Question:
Which is right? "hi" or "hai"???
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Both are correct depending on where you use it to mean "hello."
"Hi" may be more popular in its usage but you will find "Hai" used in other non-English speaking countries, because "hi" is pronounced "hee" is some countries when they read it, but Hai is pronounced phonetically as "hai".
If you take China for example where they use pinyin (phonetic spelling) and "hai" will be pronounced correctly as "hai" but "hi becomes "hee". Chinese actually use "hai" as a greeting and the equivalent characer is ?? pinyin "hai" and is pronounced as "hai".
If you do a search on hai hello on google, you will get 1,620,000 results, which is a significant number. It does not mean that every hai means hello, but the usage is clearly there.
If you do a search on "hai hello" on google you get 2,560 results vs "hi hello" you get 291,000 results.
Even Hello could be written as "Hallo" or "Hullo"
Finally, for those who want "hi" in different languages:
Arabic: 癄젙??𘭘?
Chinese (Simplified): ?????????????????ι????
Chinese (Traditional): (???問????驚????)ι????
Czech: ahoj; no nazdar
Danish: hej; dav; hallo
Dutch: Hallo!
Estonian: tere!; hei, halloo (t㤨elepanu t㵭bamiseks)
Finnish: hei!, terve
French: salut!, h㩡, tiens!
German: Hallo!
Greek: , (??)
Icelandic: hall㳼br />
Indonesian: halo!
Italian: ciao; ehi; ohib㲼br />
Japanese: ??
Latvian: hallo!
Lithuanian: labas, ei!, oho
Norwegian: hallo, hei, morn, god dag
Polish: halo
Portuguese (Brazil): ol㡬 ei
Portuguese (Portugal): ol㡼br />
Romanian: Salut!
Russian: ??𐲐!; 𑍐 𔑀𐰑ᑂ
Slovak: ahoj; no nazdar
Slovenian: halo! zdravo!
Spanish: hola; vaya, anda
Swedish: hej!, hall㥡, vad nu d㥿
Turkish: merhaba, sel㢭, hey; alo