Language/Russian/Vocabulary/Several-ways-to-say-hi-and-bye-in-Russian

How to say ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ in Russian

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Привет Russian learners!

In today's lesson you will learn ¨SEVERAL WAYS TO SAY (HI) AND (BYE) ¨ in Russian.

Feel free to edit this page by adding new words and expressions!

Good learning! :)

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There are many different ways to say ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ in the Russian language. Let us have a look at them in details.

There are two ways to address to someone in Russian: formal and informal. Firstly, let us discuss the formal ways of greetings. There are not so many of them, actually.

The most common way to say ‘hello’ in Russian is ‘Здравствуйте’. It’s used very often in many different situations.  If it’s morning it’s also very polite to say ‘Доброе утро’ which means ‘good morning’.  If it’s daytime we say ‘Добрый день’ which means ‘good day’ or ‘good afternoon’. If it’s evening we usually say ‘which means ‘good evening’. Finally, if it’s night we can say ‘Доброй ночи’ which does not mean ‘good night’, it’s still a greeting used at the night time.  But the last one is rarely used and some linguists consider this form of greetings as a wrong one. But the way I feel it, it’s pretty logical form, because it’s strange to say ‘добрый вечер’ if it’s night.

To sum it up, there are the most common formal expressions we use to say ‘hello’:

1. Здравствуйте
2. Доброе утро
3. Добрый день
4. Добрый вечер
5. Доброй ночи (use it cautiously).

So, now let us have a look at the informal expressions which exist in Russian, there’re much more informal expressions than formal.

The first one, a very famous one, is ‘Привет’ which means ‘hi’. Russian is not English though, and it has lots of ways to say ‘hi’ by changing the word ‘Привет’. So you can hear something like this:

• Приветик;
• Приветики;
• Прива (slang);
• Прив;
• Привки;
• Прет (it’s still ‘Привет’ pronounced rather quickly);
• Приветствую;
• Привет-привет.

Let us go further. Remember the word ‘здравствуйте’ which is formal?  We use it in informal way, too.  How? Let’s find it out.  To say ‘hi’ using this word we change it to ‘Здравствуй’.  But they are also some words based on this word like:

• Здарова;
• Дарова;
• Здрасьте;

The globalization processes is now everywhere around the globe , so it’s possible to hear the word ‘Хай’ or ‘Хэллоу’ pronounced exactly like their English brothers ‘hi’ and ‘hello’ in Russian manner, of course.

Now, let’ us talk about saying ‘goodbye’ in the formal way. There are not so few of them, actually! We have:

• До свидания – the most popular one- means ‘goodbye’;
• До скорой встречи (See You later, soon);
• Прощайте (Farewell -  You are not going to see that person again);
• Всего доброго/ хорошего/ наилучшего (Have a good day)
• Хорошего дня/ хороших выходных (have a good day, weekends, etc.)

Now, let us talk about the informal ways! There are lots of them in Russian, hopefully this article will include as many of them as it possible. Let’s see what we have:

• Пока! – means ‘bye’- very popular way to say ‘bye’
• Пока-пока;
• Покеда;
• Бывай (cheers, take it easy);
• Будь здоров! (take care)
• Давай (it’s like ‘take care’, ‘take it easy) is also a very popular way to say ‘bye’
• До скорого (see ya, in a while)
• До связи (in touch, it means you have a way to contact with a person by phone or email, etc.)
• Счастливо (You wish a good luck to a person);
• С богом (it’s like Spanish ‘Adios’)

Some foreign expressions:

• Адьёс! (a Spanish word ‘adios’)
• Чау! (an Italian word ‘Ciao’)
• Оревуар! (a French word ‘Au revoir’)
• Ауфидерзейн (a German word ‘Auf Wiedersehen’).

More words in Russian

(with translations in several languages)

ENGLISH	PRONUNCIATION ENGLISH	RUSSIAN	PRONUNCIATION BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE	BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
Hi ! Hello !	zdrahs tih vou ih tyeh	Здравствуйте		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	zdrahs tih vou ih	Здравствуй		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	prih vyeht	Привет		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	zdah rah vah	Здарова		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	dah rah vah	Дарова		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	zdrahs tyeh	Здрасьте		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	prih vyeh tihk	Приветик		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	prih vyeh tih kih	Приветики		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	prih vah	Прива		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	prihv	Прив		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	prihv kih	Привки		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	pryeht	Прет		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	prih vyehst vou you	Приветствую		oi ! / olá !
Hi ! Hello !	prih vyeht- prih vyeht	Привет-привет		oi ! / olá !
Good morning	doh brah yeh ou trah	Доброе утро		Bom dia
Good morning	doh bree dyehn	Добрый день		Bom dia
Goodbye	dahs vih dah nyah	До свидания		Tchau
See you later / soon	dah skah roy vihs treh chih	До скорой встречи		te vejo depois / em breve
Farewell	prah shah ih tyeh	Прощайте		Adéus
All the best !	vseh voh droh brah vah / Hah roh sheh vah / nah ih louch sheh vah	Всего доброго / хорошего / наилучшего		Tudo de bom !
Have a good day / weekends, etc.)	Hah roh sheh vah dnyah / Hah roh sheeH vuh hahd neeH	Хорошего дня / хороших выходных		Tenha um bom dia !
bye	pah kah / pah kah-pah kah / pah kyeh dah	Пока ! / Пока-пока / Покеда		Tchau !
Cheers, take it easy	vuh bye	Бывай		beijos, até mais
Take care	boot zdah rohv	Будь здоров		Te cuida !
Take care / Take it easy / Bye’		Давай		Te cuida !
See ya, in a while		До скорого		até mais, até logo mais
In touch, it means you have a way to contact with a person by phone or email, etc.		До связи		Mantenha contacto !
You wish a good luck to a person		Счастливо		Sorte !
It’s like Spanish ‘Adios’		С богом		Adeús

 

To conclude,  in this lesson we’ve discussed the most common ways to say ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ in Russian.

Now learn them and try to use as soon as possible.