Useful extra · HSK 1 list

你好 nǐ hǎo “hello” in Chinese

Said as ní hǎo

Same in Traditional

What 你好 means

  1. hello
  2. hi

How to say 你好

  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale你nǐ3rd tone, dipping
  • Pitch chart of the third tone: dips low then rises, 2 to 1 to 4 on the five-level scale好hǎo3rd tone, dipping

Said as ní hǎo. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. How tone changes work

你好 in a sentence

  1. 你好！我叫汤姆。你叫什么？

    Nǐ hǎo! Wǒ jiào Tāngmǔ. Nǐ jiào shénme?

    Hi, my name’s Tom. What’s yours?

    Sentence #10019632 from Tatoeba

  2. 晚上好，你好吗？

    Wǎnshang hǎo, nǐ hǎo ma?

    Good evening, how are you?

    Sentence #545888 from Tatoeba

How 你好 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 你 (nǐ) with each of its parts in a different colour
你nǐyou
  • 亻person form of 人 · rén
  • 尔you · ěr

Memory aidThe old word for “you”, 尔, with a person 亻 beside it.

The character 好 (hǎo) with each of its parts in a different colour
好hǎogood
  • 女woman · nǚ
  • 子child · zǐ

Memory aidA woman 女 with her child 子: something good.

How to write 你好

你 7 strokes · 好 6 strokes

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

你好 (nǐ hǎo) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 你好 (nǐ hǎo). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 你好

Words with 你

你nǐ · you你们nǐmen · you (plural)

Words with 好

好hǎo · good好看hǎokàn · good-looking好听hǎotīng · pleasant to hear好玩儿hǎowánr · amusing好吃hǎochī · delicious不好意思bùhǎoyìsi · to feel embarrassed爱好àihào · hobby好多hǎoduō · a lot of好久hǎojiǔ · a long time好像hǎoxiàng · as if

More words: Useful Extras

你们nǐmen · you (plural)他们tāmen · they没méi · no这儿zhèr · here那儿nàr · there男人nánrén · man笔bǐ · pen歌gē · song

FAQs

你好 (nǐ hǎo) means “hello” or “hi”. It is not on the official HSK lists, but we teach it with HSK 1 because learners need it early.
Say it nǐ hǎo: nǐ with a 3rd tone, then hǎo with a 3rd tone. In speech it sounds like ní hǎo. When two third tones meet, the first one rises into a second tone. You still write it with two third tones. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 你好 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type nihao with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 你好 from the suggestions. Typing nihao into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
你好 is not on the official HSK 2.0 word lists. It is a useful extra on our HSK 1 list, because learners need it from the start.

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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.