How to actually say “Hi” in Chinese (It’s NOT “ni hao”)
Sooo, if you’ve ever taken a Chinese class, you may have learned that you should say “你好” (nǐ hǎo) if you want to say hi to someone.
ACTUALLY, “你好” (nǐ hǎo) really is better translated to “nice to meet you,” or “hope you’re doing well today.”
Because:
- 你 (nǐ) = you.
This character is made up of the character “尔” (ěr), which was used in classical Chinese, and the radical “亻” (rén) which refers to a person.
Not sure why the 尔 is there (probably some reason that is now lost to history), but the person part certainly makes sense. - 好 (hǎo) = good or well.
This character is made up of the character for woman “女” (nǚ), and child “子” (zǐ), which makes sense, because when a woman is with her child, that is a GOOD thing
(As opposed to a woman whose child is taken away from her…watch out for the mama bears)
So how do you ACTUALLY say “hi” in Chinese?
Easy. Like this:
“Hi.”
Or, if you want to write it in a Chinese character, “嗨” (hāi).
And note that although this character is supposed to be pronounced in the first tone, when used to mean “hi,” most people change it to a fourth tone, so it sounds more like the English pronunciation of “hi!”
In other words, Chinese people decided to just borrow the English word and attached it to a pre-existing Chinese character which is made up of the components
- 口 (kǒu) aka the radical that means “mouth” and is used in characters that are related to speech or sound or things related to the mouth,
- Plus 海 (hǎi), which means “ocean/sea” but is used here for its sound component.
And there you have it!
So sure, you can still use “你好” (nǐ hǎo) to greet new people. It’s a nice, neutral, professional greeting.
But if you want to be more informal, you can just say 嗨!
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