Russian Hello

Greetings and in particular hello in the Russian language can be difficult for English speakers, especially the most common one of all: Zdrastvuityeh! This greeting is eleven letters long. But here’s what most people don’t know: Most Russians cheat when they pronounce it! It’s true. If you listen, what they usually say is this:

Zdrastyeh.

Well, that’s a lot simpler, isn’t it? I only count two syllables instead of three, so I guess that makes it exactly 33% shorter.

Unfortunately, there’s no real way to cheat “Good morning,” which is “Dobroe utro.” Let’s pronounce that really slowly:

Doh – bri – yuh u – truh

Yes, that second syllable is “bri” (rhymes with ‘cry’). And of course, don’t forget to roll your “r”s in Russian. To do that, it helps to say the word “udder”. see how you tongue bounces off the roof of your mouth? (You did say it out loud, right?) “Udder”. There’s your rolled Russian “r”.

Speaking of rolled R’s and greetings, we have to mention “previet”, which means just “Hi” (and not the Russian formal Hello.) An American friend of mine told me a cool way he teaches friends to remember “previet”. He used a story, like this: “Before you go see the vet, you say Hi to his secretary. So, “pre” vet, you say Hi.”

I thought that was kind of clever.

Anyway, back to our greetings… Of course, “How’re things” is a very common greeting in all languages, including Russian. Unfortunately, some people snicker when they hear it pronounced slowly: Kak….dela. Why? Because that first word sounds like a part of the male anatomy or a bird in English. Go ahead… get it out of your system. Kak. Kak, kak, kak….Which means “How.” Done laughing yet?

How do you say hello to a  Russian person?

This is one way, but it’s not the exact translation of the word hello. “Kak dela” means “How’re things” or “How’s business.” Remember, that “dela” only means “things” in the sense of “Things to do.” It doesn’t mean, “I have lots of stuff, lots of things.” (But please, if you’re going to do what my American friend does, and make up a funny story to help you remember “kak dela”, please don’t make it about you-know-what. Keep it clean, people.)

Lot’s of Russian people love to ask, “How’s life?” The way to do that is “Kak zheezn?” And they almost always answer the same way: “Normailno,” which as you probably guessed means, “Normal, ok, fine, I’m all good,” etc. Let’s pronounce that word slowly. It goes:

Nar – mile – nuh

Now say it faster. And remember to say everything out loud, or you won’t remember how to say it when you really need to.

I hope you learned these different ways to say hello in Russian. They really come in handy!