привет
“привет” (privet) — hi in Russian. Interjection, level A0, topic — greetings and goodbyes. The short, friendly hello for people you know — exactly the slot "hi" fills. You greet a stranger or an elder differently, and it only opens a talk: there is no matching casual bye built on it. In a live sentence: “Привет, как дела?” — Hi, how are you? Written with the characters п, р, и, в, е, т.
In short
| Written in Russian | привет |
| Read in Latin letters | privet |
| Translation | hi |
| Part of speech | interjection |
| Level | A0 |
Why it looks that way
The short, friendly hello for people you know — exactly the slot "hi" fills. You greet a stranger or an elder differently, and it only opens a talk: there is no matching casual bye built on it.
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.
- Привет, как дела?Privet, kak dela?Hi, how are you?
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.
- добрый деньdobryy dengood afternoonThe neutral daytime hello, from about noon to six — fine in a shop, on the phone and in email. Literally "kind day".
- доброе утроdobroe utrogood morningSaid until noon, then handed over to the afternoon greeting. Literally "kind morning"; the adjective agrees with utro, a neuter word.
- как дела?kak dela?how are you?Literally "how are the things" — the everyday question to someone you know. The expected answer is khorosho: you ask to be polite, not for a report.
- до свиданияdo svidaniyagoodbyeLiterally "until the next meeting" — an of-form built on do, "until". The neutral farewell; among friends it is poka.
- покаpokabyeThe casual bye, said with a rising tone. The same word is also the conjunction "while": poka chay kipit, "while the tea boils".
- добрый вечерdobryy vechergood eveningA greeting, not a farewell: meeting at nine you say this, and the good-night wish is a different phrase kept for parting.
- спокойной ночиspokoynoy nochigood nightLiterally "of a calm night", an of-form. It is only said when parting — you cannot greet anyone with it.
- до встречиdo vstrechisee you"Until we meet" — warmer and softer than the formal goodbye. Add a time: do vstrechi v ponedelnik, "see you Monday".
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 Russian?
The short, friendly hello for people you know — exactly the slot "hi" fills. You greet a stranger or an elder differently, and it only opens a talk: there is no matching casual bye built on it.
- How do you say “good night” in Russian?
Literally "of a calm night", an of-form. It is only said when parting — you cannot greet anyone with it.
- How do you say “bye” in Russian?
The casual bye, said with a rising tone. The same word is also the conjunction "while": poka chay kipit, "while the tea boils".
- How do you say “how are you?” in Russian?
Literally "how are the things" — the everyday question to someone you know. The expected answer is khorosho: you ask to be polite, not for a report.
- How do you say “good afternoon” in Russian?
The neutral daytime hello, from about noon to six — fine in a shop, on the phone and in email. Literally "kind day".
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 Russian?
«привет», read “privet”. In a live sentence: “Привет, как дела?” — Hi, how are you? Interjection, level A0, from the set “greetings and goodbyes”; written with the characters п, р, и, в, е, т.
How is “привет” written in Latin letters?
privet. 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?
The short, friendly hello for people you know — exactly the slot "hi" fills. You greet a stranger or an elder differently, and it only opens a talk: there is no matching casual bye built on it. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.