To say hello in Chinese, use ni hao (你好) — it works any time of day, with anyone, in any situation. To show a little more respect — to an elder, a teacher, an official, or a new client — upgrade to nin hao (您好), which simply swaps in the polite form of "you." Learn those two and you can greet almost anyone in China with confidence.
Chinese greetings are more situational than most textbooks let on, though. Once ni hao feels natural, it is worth learning what people actually say when they run into each other on the street.
Ni hao and nin hao
Ni hao stitches together ni (你), "you," and hao (好), "good" — a tidy little "you good?" The respectful nin hao (您好) uses 您, the courteous "you." Chinese has no separate polite verb form; politeness lives in that one swapped word and a warmer tone of voice.
To greet a whole group, open with dajia hao (大家好), "hello everyone" — the natural way to start a toast, a class, or a meeting.
你好
ni hao
Hello
您好
nin hao
Hello (respectful)
大家好
dajia hao
Hello, everyone
When you are unsure how formal to be, nin hao is never wrong. Using the polite "you" with someone who did not strictly require it reads as gracious rather than awkward — the verbal equivalent of a small bow.
Greetings by time of day
Time-of-day greetings could not be simpler: take the part of the day and add hao (好), "good."
早上好
zaoshang hao
Good morning
晚上好
wanshang hao
Good evening
In the morning, most people skip the full phrase and just say zao (早) — a bright, clipped "morning!" It is friendly, extremely common, and often the first word you will hear in an office or apartment lobby.
What people really say
Here is what textbooks rarely admit: ni hao ma (你好吗), the "how are you?" every beginner memorizes, is grammatically perfect and almost never used between people who know each other. To a native ear it can sound a little like a line read from a phrasebook.
Real greetings are situational. The classic — warm, old-fashioned, and beloved by older generations — is chi le ma (吃了吗), "have you eaten?" It is not an invitation to dinner; it is simply "hello." The expected reply is a cheerful chi le (吃了), "I've eaten," whether or not you actually have.
Neighbors also greet each other by narrating the obvious. Catch someone on their way out the door and you might hear chuqu a (出去啊) — "heading out?" No real answer is expected. Like "have you eaten?", it is just a way of showing you noticed them, which is what a greeting is really for.
Hello on the phone, and goodbye
Pick up a phone in China and you answer with wei (喂), landing on a quick, rising, questioning note — "wei?" Written pinyin normally marks that rising tone; we leave the marks off here, though the lessons teach each one with audio. It is the one hello you should never use face to face — in person it sounds like you are checking whether someone is still on the line.
When it is time to part, the standard goodbye is zaijian (再见), literally "again see" — "see you again." Just as common, especially among younger people, is the borrowed baibai (拜拜), a sing-song "bye-bye."
喂？
wei?
Hello? (on the phone)
再见
zaijian
Goodbye
拜拜
baibai
Bye-bye
Keep learning Chinese
Master this handful and you can greet, and part from, almost anyone you meet in China. Keep building with our free Chinese greetings lessons, which teach every phrase with audio so the tones settle into your ear — then practice saying them out loud in the Pretalk app until ni hao rolls off your tongue.
