To say hello in Thai, say sawasdee (สวัสดี). Men add krub (ครับ) and women add ka (ค่ะ), so it comes out as sawasdee krub or sawasdee ka. It works at any hour, it doubles as goodbye, and paired with a small bow of the hands it is the friendliest thing you can do.
That one word replaces the entire English lineup of good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. Thai does not slice the day into separate greetings, so your very first Thai word is also one of the most useful you will ever learn.
One word for the whole day
Sawasdee (สวัสดี) is the Swiss Army knife of Thai greetings. Morning, noon, or midnight, it is always correct.
Even better, it works on the way out too. The same word covers goodbye, so you can arrive and leave a room on a single piece of vocabulary.
Make it polite: krub and ka
On its own, sawasdee is a little bare. Thai politeness lives in the particle you attach to the end. Men say krub (ครับ); women say ka (ค่ะ). You will also hear the male ending as khrap or khap — the "r" usually melts away in everyday speech.
สวัสดีครับ
sawasdee krub
Hello (male speaker)
สวัสดีค่ะ
sawasdee ka
Hello (female speaker)
Match the particle to your own gender, not the person in front of you. A man says krub even when greeting a woman, and the other way around.
The casual hello
With close friends, the full sawasdee can feel a touch formal, so Thais trim it down to wat dee (หวัดดี). It is quick and warm, and strictly for people you already know.
หวัดดี
wat dee
Hi (casual, among friends)
หวัดดีครับ
wat dee krub
Hi (casual but still polite, male speaker)
The greetings Thais actually use
Here is the twist the textbooks skip: among themselves, Thais often greet each other with a question rather than a hello. Two of them are everywhere.
ไปไหน
pai nai
Where are you going? (a friendly hello)
กินข้าวหรือยัง
kin khao reu yang
Have you eaten yet? (a caring hello)
Neither one is nosy. Pai nai (ไปไหน) is just small talk, and a vague answer is perfect — pai tiao (ไปเที่ยว), "just out and about," closes the loop nicely. Kin khao reu yang (กินข้าวหรือยัง) is a warm way of showing you care; answer kin laew (กินแล้ว) if you have eaten, or yang (ยัง) if you have not — which may just earn you an invitation to lunch.
Add the wai
A greeting feels complete with a wai (ไหว้), the palms-together bow that accompanies hello, thanks, and goodbye all over Thailand. Raise your hands toward your chest, dip your head slightly, and say sawasdee at the same moment. You do not need to wai shopkeepers or servers, but returning one you receive is always polite. Our Thai greetings phrases lesson pairs each greeting with the gesture that goes with it.
Sawasdee is younger than it sounds. It was coined in the 1930s by a Thai scholar from the Sanskrit word svasti, meaning well-being or blessing. Before that, Thais really did greet one another mostly with "where are you going?" and "have you eaten yet?" — which is why those questions still feel so natural today.
Keep learning Thai
One word — sawasdee — and you can already open and close a conversation politely. Add the wai and a couple of the everyday questions above and you stop sounding like a tourist and start sounding like a guest. Keep building with the free essential Thai phrases in the Pretalk app, where every phrase comes with audio and speaking practice so your first hello lands with the right tone.
