HSK 6 · Function Words

嗨 hāi “hi” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 嗨 means

  1. hi
  2. hey
  3. oh alas
  4. hey!
  5. hi! (loanword)

How to say 嗨

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale嗨hāi1st tone, high and level

嗨 in a sentence

  1. 嗨！你在这儿工作吗？

    Hāi! Nǐ zài zhèr gōngzuò ma?

    Hi! Do you work here?

    Sentence #1883019 from Tatoeba

  2. 嗨，你怎么样？

    Hāi, nǐ zěnmeyàng?

    Hi, how are you?

    Sentence #574522 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  3. 嗨，你还在这里吗？

    Hāi, nǐ hái zài zhèlǐ ma?

    Hey, are you still here?

    Sentence #9956672 from Tatoeba

How 嗨 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 嗨 (hāi) with each of its parts in a different colour
嗨hāioh alas
  • 口mouth · kǒuMeaning part
  • 海sea · hǎiSound part

口 hints at the meaning (mouth); 海 (hǎi) hints at the sound. Compare it with hāi.

How to write 嗨

嗨 13 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

嗨 (hāi) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 嗨 (hāi). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 嗨

More words: Function Words & Grammar

归根到底guīgēndàodǐ · in the final analysis过于guòyú · excessively姑且gūqiě · for the time being固然gùrán · admittedly毫无háowú · not at all呵hē · to breathe out嘿hēi · hey (to attract attention)胡乱húluàn · carelessly

FAQs

嗨 (hāi) means “hi” or “hey”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it hāi: hāi with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 嗨 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type hai with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 嗨 from the suggestions. Typing hai into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
嗨 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.