'Hello!' in all languages of the world: Translations of the word

Not all languages are the same, and this applies both to the alphabet used and the sound of words, but also to the number of speakers. Some languages are more common because they are used by millions and 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, followed by Hindi, Spanish, French, and Arabic. Next in the rankings are Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, and Urdu. The rankings of the various languages may vary depending on the importance of the language in the place you are considering, that is, whether it is a native language, a second language, or a studied language.

If you want to learn how to say hello in the world's most common languages, you can start by saying "hello" in English. You can say "hello" or "hi" in all countries where English is spoken, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. You can instead use "salut" or "bonjour" in France, but also in the Canadian province of Quebec, Belgium, Morocco and Tunisia, and with all those peoples who also communicate through French, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon. Do you want to greet someone in Russian? You can use the word "privet."

In Spain and many Latin American countries, however, you can greet in Spanish with "hola." We are talking about 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 such as Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, and East Timor. Here you can say "hello" using the word "oi" as well as "olá."

Mandarin Chinese is the official language in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, and of course in China. If you are in any of these countries, you can say "hello" with "Nǐ hǎo," or 你好. In Hindi, on the other hand, you can say "hello" using the word "namaste," which is also well known 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 used in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in Tunisia, in Qatar, in Somalia, in Egypt, in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Oman, in Algeria, in Israel, Jordan, Sudan and other countries in Africa and Asia, where you can greet with "as-salāmu ʿalaykum" (i.e. ٱلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ). Bengali is the language spoken in Bangladesh and India. According to various statistics, by 2022 Bengali is spoken by more than 270 million people. To greet in this language you have to say "Hyālō" (i.e. হ্যালো).

Sometimes what is spelled does not correspond to how it is pronounced, and this applies to both our alphabet and other alphabets used around the world. For us Italians, some words may be more difficult to pronounce than others, especially if we do not know the characters that make it up. This is the case in Japanese or Chinese, for example, but also in European languages such as Bulgarian, Greek and Russian. Below you can find the pronunciation of the word hello in all the languages that use a different alphabet from ours, so as to facilitate interactions with people from all over the globe.

Amharic- hayi

Arabic - as-salāmu ʿalaykum

Armenian - Voghju՜yn

Bengali - Hyālō

Belarusian- pryvitannie

Burmese- hine

Bulgarian- zdrasti

Chirghiso - salam

Chinese (simplified) - Nǐ hǎo

Chinese (traditional)- Nǐ hǎo

Korean- annyeonghaseyo

Dhivehi - assalaam 'alaikum

Georgian - gamarjoba

Japanese- Yā

Greek- geia

Gujarati - Hāya

Hindi - namaste

Kannada - Namaste

Kazakh- sälem

Khmer - suostei

Lao - sabaidi

Macedonian- zdravo

Malayalam - hāy

Marathi - Hāya

Mongolian - sain uu

Nepalese - Namastē

Punjabi - Hailō

Russian - Privet

Serbian - Zdravo

Singalese - hāyi

Tajik- salom

Tamil - Vaṇakkam

Telugu - Hāy

Thai - S̄wạs̄dī

Ukrainian- Pryvit

Yiddish - hi