Hello, thank you and goodbye in Shanghainese

Hello is 侬好 non hau, thank you is 谢谢侬 zia zia non and goodbye is 再会 tse we. Each one sits next to a Mandarin phrase written with nearly the same characters, and saying the Mandarin one is the commonest way to sound like you learned your Shanghainese from a Mandarin phrasebook.

Updated 4 October 2026 · 4 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Shanghainese examples play the recordings from Verbavia’s course, made with a Shanghainese voice; Mandarin examples play a Mandarin voice.

How to read the pronunciation

The spelling under each phrase is the one Verbavia’s course uses. Most letters sound roughly as in English, with four exceptions worth knowing: a final -h is a short catch in the throat, gh is a voiced h, ny is the ny in canyon, and an apostrophe marks a syllable said higher. Do not try to give each syllable a tone of its own: in Shanghainese the first syllable sets the melody of the whole phrase, which the tones page explains. Tap 🔊 to hear the phrase in a Shanghainese voice.

Hello in Shanghainese: 侬好

侬好 non hau ‘hello’ is literally you good, and it is the standard greeting, used with anyone at any time of day. 侬 non ‘you’ is the Shanghainese word for you, and it is the whole difference from Mandarin’s 你好 nǐ hǎo: the same structure, the same second character, a different pronoun. That pronoun is the single commonest word in the course’s word list, so it is worth getting right from the first day.

To ask how someone is, add the question particle 伐 va to the end: 侬好伐？ non hau va? ‘how are you?’ Mandarin asks the same thing with 吗 ma — 你好吗？ nǐ hǎo ma? — and that 吗 is another word Shanghainese does not use.

In the morning, people say 侬早 non tsau ‘good morning’, literally you’re early. The Mandarin is 早上好 zǎoshang hǎo.

There is also a traditional greeting that is not a question about lunch: 侬饭吃过伐？ non vae chih ku va? ‘have you eaten?’ The usual answer is 吃过了。侬呢？ chih ku 'leh. non 'ne? ‘I have. And you?’

Thank you in Shanghainese: 谢谢侬

谢谢侬 zia zia non ‘thank you’ is thank-thank you, and the 侬 non ‘you’ belongs in it. Mandarin speakers usually say a bare 谢谢 xièxie; Shanghainese puts the person back on the end. Notice that the first two syllables begin with a z, not the x of Mandarin xièxie: Shanghainese kept a voiced consonant here that Mandarin lost.

You will also hear 谢谢 zia zia ‘thanks’ on its own in Shanghai — said with that z, it is Shanghainese too, just less complete. If you are going to learn one, learn the version with 侬.

The reply is 覅客气。 viau khah chi. ‘you’re welcome’, literally don’t be polite. 覅 viau ‘don’t’ is 勿要 veh iau ‘do not want to’ run together into one syllable, and it replaces Mandarin’s 不客气 bú kèqi.

Goodbye in Shanghainese: 再会

再会 tse we ‘goodbye’ is literally meet again. It is the Shanghainese counterpart of Mandarin 再见 zàijiàn — see again — and it is one of the clearest tells: say 再见 and you have said goodbye in Mandarin, however Shanghainese the rest of your sentence was.

For see you tomorrow, put 明朝 men tsau ‘tomorrow’ in front: 明朝会 men tsau we ‘see you tomorrow’. Mandarin says 明天见 míngtiān jiàn, and the Shanghainese word for tomorrow is different as well as the verb. At night, 晚安 uae oe ‘good night’.

Sorry, and never mind

Two more phrases complete the set you need for being polite to a stranger:

All of them, with the Mandarin beside each

Notice what the pairs have in common. The characters are nearly the same in every row; what changes is a handful of everyday words — you, not, not have, see — and the pronunciation of everything. That is Shanghainese in miniature, and why it is a separate language rather than an accent.

Where to go next

The next phrases worth having — asking the way, saying you don’t understand, asking the price — are on the phrases for visitors page. The pronouns behind 侬 are on the pronouns page, and if you are wondering whether anyone in Shanghai will answer you in Shanghainese at all, what language is spoken in Shanghai has the honest answer. The words these phrases are built from are on the Shanghainese word list, in the order people use them, and the free course teaches them with a recording for every phrase.

Sources

1. Wiktionary: 儂好 — Shanghainese Wu, “hello”; Mandarin 你好
2. Wiktionary: 謝謝儂 — Wu, “thank you”
3. Wiktionary: 謝謝 — with its Shanghainese pronunciation
4. Wiktionary: 再會 — polite, Wu, “goodbye”
5. Wiktionary: 明朝會 — Wu, “see you tomorrow”
6. Wiktionary: 儂早 — Wu, “good morning”
7. Omniglot: Useful phrases in Shanghainese
8. Wikipedia: Shanghainese — tones and left-prominent tone sandhi