In the famous book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie states that “the sweetest and most important sound in any language” is a person’s own name. While that might be true, I’d venture to state that the most important sound is ‘hello’ in the person’s own language.
Without ‘hello’ you don’t have a chance to get to the other words. As anyone who travels and has learned how to say ‘hello’ in different languages knows, nothing can make a person brighten and open up as much as the effort to speak at least ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ in the local language. It shows that we’re trying, that we care, and that we are conscientious travelers.
That’s why we put together a list to help you learn how to say ‘hello’ in 100 of the world’s most spoken languages:
1. Mandarin nǐ hǎo China, Taiwan, Singapore
2. Spanish hola Hispanic America, Spain, United States, Equatorial
Guinea, Western Sahara, Pacific Islands
3. English hello Australia, Belize, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand,
United Kingdom, United States, South Africa,
Singapore, Philippines
4. Hindi namaste India, Fiji, Nepal, Suriname, Mauritius
5. Arabic marhabaan North Africa, Western Asia (Middle East), East
Africa
6. Portuguese olá, oi, alô Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal,
São Tomé and Príncipe, Timor-Leste
7. Bengali hyālō Bangladesh, West Bengal (India), Tripura (India),
Assam (India)
8. Russian privet Russia, former Republics of the Soviet Union, Mongolia
9. Japanese kon’nichiwa Japan
10. Punjabi sata srī akāla Punjab region (India, Pakistan)
11. German hallo, guten tag Austria, Belgium (Eupen-Malmedy), Germany,
Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, South Tyrol
(in Italy), Opole and Silesian Voivodeship (in Poland), Espirito Santo, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul (in Brazil)
12. Javanese nggoleki Java (Indonesia)
13. Wu nóng hō Zhejiang, Shanghai, southern Jiangsu (eastern China)
(Shanghainese)
14. Malay selamat siang Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore
(Indonesian)
15. Korean annyeong haseyo North Korea, South Korea
16. Telugu halō, vandanalu Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry
(India)
17. Vietnamese xin chào Vietnam
18. French bonjour Belgium (Wallonia, Brussels), Canada (particularly
Quebec, New Brunswick and Eastern parts of
Ontario), France, Switzerland, Francophone Africa,
French Caribbean, French Polynesia, various islands
in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
19. Marathi hĕlō, namaskār Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya
Pradesh, Gujarat (India)
20. Tamil vaṇakkam Tamil Nadu, Karnataka (India), Puducherry (India),
Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius
21. Urdu assalam u India, Pakistan
alaikum
22. Persian salām Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan
(Farsi)
23. Turkish merhaba Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria
24. Cantonese nǐ hǎo Guangdong (Canton), southern Guangxi (southern
China), Hong Kong, Macau
25. Italian ciao Italy, Switzerland, San Marino
26. Thai sà-wàt-dii Thailand
27. Gujarati namaste India, Bangladesh, Fiji
28. Basque kaixo Northern Spain
29. Minnan lı́ hó Fujian, eastern part of Guandong (southeastern
China), Hainan (southern China), Taiwan, Malaysia
30. Polish cześć’ Poland, USA, Germany, United Kingdom, Belarus,
western Ukraine, Lithuania, Czechia
31. Pashto salam Afghanistan, Pakistan
32. Kannada namaskāra Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra
(India)
33. Malayalam halēā Kerala, Lakshadweep, Mahé (India)
34. Sundanese sampurasun Java (Indonesia)
35. Chamorro hafa adai Austronesian language spoken mainly on the island of
Guam, and also in the Mariana Islands
36. Hausa sannu Nigeria
37. Burmese min-ga-la-ba Myanmar
38. Oriya namaskar Odisha (India)
39. Armenian barev Armenia, Georgia, and Russia
40. Ukrainian dobryj den Ukraine
41. Bhojpuri prannam Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (India), Bara, Parsa (Nepal)
42. Tagalog kamusta Manila and Northern Philippines
43. Yoruba e nle o Nigeria, Benin and Togo
44. Maithili prannam Bihar, Jharkhand (India), eastern Tarai (Nepal)
45. Sindhi assalam o Sindh (Pakistan and neighboring areas in India)
alaikum
46. Swahili habari Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda
47. Uzbek salom Uzbekistan
48. Amharic selam Ethiopia
49. Fula mihofnima West and Central Africa, from Senegal to Sudan
50. Igbo kedu Nigeria
51. Oromo akkam Ethiopia and Kenya
52. Romanian bună Romania, Moldova
53. Azerbaijani salam Azerbaijan and Northern Iran
54. Manipuri khurumjari North East India, Bangladesh, Myanmar
/Meitei
55. Awadi vanakkam Uttar Pradesh (India)
56. Cebuano kumusta Central and Southern Philippines
57. Dutch hallo Belgium (Flanders, Brussels), Netherlands and
Suriname
58. Kurdish slaw “Kurdistan”, northern Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria
59. Serbo- zdravo Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro
Croatian
60. Malagasy salama Madagascar
61. Nepali namaste Nepal and neighbouring areas, Sikkim (India)
62. Saraiki tuhada kiya haal Sindh (Pakistan)
hai saien?
(literally, “How
are you?”)
63. Santali henda ho India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan
64. Khmer choum reap sor Cambodia
65. Sinhalese ayubowan Sri Lanka
66. Bambara i ni ce Mali Mande language with about 3 million speakers
in Mali, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal,
Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ghana
67. Assamese namaskhar Assam (India)
68. Madurese selamat + pagi/ Madura and Java (Indonesia)
siang/sore/
malam (for good
morning/day/
afternoon/evening)
69. Somali salaam alaykum Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Yemen
70. Magahi pernaam (for Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal (India)
elder person)/
subh pyaar (for
younger person)
71. Dogri ke aal aee Jammu and Kashmir (India)
72. Marwari khammaghani Rajasthan (India) and Gujarat/Haryana (Pakistan)
73. Hungarian szia Hungary and areas in neighbouring countries
74. Chewa moni Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe
75. Greek yasou Greece, Cyprus, Albania
76. Akan/Twi wo ho te sεn? Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire
(literally, “How
are you?)
77. Khasi kumno Meghalaya and Assam states in India, Northeast Bangladesh by the Khasi people
78. Kazakh sälem Kazakhstan
79. Tswana dumela rra (when Botswana and Zimbabwe
addressing men)/
dumela mma (when
addressing women)
80. Hebrew shalom Israel
81. Zulu sawubona South Africa, Lesotho
82. Czech ahoj Czech Republic
83. Kinyarwanda muraho Rwanda
84. Konkani deu boro dis dium Goa (India)
85. Sylheti bhala ni? Northern Bangladesh and neighbouring parts
(literally, “How of India
are you?”)
86. Haitian bonjou (before Haiti
Creole noon)/bonswa
(after noon)
87. Afrikaans goeie + dag/môre/ South Africa, Namibia
middag/naand
(means “good day/
morning/afternoon/
evening)
88. Min Dong nü hou Fujian (Southeastern China)
89. Ilokano naimbag nga Northern Luzon in the Philippines
aldaw (literally,
“good day”)
90. Quechua allianchu Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and northern Argentina
91. Kirundi bite Burundi and Uganda
92. Swedish hej Sweden and Finland
93. Hmong nyob zoo Laos and neighboring areas
94. Shona mhoro Zimbabwe
95. Hiligaynon hello Western Visayas in the Philippines
96. Uyghur yaxshimusiz Xinjiang (Western China)
97. Balochi chone tao? Balochistan Region including Pakistan (Balochistan), Iran (Sistan and Baluchestan), and southern Afghanistan (Nimruz, Helmand, and Kandahar)
(literally, “How
are you?”)
98. Belarusian dobry dzień Belarus
99. Mossi ne y windiga Burkina Faso
100. Xhosa mholweni South Africa, Zimbabwe
Regardless of where you’re traveling to, knowing at least hello can open so many doors. Hopefully this list got you closer to learning some new languages today.
Dayna Brockbank says
This is so important and also really fun to do! My husband and I always try to learn “hello” and “thank you” and it usually gets a smile! I think it shows respect for the country as well as teaching yourself as a traveler that you shouldn’t just expect the locals to speak English! Thank you for putting this together, I have to review some of the ones I’ve forgotten! (:
Rima says
Wow, all this time I thought namaste meant blessings or peace. So this hello is more like an aloha in depth and spirit unlike in English where it is simply a greeting. Do hellos in the other languages also convey a cultural ideal or philosophy?
Kristin says
I tend to laugh in yoga classes when they close with Namaste because I understand it as ‘hello’ like it’s used in Nepal. It’s even the name of a cell service provider there! I believe that words do tie into cultural identity. The word for ‘hello’ in Mandarin is ‘ni hao’, which is a question – how are you? That’s how you greet people. I like that.
Kailey says
The middle eastern greetings tend to mean along the lines of “peace”. assalam u alaikum is peace be upon you and is typically a greeting used by Muslims, including in Arabic.
PRO says
For Cantonese, the pronunciation guide is incorrect.
Nei Ho or Lei Ho is the correct one with the former being more accurate but the latter more prevalent.