How To Say Hello In Different Languages

If there’s one thing that we’ve learned from traveling, it’s that learning to say hello in different languages will help make a great first impression. From experience, a hello in the language of the country you are visiting and a smile will go a very long way.

From an early age, I was fascinated with languages and went on to study French and German at university in Edinburgh. I loved traveling and my desire to study languages was driven by my desire to communicate with people when I traveled.

Obviously I knew that I couldn’t learn to speak every language, so I settled with learning to say hello in different languages. I also learn to say thank you as that is such an important word too.

With English being the third most widely spoken language in the world, we can be quite lazy with learning languages as it is pretty easy to get by with just English. But we should not underestimate the importance of learning how to say hello in different languages.

We’re not suggesting that you learn to say hello in every language here. Just try to learn the absolute basics before you head to a new country. We make sure the kids learn how to say hello in different languages too when visiting our favourite travel destinations. We find that people are really touched by this gesture.

We haven’t included all the regional dialects because the list would go on forever, but here are 50 ways to say hello around the world with pronunciations….

…how to say hello in Europe

Albanian: Përshëndetje [pers-hen-det-je] or tungjatjeta [toon-jat-yeta]

Basque: Kaixo [kai-show]

Bulgarian: Здрасти (Zdrasti)

Croatian: Bok

Czech: Ahoj [ahoy]

Danish: Hej [hey]

Dutch: Hallo

English: Hello or Hi

Estonian: Tere [tereh]

Finnish: Moi or Hei [hey]

French: Salut [saloo] or Bonjour

German: Hallo or Guten Tag

Greek: yia sou [yah-soo]

Hungarian: Szia [see ya] or Helló

Icelandic: Halló or Hæ hæ [hey hey]

Italian: Ciao [chow]

Latvian: Sveiki [svey-key]

Luxembourgish: Moïen [moy-en]

Norwegian: Hallo or Hei [hey]

Polish: Cześć [chech-sh-ch]

Portuguese: Olà

Romanian: Bună [boo-nah]

Russian: Привет (privyet) [pree-viet]

Slovak: Ahoj [ahoy]

Slovene: Zdravo [zdrah-voh] or Živjo [zhee-vyoh]

Spanish: Hola [o-la]

Swedish: Hej [hey] or Hallå

Turkish: Merhaba or Selam

Learning basic Portuguese is necessary for citizenship or permanent residency through the Portugal golden visa program.

How to say hello in Africa

Aafrikaans: Hallo

Cape Verdean Creole: Oi or Olà

Swahili: Jambo or Habari (more polite)

Xhosa: Molo (greeting one person) or Mholweni (greeting several people)

Yoruba: Bawo

Zulu: Sawubona (also molo)

How to say hello in Asia

Arabic: مرحبا (marhaban)

Bengali: Namaskar

Cantonese: 你好 (Nei ho) [ney-ho]

Filipino: Kumusta

Hebrew: Shalom

Hindi: Namaste

Indonesian: Halo

Japanese: やあ (Ya) or こんにちは (Kon’nichiwa)

Korean: 안녕 (Annyeong)

Malayalam: ഹലോ (halēā) [hallo]

Mandarin: 你好‎ (Ni hao) [nee-how]

Nepalese: Namaste or Nakara

Thai: สวัสดี (S̄wạs̄dī) [Sawasdee Krab (if you are male)/Sawasdee Ka (if you are female)]

Turkish: Merhaba or Selam

Urdu: السلام علیکم (‘assalam-o-alaikum)

Vietnamese: xin chào [seen-chow]

If you are looking for more than just how to say hello in different languages, there are so many free online language resources you can use. It’s just a matter of personal choice as to which one works for you.

Do you know how to say hello in other languages? Let us know! Or if we have got anything wrong, please also let us know.