Question

what would be the most natural way to say "hello class" in Mandarin? "tóng xué nǐ hǎo?" @Angle

Answer 1

what you have there translates to "Hello classmates"
to greet a class, I believe the proper way is (in rough English) "hello students" or "nǐ hào xuéshēng"

(I actually checked Google Translate and I really do not get why they use "tóng xué men hǎo" tbh ಠ_ಠ)

Answer 2

I agree that “tong xue men hao” is the best case
in “tong xue ni hao”, “ni” is usually used to point to a particular person. so using “ni” when you want to address more than one person sounds awkward
in the “ni hao tong xue” case, usually “ni hao ___”, the blank is reserved for a proper name. so in addition to the previously mentioned (“ni” is only for addressing a particular person), replacing a person’s proper name with a general “classmate” could be seen as passive aggressive.

in “tong xue men hao”, “men” is used to address more than one, or a group of people. technically you can also say “tong xue men, ni hao” which is correct grammar and all that, but would showcase you as a foreigner. In the mandarin spoken language there are cultural instances where you can drop words to appear more friendly; so in this case the “ni” is dropped.

word dropping happens in english too, like formally you might say “Good Morning” (zao shang hao), but passing by you might just say “Morning” (zao).

as to the order of things... (ni hao tong xue) vs (tong xue ni hao) I’m sure there’s an SVO explanation somewhere, but I haven’t taken a proper chinese class in ages so idk

Answer 3

Thank you both ~

Answer 4

oops, I mistyped
typically all Chinese courses I've taken have the teacher greeting us with "xuéshēngmen hǎo"

idk if this is supposedly correct, but it is the most common phrasing

Answer 5

oh! I am currently in a Chinese class so I can also ask the professor, but I speak fluent Chinese to certain extents 😛