It's time to set this straight: "Ni Hao Ma" is not native Chinese. It sounds so artificial that a native speaker immediately envisions a foreigner speaking with a big smile but drifting tones. I'm not sure why this 3-character greeting is not used by the Chinese but mostly used by foreigners. I think it has to do with a direct translation of Well, literally translating how are you into Chinese is ni hao ma. Is Ni Hao Mandarin or Chinese? Ni hao (pronounced nee haow) is the basic, default greeting in Chinese. It is written as / n ho. The literal translation is you ok/good, but this is the easiest way to say hello in Chinese. … When traveling mainland China, a simple ni hao will Ni Hao Ma. Ni Hao Ma is a Mandarin Chinese phrase that literally translates to “How are you?” in English. The phrase is used as a greeting, similar to “Hello” or “Good day.”. Ni Hao Ma can be used both formally and informally, and is a common way to start a conversation in Mandarin Chinese. A couple of answers mention 大家好 ‘dàjiā hăo’ or ‘Hello everyone’. I like this one, it is more chatty and doesn’t presuppose any relationship with the addressees. The characters literally mean 'big family'. – Grass Mud Horse. The Grass Mud Horse ( Chinese: 草泥马; pinyin: cǎo ní mǎ) is a Chinese Internet meme and kuso parody based on a word play of the Mandarin profanity cào nǐ mā ( 肏你妈 ), which literally means "fuck your mother". Homophonic puns are commonly used in Chinese language as silly humor to amuse people, and have become an IwphK.

ni hao ma chinese characters