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 30 of the world’s most spoken languages:
Thumbs up in China!
Mandarin: nǐ hǎo
Where it’s spoken: China, Taiwan, Singapore
Spanish: hola
Where it’s spoken: Hispanic America, Spain, United States, Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, Pacific islands
3. English: hello
Where it’s spoken: Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa, Singapore, Philippines
4. Hindi: namaste
Where it’s spoken: India, Fiji, Nepal
5. Arabic: marhabaan
Where it’s spoken: North Africa, Western Asia (Middle East), East Africa
6. Portuguese: olá, oi, alô
Where it’s spoken: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Timor-Leste
7. Bengali: hyālō
Where it’s spoken: Bangladesh, West Bengal (India), Tripura (India), Assam (India)
8. Russian: privet
Where it’s spoken: Russia, former Republics of the Soviet Union, Mongolia
9. Japanese: kon’nichiwa
Where it’s spoken: Japan
10. Punjabi: sata srī akāla
Where it’s spoken: Punjab region (India, Pakistan)
11. German: hallo, guten tag
Where it’s spoken: Austria, Belgium (Eupen-Malmedy), Germany, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, South Tirol (in Italy)
12. Javanese: nggoleki
Where it’s spoken: Java (Indonesia)
13. Wu (Shanghainese): nóng hō
Where it’s spoken: Zhejiang, Shanghai, southern Jiangsu (eastern China)
14. Malay/Indonesian: selamat siang
Where it’s spoken: Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore
15. Korean: annyeong haseyo
Where it’s spoken: North Korea, South Korea
16. Telugu: halō, vandanalu
Where it’s spoken: Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Puducherry (India)
17. Vietnamese: xin chào
Where it’s spoken: Vietnam
18. French: bonjour
Where it’s spoken: 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
Where it’s spoken: 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 alaikum
Where it’s spoken: India, Pakistan
22. Persian/Farsi: salām
Where it’s spoken: Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan
23. Turkish: merhaba
Where it’s spoken: Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria
24. Cantonese: nǐ hǎo
Where it’s spoken: Guangdong (Canton), southern Guangxi (southern China), Hong Kong, Macau
25. Italian: ciao
Where it’s spoken: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino
26. Thai: sà-wàt-dii
Where it’s spoken: TThailand
27. Gujarati: namaste
Where it’s spoken: Gujarat (India)
28. Basque: kaixo
Where it’s spoken: Northern Spain
29. Minnan hua: lı́ hó
Where it’s spoken: Fujian, eastern part of Guandong (southeastern China), Hainan (southern China), Taiwan, Malaysia
30. Polish: cześć’
Where it’s spoken: Poland, USA, Germany, United Kingdom, Belarus, western Ukraine, Lithuania