How to say hello and goodbye in Vietnamese?

If you're planning to visit Vietnam or starting to learn Vietnamese, knowing a few basic expressions will be very useful.

In this article, you'll learn some basic Vietnamese greetings and the etiquette.

How to say Hello in Vietnamese

You can use both Xin chào or Chào to greet someone in Vietnam.

The more casual way to say hello to someone is Chào. You can also use it to say goodbye.

To sound more Vietnamese, you can use the structure below.

Quick intro to Vietnamese Pronouns

Vietnamese has several words for “you”. You address people (and refer to yourself) using kinship words like “uncle”, “brother”, or “grandpa”.

The specific word to use depends on the age, gender, and social status of the person you’re talking to. You can use these words for everyone, not just in your family.

• em (younger sibling): someone younger than you
• bạn (friend): someone around the same age as you, your friend.
• anh (older brother): a male slightly older than you
• chị (older sister): a female slightly older than you
• cô (aunt): a woman older than you
• chú (uncle): a man older than you
• bác (uncle): can be used for both gender who are about middle-age or about your parents' age.
• ông (grandpa): an elderly man or someone about your granddad' age.
• bà (grandma): an elderly woman or someone about your grandma' age.

Read more: You can learn more about pronouns here.

Examples

How do Vietnamese say Hello on a phone?

When answering the telephone, you can say simply say a-lo (pronounced “ah-lo”).

Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Evening in Vietnamese

You can also greet people based on the time of the day.

Good morning

To greet someone in the morning, about 5am to 11 pm, you can say “Chào buổi sáng”

Good afternoon

While the afternoon is “buổi chiều” in Vietnamese, chào buổi chiều is not often used. You can just use Chào.

Good evening

People don't usually say Chào buổi tối either. Instead, you can use Buổi tối vui vẻ to wish someone a good evening.

To wish someone goodnight, you can say Chúc ngủ ngon.

Vietnamese Ơi

If you need to get someone's attention, such as in a restaurant, on the street, in a shop or anywhere, you can use ơi, which means hey.

It usually goes together with the pronouns or names.

For example, to call a waiter, you use anh ơi. Or if you needs to call your friend named John, say John ơi.

Nice to meet you in Vietnamese

After greeting, you would say Rất vui được gặp bạn. It means “Nice to meet you”. You should replace bạn with a proper pronoun.

Goodbye in Vietnamese

How to say goodbye in Vietnamese?

With our friends, we casually say bái bai as in bye bye. For more formal goodbye, you can say tạm biệt.

Another Vietnamese phrase you should know is Hẹn gặp lại, which means see you again.

Overview: Vietnamese Greetings