Say hello in different languages

Hello! Our favourite thing whilst travelling is talking to local people about their country and life in general. I must admit I am not that great at languages, Karen is a lot better than me but learning to simply say hello in different languages can get the ball rolling. Once you have made an effort, people generally respond and then you could be on your way to making a new friend. To help you achieve this we have listed below how to say hello in different languages. If we have left one out, please let us know.

Afrikaans – Haai

Albanian – Ç’kemi

Amharic – Sälam

Arabic – is salām ‘alaykum

Aramaic – Shl’am lak

Armenian – Barev

Azerbaijani – Salam

Basque – Kaixo

Belarusian – Bitaio

Bengali – Nômoshkar (For Hindus), Slam Alikum (For Muslims)

Bhojpuri – Prannam

Bosnian -Zdravo

Bulgarian -Zdravei

Burmese – Min-ga-la-ba

Chechen – Salam

Cherokee – Siyo

Chinese (Cantonese) – Néih hóu

Chinese (Mandarin) – Nǐ hǎo

Comanche – Marʉ́awe

Cornish – Dydh da

Corsican – Salute

Croatian – Bok

Czech – Ahoj

Danish – Hej

Dutch – Hallo

English – Hello

Estonian – Tere

Faroese – Hallo

Fijian – Bula

Finnish – Terve

French – Bonjour

Georgian – Gamarjoba

German – Guten Tag

Greek – Ya

Greenlandic – Aluu

Gujarati – Namaste

Hawaiian – Aloha

Hebrew – Shalom

Hindi – Namaste

Hungarian – Szia

Icelandic – Halló

Indonesian – Hi

Irish – Dia dhuit

Italian – Ciao

Japanese – Konnichiwa

Kazakh – Sälem!

Khmer – Suô-stei

Kiribati – Ko na mauri

Korean – Annyeong

Kurdish – Ser chava ser sera

Kyrgyz – Salam!

Lao – Sába̖ai-di̖i

Latin – Heus

Latvian – Sveiki

Lithuanian – Labas

Luganda – Oli otya

Macedonian – Zdravo

Malagasy – Manao ahoana

Malay – Selamat pagi

Maltese – Ħello

Maori – Kia ora

Marshallese – Io̧kwe

Míkmaq – Gwe’

Mongolian – Sain uu?

Navajo – Yá’át’ééh

Ndebele – Salibonani

Nepali – Namaste

Norwegian – Goddag

Oriya – Namaskara

Pashto – Khe chare

Persian – Dorood

Polish – Cześć

Portuguese – Olá

Punjabi – Sat srī akāl

Romanian – Salut

Russian – Privet

Samoan – Malō

Sanskrit – Namaste

Serbian – Zdravo

Sesotho – Lumela

Sinhala – āyubūvan

Slovak – Ahoj

Slovenian – Žijvo

Somali – Is Ka Warran

Spanish – Hola!

Sundanese – Sampurasun

Swahili – Habari

Swedish – Hej

Tagalog – Musta?

Tahitian – La Ora Na

Tajik – Assalomu aleykum

Tamil – Vaṇakkã

Tatar – Isänme

Thai – Sà-wàt-dee

Tibetan – Tashi delek

Tongan – Mālō e lelei

Tumbuka – Monile

Turkish – Merhaba

Turkmen – Salam

Ukrainian – Ahov

Urdu – āssālam ‘alaykum

Uzbek – Salom

Vietnamese – Chà0 anh

Welsh – Helô

Xhosa – Molo

Yiddish – A gutn tog

Zulu – Sawubona

We hope this list comes in useful and helps breaks down barriers. As I mentioned before, I am sure there are many languages I have left out. If you spot one, please let me know in the comments, by e-mail or social media.

Happy travelling and chatting!

#LoveYourTravels