The most common ways to say hello in Russian are «Привет» (privet) for informal situations and «Здравствуйте» (zdravstvuyte) for polite or formal situations.

Quick Scoop

  • Привет — “Hi.”
    • Use with friends, family, people your age, in texts or casual chats.
* Pronunciation: _pree-VYET_.
  • Здравствуйте — formal “Hello.”
    • Use with strangers, older people, at work, in shops, or any respectful context.
* Pronunciation: _ZDRAV-stvooy-tye_ (blend “zdra” together).
  • Slight variations you might also see:
    • Здравствуй (zdravstvuy) – “hello” to one person, semi-formal.
* **Здрасте** (zdraste) – shortened, casual “hi/hello,” similar to “hey there.”

Tiny example dialogue

A: Здравствуйте!
B: Здравствуйте! Как дела?
(A: Hello!
B: Hello! How are you?)

If you just want one safe, all‑purpose greeting, «Здравствуйте» will work almost everywhere.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.