WE say it every day, dozens of times a day, if not more – hello. So does everyone else on this big, blue marble in the sky, in thousands of different languages. (Incredibly, experts of linguistics, the scientific study of languages, don’t agree on how many languages are spoken!) In this article, we are going to show you how to say hello in different languages – but just some of the main ones!

Spanish – Hola or buenos días

French – Bonjour

Italian – Bon giorno

German – Guten Tag

Japanese – Ohayo gozaimasu (pronounced oh-ha-yoh goh-zah-ee-mahss), or konnichiwa

Portuguese – Bom dia

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Swedish – Hej (pronounced hey)

Dutch – Goedendag

Russian – Privet (pronounced pree-vyet)

Hebrew – Shalom

Greek – Yia sou (pronounced yah soo)

Chinese (Mandarin) – Nĭ hăo (nee how)

Irish – Dia duit (pronounced gee-ah ditch)

Czech – Dobré ráno

Finnish – Hyvää päivää

Arabic – Asslam alykom

Danish – Hej (pronounced hey)

Swahili – Habari

Turkish – Merhaba selam

Hindi – Namaste

Slovenian – Zivijo (pronounced gee-vee-oh)

Now that you know how to say hello in different languages, remember that different cultures have different customs. In the Western world, shaking hands is common, while in the East, a slight bow may be more appropriate. If you are going to travel, be sure to learn the customs of the area so as not to offend. When in doubt, go for a formal greeting — or nod and smile. That is universally understood. : )

THE easiest way to say hello in Spanish is to say Hola.

Hola is pronounced oh-lah. (The letter ‘h’ in Spanish is always silent.)

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But you can also say hello by using a greeting such as ‘good morning’.

So here are other ways to say hello in Spanish:

Buenos días – Good morning

Buenas tardes – Good afternoon

Buenas noches – Good evening

THERE are several ways to say hello in Spanish. Well, that is not exactly true. There is one Spanish word that literally translates into hello. The other ways are greetings, and while they are substitutes for saying hello, they have their own meanings.

The word for hello in Spanish is hola. In Spanish the letter ‘h’ is always silent, so hola is pronounced oh-lah.

Should you encounter a Spaniard first thing in the morning, you might instead greet him with Buenos días.

Buenos (pronounced bweh-nos) is the plural of the Spanish word for good, bueno.

Días (pronounced dee-ahs) is the plural of the Spanish word for day, día.

Literally, this Spanish phrase translates into good days, but means good day or good morning. As in English, there is no need to say hello as well.

At some point in the day, it becomes appropriate to change your greeting to Buenas tardes. Pronounced bweh-nahs tahr-des, the expression is equivalent to saying Good afternoon. I say ‘at some point’ because Spanish cultures do not adhere to the strictness of the clock like English speakers do. This makes sense in a way since tardes comes from the verb, tardar, the infinitive form which means to take time. The phrase itself doesn’t make sense – tardes is literally the second person singular subjunctive form of to take time. Huh, right? But an English person is saying afternoon, that is, literally after the noon hour, so it’s tied to the clock. You could say buenos días into mid afternoon and still be correct.

Come evening, you would greet someone buenas noches (pronounced bweh-nahs noh-ches), which is literally good nights, plural, but stands for good night.

Another way of saying hello in Spanish is simply to say Buenas. The beauty of this one word is that it is appropriate for any time of day. And if you had reason to answer a telephone in Spanish – perhaps while vacationing in Ibiza? – you could say aló. Ah-loh.