Are you a multi-linguistic kind of person? Do you like to travel a lot? Well then I have the perfect guide to learning how to say a few basic greetings in 10 of the worlds most spoken languages. Enjoy!
Many of the words here require the knowledge of accents to properly pronounce them. If you have a friend who speaks one of these languages, ask them to give you a hand!
1. Mandarin (Chinese):
Hello – Ni Hao
How are you? – Ni Hao Ma?
Bye – Zai Jian
# of speakers: >1 billion
2. English:
Hello – What’s up man!
How are you? – How’s it going?!
Bye – See ya later!
# of speakers: 508 million
3. Hindi (Hindustani):
Hello – Namaste
How are you? – Ap kaise hain?
Bye – Pirmelange
# of speakers: 497 million
4. Spanish:
Hello – Hola
How are you? – Como Estas?
Bye – Adios
# of speakers: 392 million
5. Russian:
Hello – Zdravstvuite
How are you? – Kak dyela?
Bye – Do svidanja
# of speakers: 277 million
6. Arabic:
Hello – Al salaam a’alaykum
How are you? – Kif Halaak?
Bye – salam
# of speakers: 246 million
7. Bengali:
Hello – Ei Je
How are you? – Kamon aachen
Bye – Bidaai
# of speakers: 211 million
8. Portuguese:
Hello – Bom dia
How are you? – Como esta?
Bye – Tchau
# of speakers: 191 million
9. Indonesian (Malay):
Hello – Selamat pagi
How are you? – Kenalkan?
Bye – Selamat tinggal
# of speakers: 159 million
10. French:
Hello – Bonjour
How are you? – Comment ça va?
Bye – Au revoir
# of speakers: 129 million