Greetings in Hindi: namaste, hello, thank you and goodbye

Namaste and namaskār: the everyday greetings in Hindi

Namaste is Sanskrit: namas, a bow or salutation, plus te, to you. Wikipedia's article on the word glosses it as bowing to you and traces namas-te with this meaning back to the Rigveda. In Hindi it is spoken with or without the gesture of palms pressed together at the chest, which has its own name, añjali mudrā. The word works for hello and for goodbye, so the same namaste opens and closes a visit.

Namaskār is the noun form of the same idea and sounds a touch more formal; Wiktionary treats the two as synonyms used for hello, good morning or afternoon, and goodbye. A usage note in the same entries adds that inside India both count as non-religious greetings, while outside India they may be read as Hindu or Indic.

Respect can be raised further. Wiktionary labels प्रणाम (praṇām) as the respectful greeting, and Wikipedia describes namaskāra as one of the forms of praṇāma. Adding the honorific particle जी (jī) softens any greeting or answer: नमस्ते जी, जी हाँ (yes, formally).

Greetings by community and region

Hindi speakers belong to several religious communities, and the choice among greetings in Hindi can signal which one. Wiktionary's usage notes list religious Hindu greetings such as राम राम (rām rām), जय श्री कृष्ण (jay śrī kṛṣṇa) and राधे राधे (rādhe rādhe). सलाम (salām) is marked as chiefly used among Muslims, with the fuller सलाम अलैकुम as a synonym, and आदाब (ādāb), from Persian ādāb, the plural of adab, is a formal, Persianised greeting. सत श्री अकाल (sat śrī akāl) is the Sikh greeting borrowed from Punjabi.

Thank you comes in two registers for the same reason. धन्यवाद (dhanyavād) is a learned borrowing from Sanskrit. शुक्रिया (śukriyā) sounds Persian or Arabic, yet Wiktionary calls it a pseudo-Arabism: an Indo-Aryan coinage from Arabic šukr, gratitude, plus an Arabic-style suffix, shared with Urdu, Bengali and Dhivehi.

Goodbye follows the same split. अलविदा (alvidā) comes through Persian from Arabic al-wadāʿ and also works as a noun for a farewell, as in Wiktionary's example: अलविदा! फिर मिलेंगे, goodbye, we'll meet again. ख़ुदा हाफ़िज़ (xudā hāfiz), May God protect you, is the Persianised goodbye. Namaste, used for most purposes, covers partings as well.

Good morning and good night in Hindi

Hindi has fixed phrases for times of day, but they sit higher in register than English good morning. सुप्रभात (suprabhāt), from Sanskrit su- (good) and prabhāt (dawn), is the learned phrase for good morning. शुभ रात्रि (śubh rātri), auspicious night, is its evening counterpart. Their Urdu-flavoured equivalents in Wiktionary are सुबह बख़ैर (subah baxair) and शब बख़ैर (śab baxair).

The greeting for a new year follows a different model again: नया साल मुबारक (nayā sāl mubārak), with Persian-Arabic mubārak, blessed; the Happy New Year in 122 languages page sets it beside the other forms of the region.

How are you, welcome and polite answers

आप कैसे हैं? (āp kaise ha͠i?) is how are you with the pronoun āp, and Wiktionary marks the phrase as formal. Addressing a woman, the adjective changes: आप कैसी हैं? (āp kaisī ha͠i?). Wiktionary lists the looser क्या हाल है? (kyā hāl hai?), roughly how are things, beside it. A simple reply is मैं ठीक हूँ (ma͠i ṭhīk hū̃), I am fine, often followed by a polite धन्यवाद.

To welcome someone, Hindi says स्वागत है (svāgat hai), welcome; Wiktionary's example adds आपका आगमन शुभ हो, may your arrival be auspicious. The welcome in many languages table shows it next to Marathi, Nepali and Sanskrit, which share the word.

Common mistakes with greetings in Hindi

The best-known slip is the yoga-class pronunciation nama-stay. Wikipedia quotes the yoga teacher Nadia Gilani on this: South Asians say num-us-teh, with a short first syllable and a plain e at the end, and the link between namaste and the end of a yoga class is a modern Western habit. The IPA in the table, /nə.məs.t̪eː/, shows the same thing.

Another trap among greetings in Hindi is the word for you. Hindi has three: आप (āp), the most formal, used with elders and anyone of higher standing; तुम (tum), for equals and people one is close to; and तू (tū), the most intimate. Wiktionary's usage note gives the safe rule: use āp unless there is a reason to be less formal, because the lower forms can offend. Āp is grammatically plural even for one person, so the verb in आप कैसे हैं stays plural.