The ancient English word for greeting “Ho”, which “Hello” derives from, is a sound meant to attract attention. Chinese too has a word used for this purpose which also serves as a form of greeting: 喂 (wèi), it sounds much like the French word for “yes”, though for greetings this word is mostly used on phone instead of in-person, unless you want to be particularly rude.

The proper way to greet a person is to say 你好 Nǐ hǎo,which literally translates to “You Good”. 你 means “you”, and 好 means “good”. Though 好 could also mean “healthy, beautiful, kind, goodness, peace”. So there is not a little flattering in the first greetings of the Chinese: we are a generous race.

When you are greeted “你好”, the usual way is to greet back with the exact same word “你好”.

— 你好！Nǐ hǎo

— 你好！Nǐ hǎo

谢谢 Xièxiè, meaning thank you, and in certain contexts interestingly means, to apologize or to decline. The character has body (身) in it which reminds one of the Asian custom of taking a bow when expressing gratitude.

不客气 Bù kèqì, you are welcome, literally means “No guest air” or “don’t be a guest”.

Now we know how to say “thank you” and “you are welcome”.

— 谢谢! Xièxiè

— 不客气! Bù kèqì

对不起 Duìbùqǐ, sorry, literally means “facing (you) no rise”. It is again the taking of a bow. In the heavily hierarchy social form, to put oneself lower, to take a low bow is the way to say “sorry”. Or it’s the learning of humility, to admit one’s fault.

没关系Méiguānxì, it does not matter, literally means “no closed tie”, 关系, relations, closed connections. You have to give it to the Chinese for its straightforwardness(at least in some cases): no matter! It’s not like we are close relations.

Now we know how to say “Sorry” and “It does not matter” in Chinese.

— 对不起! Duìbùqǐ

— 没关系! Méiguānxì

再见 Zàijiàn, is very different from the English “Goodbye”, derived from the phrase “god be with you”, the Chinese simply say “again see” . 再 means again, and it could use before other verbs to mean again do something. 再吃一碗(米饭) (Have anohter bowl of rice). 见 means to see, the character derives from the drawing of an eye of a human.

Now we know how to say “Goodbye” in Chinese.

— 再见! Zàijiàn

— 再见! Zàijiàn

This ends your very first Chinese lesson. Have fun learning!

Here is the audio material for this lesson: