6 Chinese greetings
In this section you will look at some common greetings in Mandarin Chinese.
Nǐ hăo or nín hăo?
你好 nǐ hăo (lit. you good/well) is the most commonly used greeting in Chinese and can be used throughout the day. Its more formal or polite form is 您好 nín hăo (hello/how do you do?) which is used when you meet somebody for the first time or if you greet someone who is senior to you, either in terms of age or status.
Activity 5
Listen to the following expressions used to greet someone, say ‘goodbye’ and express gratitude and apology. Listen to the model then record yourself saying the expressions. You can then play back your recording to compare it with the model. You can reveal the transcript if you wish.
You can play your recording back or try a new one as many times as you like by pressing ‘Start again’ or ‘Re-record’.