Free Chinese Mandarin lessons|Hello in Chinese lesson

China Hello! How To Say Hello In Chinese Mandarin

Welcome to your first Chinese lesson! To say hello in Chinese Mandarin, you're going to learn how to say two words, "ni hao". This is the informal way of saying "hi" or "hello" in Chinese. It literally means "you good" or "you fine" or "you well."

To put it more politely, for example, when speaking to someone you have just been introduced to, or to someone older than you in China, you can say, "nin hao" which means the same thing, only the way of saying "you" has become more polite.

When Chinese people are speaking on the telephone, they will normally greet using the word, "wei", which, in this context of being on the telephone, means "hi" or "hello". You will not need to use "wei" unless on the telephone as a greeting. Don't be surprised if you call someone Chinese and they say "wei" as they pick up the phone. You now know what it means and it means, "hi".

Listen to the following lesson with Chinese native speakers and myself by pressing the play button. The lesson lasts about 8 minutes.

In this lesson you will learn:

= Chinese basic greetings (how to say hello informally and politely and how to greet on the phone)
= The meaning of the words "ni"; "nin" and "hao" plus "wei" (when used as a telephone greeting)
= How to turn the phrase "ni hao" (hello - literally "you good") into a question...
= "ni hao ma?" which literally translates as "you good <question>?" and we can translate as "how are you?" in English.

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China Hello! How To Say Hello In Chinese Mandarin