Russian greetings.
Hello, goodbye, good morning, cheers, bless you. Every greeting with pronunciation, formal vs informal usage, and the cultural rules that decide which one you actually use.
Russian splits "you" into two grammatical persons. ты (ty) is informal: friends, family, peers your age, kids. вы (vy) is the polite singular (like French vous) or plural - used with strangers, anyone older, shopkeepers, teachers, doctors, and in any work setting.
This decides everything. The same greeting comes in two flavors: Привет (informal) vs Здравствуйте (formal). Как дела? (informal) vs Как у вас дела? (formal). Get this wrong with someone older and you sound rude; get it wrong with a friend and you sound stiff.
Default to вы with anyone over ~25 you don't know. Russians switch to ты only when invited (часто говорят "давай на ты" - "let's switch to ты"). The shift is a small social ceremony.
The two-word problem. Russian doesn't have a casual catch-all like English "hi." It has a strictly informal hello and a strictly formal one, and there's no neutral middle ground.
Russian carves the day into four greetings, each with a fixed window. Use the wrong one and you'll get a brief, polite confusion - it's that specific. Спокойной ночи is the only one that doubles as "goodnight" before sleep.
До свидания covers nearly every situation. Пока is the casual sign-off you'll hear most between friends. Прощай is the dramatic "farewell forever" - reserve it for novels and breakups.
Russian celebrations all start with the preposition с ("with") plus the holiday in the instrumental case. Memorize the structure and you can wish someone a happy anything.
The everyday polite phrases - what to say when someone sneezes, when you bump into someone, when you need to interrupt. Будьте здоровы doubles as a formal "hello" too (it shares a root with Здравствуйте).
Russian greetings FAQ
What is the most common Russian greeting?
Привет (Privet) is the standard informal hello, used between friends, family, and peers your age. For anyone you'd address with the formal вы, use Здравствуйте (Zdravstvuyte) instead. There's no single greeting that works everywhere; Russian splits hello by formality the way English splits "hey" from "good evening, sir."
How do you say hello in Russian formally?
Здравствуйте (Zdravstvuyte) - literally "be healthy." It's the formal hello used with strangers, anyone older than you, in shops, with teachers, doctors, and at work. The drop-the-в pronunciation (Zdrastvuyte, sometimes Zdrasste in fast speech) is normal native usage; the spelling stays the same.
What is the difference between ты and вы?
ты (ty) is informal singular - friends, family, kids, peers your age. вы (vy) is either polite singular (the V-form, like French vous) or plural. The V-form gets capitalized in writing as a sign of respect (Вы) when addressing one person formally. Defaulting to вы with anyone over 25 you don't know is the safe move.
What time of day do you say Доброе утро?
Roughly 5am to 11am. Russian splits the day more finely than English: Доброе утро (Good morning) until late morning, Добрый день (Good day) from late morning until evening (~11am-5pm), Добрый вечер (Good evening) from ~5pm until bedtime, and Спокойной ночи (Peaceful night) when going to sleep, not when greeting someone late at night.
How do Russians say cheers when drinking?
За здоровье! (Za zdorovye, "to health") is the standard toast. Russians often build longer toasts at meals - to the host, to women present, to friendship, to the occasion. Saying just За здоровье at every drink is fine for foreigners and won't read as rude. Avoid На здоровье (Na zdorovye) for toasting; that means "you're welcome" after a meal.
What do you say when someone sneezes?
Будьте здоровы! (Budte zdorovy) for someone you'd address formally, or Будь здоров / Будь здорова (Bud' zdorov / Bud' zdorova) for an informal you (masculine / feminine). It literally means "be healthy" - same construction as Здравствуйте. The sneezer typically replies Спасибо.
How do you wish someone happy birthday in Russian?
С днём рождения! (S dnyom rozhdeniya, "with the day of birth") is the standard. The grammatical structure is unique to Russian birthday wishes: it's the instrumental case of день рождения, literally "with the birthday." Pair it with Поздравляю! (Pozdravlyayu, congratulations) for warmth, or follow up with a wish like Желаю счастья и здоровья (I wish you happiness and health).
Greetings are the easy part.
Once you've mastered Привет and До свидания, the real Russian starts: 6 cases, 3 genders, verbs that change with every aspect. Slova teaches the system, not just the surface phrases.
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