How to Say “Hello” in Different Languages

Languages are not all the same, and this applies to the alphabet used, the sound of words, and the number of speakers. Some languages are more widespread because they are spoken by tens of millions of people, while others are in danger of disappearing within a few generations. Among the most widely spoken languages in the world are English and Mandarin Chinese, with over a billion speakers each, followed by Hindi, Spanish, French, and Arabic. Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, and Urdu also appear in the rankings. The placement of different languages in the rankings can vary depending on how important the language is in a particular location-that is, whether it is a first language, a second language, or a language studied.

If you want to learn how to greet people in the world's most common languages, you can start by saying "hello" in English. You can say "hello" or "hi" in all English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In France, as well as in the Canadian province of Quebec, Belgium, Morocco, and Tunisia, and among people who also speak French, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon, you can use "salut" or "bonjour" instead. Want to greet someone in Russian? You can use the word "privet."

In Spain and many Latin American countries, you can greet each other in Spanish with "hola." This includes Argentina, Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Chile, and Colombia, as well as Panama, Paraguay, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and various other countries where Spanish is the native language. Portuguese, on the other hand, is spoken in Portugal and Brazil, but also in countries like Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and East Timor. Here, you can say "hello" with the word "oi" or "olá."

Mandarin Chinese is the official language in Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan, and of course, in China. If you are in one of these countries, you can say "hello" with "Nǐ hǎo" or 你好. In Hindi, on the other hand, you can say "hello" with the word "namaste," which is also very familiar to us Westerners. Arabic, as we have seen, is also one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. In this case, it is a language spoken in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in Tunisia, Qatar, Somalia, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, Algeria, Israel, Jordan, Sudan, and other countries in Africa and Asia, where you can greet each other with "as-salāmu ʿalaykum" (i.e., ٱلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ). Bengali is the language spoken in Bangladesh and India. According to various statistics, Bengali was spoken by more than 270 million people in 2022. To greet someone in this language, you say "Hyālō" (dh হ্যালো).