When I first started learning Chinese I told everyone “你好”every time I saw them because that was the only way I knew how to greet people. Over time, however, I started to notice that the native Chinese had very different ways of greeting me, and I realized that Chinese locals do not typically use “你好” and “你好吗？” to greet people they are familiar with. Let’s explore the greetings they use instead.
They say “Morning!”
In the mornings, natives tend to greet each other with “早！”( “Zǎo!”), which is the shortened form of “早上好”（Good morning）.
They say the Person’s Name/ Title
It’s very common to hear people greet each other by simply saying the last name + title, or title + “好”. To show respect, natives often refer to an older person who is similar in age to your parents and not related to them as “阿姨“(Auntie) or “叔叔”(Uncle). In fact, you can use this to start a conversation with a stranger.
For example:
李叔叔 – Uncle Lee
刘师傅 – Mr. Liu
阿姨好 – Hello auntie
老师好 – Hello teacher
They ask questions like “吃了吗？”
It’s time for us to dive into the really fun expressions for saying hello. When Chinese greet people they are familiar with, they often ask about what the other person is doing or is about to do or if they have already eaten. This is something that perplexed me early on because I felt like they were asking me my business, but this was not the case, they were just being polite. Let’s breakdown a few common examples:
1)“吃了吗？” or “吃饭了吗” – “Have you eaten?”
Even though it may sound like it, this is not an invitation to lunch. You can respond by simply saying, “吃了”or “吃过了“- “I’ve eaten” or “还没吃”- “I haven’t eaten yet”. Sometimes they may vary this by asking about the specific meal (“吃早饭了吗？”- “Have you eaten breakfast?”).
2) “你去哪里？”or “去哪儿啊？”- “Where are you going?”
This is the one that I think makes foreigners feel the most off put, because they may not feel comfortable always sharing this information But, its important to remember that this is simply a greeting, so you don’t need to actually tell them where you are going. Just respond with “我出去一下”- “I’m going out for a bit”.
3) “上班啦”or “上课了” – “Going to class?” or “Going to work?”
You can simply grunt in response or say “是啊”- “Yup”.
4) “出去了”or “回来啦”- “You went out” or “You’re back”
Once again you can simply grunt in response or say “是啊”- “Yup”.
These greetings are a lot of fun, and older people in particular love to use them. Just remember that to use these kinds of greetings you need to have a certain level of familiarity with the other person, they are not to be used for greeting strangers.
Final Thoughts
We’ve looked at number of ways native Chinese people prefer to greet each other. Please note that while these will make you sound more like a native speaker , it’s not incorrect to use “你好”to greet someone. In fact, it’s best to use it when you’re meeting someone for the first time or speaking to a customer. Also, remember that these greetings are applicable to when you meet someone in person, if you talk to someone on the phone you should use “喂”（wéi）, which is the most commonly used telephone opener.
Click here for a list of the phrases found in this lesson to listen to them and learn them.