Greetings and goodbyes in Kazakh
10 words Kazakh words on the topic “greetings and goodbyes”: Сәлеметсіз бе — hello (formal), Сәлем — hi, Сау болыңыз — goodbye, Қайырлы таң — good morning. 10 words can be played from recordings.
10 words on the topic
- Сәлеметсіз беhello (formal)The full polite greeting. The "be" at the end is a question particle, so literally "are you well?"
- СәлемhiFor your own people. An Arabic loan for "peace" — the same word you hear in "salaam" and "shalom".
- Сау болыңызgoodbyeLiterally "be healthy". Among your own, the short sau bol does the job.
- Қайырлы таңgood morning"Qairly" means "auspicious". Evening is qairly kesh, night is qairly tun — the same frame, a different word.
- Қалайсың?how are you?The same word on first-name terms: the polite -syz swaps to -syñ. The pair works exactly like sau bolyñyz and sau bol, the farewells the course knows.
- Қалайсыз?how are you (polite)?"Qalai" is "how" and -syz is the polite "you" — the pronoun lives inside the word, the way it does in Turkish.
- Қайырлы түнgood nightThe third of the qairly set: tan is morning, kesh is evening, tun is night. Said when parting for the night, not when meeting in the evening.
- Қайырлы күнgood afternoon"Qairly" means "auspicious". The morning "qairly tan" and the night "qairly tun" are already known; only the second word changes.
- Қайырлы кешgood evening"Kesh" is both "evening" and "late" — the course knows both senses. Before sleep it is "qairly tun", a different wish altogether.
- Сау болbyeLiterally "be healthy". This is the same "sau bolynyz" the course knows, minus the polite tail "-ynyz" — that is, on informal terms.
How it sounds in a sentence
A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.
What is worth knowing about these words
Сәлеметсіз бе — hello (formal). The full polite greeting. The "be" at the end is a question particle, so literally "are you well?"
Сәлем — hi. For your own people. An Arabic loan for "peace" — the same word you hear in "salaam" and "shalom".
Сау болыңыз — goodbye. Literally "be healthy". Among your own, the short sau bol does the job.
Қайырлы таң — good morning. "Qairly" means "auspicious". Evening is qairly kesh, night is qairly tun — the same frame, a different word.
Test yourself
First by ear — the way you will meet the word in conversation. Click the speaker and pick the translation.
- What is this word?
It is Сәлеметсіз бе — hello (formal).
- What is this word?
It is Қайырлы күн — good afternoon.
- What is this word?
It is Қалайсың? — how are you?.
- What is this word?
It is Сәлем — hi.
- What is this word?
It is Қайырлы кеш — good evening.
Now the other way around: recall the spelling from the meaning. That is harder, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “hello (formal)” in Kazakh?
The full polite greeting. The "be" at the end is a question particle, so literally "are you well?"
- How do you say “good afternoon” in Kazakh?
"Qairly" means "auspicious". The morning "qairly tan" and the night "qairly tun" are already known; only the second word changes.
- How do you say “how are you?” in Kazakh?
The same word on first-name terms: the polite -syz swaps to -syñ. The pair works exactly like sau bolyñyz and sau bol, the farewells the course knows.
- How do you say “hi” in Kazakh?
For your own people. An Arabic loan for "peace" — the same word you hear in "salaam" and "shalom".
- How do you say “good evening” in Kazakh?
"Kesh" is both "evening" and "late" — the course knows both senses. Before sleep it is "qairly tun", a different wish altogether.
How to learn the set instead of just reading it
Every conversation starts here, and so does every first impression: say hello in the local language and you stop being a stranger in about a second.
A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- This holds not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many timesMawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.
Frequently asked
How do you say “hello (formal)” in Kazakh?
«Сәлеметсіз бе». The full polite greeting. The "be" at the end is a question particle, so literally "are you well?" It is one of 10 words in the set “greetings and goodbyes” — the rest are in the table above.
How many greetings do you need to start?
A dozen is enough. The set of 10 words on this page covers nearly every everyday case on the topic — but it is best taken a few at a time, not all at once.
Is there audio?
Yes, 10 words on this page can be played — click the speaker next to the word. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.