You know now how to greet people depending on how many they are with the most used and common expressions. Let’s see now how to say hello in Chinese based on what time of day it is. These following expressions are used as often as their equivalents in English. So don’t be surprised if someone greets you that way, it’ll happen.
1 早上好 / 上午好 – To start the day the right way
How do to say hello in Chinese in the morning? Easy! You can use the word 早上 zǎoshang early morning and add the Chinese character 好 hǎo good. What you get in the end is the word 早上好 zǎoshang hǎo Good morning.
But be careful, 早上好 is only used if you meet someone early in the morning, specifically from 6am to 9am. After that, from 9am to 12am, you must say 上午好 shàngwǔ hǎo Good morning which also means good morning. 上午 shàngwǔ means morning.
2 下午好 – Good afternoon: the greeting for the tea lovers
Let’s pretend it’s the afternoon and you’re going over a friend’s house for tea time. When arriving, you can say
朋友下午好 péngyǒu xiàwǔ hǎo Good afternoon my friend
下午 xiàwǔ means afternoon and it’s added to the character 好 hǎo good, to create good afternoon. The Chinese language is really easy, don’t you think?
3 晚上好 – Good evening: the greeting for the night owls
When it’s late, and you’re supposed to meet people in the evening you can greet them by saying 晚上好 wǎnshàng hǎo Good evening. As you have probably easily guessed, 晚上 wǎnshàng means evening.
