Farewell in Chinese

willowliu98

Hello everyone, let's look at farewell in
Chinese today. Chinese people will use different ways to express the idea of
"Good-bye" in various occasions.

 

1. "Good-bye/ Bye" - "再见 zai4 jian4/ 拜拜 bai4 bai".

The most common way to say good bye is 再见 (zai4 jian4) or 拜拜 (bai4 bai), you can use it in
almost all occasions. 

 

2. “See you in...” - "...见 ...jian4".

If you want to say "see you in the
morning/afternoon/evening", you could say "早上见 (zao3 shang4 jian4), 下午见(xia4 wu3 jian4), 晚上见(wan3 shang4 jian4)". 

 

早上(zao3 shang4) means morning. 

下午(xia4 wu3) means afternoon.

晚上(wan3 shang4) means evening. 

 

3. see you later! - “待会见 dai1 hui3 jian4” / "回头见 hui2 tou2 jian4"

There are mainly two ways to express "see
you later/soon".

 

待会 (dai1 hui3) literally means
"later/ after a while". 

回头 (hui2 tou2) literally means
“turn one's head around”. 

 

lingofish

回头 (hui2 tou2) literally means
“turn one's head around”. 

I feel it's more like "when I come back...."

Suzanne

Our Chinese tutor wrote in with the following clarification: 

回头 (hui2
tou2) literally means “turn one's head around”

Which has the meaning ¨I will see you when I just turn my
head around,¨ therefore it is usually used between people who see each other
very often.