How to Say Hello in Hungarian: Szia, Jó Napot and More

Hello in Hungarian is jó napot (yoh NAH-pot) in formal situations and szia (SEE-ya) with friends. If you only learn one, learn jó napot: it works with strangers, shopkeepers, and anyone older than you, and nobody will find it odd.

That's the short answer. But Hungarian greetings change with the time of day, the number of people you're talking to, and how well you know them. And there's one genuinely confusing twist: Hungarians say "hello" to mean goodbye. Here's everything you need.

Every way to say hello in Hungarian

Two notes on the formal ones. First, adding kívánok ("I wish") makes jó napot more polite: "jó napot kívánok" is what you'd say to your landlord or a doctor. Second, the time-of-day versions are not optional decoration. Walking into a bakery at 8 am and saying jó napot instead of jó reggelt won't offend anyone, but jó reggelt marks you as someone who actually knows the language.

Szia vs. jó napot: which one do you use?

The rule of thumb: szia is for people you'd address by first name, jó napot is for everyone else.

Use szia with friends, family, classmates, colleagues you're close to, children, and generally anyone your age or younger in a relaxed setting. Use jó napot with strangers, older people, staff in shops and restaurants, officials, and anyone in a professional context. When in doubt, go formal. Hungarians will never be offended by jó napot, but szia to the wrong person can come across as overly familiar.

One more thing: szia is strictly singular. Greeting a group with szia sounds off. Use sziasztok for two or more people. This singular/plural split trips up almost every learner, because no major Western European language does it with greetings.

The trap: "hello" means goodbye too

Here's the twist that confuses every visitor. In Hungarian, szia and helló work in both directions. Hungarians say szia when they arrive and szia when they leave. You'll hear someone wrap up a phone call with "jó, szia, szia!" and it means "okay, bye, bye!"

Even stranger for English speakers: Hungarians frequently use the borrowed word helló to say goodbye. If someone waves at you and says "helló!" as they walk away, they're not confused. That's normal Hungarian. Don't correct them, and feel free to do the same.

Pronunciation: three rules that fix 90% of mistakes

Hungarian spelling is very regular, but two letter combinations mean the opposite of what English speakers expect:

• s = "sh". The single letter s is always the "sh" sound. So és (and) is "aysh", and Budapest is actually "BOO-da-pesht".
• sz = "s". The pair sz is a plain "s" sound. That's why szia is "SEE-ya", not "SHEE-ya". Remember it as the reverse of English.
• Stress always falls on the first syllable. No exceptions, ever. It's SEE-ya, YOH NAH-pot, SER-voos. If you stress the first syllable of every word, you're already halfway to sounding Hungarian.

Also, the accent marks on vowels (á, é, ó) mark length and quality, not stress. Jó rhymes with "yaw" said long, and estét ends in a long "ay" sound.

Reading pronunciation guides only gets you so far, though. The fastest way to get szia and jó napot into your mouth is to hear a native speaker and repeat immediately after them, a technique called shadowing. In Hyperpolyglot, every phrase comes with native audio, so you can loop "jó napot kívánok" until the rhythm sticks, then add your own greetings and situations to practice exactly what you'll need. Available on iOS, Android, and Web.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Pronouncing szia as "SHEE-ya". The most common error by far. sz = s, plain and simple.
• Using szia with strangers or older people. It's like calling your friend's grandmother by a nickname. Default to jó napot.
• Greeting a group with szia. Use sziasztok when there's more than one person.
• Stressing the wrong syllable. Not "szi-YA", not "jó na-POT". First syllable, always.
• Panicking when someone says "helló" while leaving. They're saying goodbye. It's fine.

How to say goodbye in Hungarian

Since arrivals and departures overlap, here's the goodbye side:

• Viszlát (VEES-laht) is the everyday formal goodbye, short and universal.
• Viszontlátásra (VEE-sont-lah-tahsh-ra) is the full formal version, literally "until we see each other again". Use it in shops, offices, or with anyone you addressed as jó napot.
• Szia / sziasztok covers informal goodbyes, same as hello.
• Jó éjszakát (yoh AY-sa-kaht) means "good night", used only when someone is actually heading to bed.

A clean pattern to remember: if you opened with jó napot, close with viszlát. If you opened with szia, close with szia.

Start speaking from day one

You now know more about Hungarian greetings than most tourists ever learn. The gap between knowing and saying is small: pick jó napot and szia, drill them out loud with native audio a few times, and use them on a real person. Hungarians hear their language attempted so rarely that even a well-placed "jó napot kívánok" earns genuine smiles.

Keep reading:

• How to Say Hello in Romanian
• Language Islands: Learn Sentences, Not Words