How to Say Hello in Italian

The most direct way to say “hello” in Italian is “ciao,” but there are actually many other ways to say hello in Italian. Depending on the context, some salutations are more appropriate for a context than others. Here are a few ways to say “hello” you should know.

Table of Contents

Say Hello in the Standard Way

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Say “ciao” in the usual cases. ^{[1] X Research Source} This is one of the two most common ways to say “hello” or “hello” in Italian.

Note that “ciao” can also translate to “goodbye” depending on the context of use.
Although this is a common greeting, “ciao” is often considered quite informal and is only used in casual communication situations between friends and family members.
The pronunciation of ciao is quite similar to the word “hello ” in Vietnamese, slightly stretching the “o” sound at the end.

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Switch to “salve” greetings with neutral situations. ^{[2] X Research Source} This is the second most common way of saying “hello” in Italy, but it’s really not that often used.

Although not as commonly used as “ciao,” the “salve” greeting is more appropriate when greeting people you are not familiar with. The most formal greeting is to say hello at a specific time, but “salve” is still appropriate to greet the vast majority of people.
Put in the context of a native English speaker, “ciao” is like “hi” and “salve” is closer to “hello”.
Salve is a loanword from Latin and was commonly used by the Romans during Caesar’s time. ^{[3] X Research Sources}
Like ciao, salve can also be used to say “goodbye” depending on the context of use.
The pronunciation of salve is sal-ve’.’

Greeting by Specific Time

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Good morning “buongiorno”. This phrase translates to “good morning” or “have a nice day”.

Buon comes from the Italian word “buono” which means “good”.
Giorno is an Italian noun meaning “day”.
As with other greetings in Italian, buongiorno also means “goodbye” depending on the context.
Buongiorno and other seasonal greetings are considered the most respectful ways to greet others. That is, you can still use these greetings to greet friends and family members.
The pronunciation of buongiorno is buon jor-no. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

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Hello “buon pomeriggio” in the afternoon. ^{[5] X Research Source} This phrase is also used to say “good afternoon” as greeting or goodbye after noon.

Note that you can still hear people greeting buongiorno in the afternoon, but buon pomeriggio is more commonly used and more precise. “Buon pomeriggio” is much more formal than “buongiorno”.
Buon means “good” and pomeriggio is the noun meaning “afternoon”.
The pronunciation of this greeting is buon po-meri-jo .

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Good evening “buonasera”. After about 4 p.m., you can politely greet or say goodbye to someone using buonasera .

Buona means “good” and sera is an Italian noun meaning “evening”. Sera is feminine, the masculine adjective “buon” has a feminine form “buona.”
The pronunciation of buonasera is buon-na se-ra.

Other Ways of Greeting

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Answer the phone with “pronto?” ^{[6] X Research Source} This is another way to say “hello” in Italian, but only on the phone.

You can use pronto when receiving calls or making phone calls.
Pronto is an adjective that means “ready” in English. Answering the phone with this phrase implies that you are willing to hear what the incoming caller has to say or ask if the incoming caller is available to say anything.
The pronunciation of pronto is pron-to.

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Greet a group of people as “ciao a tutti.” If you’re greeting a group of friends, you can use this phrase to greet them instead of one by one.

Keep in mind that the “ciao” greeting is either informal or just a casual greeting like “hi”.
A tutti means “to everyone”. The word “a” means “to” and the word “tutti” means “all” or “everyone”.
Literally translated, the phrase means “hello everyone”.
The pronunciation of this phrase is chao a tu-ti.

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Greet new people with “piacere di conoscerti.” ^{[7] X Research Source} In English, this phrase means “pleased to meet you”.

Piacere comes from an Italian verb that means “to have fun” or “to be excited”. It can also be used alone as an interjection to say “hello”, but is not commonly used.
Di is a preposition meaning “of” (of), “to” (to), or “for” (for) used with other words.
Conoscerti is an informal verb, the Italian conjugation of the verb “conoscere”, which means “to be known” or “to be met”. Note that there is a formal verb conjugation of “conoscerla.”
The pronunciation of piacere di conoscerti is pêa-che-re go kon-no-ser-ti .
The pronunciation of piacere di conoscerla is pêa-che-re go kon-no-ser-la.

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Hello “incantato”. ^{[8] X Research Source} This is a slang greeting that shows the joy of meeting someone. Usually greeting a guy you have a crush on (or a girl, “incantata”).

The equivalent phrase in English is “spellbound” or “enchanted”.
The pronunciation of this greeting is in-kan-ta-to.

Steps

Say Hello in the Standard Way

Greeting by Specific Time

Other Ways of Greeting

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