你好
nei⁵ hou²
In Cantonese, 'hi' is said as 你好 (nei⁵ hou²).
你好 is the standard way to say 'hello' in Cantonese. In very casual spoken Cantonese, people often use English 'Hi' or 'Hello' instead.
Meaning: friendly, informal greeting (intj)
How do you pronounce it?
nei⁵ hou²
Did you know?
- A common way to say 'hi' to a friend is to ask 'Have you eaten yet?' using 食咗飯未? (sik6 zo2 faan6 mei6?).
- When answering a telephone, Cantonese speakers almost exclusively use 喂 (wai3) instead of 你好 (nei5 hou2).
- The word 好 in 你好 means 'good', but it also functions as a marker of agreement or 'okay' in other contexts.
Examples in context
- 你好呀，係咪波士頓公共圖書館呀？Hi, is this the Boston Public Library?This sentence uses 你好 to start a question.Tatoeba #6108481 by nickyeow, translation #6102584 by mailohilohi
- 嗨，你今日點呀？Hi, how are you today?
Example conversation
Two friends meet unexpectedly at a shopping mall.
- 志強 Chi Keung你好，曉彤！好耐冇見。nei5 hou2, hiu2 tung4! hou2 noi6 mou5 gin3.Hi,曉彤! Long time no see.
- 曉彤 Hiu Tung你好，志強！你喺度做咩呀？nei5 hou2, zi3 keung4! nei5 hai2 dou3 zou6 me1 aa3?Hi,志強! What are you doing here?
- 志強 Chi Keung我嚟買啲嘢，你呢？ngo5 lai4 maai5 di1 je5, nei5 ne1?I'm buying some things, how about you?
- 曉彤 Hiu Tung我同朋友出嚟行街。ngo5 tung4 pang4 jau5 chut1 lai4 haang4 gaai1.I'm hanging out with a friend.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “hi” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
