Merhaba works at any hour; selam is casual. Several Turkish greetings come in fixed pairs, so hoş geldiniz is answered with hoş bulduk. Goodbye depends on who leaves: the person leaving says hoşça kalın and the person staying says güle güle. Learn the replies, not just the openers.
Published 4 August 2026
Every phrasebook gives you merhaba and stops. That gets you through the first two seconds of an encounter and abandons you at the third, which is the moment that actually matters — when the other person says something back.
Turkish greetings are worth more attention than most languages' because several of them come in pairs: a fixed thing one person says and a fixed thing the other person answers. Get the pair right and you sound like someone who has been here before. Get only the first half and you sound like someone reading from an app.
Here is the full set worth owning, including the replies.
| Turkish | Say it | When |
|---|---|---|
| Merhaba | mer-ha-BA | Hello. Works any time of day, with anyone. The safe default. |
| Selam | se-LAM | Hi. Casual — friends, people your own age, online. |
| Günaydın | gü-nay-DIN | Good morning. Until around midday. |
| İyi günler | ee-YEE gün-LER | Good day. Useful both arriving and leaving, in daylight. |
| İyi akşamlar | ee-YEE ak-sham-LAR | Good evening. |
| İyi geceler | ee-YEE ge-je-LER | Good night. On parting or going to bed, not on arrival. |
Two notes that save embarrassment. İyi geceler is a goodbye, never a hello — it is the equivalent of "good night", not "good evening". And the stress falls at the end of these words, not the front: merhaba is mer-ha-BA, not MER-ha-ba. That single adjustment does more for your accent than any amount of vocabulary.
When you arrive anywhere — a home, a shop, a restaurant, an office — someone will very likely say:
| They say | You say | Literally |
|---|---|---|
| Hoş geldiniz (formal or plural) Hoş geldin (informal, one person) | Hoş bulduk | "You came pleasantly" → "We found it pleasant" |
This is a genuine ritual, not a textbook curiosity. Hoş geldiniz is said constantly, and almost no foreign visitor knows the answer. Hoş bulduk — hosh bul-DUK — takes ten seconds to learn and reliably produces a reaction, because it signals that you have bothered.
Note that the reply is plural — "we found it" — regardless of whether you are alone. Do not try to make it singular; the fixed form is the form.
| Turkish | Say it | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Nasılsın? | NA-suhl-suhn | How are you? — informal, one person you know |
| Nasılsınız? | NA-suhl-suh-nuhz | How are you? — polite, or more than one person |
| İyiyim, teşekkürler | ee-YEE-yim, te-shek-kür-LER | I'm well, thank you |
| Sağ ol / Sağ olun | SAA ol / SAA o-lun | Thanks — warmer and more everyday than teşekkürler |
| Sen nasılsın? / Siz nasılsınız? | — | And you? — informal / polite |
The sen and siz distinction is the same idea as French tu and vous. Use siz with anyone older, anyone serving you in an official capacity, and anyone you have just met. Turkish people will usually invite you to switch when they are ready; until then, siz is never wrong and sen sometimes is.
This is the one that trips up almost everybody, and it is genuinely simple once stated plainly. Turkish has two goodbyes and which one you use depends on who is leaving.
| Situation | You say | Literally |
|---|---|---|
| You are the one leaving | Hoşça kal (informal) Hoşça kalın (polite/plural) | "Stay well" |
| You are the one staying | Güle güle | "Smiling, smiling" — go happily |
So when you walk out of a shop, you say hoşça kalın and the shopkeeper says güle güle. Saying güle güle as you leave is the commonest greeting mistake foreigners make in Turkey, and it comes directly from phrasebooks that list both under "goodbye" without explaining the difference.
If you want to sidestep the whole question, görüşürüz (gö-rü-shü-RÜZ, "see you") works for either party and is extremely common.
These are the ones that make people look up, because there is no natural English translation and no reason a foreigner would know them.
Kolay gelsin (ko-LAY gel-sin) — "may it come easy". You say it to anyone who is working: a waiter, a driver, a builder, a colleague at their desk, someone mopping a floor. It is not sympathy and not small talk; it is a small piece of ordinary courtesy that English simply lacks. It is said dozens of times a day in Turkey and it is the single most useful phrase on this page.
Afiyet olsun (a-fi-YET ol-sun) — roughly "bon appétit", but broader. Said before a meal, after a meal, and by whoever cooked or served it.
Elinize sağlık (e-li-ni-ZE saa-LUK) — "health to your hands", said to whoever cooked. If someone feeds you in their home and you say this, you have said the exactly right thing.
Geçmiş olsun (gech-MISH ol-sun) — "may it be past", said to anyone who is ill, injured, or has just had a bad time of it. Also said when someone comes out of an exam, a hospital or a difficult day.
Efendim? (e-FEN-dim) does several jobs at once: "pardon?" when you did not hear, "yes?" when someone calls your name, and the standard way to answer the phone. It is polite in all three uses.
Rica ederim (ri-JA e-de-rim) is "you're welcome" — the reply to teşekkürler. Remember that c in Turkish is the j of jam, so this is "ri-JA", not "ri-KA".
Learn the pairs, not the singles. Hoş geldiniz gets hoş bulduk. The one leaving says hoşça kalın; the one staying says güle güle. And say kolay gelsin to anyone who is working.
A complete, entirely ordinary exchange on walking into a café:
| Who | Turkish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Them | Hoş geldiniz! | Welcome! |
| You | Hoş bulduk. İyi günler. | Thank you. Good day. |
| Them | Nasılsınız? | How are you? |
| You | İyiyim, sağ olun. Siz nasılsınız? | I'm well, thanks. And you? |
| You (leaving) | Kolay gelsin. Hoşça kalın. | Take it easy. Goodbye. |
| Them | Güle güle. | Goodbye. |
Nothing in that exchange is advanced. All of it is learnable this afternoon, and all of it is what people actually say.
Greetings are the fastest possible return on effort in any language, and in Turkish they are unusually rich because of the pairs. Once you have them, fifty everyday phrases extends the same approach to shops, taxis and restaurants, and the first hundred words gives you the core to build on. If the sounds are still uncertain, the pronunciation guide covers the final-syllable stress that makes all of this land correctly.
Turkish is coming to Gora, where phrases arrive inside real exchanges with native audio, so the reply comes as naturally as the opener. See what is coming and join the launch list.