beginner" series are less advanced than the Beginner series :wink:
For the students that just started learning Chinese!
Cheers!
Laura
Team ChineseClass101.com
haha.. I love watching her eyes following the teleprompter..
nonetheless ... you have this as a ` beginner' session and yet the new ` absolute' beginner video series is about 10 times more involved. What does `absolute' mean? Does it have something to do with Vodka?
Hello ted,
We're glad the lessons helped you!
If you ever have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Cheers,
Neha
Team ChineseClass101.com
great! thanks for the lessons :mrgreen:
Hi ted,
Thanks for pointing that out, the video is fixed now!!
Sorry for the inconvenience!:oops:
Olivia,
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hi ted,
Thanks! We'll let the tech team know :)
Echo,
Team ChineseClass101.com
the first vocab in the podcastin the video nihao 你好 shows the wrong hanzi. it shows "xie xie 谢谢" instead.