One of the first things you learn in Chinese is to say hello. But do you also know how to say goodbye in Mandarin? Knowing how to say goodbye is just as important as knowing how to say hello, yes, no and thank you in Chinese. In fact, knowing how to take leave from someone is part of the basic Chinese you need to master.

再见

zài jiàn

Goodbye; See you

再见 is the most common and standard way to say goodbye in Mandarin. You can use this expression with everybody and in all sorts of situations. 再见 literally means “See you again”, as it’s composed of the character 再 zài, which means “again” and of the character见 jiàn “to see”. That being said, you can still use 再见 if you’re not planning on seeing the person ever again.

拜拜

bái bái

Bye-bye

The most frequent and easy way to say goodbye in Mandarin is going to sound very familiar to you: it’s 拜拜, which means“bye bye“and is pronounced just like in English! It’s casual and informal, but don’t worry, almost all the people use it in China now. 拜拜 was first used in Taiwan, but you’ll hear it used everywhere that speaks Chinese now.

As the word 八 (8), pronounced bā sounds close to “bye”, you’ll sometimes see 拜拜 written as 88 online. So if someone writes 88 to you, you know now what they mean!

回头见

huí tóu jiàn

see you later

When you want to say “see you later”, two expressions you can use are:

· 一会儿见. Here, 一会儿 yīhuǐ er means “a little while”, so 一会儿见 very simply means “see you in a little while”.

· or 回头见. 回头 literally means “to turn one’s head around” and figurately means “later” so, combined with 见, 回头见 means “see you later“.

明天见

míng tiān jiàn

see you tomorrow

When the day is over and you want to say“see you tomorrow”to your classmate or colleague, you can say 明天见！This expression is very easy to use in Chinese, and good to know when you want to say goodbye to someone till a specific date.

再联系

zài lián xi

Let's catch up later/ let's stay in touch

When a conversation is suddenly broken up but you want to show you‘ll stay in contact with someone, you can say 再联系. This indicates to the other person you desire to catch up with them later, and shows you want to stay in touch. The expression is made up of the words:

· 再, which you saw above, and means “again· 联系 – lián xi – means “contact, relation, in touch with”.