Namaste (नमस्ते)!

I’m gonna go over some other ways to say hi in Hindi so that you can be prepared in all social situations. Besides saying namaste (नमस्ते), you can also use namaskar (नमस्कार) to say hi in Hindi. The difference between namaste (नमस्ते) and namaskar (नमस्कार) is that namaskar (नमस्कार) is slightly formal. I guess you can say that using namaskar (नमस्कार) would be like saying hello instead of hi in Hindi.

When you want to convey respect to people of elderly age, I suggest you use Pranaam (प्रणाम). Pranaam (प्रणाम) is kind of like the word namaste (नमस्ते), but for people who are much older or for who you want to show deep respect.

Before I end this post I just want to mention a gesture called mudra (मुद्रा). A mudra (मुद्रा) is a general term to describe the act of pressing your hands together so that the palms face each other. A mudra (मुद्रा) can be used in a social situation to greet people; but it can also be used in a religious sense to denote respect towards a person or deity. When the palms are placed above your head instead of your chest, you’re channeling a higher power. The right palm symbolizes the divine and the left palm symbolizes the earthly things of this world. When the palms are pressed together this means that the person is trying to reconcile the differences between the earthly and divine and show respect towards the person being greeted.

I just wanted to stress that Hindi greetings can entail a lot more meaning than your average American greeting. Not that that’s bad, but just something that I wanted to point out.