The quickest way to say hello in Serbian is zdravo (ZDRAH-vo) — friendly, correct any time of day, and fine with almost anyone. For something more formal say dobar dan (good day); to say goodbye, doviđenja. Below is the full, practical set — greetings for morning, afternoon and evening, how to ask “how are you?”, and when to switch between the casual and polite forms.
Published 21 June 2026 · Updated 11 September 2026
Greetings are the highest-value phrases you can learn first: you’ll use them in every single interaction, they’re short, and getting them right instantly makes locals warmer toward you. The good news is that Serbian greetings are almost identical to Montenegrin, Croatian and Bosnian ones, so this list travels the whole region.
Here’s where Serbian, like many languages, splits into a casual and a polite/plural form. Use the casual one with friends and people your age; the polite one with strangers, elders and in formal settings.
Tip: that si vs ste switch is the same politeness distinction as French tu/vous or German du/Sie. When in doubt with someone new, ste is the safer default.
Round out your greetings with the courtesies that go with them:
One table to keep on your phone. The middle column gives a plain-English pronunciation approximation to help you start speaking.
| Serbian | Say it | Meaning / when |
|---|---|---|
| Zdravo | ZDRAH-vo | hi / hello — safe default, any time |
| Ćao | chow | casual hi and bye, with friends |
| Dobro jutro | DOH-bro YOO-tro | good morning (until ~10am) |
| Dobar dan | DOH-bar dahn | good day / afternoon — the polite one |
| Dobro veče | DOH-bro VEH-cheh | good evening |
| Laku noć | LAH-koo notch | good night (parting for the night) |
| Doviđenja | do-vee-JEH-nya | goodbye — works everywhere |
| Vidimo se | VEE-dee-mo seh | see you |
| Prijatno | pree-YAHT-no | “have a nice time” — leaving a shop or café |
| Kako si? / Kako ste? | KAH-ko see / KAH-ko steh | how are you? — casual / polite |
| Hvala | HVAH-la | thank you |
| Izvinite | eez-VEE-nee-teh | excuse me / sorry (polite) |
Greetings don’t live in a list — they live in tiny exchanges. This example combines the greetings above with two useful restaurant phrases: izvolite? means “what can I get you?” here, and jednu kafu means “one coffee”:
You: Dobar dan! (Good afternoon!)
Waiter: Dobar dan, izvolite? (Good afternoon, what can I get you?)
You: Jednu kafu, molim. Hvala! (One coffee, please. Thanks!)
Waiter: Prijatno! (Enjoy!)
You (leaving): Hvala, doviđenja! (Thanks, goodbye!)
Notice you never needed a single complicated word — five greetings and courtesies carried the whole interaction. That’s exactly why they’re worth banking first.
Is zdravo too casual for a shop or restaurant? It's fine, but dobar dan feels a touch more polite when you walk in somewhere. Both are perfectly acceptable.
How do I reply when someone greets me first? Mirror them — zdravo for zdravo, dobar dan for dobar dan — then add kako ste? (or kako si? with friends). A safe all-purpose answer is dobro, hvala — a vi? (well, thanks — and you?).
Do I need Cyrillic to use these? No. Serbian is written in both Latin and Cyrillic, and everything here works in the Latin script you already read. You can add Cyrillic later.
Will these work in Montenegro and Croatia? Yes — the core greetings are shared across all four standards, with only minor local flavour.
Greetings open the door; the next step is being able to keep going once someone answers. The natural follow-on is small talk after zdravo — the handful of lines that turn a greeting into a short chat. From there, the 30 survival phrases for your first trip add ordering, directions and restaurants, and the beginner’s roadmap shows the order to learn everything else in. If you’re wondering how far these carry across the border, they’re near-identical in Montenegrin too — the small local differences are in Montenegrin vs Serbian. That’s the whole idea behind Gora: start speaking real phrases on day one, then let a patient AI fox help you turn kako si? into an actual conversation. Serbian is live today — greetings, small talk and all.