Hello in Albanian: How to Greet Someone Properly (Tungëjatjeta, Përshëndetje & More)

8 min read

The most common way to say “hello” in Albanian is “Tungëjatjeta” (pronounced toon-jah-TYEH-tah) for formal occasions and “Tung” (pronounced toong) as the casual abbreviated version. Albanians also use “Përshëndetje” (per-shen-DEH-tyeh) as a formal greeting, plus several time-of-day specific greetings like “Mirëmëngjes” (good morning) and “Mirëmbrëma” (good evening). This guide covers everything you need to greet someone in Albanian properly, the formal and informal versions, Gheg and Tosk dialect variants, time-of-day greetings, and the cultural context for when to use which form.

Albanian Greetings at a Glance

Here are the most useful Albanian greetings, how to pronounce them, and when to use each one.

Albanian	Pronunciation	English	When to use
Tung	toong	Hi / Hello	Informal, friends and family
Tungëjatjeta	toon-jah-TYEH-tah	Hello (full form)	Warm and respectful
Përshëndetje	per-shen-DEH-tyeh	Hello / Greetings	Formal, strangers, business
Mirëmëngjes	mee-ruh-men-JESS	Good morning	Until about noon
Mirëdita	mee-ruh-DEE-tah	Good day	Daytime, common formal greeting
Mirëmbrëma	mee-ruhm-BRUH-mah	Good evening	Late afternoon into night
Natën e mirë	NAH-ten eh MEE-ruh	Good night	Parting at night
Si je?	see yeh	How are you?	Informal
Si jeni?	see YEH-nee	How are you?	Formal or plural
Mirëupafshim	mee-roo-PAHF-sheem	Goodbye	Formal farewell

The Most Common Hellos in Albanian

Tungëjatjeta / Tung

• Tungëjatjeta, “Hello” (formal, full form). Literally means “may your life be long.” Pronounced toon-jah-TYEH-tah.
• Tung, the casual everyday version and one of the most common Albanian greetings. Pronounced toong.
• Use “tung” with friends, family, and casual acquaintances; “tungëjatjeta” in formal or first-meeting situations.

Përshëndetje

• Përshëndetje, “Greetings” / formal hello. Pronounced per-shen-DEH-tyeh.
• More formal than tung; common in business, professional emails, and TV broadcasts.

Alo

• The standard greeting when answering the phone, spelled alo in Albanian and close to the French allô. The Albanian Academy dictionary defines it as the call used when speaking on the phone.

Time-of-Day Greetings

Albanian, like most European languages, has time-specific greetings:

• Mirëmëngjes, “Good morning” (mee-ruh-men-JESS). Used until late morning, roughly noon.
• Mirëdita, “Good day” (mee-ruh-DEE-tah). The catch-all daytime greeting, used from late morning until evening. The most common formal greeting in Albanian.
• Mirëmbrëma, “Good evening” (mee-ruhm-BRUH-mah). Used from late afternoon until late night.
• Natën e mirë, “Good night” (NAH-ten eh MEE-ruh). Used when parting at night or before sleep.

These time-specific greetings are universally understood and slightly more formal than “tung.” In professional settings, you’ll hear “Mirëdita” far more often than any other greeting.

Gheg vs Tosk: Regional Variants

The two main Albanian dialects pronounce hello differently: In Tosk / Standard Albanian (southern Albania):

• Tungëjatjeta / Tung
• Mirëdita

In Gheg (Kosovo, northern Albania, North Macedonia):

• Tungëjatjeta (slight pronunciation shift, often shortened to “tung” same as Tosk)
• “Ç’kemi” or the Gheg form “Ç’kena”, literally “what do we have?”, functions as a casual hello like “what’s up?”, particularly in Kosovo

Combining Hello With “How Are You?”

In real-world Albanian conversation, hello and “how are you” are almost always combined:

• Tung, si je?, “Hi, how are you?” (informal, singular)
• Tungëjatjeta, si jeni?, “Hello, how are you?” (formal, or plural)
• Mirëdita, si jeni?, “Good day, how are you?” (formal)
• Ç’kemi?, “What’s up?” (literally “what do we have?”; casual, common with friends)

Standard responses to “how are you”:

• Mirë, faleminderit, “Good, thank you” (most common). See our guide to saying thank you in Albanian.
• Shumë mirë, “Very good”
• Po, ti? / Po, ju?, “And you?” (singular / plural)

Greeting Family vs Strangers vs Professionals

Albanian greetings have important social registers:

With Family and Close Friends

• “Tung” + first name. “Tung Vala!” “Tung Arben!”
• Often combined with a kiss on the cheeks; how many kisses varies by region and family.
• Ç’kemi as a casual conversational opener.

With Strangers or in Public

• “Mirëdita” (good day) is universally appropriate.
• “Përshëndetje” is slightly more formal and works well in shops, taxis, and offices.

In Professional / Business Settings

• “Përshëndetje” or “Mirëdita” at the start.
• Use the formal “jeni” (you-plural/formal) rather than “je” (you-singular/informal) for “how are you” until familiarity is established.
• Formal emails and letters typically open with “I nderuar” (to a man) or “E nderuar” (to a woman), meaning “Dear” (literally “honored”), followed by a title and name, for example “I nderuar zoti Hoxha”. “Përshëndetje” on its own is a common, slightly less formal opening.

On the Phone

• “Allo”, standard phone greeting.
• If you know who’s calling, you might say “Tung [name]” or “Përshëndetje.”

How to Respond to a Greeting

When someone asks “Si je?” or “Si jeni?” (how are you?), the standard reply is “Mirë, faleminderit” (MEE-ruh, fah-leh-min-DEH-rit), meaning “fine, thank you.” You can return the question with “Po ti?” (and you?, informal) or “Po ju?” (formal). A warm, slightly longer reply such as “Shumë mirë, faleminderit” (very well, thank you) is common among friends and family.

The Cultural Context of Greeting in Albanian

A few things to know about Albanian greeting culture:

• Greetings are genuinely warm. Albanians put real energy into hello, it’s not a perfunctory acknowledgment but the beginning of a social moment.
• Eye contact is expected. Looking down or away when greeting is considered cold or evasive.
• Physical contact is normal. A handshake for first meetings; kisses on the cheeks between friends and family, including between male relatives. The number of kisses varies by region and family.
• Greeting elders is essential. Albanian culture has strong respect for age. When entering a room with elders, greet them first and individually.
• “Mirëdita” is the safe default. If you don’t know which greeting to use, “Mirëdita” is appropriate almost anywhere from late morning to evening.
• Goodbye is a separate ritual. Albanian goodbyes (mirëupafshim) are rarely quick and often come in several rounds. The hello-goodbye structure of an Albanian visit is its own choreography. See our guide to goodbye in Albanian.

Common Mistakes Non-Albanians Make

• Saying “Tungëjatjeta” between close friends. It’s too formal, use “tung” instead.
• Pronouncing “Mirëdita” wrong. The stress is on “DEE”: mee-ruh-DEE-tah. Not “MEE-ree-dee-tah.”
• Skipping the time-of-day shift. Saying “Mirëmëngjes” (good morning) at 3pm sounds odd. Switch to “Mirëdita” after noon, “Mirëmbrëma” in the evening.
• Forgetting the formal/informal distinction. Using “je” (informal you) with an older stranger or in a business setting is considered rude. Use “jeni” (formal/plural you) until invited to switch.

Greeting Phrases Beyond Hello

Useful expansions:

• Mirë se erdhët, “Welcome” (plural/formal), literally “good that you came”. Pronounced MEE-ruh seh ER-thuht (dh sounds like the th in “this”).
• Mirë se erdhe, “Welcome” (singular/informal).
• Gëzohem që të takoj, “Nice to meet you” (singular).
• Gëzohem që ju takoj, “Nice to meet you” (formal/plural).
• Si quheni?, “What’s your name?” (formal). Si quhesh? (informal).
• Unë jam [name], “I am [name].”

What the Albanian Greetings Literally Mean

Most Albanian greetings are small compounds. Once you can see the parts, the long words become much easier to remember. The breakdowns below follow the Wiktionary entry for each word.

Greeting	Built from	English
Mirëdita	mirë (good) + ditë (day)	Good day
Mirëmëngjes	mirë (good) + mëngjes (morning)	Good morning
Mirëmbrëma	mirë (good) + mbrëmë (evening)	Good evening
Përshëndetje	për (for) + shëndet (health)	Hello, greetings
Tung	shortened from tungëjatjeta	Hi
Mirëupafshim	mirë (well) + u + pafshim, a form of the verb shoh (to see)	Goodbye

Two details from those entries are worth knowing. Mëngjes means both “morning” and “breakfast.” Shëndet, the root of përshëndetje, means “health,” and Wiktionary also lists “greeting” and “toast” among its senses, so a wish for good health sits inside the everyday formal hello.

Mirëmbrëma is also one of the oldest Albanian phrases on record. Wiktionary dates its first written appearance to 1497, in the word list of the German traveler Arnold von Harff. Wikipedia’s article on that list counts 26 words, 8 expressions and a set of numbers, and both “good evening” and “welcome” are among the expressions. For more on the history of the language, see our guide to the Albanian language.

Greetings That Also Work as Goodbye

English keeps hello and goodbye apart. Albanian is more flexible. Wiktionary defines tungëjatjeta as “hello, hi” and also as “good bye,” gives the same two informal senses for tung, and defines përshëndetje as “hello, greetings, goodbye.” If a friend ends a chat with “tung,” nothing odd has happened. It is the same word doing a second job. A note on spelling: dictionaries also list the shorter spellings tungjatjeta and mirupafshim. This guide uses the fuller forms, tungëjatjeta and mirëupafshim, throughout.

The time-of-day greetings open a conversation. To close one during the day, Omniglot’s Albanian phrase list gives Ditën e mirë for “have a nice day,” and Wiktionary lists it as a related term of mirëdita.

Welcoming a Guest: Mirë Se Vini and Its Set Reply

The Peace Corps Albanian course for volunteers teaches Mirë se vini! as the way to say “Welcome!” to guests. It also teaches the fixed reply: Mirë se ju gjeta! One of the course’s review exercises asks for the correct reply to Mirë se vini and lists faleminderit and mirëupafshim as the other choices. The reply taught in its welcome dialogue is Mirë se ju gjeta.

Wiktionary labels mirë se vini as the polite form, records the one-word spelling mirësevini, and points to mirë se vjen as a related form. Omniglot lists Mirë se vjen for “welcome” as well.

A First Conversation, Line by Line

Every line below comes from the greetings lesson and the short dialogues in the Peace Corps course, so you can practice a complete first meeting using only phrases from a published course.

Albanian	English
Mirë se vini!	Welcome!
Mirë se ju gjeta!	The set reply to a welcome
Si jeni?	How are you?
Mirë, faleminderit! Po ju?	Fine, thanks! And you?
Unë quhem Arben. Po ju si quheni?	My name is Arben. And what is your name?
Unë quhem Mira.	My name is Mira.
Nga jeni ju?	Where are you from?
Unë jam nga Amerika.	I am from the United States.
Mirëupafshim!	Goodbye!

The course prints “How are you?” both as Si jeni? and as Si jeni ju? The same manual explains why both are fine: Albanian verb endings already show who is meant, so pronouns such as unë (I), ti (you) and ju (you, plural or polite) are added only for emphasis. The differences between northern and southern speech are covered in our guide to Gheg and Tosk.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you say hello in Albanian?

The most common informal hello is “Tung” (pronounced toong). The formal full version is “Tungëjatjeta” (toon-jah-TYEH-tah). For time-specific greetings, use Mirëmëngjes (morning), Mirëdita (day), or Mirëmbrëma (evening).

What does “Tungëjatjeta” literally mean?

The Albanian Academy dictionary explains it as “t’u zgjattë jeta!”, which means roughly “may your life be long.” It is a genuinely warm greeting in its literal sense.

What is the difference between “Tung” and “Përshëndetje”?

“Tung” is casual and used between friends, family, and acquaintances. “Përshëndetje” is more formal and used in business, with strangers, and in written communication.

How do you say good morning in Albanian?

“Mirëmëngjes”, pronounced mee-ruh-men-JESS. It is used from sunrise until late morning.

What is the most polite way to greet someone in Albanian?

Use “Mirëdita” (good day) or “Përshëndetje” (greetings), combined with the formal “si jeni?” (how are you). This works in nearly every formal or first-meeting situation.

How do Albanians greet each other physically?

Handshakes are used for first meetings and business. Kisses on the cheeks are common between friends and family, and the number of kisses varies by region and family.

Learn More Albanian

• Thank You in Albanian: How to Say Faleminderit
• I Love You in Albanian: How to Say Të Dua
• Goodbye in Albanian: Mirëupafshim and Variants
• Common Albanian Phrases: Essential Vocabulary
• The Albanian Alphabet: 36 Letters Explained
• Is Albanian a Slavic Language?

Sources

• Peace Corps Albania: The Albanian Language for Invitees (language lessons, PDF)
• Wiktionary: mirëmbrëma
• Wiktionary: tungjatjeta
• Fjalor i Gjuhës Shqipe (Albanian Academy dictionary): tungjatjeta
• Fjalor i Gjuhës Shqipe: alo
• Wiktionary: përshëndetje
• Omniglot: Useful phrases in Albanian
• Wikipedia: Arnold Ritter von Harff’s lexicon