Learn Cantonese
9 min read
How to say hello in Cantonese: 10 greetings you'll actually hear in Hong Kong
Learn 10 natural Cantonese greetings you'll actually hear in Hong Kong, with Traditional Chinese, Jyutping and guidance on when to use each one.
If you're learning Cantonese or heading to Hong Kong, saying hello is an obvious place to start. But the way people actually greet each other depends on the time of day, the situation and how well they know each other.
你好 is perfectly correct — but Hong Kong people don't walk around saying it to their friends every five minutes. Here are 10 greetings you'll genuinely hear, with Traditional Chinese, Jyutping and when each one sounds natural.
Key Takeaways
你好 (nei5 hou2) is the standard Cantonese “hello”, but it can sound slightly formal between close friends.
早晨 (zou2 san4) is the natural way to say good morning in Hong Kong.
Casual greetings often sound more like “How’s it going?”, “Long time no see” or even “Going to work?” than a literal hello.
喂 (wai2) is the Cantonese greeting you'll hear when answering the phone.
The words are easy to memorise. Knowing which greeting fits the moment is what makes you sound natural.
The two Cantonese greetings every beginner should know
If you only learn two today, make them these:
你好 (nei5 hou2) — Hello
This is the safest all-purpose greeting. It's useful when meeting someone for the first time, speaking politely to a stranger or opening a more formal conversation.
早晨 (zou2 san4) — Good morning
This is extremely common in Hong Kong in the morning. You'll hear it between colleagues, neighbours, café staff and people passing each other in residential buildings.
The difference is useful to understand: 你好 works at any time but can feel a little textbook-like in very casual situations, whereas 早晨 often feels immediately natural and local.
Cantonese is tonal, so pronunciation matters. All examples in this guide use tone-numbered Jyutping. If that's new to you, Cantoflow's Jyutping explained and Cantonese tones guides are useful places to start.
1. 你好 — nei5 hou2
Meaning: Hello
Best for: First meetings, strangers, shops and polite situations
你好 is the standard answer to “How do you say hello in Cantonese?”
You can use it almost anywhere without sounding rude. If you're meeting a tutor for the first time, introducing yourself at work or speaking to someone you don't know, it's a safe choice.
What learners sometimes miss is that close friends don't necessarily greet each other with 你好 every time they meet. In an informal setting, one of the expressions below will often sound more natural.
A simple introduction might be:
你好，我係阿明。
nei5 hou2, ngo5 hai6 aa3 ming4.
Hello, I'm Ah Ming.
2. 早晨 — zou2 san4
Meaning: Good morning
Best for: Mornings, colleagues, neighbours and everyday encounters
早晨 is one of the most useful greetings in Hong Kong.
Walk into an office in the morning, meet a neighbour in the lift or stop at your regular café and this is exactly the sort of greeting you'll hear.
It feels friendly without being overly familiar.
You may occasionally hear people shorten morning greetings in casual speech, but 早晨 is the version beginners should learn first.
3. 嗨 — haai1
Meaning: Hi
Best for: Friends, messages and very casual situations
嗨 is borrowed from English “hi” and works much the same way.
It's short, casual and especially natural among younger speakers or in messages.
You wouldn't normally choose it for a formal introduction, but between friends it can feel much less stiff than 你好.
4. 哈囉 — haa1 lo3
Meaning: Hello
Best for: Casual conversation and friendly introductions
Another English-influenced greeting, 哈囉 sounds close to “hello”.
You'll hear it in Hong Kong, particularly in relaxed conversations where speakers naturally mix Cantonese and English.
It's friendly and easygoing rather than formal.
5. 點呀？ — dim2 aa3?
Meaning: How's it going? / What's up?
Best for: Friends and familiar colleagues
This is where Cantonese starts sounding much more like real conversation and much less like a phrasebook.
點呀？ is a quick, casual way to greet someone you already know.
You might see a friend and simply say:
點呀？
There's no need to follow it with 你好. The question itself does the job of the greeting.
6. 你最近點呀？ — nei5 zeoi3 gan6 dim2 aa3?
Meaning: How have you been lately?
Best for: Catching up with someone
If you haven't spoken to somebody for a little while, this is a warmer and more complete version of 點呀？
It's useful in person or in a message and gives the other person an obvious opening to tell you what's been happening.
This is much closer to the way natural conversations begin than repeatedly asking 你好嗎？
7. 好耐冇見！ — hou2 noi6 mou5 gin3!
Meaning: Long time no see!
Best for: Someone you haven't seen for a while
This is a very useful phrase because it functions as both a greeting and a conversation starter.
If an old colleague or friend appears after a long absence, 好耐冇見！ immediately sounds warmer than a plain 你好.
From there, you can naturally follow with:
你最近點呀？
nei5 zeoi3 gan6 dim2 aa3?
How have you been lately?
8. 食咗飯未？ — sik6 zo2 faan6 mei6?
Meaning: Have you eaten yet?
Best for: Familiar, friendly conversation
This one gives you a glimpse into how greetings don't always translate neatly between languages.
食咗飯未？ literally asks whether somebody has eaten, but in the right context it can function as a friendly check-in rather than a serious invitation to dinner.
You'll especially hear this kind of greeting among family members, neighbours and older generations.
As a beginner, you don't need to force it into every conversation. The useful thing is simply recognising that someone asking about food may actually be greeting you.
9. 喂？ — wai2?
Meaning: Hello?
Best for: Answering the phone
Pick up a phone call in Cantonese and 喂？ is the greeting you're likely to hear.
It's essentially the Cantonese equivalent of answering with “Hello?”
The important bit is context: 喂 is strongly associated with phone calls, so don't learn it as a universal replacement for 你好.
If you regularly speak to Hong Kong businesses, delivery drivers, relatives or colleagues by phone, you'll hear this constantly.
10. 返工呀？ — faan1 gung1 aa3?
Meaning: Going to work? / Off to work?
Best for: Casual morning small talk
This is a perfect example of a Hong Kong greeting that doesn't look like a greeting on paper.
Imagine meeting a neighbour downstairs in the morning while you're both heading out. Rather than saying “hello”, they might simply ask:
返工呀？
They're not necessarily fascinated by your employment status. It's everyday small talk — essentially acknowledging that they've seen you and opening a conversation.
Similar situational questions are common in natural Cantonese. That's why learning context matters just as much as learning vocabulary.
Why 你好嗎？ can sound a little textbook-like
你好嗎？ (nei5 hou2 maa3?) literally asks “How are you?” and is completely understandable.
But learners often use it far more frequently than native speakers do.
With friends, expressions such as 點呀？ or 你最近點呀？ usually feel more conversational.
That doesn't make 你好嗎？ wrong. It simply means that the most direct translation from an English textbook isn't always the phrase you'll hear most often in Hong Kong.
You'll also encounter 您好 in written or highly formal contexts, but it isn't something most beginners need to prioritise for everyday spoken Cantonese.
Greetings are about context, not just vocabulary
One of the quickest ways to sound more natural in Cantonese is to stop searching for one universal translation of “hello”.
A colleague at 9am might say 早晨.
A friend might say 點呀？
Someone you haven't seen in months might say 好耐冇見.
Your neighbour might ask 返工呀？
And the person answering your phone call might simply say 喂？
Once you notice this, Cantonese greetings become much easier. You're not memorising ten competing ways to say the same thing — you're learning which greeting belongs to which moment.
If you want to go beyond greetings, Cantoflow's Learn Cantonese for beginners and Cantonese slang guides are good next steps.
Practising natural Cantonese greetings
Memorising the words is the easy part.
The more useful skill is knowing whether something sounds friendly, formal, overly textbook-like or too casual for the person you're speaking to.
That's exactly the kind of thing that's difficult to learn from a phrase list alone.
Cantoflow offers beginner-friendly 1-to-1 online lessons with a native Hong Kong tutor, so you can practise real situations, get immediate feedback on your tones and learn the expressions people actually use.
A £30 trial lesson is an easy place to start if you want somebody to listen to your pronunciation and help you sound more natural.
For more self-study first, try:
Jyutping explained: A beginner's guide to Cantonese romanisation
Cantonese tones: A complete guide to mastering pitch in Cantonese
FAQ
Is 你好 different in Cantonese and Mandarin?
The written characters are the same, but the pronunciation is different.
In Cantonese, 你好 is pronounced nei5 hou2.
In Mandarin, the same characters are pronounced nǐ hǎo.
In Hong Kong Cantonese, 你好 is perfectly correct but can feel more formal than the greetings friends use with each other in everyday conversation.
Can I say 早晨 in the afternoon?
For a beginner, treat 早晨 as a morning greeting.
Later in the day, use another greeting that suits the situation — perhaps 你好 with someone new or 點呀？ with a friend.
What's the difference between 嗨 and 哈囉?
Both are casual greetings influenced by English.
嗨 (haai1) is essentially “hi”, while 哈囉 (haa1 lo3) is closer to “hello”.
Both work naturally in informal situations, particularly with friends and younger speakers.
Do I need Jyutping to learn these greetings?
You don't need to master the entire system before saying hello, but Jyutping makes Cantonese pronunciation much easier to understand.
It shows both the sounds and the tone number for each syllable, so instead of guessing how Chinese characters should sound, you have a consistent pronunciation guide.
What's the most natural way to say hello in Cantonese?
There isn't one answer for every situation.
你好 is the safest general greeting, 早晨 is excellent in the morning, 點呀？ works naturally with friends and 喂？ is what you'll commonly hear on the phone.
The most natural greeting depends on who you're speaking to and what is happening around you.
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