How to say “hello” in 46 different languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
- hola/ˈola/ Spanish
- привет[prʲiˈvʲet] Russian
- مرحبا/mar.ħa.ban/ Arabic
- 你好/ni²¹⁴⁻³⁵ xɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ Chinese
- 여보세요[jʌ̹bo̞sʰe̞jo] Korean
- हेलो/ɦeː.loː/ Hindi
“hello” in Spanish: hola · Portuguese: olá · Chinese: 你好 · Korean: 여보세요 · Russian: привет · Arabic: مرحبا · Hindi: हेलो · Turkish: merhaba
It is commonest in Chinese, where 你好 is the 40th most used word.
Hello in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans hallo/ɦaləu/ #498
- Albanian përshëndetje/pəɾʃəndɛtjɛ/ hello, greetings, goodbye #220
- Arabic مرحبا/mar.ħa.ban/ hello, welcome #101
- Basque kaixo/kai̯ʃo/ hello, hi #45
- Bengali আরে/aɾe/ hello, hey, yo, um, uh #160
- Bosnian halo/ˈxalo/ #403
- Bulgarian здравей[zdrɐˈvɛj] #178
- Catalan hola[ˈɔ.lə] hello, hi #115
- Chinese 你好/ni²¹⁴⁻³⁵ xɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/ hello; hi #40
- Croatian halo/ˈxalo/ #462
- Czech ahoj/aˈɦoj/ hello, hi #105
- Danish hej/hɑj/ hi, hello #94
- Dutch hallo[ɦɑˈlöʊ̯] #226
- Esperanto saluton/saˈluton/ #129
- Estonian tere/ˈtere/ hello, hi #83
- Finnish haloo/ˈhɑloː/ #499
- French salut/sa.ly/ hi, hello #199
- Galician ola/ˈɔla/ #170
- Georgian გამარჯობა[ɡ̊ämäɾd͡ʒo̞bä] hello, how do you do, good afternoon #180
- Greek γεια/ˈʝa/ hi, hello #111
- Hindi हेलो/ɦeː.loː/ #827
- Hungarian helló[ˈhɛloː] hi, hello #287
- Icelandic halló[ˈhal(ː)ou] hello, good day; a salutation said when… #654
- Indonesian halo/ˈhalo/ #231
- Italian ciao/ˈt͡ʃa.o/ hello! #151
- Korean 여보세요[jʌ̹bo̞sʰe̞jo] #241
- Latvian čau/ˈt͡ʃau/ hello, hi #516
- Lithuanian labas/ˈɫɑ̌ːbɐs/ hi, hello #90
- Macedonian ало[ˈaɫɔ] hello? #321
- Malay helo[he.lo] Used to greet people; hello #676
- Malayalam ഹലോ/häloː/ #62
- Norwegian hallo/hɑˈluː/ #229
- Persian سلام[sæ.lɒ́ːm] hello, hi #60
- Polish halo/ˈxa.lɔ/ hello? #503
- Portuguese olá/oˈla/ hello; hi #117
- Romanian salut/saˈlut/ hello! greetings! #432
- Russian привет[prʲiˈvʲet] hello, hi #99
- Serbian halo/ˈxalo/ #436
- Slovak ahoj/aˈɦɔj/ hello, hi #87
- Slovenian živjo/ʒiʋjɔ/ hello, hi #138
- Spanish hola/ˈola/ hello, hi, hey #88
- Swedish hej/ˈhɛjː/ hi, hello #85
- Tamil வணக்கம்/ʋɐɳɐkːɐm/ #116
- Turkish merhaba/ˈmæɾ.ha.baː/ hello, hi #103
- Ukrainian алло[ɐˈɫːɔ] hello! #398
- Vietnamese alô[ʔaː˧˧ lo˧˧] #1,700
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.