When meeting and greeting someone in Hebrew, most language courses will give you the commonly used ones shown here:

Hello – שלום
Good morning – בוקר טוב
Good afternoon – יום טוב
Good evening – ערב טוב
Good night – לילה טוב

And to ask how you are doing:

How are you? – מה שלומך?

Well, let me say that these are a great way to start off, but if you want to sound more fluent in Hebrew, I’m going to show you a few other phrases you can learn and use. The ones in this article are mainly informal – that is, said to a friend or family member. Ready?

What’s new? – מַה חָדָשׁ?

Long time no see!
שָׁנִים…!
שָׁנִים שֶׁלּוֹא הִתְרָאֵינוּ!

It’s been a while!
עָבַר הַרְבֵּה זְמַן!

When was the last time we’ve met?
מָתַי הָייְתָה הַפַּעַם הָאַחֲרוֹנָה שֶׁהִתְרָאֵינוּ?

These next phrases are examples of how gender is used to say something to either a male, a female or a group of people. I put in the niqud here so you can see the differences in the endings based on the gender of the person with whom you are speaking. Otherwise, Hebrew is normally not written with niqud, so you’ll have to rely solely on context to understand.
It’s good to see you!

טוֹב לִרְאוֹת אוֹתְךָ – To a male (ending “ְךָ“)
טוֹב לִרְאוֹת אוֹתָךְ – to a female (ending “ָךְ“)
טוֹב לִרְאוֹת אֶתְכֶם – to a group of people (ending “ֶם“)

It’s nice to see you (It looks the same as “It’s good to see you”, it’s just a matter of changing טוֹב to נֶחְמָד)

נֶחְמָד לִרְאוֹת אוֹתְךָ – To a male
נֶחְמָד לִרְאוֹת אוֹתָךְ – to a female
נֶחְמָד לִרְאוֹת אֶתְכֶם – to a group of people

What are you up to these days?

מַה אַתָּה עוֹשֶׂה בְּיָמִים אֵלּוּ…? (masc)
מַה אַתְּ עוֹשָׂה בְּיָמִים אֵלּוּ…? (fem)

If you have a language partner, go ahead and practice with them – pay attention to the appropriate gender for the phrase. If you don’t have a language partner, then practice them in a way that’s easiest for you to remember.

Next article, we’re going to see what we need to know when we get invited to someone’s house for dinner, or invited to a party.

Picture from http://www.albion.edu