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Thread: Ne Hao (Ma)?
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[quote=TOMSPENCER,294321]'ni hao' is used as 'hi' or 'hello', although the literal translation is 'you good'. The 'ma' that you sometimes put on the end, is used to turn a sentence into a 'yes / no' question. Therefore 'ni hao ma' becomes a question like 'how're you doing?'. 'ni hao' is a very common greating for both people whom you know and people whom you have just met. There are other ways to say 'hello', such as 'nin hao' (where 'nin' is a more respectful form of 'ni'), and 'lao shi hao' (where you are saying 'hello' to your teacher ('lao shi' = 'teacher'). The above, incidentally, give you the approximate pronunciations in Mandarin, rather than Cantonese. In Cantonese, 'ni hao' becomes 'nei hou'.[/quote]
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