# good morning, afternoon, evening, night, day



## jana.bo99

Hello,

As you see I am now with you and want to know at least ten (10) sentences in Chinese (mandarin or cantonese).

Greetings to all of you,

jana.bo

Moderator's Note: Several threads have been merged to create this one.


----------



## avlee

good morning 早上好,你早,早
good day 你好,
good evening 晚上好
...


----------



## jana.bo99

Hello avlee,

Thank you for answer, but all those squares mean nothing to me. I need 100 years to understand it all.

Can you please write some letters, how do you say it? 

Thank you for help.

jana.bo 

p.s. I came here because of  Spanish language but have seen that your language is something very special for us from West Europe.


----------



## samanthalee

Hi jana.bo,

Perhaps next time you would like to state right from the beginning that you need the romanized version. 

*good morning*
1) 早上好 zao3 shang4 hao3 (literally: morning good)
2) 你早 ni2 zao3 (literally: you morning)
3) 早 zao3 (literally: morning)

*good day*
1) 你好 ni2 hao3 (literally: you good)

*good evening*
1) 傍晚好 bang4 wan3 hao3 (literally: evening good)
2) 晚上好 wan3 shang4 hao3 (literally: night good)

*good afternoon*
下午好 xia4 wu2 hao3 (literally: afternoon good)

*good night*
晚安 wan3 an1 (literally: night safe)


----------



## jana.bo99

Hello Samanthalee,

Thank you for that. It means very much to me. You write it very nice and clear.

Sure, I will start as you say, but I didn't know the rules for Chinese language.

I should tell you now in Chinese:

Thank you very much!

(but I don't know, how?)

jana.bo


----------



## kareno999

Hey,

Do you guys really say 傍晚好 in everay life?? It sounds pretty funny to me, y'know.


----------



## samanthalee

kareno999 said:


> Hey,
> 
> Do you guys really say 傍晚好 in everay life?? It sounds pretty funny to me, you know.



In everyday life, I only use 早 and 你好. And this parallels my habit of using only _'morning_ and _Hi_. So maybe it's just me. 

Our newscasters in Singapore use 傍晚好, so it didn't sound odd to me when I wrote it. Does it sound odd to others?  We don't usually say _good evening_ too, do we?


----------



## jana.bo99

Hello Samanthalee,

Thank you very, very much for that kind explanation.

Hello kareno999,

How do you say in Shanghai (it is China as well)?

Regards,
jana.bo


----------



## coconutpalm

We don't say 傍晚好 in mainland China, from my personal experience. 

Personally, I only say
你好ni2 hao3/您好 nin2 hao3 for hello
早上好zao3 shang4 hao3 for good morning
晚安 wan3 an1 good night
in daily life. 
However, if I'm making a formal speech at night or in the afternoon, I'll say 晚上好wan3 shang4 hao3 for good evening or 下午好xia4 wu3 hao3 for good afternoon.

I think that the reason why we usually say 早上好, but not 下午好 is that the morning is the important beginning.

Besides, all above is said as a greeting. The Chinese equivalent of good morning/evening when used at the departure is an only 再见 zai4 jian4 for byebye.


----------



## jana.bo99

Coconutpalm,

Thank you again. 

I am not sure, how manage with all those squares, but your language looks very interesting to me.

jana.bo


----------



## kareno999

The same as what people say in Singapore (when they say it, if you know what I mean)


----------



## bwuw

你好 everyone!

I'd like to know which are the most frequent ways to say: good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night".
In know that good morning is 早上好 or 早 , good afternoon下午好, good evening 晚上好 and good night 晚安"， but I'd like to know if there's another way to say "hello" after 8:00pm. Do we also have to say 晚上好?

谢谢大家！


----------



## sesame_fr

In our life, we don't say often 早上好、上午好、下午好、晚上好，these expressions could be used but in some very formal situation or between some strangers. In the TV programmes, we can heard 早上好、下午好、晚上好 etc. But in the people's life, we say 出去啊？ or 下班了？ or 干嘛去？or 吃饭了？ or 出来逛啊？，these questions are not in order to get the real answers of another people, they are simply a way to say hello to someone you know. But nowadays, in your work place maybe you will say 您好 or 你好 to say hello. If you write, of course you use 早上好、上午好、你好etc. 
Good night is 晚安，an expression is used more often for the young people. 

Here, you wrote "你好 everyone"，I think you'd better to write "大家好"。

Hope you can understand my English and can help you


----------



## bwuw

多谢！
Thank you for your answer!! You've given me a complete and easily comprehensible explanation 
谢谢你！


----------



## yuechu

I just wanted to add that "早安"/"早" is commonly said in the morning (or at least, it is commonly said to me). I think it may be more common than 早上好。。


----------



## gvergara

I'm a bit confused. The only expressions my book mentions are 早安, 午安, 晚安, but these were not the preferred answers to the original question, so do these greeting expressions depend on the georaphical area, or is it just a matter of formality? Look forward to your answers.


----------



## SuperXW

gvergara said:


> I'm a bit confused. The only expressions my book mentions are 早安, 午安, 晚安, but these were not the preferred answers to the original question, so do these greeting expressions depend on the georaphical area, or is it just a matter of formality? Look forward to your answers.


1. 早安/午安/晚安 are "direct translations" of Good morning/"noon"/evening respectively, ignoring the context. They are understandable but not necessarily common used.
2. It does depend on the geographic area, more or less, for example, 早安 is a bit more common in Taiwan, comparing to other places.
3. It is also a matter of formality, more or less. For example, 早安 sounds more refined than just saying 早.
4. In real life, 午安 is rarely used, unless you appear at everybody's lunch gathering, and want to announce something; or, maybe you can say it after kissing your son for a siesta.
5. and 晚安 is only used before going to bed.


----------



## retrogradedwithwind

晚安，for me, this word is only used when texting, qq chatting or something like that. After one says s/he will fall asleep by texting or qq, I will type 晚安 back to her/him and end this conversation.

早安，I never say this word, even never write it. I will say （大家）早上好/上午好（I think 早上 is a bit earlier than 上午） before making a speech or announcing something. When coming across an acquaintance, I will say 早，早啊，这么早（so early），你来了，怎么样啊 etc.

午安， is this a Chinese word? Well, it is, but I never meet it in my real life. 中午好 is also rare, because when is 中午？ No, there are 上午 and 下午, no 中午！


----------

