Learn all you need to know about greetings in Russian
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| Russian Teachers Answer Your Questions - Lesson #10 - Which Greetings Depend on the Time of Day in Russian? |
Intro |
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| Michael: How do you greet someone at different times of the day? |
| Saodat: And can they be replaced with time-neutral greetings? |
| Michael: At RussianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In this situation, Ben Lee is greeting his friend, Natal'ya Ivanova, but he hasn't noticed how late it's become. Ben says, |
| "Good morning!" |
| Saodat as Ben Lee: Доброе утро! (Dobroye utro!) |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Доброе утро! (Dobroye utro!) |
| Natal'ya Ivanova: Уже 3 часа дня. Добрый день! (Uzhe 3 chasa dnya. Dobryy den'!) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Доброе утро! (Dobroye utro!) |
| Michael: "Good morning!" |
| Natal'ya Ivanova: Уже 3 часа дня. Добрый день! (Uzhe 3 chasa dnya. Dobryy den'!) |
| Michael: "It's already 3 PM. Good afternoon!" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we'll talk about some time-sensitive Russian greetings. Russian, similar to English, has some greetings that are used depending on the time of day, or |
| Saodat: Время суток (Vremya sutok) |
| Michael: Russians mostly differentiate between four particular times of the day, using the following greetings. First, there is |
| Saodat: Доброе утро (Dobroye utro) |
| Michael: which means "Good morning." This is the greeting you will use in the morning, up until noon. It's considered a polite way to greet. |
| Saodat: Доброе (Dobroye) |
| Michael: means "kind, ," so this is sort of like wishing a person a "kind" morning. The meaning is similar to the English greeting, though. |
| Michael: Next is |
| Saodat: Добрый день (Dobryy den') |
| Michael: meaning "Good day." A common polite greeting, this one is said at any time of day, except in the early morning or late at night. You can also use this greeting to mean "Good afternoon"—Russians don't differentiate between the two. I recommend you learn and practice this one first, as it's the most useful! |
| If it's early evening and you want to greet people, you can say |
| Saodat: Добрый вечер (Dobryy vecher) |
| Michael: "Good evening." Russians use this expression during the evening hours, but not when saying goodbye for the night. It's fine to use this all the way up to midnight if you're out and about socializing. |
| All of these greetings are considered polite and can be used with any person you meet, regardless of formality. Now, there's one more time-sensitive greeting to learn: |
| Saodat: Доброй ночи (dobroy nochi) |
| Michael: literally meaning "Kind night" but we'd translate it as "Good night." Different from what we know from English, in this case, this doesn't imply bedtime. |
| Saodat: Доброй ночи (dobroy nochi) |
| Michael: is used as a greeting at night or in the early morning hours while it's still dark outside. It's also used as a farewell. Just be careful because in Russian there's also a term resembling the English "Good night." |
| Saodat: Спокойной ночи (Spokoynoy nochi) |
| Michael: which literally means "Calm night." As in English, you would only say this when taking your leave or just before bedtime. Technically, it's not actually a greeting, even though it shares the same basic meaning as a greeting phrase. It's easy to confuse those two, so let's have another look at them. You'd use |
| Saodat: Доброй ночи (dobroy nochi) |
| Michael: as a greeting or farewell while it's still dark outside, and keep |
| Saodat: Спокойной ночи (Spokoynoy nochi) |
| Michael: for when you're actually leaving and are headed home to sleep. Memorize these rules and you'll be safe! |
| But, what if we'd like to replace one of those greetings with a time-neutral one? |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: For this, let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Ben Lee says, "Good morning?" |
| Saodat as Ben Lee: Доброе утро! (Dobroye utro!) |
| Michael: As we learned before, "Good morning" is used in the early morning hours and the general rule is that we can use it from sunrise to noon. However, if you want some time-neutral options, there are a few! First, there's: |
| Saodat: Здравствуйте (Zdravstvuyte) |
| Michael: meaning "Hello." This is a universal greeting that can be used safely on any person or group of people. The root of the word goes back to the phrase ‘to be healthy and well,' so this is also a wish of good health! It's considered a polite way to say "Hello." If you want to be a little less formal, you can use this version: |
| Saodat: Здравствуй (Zdravstvuy) |
| Michael: Russians use this version to greet their friends, but just note that this is a singular form and can only be used to address one person. |
| The next greeting is very casual and you would only use it among friends: |
| Saodat: Привет (Privet) |
| Michael: which means ‘hi'. This can be your all-round informal greeting among friends and family. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Natal'ya Ivanova says "It's already 3:00 PM. Good afternoon!" |
| Saodat as Natal'ya Ivanova: Уже 3 часа дня. Добрый день! (Uzhe 3 chasa dnya. Dobryy den'!) |
| Michael: By now you know that you wouldn't use the morning greeting at 3:00 PM. Just like in English, you'd have to say ‘Good day' or ‘Good afternoon'. |
| Saying hello in Russian with these time-sensitive greetings is especially appropriate the first time you see someone during the day, but, after this, it's quite common to switch to less formal speech. With that in mind, let's look at the time-neutral options for saying ‘goodbye'. The most common way is: |
| Saodat: До свидания (Do svidaniya) |
| Michael: This is the usual way to say "Goodbye" in Russian, in almost any situation, at any time of day. A shorter version is: |
| Saodat: До встречи (Do vstrechi) |
| Michael: which roughly translates as "See you" and is good for family or friends. If you're on informal terms with somebody, you may also simply say: |
| Saodat: Пока! (Poka!) |
| Michael: meaning "Bye" or "See you later." Sometimes, though, you might want to wish someone a warmer "Goodbye"—in which case, you can say: |
| Saodat: Ну тогда до свидания (Nu togda do svidaniya) |
| Michael: or, "Well, good-bye then!" or another way to do that would be |
| Saodat: Хорошего дня! (Khoroshego dnya!) |
| Michael: meaning "Have a good day!" |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In today's lesson, we learned that Russian, similar to English, has four main time-related greetings, which are: |
| Saodat: Доброе утро (Dobroye utro) |
| Michael: for the morning between sunrise and noon, |
| Saodat: Добрый день (Dobryy den') |
| Michael: for the afternoon, starting from noon to 6:00 PM, |
| Saodat: Добрый вечер (Dobryy vecher) |
| Michael: for the evening from around 6:00 PM, and |
| Saodat: Доброй ночи (Dobroy nochi) |
| Michael: for when you retire for the night. You also learned a few polite and casual greetings to use at any time of the day. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Once you've mastered the basics, it wouldn't hurt to learn a few more Russian greetings because you're more than likely going to hear them spoken in Russia! |
| Remember that Russian, just like English, has many colloquial or slang greetings that are very informal and only appropriate in certain circles. For example, |
| Saodat: Здорово (Zdorovo) |
| Michael: means something like "Hey man!" This greeting conveys a sense of comradery and togetherness, but is only applicable between male friends, so be careful with that, as not everyone likes it! |
| A greeting that comes across as more feminine is |
| Saodat: Приветик (Privetik) |
| Michael: which can be compared to the English "Hiya" or "Howdy." |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Michael: Russian is a creative language and there are hundreds of ways to greet someone. Let's have a look at some of them. The first is |
| Saodat: Салют! (Salyut!) |
| Michael: meaning "Hi," and is a derivation from a French greeting meaning the same. |
| The next greeting is |
| Saodat: Хай (Hay) |
| Michael: just being a Russianized "Hi." A similar word is |
| Saodat: Хэлло (Hello) |
| Michael: meaning "Hello." |
| Now, it gets more creative with |
| Saodat: Здравия желаю (Zdraviya zhelayu) |
| Michael: literally meaning "I wish you health." This is used mainly in the army, but you can sometimes hear it from a policeman. |
| And the last one is |
| Saodat: Сколько лет, сколько зим! (Skol'ko let, skol'ko zim!) |
| Michael: meaning "Long time no see!" but literally "How many summers, how many winters." |
| You can use this greeting with everyone, since it's not considered impolite. This phrase indicates that you haven't seen a person for many summers and winters, ergo years. But, of course, it's only metaphorical, so you don't need to wait that long to use that greeting! |
| However, remember Russians are very warm and passionate people, but the language also has a high level of politeness. So, as long as you remember to show respect at the first meeting, and always with elderly people, you will be okay! |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Saodat: Пока! (Poka!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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