Greetings

8 October 2011 by Pigmalijonas

Level: A1
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Probably the best way to start studying a language is to grasp its most common phrases.

We will start with greetings.

The most popular word to say hi informally is labas.

Another popular informal way of saying hello is sveikas, sveika, sveiki and sveikos. These words are dependant on gender and number.

Sveikas is said to one male person, whereas sveika is a greeting to one female. Sveiki is said to more than one male, and sveikos is used to greet more than one female. If the group is mixed (males and females), you have to use sveiki.

When addressing people you don't know, older people or a person of authority (teacher, etc), you must use one of the following phrases depending on daytime:

labas rytas or labą rytą in the morning,
laba diena or labą dieną in the afternoon,
labas vakaras or labą vakarą in the evening.

Comments:

Zoldi 4 November 2014 17:24
Hello. What about the use of labuka ?
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Pigmalijonas 4 November 2014 18:34
"labuką" is an endearing variant of labas. like sveikutis, labutis, labukas, etc
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Zoldi 5 November 2014 12:57
Dėkui ! I didn't know the other ones :)
All these ones (labuką, labukas, sveikutis, labutis) can be used regardless of the gender or number, right ?
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Pigmalijonas 5 November 2014 14:03
not quite! you can say labuką, labukas, labutis to anyone, but "sveikutis" only to guys and "sveikutė" only to girls.

think of it this way: "labas" is a gender-neutral word, so when you make diminutive derivatives, they are neutral as well.
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Jeremy 22 February 2016 20:48
I thought "Labas" was only used to say hello to people you know? is it not "Laba diena" or so to people you dont know?
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Pigmalijonas 20 July 2016 09:20
You're right, "labas" is the informal greeting, used with people you know. When said to older people, you have to know them really well.
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Gurgill 22 September 2016 22:20
Isn't audio avaliable ? :(
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jose 26 November 2016 17:48
What about "Labanakt"?
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Nath74k 8 March 2017 16:44
Hi!
How about pronunciation? How are the sounds pronounced in Lithuanian :)?
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LauraTo 7 June 2017 17:10
Hey there,

what is the difference between labas rytas and labą rytą?

Thanks for your answer in advance! :)
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Sam 6 February 2018 23:11
When and how would you use 'Ikiukas'? As in goodbye? Is this just an informal goodbye? Thanks
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