NetChai Chinese
下午好
xià wǔ hǎo
Good afternoon

下午好 (xiàwǔ hǎo) is a polite and common way to say 'good afternoon' in Mandarin Chinese. It's used from around noon until early evening, similar to its English counterpart.

When to use it

Neutral and polite. It's appropriate in most everyday situations, from greeting colleagues to shopkeepers. For a more formal greeting, especially to elders or superiors, you could say 您下午好 (nín xiàwǔ hǎo), though often just 您好 (nín hǎo) is used. In very casual settings, people might just say 你好 (nǐ hǎo) or even just 嗨 (hāi) regardless of the time.

How to pronounce it

Sounds like “SHYAH-woo HOW.” The 午 (wǔ) and 好 (hǎo) are both third tones, so when they appear together, the first one (午) changes to a rising tone, making it sound like “woo-HOW.” So the full phrase is pronounced 'SHYAH-wú-HOW.'

Other ways to say it

  • 您下午好nín xià wǔ hǎogood afternoon (polite / formal)
  • 下午xià wǔafternoon! (casual, as a greeting)
  • 你好nǐ hǎohello (general greeting, usable anytime)

Examples

下午好，李老师！
xià wǔ hǎo ， lǐ lǎo shī ！
Good afternoon, Teacher Li!
大家下午好！
dà jiā xià wǔ hǎo ！
Good afternoon, everyone!
经理，您下午好！
jīng lǐ ， nín xià wǔ hǎo ！
Good afternoon, manager! (polite)
Pro tip: Tone change: When two third tones appear consecutively, the first one changes to a rising tone (second tone). So, 午好 (wǔ hǎo) becomes 'wú hǎo.' Remember this for natural pronunciation.

Related phrases

你好 · Hello你好吗 · How are you晚安 · Good night
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