How to say “hi” in 34 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.
- Albanian tung hi, hello #358
- Basque kaixo hello, hi #45
- Bosnian hej #89
- Bulgarian здрасти hello, hi #270
- Catalan hola hello, hi #115
- Chinese 你好 hello; hi #40
- Croatian hej #95
- Czech ahoj hello, hi #105
- Danish hej hi, hello #94
- Estonian tere hello, hi #83
- Finnish hei #48
- French salut hi, hello #199
- German hi #372
- Greek γεια hi, hello #111
- Hungarian szia #113
- Icelandic hæ #151
- Indonesian hai #263
- Italian salve hello!; hi!; hail! #412
- Korean 이봐요 hi, hey, hello #274
- Latvian čau hello, hi #516
- Lithuanian labas hi, hello #90
- Malay hai Used as a greeting; hi #288
- Malayalam ഹായ് #144
- Norwegian hei #91
- Persian سلام hello, hi #60
- Portuguese olá hello; hi #117
- Russian привет hello, hi #99
- Serbian hej #101
- Slovak ahoj hello, hi #87
- Slovenian živjo hello, hi #138
- Spanish hola hello, hi, hey #88
- Swedish hej hi, hello #85
- Turkish merhaba hello, hi #103
- Ukrainian здоров #699
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.