Greetings and Leave-Taking

Greetings are the first Turkish you'll ever use and the first thing a Turkish speaker hears from you, so they're worth getting exactly right. Two things make the system more than a vocabulary list. First, several greetings are tied to the time of day, like English "good morning" but used more consistently. Second — and this surprises everyone — Turkish leave-taking is asymmetric: the person walking away and the person staying behind say different words. Get the role wrong and you'll wave the wrong phrase, which natives notice instantly and find charming-but-off. This page sorts it all out.

Hello: Merhaba and Selam

The all-purpose "hello" is Merhaba. It works at any time of day, with anyone, formal or casual — it's the safe default and the first word to learn. The casual version is Selam ("hi"), used among friends, peers, and younger people; it's warm and informal, not something you'd open with to your boss's boss.

Note the spelling: Merhaba has the h in the middle (it's of Arabic origin), and Selam ends in -am, not -em. Both are pronounced with clear, short vowels.

Time-of-day greetings

Turkish has a tidy set of greetings keyed to the time of day. Unlike English, where "good morning" is somewhat optional, these are used readily and warmly. Note that Günaydın is written as one solid word (from gün "day" + aydın "bright" — literally "may the day be bright"), while the others are two words with İyi ("good").

Two quirks worth noting. The İyi … greetings are plural (günler, akşamlar — "days, evenings"), a fixed convention; you don't say iyi gün on its own. And İyi günler does double duty as both a greeting ("good day") and a polite farewell ("have a good day") — context and the moment of the conversation tell you which. Likewise İyi geceler is both "goodnight" as you part and a wish before sleep.

How are you?: Nasılsınız? / Naber?

After the greeting comes the check-in. The polite, full form is Nasılsınız? ("how are you?", siz form) or the informal Nasılsın? (sen form). The very casual, friend-to-friend versions are Ne haber? and its reduced spoken form Naber? ("what's up? / what's new?"). Choosing between Nasılsın and Nasılsınız is the sen / siz decision — see sen vs siz.

The standard reply is İyiyim, teşekkür ederim. Siz nasılsınız? ("I'm fine, thank you. How are you?") — and crucially, Turkish almost always returns the question. Just answering and stopping feels curt.

Leave-taking: the asymmetric pair

Here is the heart of the page. When two people part, the one who is leaving and the one who is staying say different things — and you must know which role you're in.

• The person leaving says Hoşça kal — literally "stay well / stay pleasantly." You're addressing the one who remains, telling them to stay happily. Plural/polite: Hoşça kalın.
• The person staying replies Güle güle — literally "(go) smiling," a wish for the departing person to go with joy. It is only ever said to someone who is leaving.

So the logic is built into the words. Hoşça kal contains kal- "stay," so it's aimed at whoever stays — said by the leaver. Güle güle is about going happily, so it's aimed at whoever goes — said by the stayer. If you swap them, you'll tell a departing friend to "stay well" while you're the one walking out the door, which lands as a small but noticeable slip.

Neutral farewells anyone can use

If the asymmetry feels like a lot to track, there's a neutral middle ground that either party can say, regardless of who's leaving:

• Görüşürüz — "see you" (literally "we'll see each other"), casual and extremely common.
• İyi günler — "have a good day," polite, works as a parting too.
• Kendine iyi bak — "take care (of yourself)," warm.

These sidestep the Hoşça kal / Güle güle role question entirely, which makes them handy when you're not sure who's "leaving" — for instance, when two people walk off in different directions at the same time. Often a real goodbye stacks several: Hoşça kal, görüşürüz, kendine iyi bak!

A full exchange

Putting it together — two friends meeting and then parting, with the roles marked:

In that last line, the friend who's heading out says Hoşça kal, and the friend staying behind answers Güle güle. That single exchange contains the whole asymmetry — memorise it as a unit and the rule sticks.

Common mistakes

If you are leaving, say Hoşça kal(ın), never Güle güle. This is the single most common greeting error English speakers make.

Günaydın is written as one word. (The two-word İyi … greetings keep İyi separate.)

The İyi … greetings are conventionally plural: günler, akşamlar, geceler — never the singular iyi gün.

With siz, the "how are you?" form is Nasılsınız? with the plural ending. See sen vs siz.

Always return the question after answering — Sen nasılsın? / Siz nasılsınız?

Key takeaways

• Merhaba = all-purpose "hello"; Selam = casual "hi."
• Time-of-day: Günaydın (one word!) in the morning; İyi günler / akşamlar / geceler (always plural) for day/evening/night.
• Nasılsınız? (polite) / Nasılsın? (informal) / Naber? (very casual) — and return the question.
• Leave-taking is asymmetric: the leaver says Hoşça kal(ın), the stayer says Güle güle. Never say Güle güle when you're the one leaving.
• Neutral, role-free farewells: Görüşürüz, İyi günler, Kendine iyi bak — usable by either party.