How to say “hello” in 46 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.
It is commonest in Chinese, where 你好 is the 40th most used word.
- Afrikaans hallo #498
- Albanian përshëndetje hello, greetings, goodbye #220
- Arabic مرحبا hello, welcome #101
- Basque kaixo hello, hi #45
- Bengali আরে hello, hey, yo, um, uh #160
- Bosnian halo #403
- Bulgarian здравей #178
- Catalan hola hello, hi #115
- Chinese 你好 hello; hi #40
- Croatian halo #462
- Czech ahoj hello, hi #105
- Danish hej hi, hello #94
- Dutch hallo #226
- Esperanto saluton #129
- Estonian tere hello, hi #83
- Finnish haloo #499
- French salut hi, hello #199
- Galician ola #170
- Georgian გამარჯობა hello, how do you do, good afternoon #180
- Greek γεια hi, hello #111
- Hindi हेलो #827
- Hungarian helló hi, hello #287
- Icelandic halló hello, good day; a salutation said when… #654
- Indonesian halo #231
- Italian ciao hello! #151
- Korean 여보세요 #241
- Latvian čau hello, hi #516
- Lithuanian labas hi, hello #90
- Macedonian ало hello? #321
- Malay helo Used to greet people; hello #676
- Malayalam ഹലോ #62
- Norwegian hallo #229
- Persian سلام hello, hi #60
- Polish halo hello? #503
- Portuguese olá hello; hi #117
- Romanian salut hello! greetings! #432
- Russian привет hello, hi #99
- Serbian halo #436
- Slovak ahoj hello, hi #87
- Slovenian živjo hello, hi #138
- Spanish hola hello, hi, hey #88
- Swedish hej hi, hello #85
- Tamil வணக்கம் #116
- Turkish merhaba hello, hi #103
- Ukrainian алло hello! #398
- Vietnamese alô #1,700
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.