Chinese Language Blog

When learning a language, chances are the first word you will learn is the equivalent of “Hello.” After all, you can’t really start talking to someone before greeting them! Just like in English, where we have a ton of ways to greet someone (Hello, Hi, Hey, What’s up?, How are you?, etc.), there are plenty of options in Chinese as well.

The most common way to say "Hello" in Chinese.

Here are 15 different ways to greet someone in Mandarin Chinese, in an easy-to-follow table with English, Chinese characters, and pinyin transliteration:

A nice and easy YouTube video about saying “Hello” in Chinese.

Ok… do you have those 15 expressions down? Test yourself by choosing the proper greeting for the following situations:

• You greet someone after dinner, at around 7 PM.
• You greet your Chinese teacher before class.
• You see an old friend for the first time in a long time.
• You greet an acquaintance who is your age.
• You greet a potential business partner for the first time.
• You answer your phone.
• You greet an elder.
• You greet someone after breakfast, at around 9 AM.
• You greet a good friend.
• You greet a large group of people.
• You greet someone after lunch, at around 1 PM.
• You greet two of your classmates who you are studying with.

Now that you know 15 common greetings, do your best to try and use them in the appropriate situations. Check back here in the near future for a post about how to say goodbye in Chinese.

Explore the old city of Datong in China’s Shanxi province in this short video. An overnight train from Beijing will get you there in just over 5 hours. Check out the old neighborhood and the newly rebuilt City Wall, in addition to some other places of interest such as the Drum Tower, Grand Mosque, and Nine Dragon Wall. Feast on some spicy chicken and fish, and then get rowdy in a pool hall/KTV bar at night.

北京站 – běi jīng zhàn
Beijing Railway Station

人太多了 – rén tài duō le
too many people

我们买了硬卧票 – wǒ men mǎi le yìng wò piào
We bought hard sleeper tickets.

大同 – dà tóng
Datong

山西省 – shān xī shěng
Shanxi province

城墙 – chéng qiáng
City Wall

青年旅舍 – qīng nián lǚ shě
youth hostel

快了宝贝 – kuài le bǎo bèi
Happy Baby

滑旱冰 – huá hàn bīng
rollerblading

鼓楼 – gǔ lóu
Drum Tower

清真大寺 – qīng zhēn dà sì
Grand Mosque

九龙壁 – jiǔ lóng bì
Nine Dragon Screen

清炒西兰花 – qīng chǎo xī lán huā
stir-fried broccoli

鱼香茄子 – yú xiāng qié zi
fish-scented eggplant

辣子鸡 – là zǐ jī
spicy chicken

烤鱼 – kǎo yú
grilled fish

吃饭以后，我么去打台球 – chī fàn yǐ hòu, wǒ me qù dǎ tái qiú
After dinner, we went to play pool.

Relationships are a crucial part of our daily life. Talking about the relationships you have with various people is an important part of studying any language. After all, you’ll often be asked the question, “Who is he/she?” when talking about other people. First of all, here’s how you can ask both of those questions in Chinese:

• Who is he? (他是谁？- tā shì shuí)

• Who is she? (她是谁？- tā shì shuí)

Notice that the pronunciation for “he” and “she” is the same in Chinese, but a different character is used. Of course, when talking about relationships, your family often comes up first. Luckily for you, I’ve already written a detailed post about how to talk about your family. Once you’ve read up on that, do your best to decipher the complicated Chinese family tree in this video:

It sure is complicated in Chinese…

Anyways, today I’m going to teach you some new words to use. When you answer that question, you’ll begin by saying:

• He’s my… (他是我的 – tā shì wǒ de)

• She’s my… (她是我的 – tā shì wǒ de)

Now to help you build up your vocabulary, here are 20 words for talking about relationships in Chinese:

Just use those words to complete the sentences above, and you can probably talk about most of the people you know in Chinese! Er… well… at least you can introduce them! Here are some examples of my own:

她是我的女朋友.

他是我的好朋友，也是我的室友.

他是我的同事.

Now you try! Use the new words from this lesson to practice introducing the various people in your life. In the meantime, keep building your vocabulary by learning a new Chinese word every day.