24 Greetings and goodbyes
This chapter contains the most common expressions used by Mandarin Chinese speakers when
greeting others and saying goodbye in different contexts. The expressions here are those used
by the majority of Mandarin speakers, but differences between mainland China and Taiwan are
noted where relevant. In Chinese, greetings and goodbyes are typically not accompanied by
body contact such as a handshake, hug, or kiss, though handshakes are becoming more common
in cities.
Greetings are used to acknowledge the presence of another person. Chinese uses different kinds
of greetings depending upon the relationship of speaker and addressee, the time of day in which
the greeting is made, and whether or not contact is face-to-face. Greetings that take the form
of questions typically need no response.24.1 Greetings in conversations
24.1.1 Basic greeting
To greet casual acquaintances or to greet others in a shopping or business environment, or when
meeting someone for the first time, or when answering the telephone, say:
你好。
Nǐ hǎo.
Hi. (How are you?)The response to this greeting is:
你好。
Nǐ hǎo.
Hi. (How are you?)Or, also possible, but less common:
好。谢谢。你呢？
好。謝謝。你呢？
Hǎo. Xièxie. Nǐ ne?
Fine. Thanks. And you?(^) Note Until recently, the expression 你好 nh hfo was primarily used when greeting foreigners, but in Chinese
cities it is now widely used between native speakers of Chinese.
A more formal variation of this greeting uses the polite pronoun 您 nín ‘you’:
毛： 王经理，您好？ 王： 好。
毛： 王經理，您好？ Wáng: Hǎo.
Máo: Wáng jīnglǐ, nín hǎo? Wang: Fine.
Mao: Manager Wang, how are you?