LingoflyСәлем
- СәлемSälemhi
“Сәлем” (Sälem) — hi in Kazakh. Interjection, level A0, topic — greetings and goodbyes. For your own people. An Arabic loan for "peace" — the same word you hear in "salaam" and "shalom". In a live sentence: “Сәлем, қалайсың?” (Sälem, qalaisyñ) — Hi, how are you? You can hear how it sounds right here. Written with the characters С, ә, л, е, м. One of 10 words in the set “greetings and goodbyes” in the Kazakh course.
In short
| Written in Kazakh | Сәлем (Sälem) |
| Read in Latin letters | Sälem |
| Translation | hi |
| Part of speech | interjection |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
For your own people. An Arabic loan for "peace" — the same word you hear in "salaam" and "shalom".
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
Nearby words: greetings and goodbyes
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.
- Сәлеметсіз беSälemetsiz behello (formal)The full polite greeting. The "be" at the end is a question particle, so literally "are you well?"
- Сау болыңызSau bolyñyzgoodbyeLiterally "be healthy". Among your own, the short sau bol does the job.
- Қайырлы таңQaiyrly tañgood morning"Qairly" means "auspicious". Evening is qairly kesh, night is qairly tun — the same frame, a different word.
- Қалайсың?Qalaisyñ?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 two farewells.
- Қалайсыз?Qalaisyz?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 түнQaiyrly tüngood 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 күнQaiyrly küngood afternoon"Qairly" means "auspicious", as in the morning "qairly tan" and the night "qairly tun"; only the second word changes.
- Қайырлы кешQaiyrly keshgood evening"Kesh" is both "evening" and "late". Before sleep it is "qairly tun", a different wish altogether.
- Сау болSau bolbyeLiterally "be healthy". This is "sau bolynyz" minus the polite tail "-ynyz" — that is, on informal terms.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “greetings and goodbyes”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- 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 afternoon” in Kazakh?
"Qairly" means "auspicious", as in the morning "qairly tan" and the night "qairly tun"; 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 two farewells.
- 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 evening” in Kazakh?
"Kesh" is both "evening" and "late". Before sleep it is "qairly tun", a different wish altogether.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- 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.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “hi” in Kazakh?
«Сәлем» (Sälem), read “Sälem”. In a live sentence: “Сәлем, қалайсың?” (Sälem, qalaisyñ) — Hi, how are you? You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Interjection, level A0, from the set “greetings and goodbyes”; written with the characters С, ә, л, е, м.
How is “Сәлем” (Sälem) written in Latin letters?
Sälem. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
For your own people. An Arabic loan for "peace" — the same word you hear in "salaam" and "shalom". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how this sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.