How to say “Hello” in Serbian

When you prepare to go to some foreign country you should learn some basic words of the local language. First of all when you come somewhere one of the things that you want to know is how to say “Hello”. In Serbian language you have several options for that:

If it is morning you will say: “Dobro jutro” – Good morning, in the afternoon it will be: “Dobar dan” – Good afternoon or in the evening you will say: “Dobro veče” – Good evening. All these options are formal.

But if you prefer an informal way you can just say “Zdravo” which is like Hi in English. Literally translation of this Zdravo greeting would be: Have a good health (which is always a good wish of course).

Like in every other language in Serbian we also have some slangs for greeting. Very often you will hear: „gde si brate“ – where are you bro (male) or „gde si mačko“ – where are you cat (female).

Maybe the most popular informal greeting word in Serbian language is Italian word: ciao. In Serbia, we use ciao when we meet someone, but also when we want to say goodbye to that person.

Serbian people like to kiss each other so it is normal to share a kiss when you see your friends. Be careful: in Serbia, we do not kiss each other one or two times…we do that tree times (on the cheek of course)