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- Topic: Italian >
- "Ciao"
62 Comments
I am a bit confused. Can I say ciao when I greet someone and ciao again when I leave the same person?
Yeah, in English 'goodbye' is fairly formal, so I would also always translate it as 'arrivederci'. However, 'bye' is informal, and I would always translate it as 'ciao'.
From what I've learnt, it's polite to say 'salve' (just means hello) to strangers instead of ciao. I think ciao is for people you know. I've learnt this through other sites, it might appear in duolingo but I haven't seen it yet.
I was under the impression that ciao means 'hi/bye' in Italian, which is more informal, and then arrivederci means 'goodbye' and buongiorno can mean 'hello/good morning' which are both more formal than ciao, I've only been learning Italian for a couple of weeks so correct me if I'm wrong but that's what I thought.
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Am I right in assuming that saying 'ciao' would be similar to an informal 'hello' or 'bye' to friends/family, and that 'arrivederci' would be the equivalent of saying "good-bye' to someone, such as a boss or some one you don't really know?
Following this, when would 'salute', 'salve' and 'addio' be used? I'm trying to understand properly, Duolingo doesn't really go into detail.
"ciao" in french is like "salut" or the very similar "tchao" but that one is more familiar and means "bye"
If "ciao" means both "hello" and "goodbye", can I use "ciao" instead of "arrivederci" when I say goodbye to someone? Is it kind of formal one and informal one?
Hi Rae F. I did as you suggested, and it worked. Thank you for your help
Duo lingo has some quirk about the word "ciao." Sometimes it states the solution is hi/bye and other times hello and goodbye. No matter how I type the response, it always states I'm wrong.
Como se cuando usarlo como goodbye y cuando usarlo como hi? Some spanish speaker?
You use "ciao" in an informal situation. It is used to say both "hello/hi" as well as "goodbye." You can tell which it is being used as by the context.
