‘Happy New Year’ in Chinese language

Happy New Year 2012. I hope you have had a great start to the year, but have you learned how to say Happy New Year in Chinese language yet?

新年快乐 (Xīn nián kuàilè): Happy New Year

Now let’s break it down:

新 (xīn): new
年 (nián): year
快乐 (kuàilè): happy

And how do you say Merry Christmas?

圣诞快乐 (Shèngdàn kuàilè): Merry Christmas

Let’s look at few other examples:

周末快乐 (Zhō mò kuàilè): Happy weekend/Have a great weekend
生日快乐 (Shēngrì kuàilè): Happy birthday

Or you can also say

祝你生日快乐 (Zhù nǐ shēngrì kuàilè): Happy birthday to you
祝 (zhù): wish

How to say Hello in Chinese?

Most of us already know 你好 (nǐ hǎo). But what are some other ways of saying Hello in Chinese? Use one of the following rather than saying 你好 (nǐ hǎo) and you will definitely make some Chinese friends.

大家好(dàjiā hǎo) : Hello everyone

你好吗? (nǐ hǎo ma?) : How are you?

怎么样? (zěnme yàng) : How is it going?

好久不见 (hǎo jiǔ bù jiàn) : Long time no see

The following are also commonly used:

你身体好吗? (nǐ shēntǐ hǎo ma?) : How is your health? /How are you?

你吃过了吗? (nǐ chī guò le ma?) : Have you eaten yet?

And how do you respond to these questions? Well, you could always just reply 你好 (nǐ hǎo), but below are few possible responses which will make people believe that you know Chinese.

很好 (hěn hǎo) : Good

非常好 (fēicháng hǎo) : Very good

不错 (bùcuò) : Not bad

还好 (hái hǎo) : OK

And my personal favorite:

马马虎虎 (mǎmǎhǔhǔ) : so-so

Next time you have to say Hello in Chinese, don’t just say 你好. Try one of the above and make a good impression.