“Hello” in Vietnamese: 10 Vietnamese Greetings You Can Start Using Today

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Let’s start with the phrase you came for, xin chào!

When you arrive in Việt Nam, as the native speakers of Vietnamese call it, the first thing you'll want to do is greet your new hosts. That means knowing how to say all the basic pleasantries such as “hello”, “nice to meet you”, and “how are you?”

On the surface, Vietnamese greetings are actually a pretty simple topic. There aren't a lot of different ways to say “hello” in Vietnamese.

What complicates things is that, in order to know how to say “hello” in Vietnamese correctly, you often need to include the right pronoun (he/she/you) – and in Vietnamese, there are a lot of potential pronouns to choose from.

In this article, I'll teach you all the basic Vietnamese words you need to know to successfully greet people and exchange niceties. I'll also cover the basics of Vietnam's pronoun system, as it's essential for Vietnamese greetings and much else.

Let's start with the most basic Vietnamese greeting that every textbook will teach you first:

A note from the Fluent in 3 Months team before we get started: You can chat away with a native speaker for at least 15 minutes with the “Fluent in 3 Months” method. All it takes is 90 days. Tap this link to find out more.

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“Hello” in Vietnamese – Xin chào

Xin chào is a useful general greeting to learn first. It can sound rather formal, though, and a greeting with an appropriate form of address often fits the situation better.

You might use Italian “ciao” as a rough reminder of chào, but don't copy its pronunciation exactly. The accent on chào marks the low huyền tone. Listen to a native speaker and copy the whole syllable, including its tone; the details vary by region.

With chào in our arsenal, it's time to take a brief detour into Vietnamese pronouns.

Vietnamese Pronouns – a Basic Introduction

Vietnamese has several ways to say “you”, rather than one word that works in every situation. Choosing one tells the listener something about your relationship.

Often, you address people (and refer to yourself) using family words like “uncle”, “brother”, or “grandpa”.

These words aren't restricted to your actual family: you also use them with people outside your family, even strangers. The choice depends on relative age, gender, relationship and social context.

So for example, if I want to ask you how you are, and you're a girl slightly younger than me, I could say em có khỏe không?, where em means “younger sibling”. To an old man, I would instead say ông có khỏe không? – “how are you, grandpa?” There are many other words to learn.

Here are a few you should know:

• em – “younger sibling”; said to someone slightly younger than you
• bạn – “friend”; said to someone around the same age as you.
• anh – “older brother”; said to a male slightly older than you
• chị – “older sister”; said to a female slightly older than you
• chú – “uncle”; often used for a man of your parents' generation, especially one younger than your parent
• cô – “aunt”; often used for a woman of your parents' generation, and also for a female teacher
• ông – “grandpa”; said to an elderly man or someone much older than you
• bà – “grandma”; said to an elderly woman or someone much older than you

Those are starting points, not a rigid age chart. Usage varies by region and relationship; ông and bà can also function as formal forms of address, rather like “Mr.” and “Ms.”.

If this sounds complicated, don't try to master it all at once. People may help you find the right term, but a wrong choice can still sound rude or awkward. Follow how someone introduces themselves, listen to how others address them, or ask what they'd prefer.

You may hear bao nhiêu tuổi? (“how old are you?”) when getting to know someone. Age can help people choose a form of address, but you don't always need someone's exact age before you can talk to them.

Vietnamese also has several ways to say “I”, including tôi, which we'll look at below. With kinship terms, the same word can mean “I” or “you” depending on who's speaking. In a matched pair, each person uses the term that describes their side of the relationship.

So for example, a young man might say to his girlfriend: anh yêu em (“I love you”), literally “older brother loves younger sibling.” The girlfriend might then say back to him em yêu anh – “younger sibling loves older brother”. Note how anh means “I” in the first sentence but “you” in the second one.

There are some other ways of saying “I”, but we'll worry about them later.

Here's another fun fact about Vietnamese pronouns. You know how in English, we typically refer to people by their title and last name in formal situations? For example, in some situations you might be addressed as “Benny”, but in others, you might be called “Mr. Lewis”.

Vietnamese forms of address usually go with a person's given name, not their family name. Family names still appear in full names and formal records; they just aren't the usual choice when addressing someone this way.

Like in many Asian cultures, Vietnamese names put the family name first and the given name last. So what Westerners call a “last name” is actually a “first name”, if you catch my drift. For the avoidance of doubt, I’ll refer to “family names” and “given names” instead of “first” and “last”.

So, if someone's given name is “Hiển”, others might refer to him as “Anh Hiển” – brother Hiển. This is roughly analogous to calling someone “Mr. (Family name)” in English.

I’ve only scratched the surface. The topic of Vietnamese pronouns goes much deeper. But the above should be enough to get started. Let's get back to chào and the question of how to say “hi” in Vietnamese.

“Hello” in Vietnamese Chào bạn/anh/chị

In general, xin chào can sound more formal than necessary. It's more casual to say chào followed by the appropriate pronoun, e.g.:

• chào bạn – “hello (person same age as me)”
• chào anh – “hello (young man, boy slightly older than me)”
• chào chị – “hello (young woman, girl older than me)”

If you want to greet a group of people, you can say chào các bạn – “hello all (my) friends”.

By the way, if you're not sure what all those weird accent marks mean on or under words like chị, or why Vietnamese sometimes has twố ằccents ọn the sẩme letter, you need to go back and learn the Vietnamese alphabet. Vietnamese is difficult to pronounce, but the writing system is fairly easy to read, and our guide to the Vietnamese alphabet will take you through it.

“Good Morning”, “Good Afternoon” and “Good Evening” in Vietnamese

You may also come across these time-of-day greetings. They don't remove the need to choose an appropriate form of address when the situation calls for one:

• chào buổi sáng means “good morning” in Vietnamese
• chào buổi chiều means “good afternoon” in Vietnamese
• chào buổi tối means “good evening” in Vietnamese

These greetings aren't as commonly used as a simple chào bạn, but they're still something you should know.

“Hello” (on the phone) in Vietnamese – A-lô

On the phone, you can still greet someone with chào, but a-lô is a common opening. You'll notice similar phone greetings in Portuguese, alô, and French, allô.

A-lô is also the kind of thing you might say if the line is patchy and you're not sure if the other person is there. A-lô, can you hear me?

“Hey!” in Vietnamese – Ơi

Ơi sounds uncomfortably like the British “oi!”, which would be a rude way to address a stranger in English.

In Vietnamese, ơi is commonly used after a name or suitable form of address to get someone's attention. Whether it sounds polite depends on your choice of address, tone and relationship.

You'd usually preface it with the correct pronoun. For example, you might say anh ơi! to beckon the (male) waiter over in a restaurant.

You can also use ơi with someone's given name. With a friend you normally call Hiển, try Hiển ơi!; if you normally call him anh Hiển, keep anh in the call too.

“How are you?” in Vietnamese – Khỏe không?

In Vietnamese, to ask someone how they are, what you’re really asking is if they're khỏe – “healthy”.

So “how are you?” is khỏe không? (“are you healthy?”).

You can also use a slightly longer sentence with a pronoun. For example, you could ask an elderly man ông có khỏe không? (“are you (grandpa) healthy?”).

The usual way to answer a Vietnamese question in the affirmative is to repeat the word from the question, rather than reach for one all-purpose “yes” as you would in English. The positive response to khỏe không? is just khỏe! (“(I'm) healthy.”), though you’ll also hear dạ and vâng used as a polite “yes”, and ừ among friends.

Không by itself just means “no”, so if “grandpa” is not feeling good, the conversation might look like this:

• Ông có khỏe không?
• Không!

“What’s your name?” in Vietnamese – Tên của bạn là gì? / Bạn tên gì?

An important early step when getting to know someone is learning their name! “Name” in Vietnamese is tên, and to ask for it say tên của bạn là gì? (“name of friend is what?”), or the simpler bạn tên gì?

As I hope you've figured out by now, you'll need to replace bạn in the above examples with the appropriate pronoun for whom you're talking to. So you might instead ask tên của cô là gì? or bà tên gì?

In friendly conversations, especially among peers, names can stand in for “I” and “you”. That may sound like talking in the third person in English, but it can sound natural in Vietnamese. For example:

Phúc: Phúc là người Việt. George là người Mỹ, phải không?
George: Không phải, George là người Anh.

Translation:

Phúc: Phúc is Vietnamese. Is George American?
George: No, George is English.

This can sound friendly between people who are comfortable using each other's names. With elders or in formal situations, keep the appropriate form of address unless you're invited to do otherwise.

“Nice to Meet You” in Vietnamese – Rất vui được gặp bạn

After greeting someone, and learning their name (and age), the next thing you might want to do is say rất vui được gặp bạn. This means “nice to meet you!”

Once again, replace bạn with the right pronoun.

“Goodbye” in Vietnamese: Tạm biệt / Hẹn gặp lại

We've covered how to say “hello”, but what if you want to say “goodbye” in Vietnamese? The most important phrase to know here is tạm biệt, which means, well, “goodbye”!

Another phrase you might say is hẹn gặp lại, meaning “see you again!”

More Ways to Say “I” in Vietnamese

Since knowledge of Vietnamese pronouns is so essential to a knowledge of Vietnamese greetings, I feel it's helpful to end on another quick pronoun-related point.

A useful pronoun to know is tôi, meaning “I”. It historically comes from a word for “servant”, but that isn't what you're saying in an ordinary modern introduction. English “toy” is only a rough pronunciation reminder; listen to native audio for the Vietnamese vowel.

You can use tôi in polite conversation, though it may sound distant with close friends or family. In those relationships, forms such as em/anh/chị often fit better, depending on who's speaking to whom.

Tôi also works in a formal introduction, a public talk or many kinds of writing. It isn't limited to situations where you have no particular listener.

It's also a word you could use in a crowd if you want to be absolutely clear that you're talking about yourself and not, say, someone else in the room who could conceivably be an em.

của ai? – “whose is this?”
của tôi! – “It’s mine!”

But tôi can still show up in greetings. For example, tôi rất vui được gặp anh (“I'm very pleased to meet you”).

Cảm ơn các bạn for reading! (That means “thank you, friends!”)

Benny’s @languagehacking account is worth a follow, and the Instagram post below promotes his Language Hacking Podcast conversation with Jeremy Ginsburg, a self-described “VietNomad” who lives in Vietnam and speaks Vietnamese:

Once these greetings feel natural, the obvious next step is learning how to say thank you in Vietnamese. Pronunciation is the trickier part, so sign up for VietnamesePod101 for native-speaker audio; if you’d like to know what you’re signing up for first, our VietnamesePod101 review explains what you get.

When you’re ready to go beyond greetings and have a proper chat, join the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp, where you’ll have 90 days to reach a 15-minute conversation with a native speaker. That’s quite a leap from xin chào, and way more fun than memorising pronoun tables!