Knowing how to say hello and goodbye is your very first step in speaking Russian.

These simple phrases will help you navigate daily interactions with native speakers.

Russian culture places a strong emphasis on politeness and social hierarchy.

This means you need to know exactly when to use formal or informal words.

I’ll show you the most essential Russian greetings and farewells for everyday situations.

Formal greetings

You’ll use formal greetings when speaking to strangers, elders, or people in authority.

The most common formal greeting in Russian is здравствуйте.

This word literally translates to “be healthy” or “stay healthy”.

It can be difficult to pronounce because of the heavy consonant clusters.

However, native speakers almost always drop the first “в” (v) when saying it out loud.

This makes the pronunciation much easier than it looks on paper.

If you’re greeting someone formally, but you’re speaking to only one person who is a colleague of similar age, you can use a slightly shorter version.

This word is здравствуй.

It removes the formal “те” ending, making it polite but a bit more relaxed.

Informal greetings

Informal greetings are reserved strictly for your friends, family members, and children.

Using these casual words with a stranger can be seen as rude or overly familiar.

The standard informal word for hello is привет.

It’s short, friendly, and used constantly in daily Russian life.

Another very casual option you’ll hear is здорово.

This greeting is mostly used among male friends and sounds very relaxed.

It translates to something similar to “hey man” or “what’s up” in English.

Greetings for different times of the day

You can also greet people based on the specific time of day.

These time-based phrases are considered neutral and highly polite.

You can safely use them in both formal and informal situations without worrying about offending anyone.

Take note that the adjective ending changes slightly for “morning” because the Russian word for morning (утро) is a neuter noun.

The words for afternoon (день) and evening (вечер) are masculine nouns.

Formal farewells

Saying goodbye politely is just as important as your initial greeting.

The universal way to say goodbye in Russian is до свидания.

This phrase literally translates to “until the next meeting”.

You’ll use this in shops, at the doctor’s office, and with people you don’t know well.

Another very polite option is всего доброго.

This translates directly to “all the best”.

It’s a very warm and respectful way to end a formal conversation.

Informal farewells

When leaving your close friends or family, you’ll switch to casual farewells.

The absolute most common informal goodbye is пока.

It simply means “bye” and is used by people of all ages in casual settings.

Younger people and close friends also use the word давай when parting ways.

This word literally means “give” in Russian.

However, when placed at the end of a conversation, it acts as a casual “catch you later” or “alright then”.