General and daily greetings
hello nǐ hǎo 你好
how are you? nǐ hǎo ma 你好吗
i’m fine thank you wǒ hěn hǎo xiè xie 我很好, 谢谢
long time no see hǎo jiǔ bù jiàn 好久不见
Time specific greetings
good morning zǎo shang hǎo 早上好
good afternoon xià wǔ hǎo 下午好
good evening wǎn shang hǎo 晚上好
good night wǎn ān 晚安
Polite and formal greetings
nice to meet you hěn gāo xìng rèn shi nǐ 很高兴认识你
please take care of me duō duō guān zhào 多多关照
sorry excuse me duì bu qǐ 对不起
thank you xiè xie 谢谢
you’re welcome bú kèqi 不客气
Greetings for specific situations
where are you going? qù nǎ lǐ 去哪里
have you eaten yet? chī le ma 吃了吗
what are you doing? zài gàn shén me 在干什么
take care bǎo zhòng 保重
see you later zài jiàn 再见
We begin lesson one not by learning vocabulary or grammar, but by learning some of the most common forms of greetings in Chinese culture. When someone wants to ask you how is your day, they will say the words, “你好吗?” It is common to answer how are you with, “我很好, 谢谢” which literally means, “I am fine, thank you”. It is also all right to omit the thank you at the end and simply answers with “我很好”.
“Hello” is simply “你好” and you respond to someone who greeted you with hello with also hello. So when someone says to you, “你好”, you also reply, “你好”.
When you had not met someone for a long time, it is common to greet that someone with the greeting, “long time no see”, “好久不见”. Saying this is good because it expresses to your friend or relative who you had not seen for a long time how much you miss him or her.
When you went to your working place for the first time, it is common for your colleagues to greet you with the word, “很高兴认识你”. You reply to your colleague with a “多多关照”. This is a polite way of saying to your colleagues, “Look, I am new here. Please do not find fault with me when I make mistakes. Please take care of me”.
The rest of the greetings in this lesson are self-explanatory. I will not elaborate on them.
Conversation 1
小明：你好！
Xiǎo Míng: Nǐ hǎo!
Xiao Ming: Hello!
小华：你好！
Xiǎo Huá: Nǐ hǎo!
Xiao Hua: Hello!
Conversation 2
老师：大家好！
Lǎo shī: Dà jiā hǎo!
Teacher: Hello everyone!
学生们 ：老师，您好！
Xué sheng men: Lǎo shī, nín hǎo!
Students: Hello teacher!
小明：你们好！
Xiǎo Míng: Nǐ men hǎo!
Xiao Ming: Hello everyone! (addressing multiple people)
学生们：你好！
Xué sheng men: Nǐ hǎo!
Students: Hello! (addressing Xiao Ming)
Conversation 2
学生们：谢谢！
Xué sheng men: Xiè xie!
Students: Thank you!
小明：不客气！
Xiǎo Míng: Bú kè qi!
Xiao Ming: You’re welcome!
老师：同学们，再见！
Lǎo shī: Tóng xué men, zài jiàn!
Teacher: Students, goodbye!
学生们：老师，再见！
Xué sheng men: Lǎo shī, zài jiàn!
Students: Goodbye, teacher!
Vocabulary
你好 Nǐ hǎo Hello
teacher 老师 lǎo shī
student 学生 xué sheng
used after a noun or pronoun to show plural nunbers 们 men
everyone 大家 dà jiā
me 我 wǒ
You 你 singular you
Plural you 你们 nǐ men
you formal nín 您
hello everyone 大家好 dà jiā hǎo
hello teacher 老师您好 lǎo shī nín hǎo
hello you 你们好 plural nǐ men hǎo
hello 你好 nǐ hǎo
Classmates 同学 Tóng xué
Goodbye 再见 Zài jiàn
同学 consists of the word 同 (together) + 学 (learn), together learn. 同学 usually means classmates, but in the case of a teacher saying the word, “同学”, it actually means students.
们 is usually used after a noun. When used after a noun, 们 shows the plurality of the noun. For instance, 同学 means classmate, but 同学 + 们 (同学们) means classmates.
That is all for lesson 1. See you again in lesson 2. If you have any questions about this lesson, post here in the forum.