how do you say 'hello'?

Submitted by Ben on Thu, 26/04/2007 - 13:10.
Ben
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Hi everyone Lets get these forums started shall we? I thought it would be nice if people posted the way they great people within there language and culture. I'm British and say 'Hi', 'Hello', or How's it going?' when I first greet someone normally. We don't shake hands as often as some mainland European countries do but I still shake hands with some friends when I greet them. If I am close to someone then I might give them a hug or a kiss on the cheek as part of the greeting. I'd love to hear how all the different nations greet each other. Please feel free to post in any language you like, even if I can't understand it I'm sure someone will be able to.
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Thu, 26/04/2007 - 16:41
KaelaC
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I'm American and "hello" or
I'm American and "hello" or "hi" is pretty standard.  If you haven't met someone before usually you shake their hand or if it's someon you haven't seen in a while (while is defined individually) you usually give them a hug.
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Thu, 26/04/2007 - 20:02
Ender
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Poland
In Poland we shake hands with everyone :) To a stranger we say 'Dzieńdobry' ('Hello','Gutentag'). To a friend we usually say 'cześć' or "siema" (shorten form of 'Jak się masz?'-'how are you'?). Pozdro :)
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Thu, 26/04/2007 - 20:41
ShyGuy1013
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USA

I live in the US

For people that speak english I say: hey, hi, hello, how you doing, whats up ...

For people that speak spanish I say: hola, que onda, como estas, hey, que hay de nuevo ...

and depends on the person: we shake hands, hugh or kiss on the cheek (only men/women or women/wome)


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Fri, 27/04/2007 - 05:19
Oddrun
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dzień dobry
@Ender - "dzień dobry" pisze się osobno;D
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Fri, 27/04/2007 - 06:35
Ender
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spoko ;) matura dopiero za
spoko ;) matura dopiero za rok  ;P

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Fri, 27/04/2007 - 13:19
Coemgen
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In Germany we sayto older /

In Germany we say

to older / unknown persons: "Hallo", "Guten Tag"

to friends: "Hi", "Tag", "Wie geht's?" (Wie geht es dir?)

To say goodbye, we say

"Tschüss", "Ciao", "Guten Tag noch" 


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Fri, 27/04/2007 - 13:47
Valstorm
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We just say Hi although spell we spell it as hae.

The more common word used to be: Blessadur

Notice the word blessadur actually also means to be blessed.

that later became: Saell.

We shake hands.


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Sat, 28/04/2007 - 05:03
woodysseus
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In China mainland(Mandarin)

In China mainland(Mandarin) , to older and unknown persons: "nin hao",almostly pronounced as"nin haw(english's pronunciation)", means "howdy".

to young and unknown persons:"ni hao", almostly pronounced as"nee haw(english's pronunciation)",means "hiya'.

to friends: "ai" or "ei" almostly pronounced as"I".

and handshake is the most common propriety when two persons meet with.


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Tue, 01/05/2007 - 14:34
bargelmir
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In Sweden we say Hej,
In Sweden we say Hej, Hallå, Tjena or Tja. For people who speak english it´s pretty much pronunced like hey, hallaw (think of the aw part in the word paw), chena and cha. Sort of. =)
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Wed, 02/05/2007 - 23:17
Nanshy8
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France...

In France, we just "French kiss" everyone...no I am just kidding!

To greet someone I don't know, I just say "Bonjour" (in the morning and in the afternoon), "Bonsoir" (in the evening). To greet someone I know, I usually say "Bonjour"/"Salut" and cheek kiss him/her (both cheek, a double-cheek kiss...well, I don't know. But it can be different according to where you live...yes, a little bit strange).

If a friend introduces me to someone he/she knows, I say "Bonjour" or "Bonsoir" and sometimes cheek kiss them (I assume it must be weird for people with different culture!). A man would only shake hands though.

But then it depends on the person you met, on the context, etc...


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Sat, 05/05/2007 - 20:06
Blackkdark
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Salutations

There are some interesting patterns in Salutations.
In Romance languages, They usually use a form of Salut.  Italian uses Saluti, Romanian and French use Salut (pronounced differently but spelled the same.)
Germanic languages usually use a form of Hello/Hallo, or sometimes the shorten /haj/ which is the English Hi, Norwegian and Danish Hei, Swedish Hej, etc.  There is a trend in the use of Cell phones to say 'allo as well, in Russian, Romanian, and I think I've heard of French people using it as well.

The other interesting thing is the common form of saying hello in a formal way is saying Good Day (which is used in English too, stereotypes of Austrialians).  The form of Good Day is usually what phrasebooks give.
We get Guten Tag in German, Goededag in Dutch, God dag in Norwegian.  In Romance languages you have Bonjour in French, Buenos Dias in Spanish, Bom Dia in Portuguese, Boungiorno in Italian amongst others.

--

Ciao,


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Mon, 07/05/2007 - 07:15
ShyGuy1013
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wow ... thats is interesting
wow ... thats is interesting ... as everything else that you write ... linguistics is tightt ..
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Thu, 10/05/2007 - 19:11
mbrander
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Sometimes in the U.S.A.
Sometimes in the U.S.A. instead of a hand shake, we hit fists, usually to close friends. Another way is to handshake transitioning into a half hug and pat on the back. Cool
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Sat, 12/05/2007 - 04:04
Rain Auyeung
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In China, to close friend

In China, to close friend you can give them a hug. For the older and unknown person, you can say "您好(Nin hao) - howdy" and handshake.


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Thu, 26/07/2007 - 05:06
Rhiann.Elizabeth
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G'day mate!
In Australia we say - G'day.........No, no we don't. It's a stereotype. And in fact I'm pretty sure we only say G'day when the person we're greeting is from another country. It's a habit. Something else I've realised is whenever a fellow aussie is speaking to an American or Brit our voices tend to take on a 'Crocodile Dundee' intonation. Noone means to do it, it just happens. We often greet the same way Americans do, as our television programs are generally all American -Hello, Hi, Hey/there, 'Sup? (What is up? - not many people use this anymore), How are you/ya? How's it going? Other stereotypes are that we call people 'mates'...(i.e. G'day mate) this is true, most commonly used between friends or when you've forgotten someones name...lol. 

 

--

"L'art est tout a fait inutile." Oscar Wilde.


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Tue, 07/08/2007 - 17:44
iwona
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hello

and in polish language we also say elo, hejko, joł. i to chyba tyle

pozdro i narka   hahahahahahha


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