How are you in Thai? Sabai dee mai, good morning and bye

“How are you?” is the second thing anyone learns after hello, and the first thing that goes missing when Yai is actually on the line. The good news: in Thai the question is short, the answer is shorter, and a lot of the day’s other greetings work differently from English. Thai families often skip “good morning” altogether.

Here is how are you, what to say back, and what people really say for good morning, goodbye and good night.

How do you say how are you in Thai?

The question is sa-baai dii mai. It’s built from sa-baai dii, which Wiktionary glosses as “to be well (in health), happy, contented”, plus mai, a little word that turns it into a yes-or-no question. So, literally, “well and good?”

In a family you rarely ask it bare. Thai uses the person’s kinship word where English says “you”, so the question starts with who you’re asking. Our guide to what to call whom has the words for everyone in the house.

With a friend you haven’t seen in a while, there’s a looser version. It invites actual news, so save it for when you have time to hear the answer.

ช่วงนี้เป็นไงบ้าง

chuang nii pen ngai baang

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

How do you answer sa-baai dii mai?

Say sa-baai dii, “I’m fine”, and add the polite ending that matches you: ครับ (khrap) if you’re a man, ค่ะ (kha) if you’re a woman. That’s the whole answer. Nobody is waiting for a paragraph.

Then ask back. In English a returned “and you?” can feel like a formality; in Thai family talk it’s the part that lands.

If you’re not fine, Thai simply puts “not” in front: “not sa-baai”. Wiktionary gives that as “unwell, sick, ill”, so in a family it usually means you’re coming down with something, not that you’ve had a long week. Expect follow-up questions and possibly soup.

Not sure which ending is yours? Ka and khrap explained covers it in a few minutes.

How do you ask Yai how she is?

Put yaai in front and the polite ending at the back:

ยายสบายดีไหม

yaai sa-baai dii mai

ยายสบายดีไหมครับ

yaai sa-baai dii mai khrap

ยายสบายดีไหมคะ

yaai sa-baai dii mai kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

Notice there’s no word for “you” in it. Yaai does that job. If she’s your dad’s mum, swap in her word instead. On a video call this usually comes right after “can you hear me?”, and our video call with Yai phrases walk through the whole call in order.

A lot of grandmas will answer with a question of their own, about food. กินข้าวหรือยัง (gin khaao rue yang), “Have you eaten?”, is so common that The Nation describes Thais asking it instead of how are you. It has its own page, including how to answer it.

Do Thai people say good morning?

Not much, at least not the way English does. Thai has a formal “good morning”, but a 2026 Fluent in 3 Months guide describes it as sounding “formal or literary” and “uncommon in everyday conversation”. The THAILEX lexicon notes that sa-wat-dii “can be used on any time of the day”.

So what do families actually say at breakfast? Mostly one of these:

• Sa-wat-dii, with a polite ending, to elders, at any hour. (More on that in hello in Thai.)
• A caring question. “Have you eaten?” works in the morning too. Language guides also mention “where are you going?” as everyday small talk between people who know each other: it’s a greeting, not a request for your itinerary.
• Nothing formal at all. In many homes the morning greeting is just the kettle, a name and a smile. That’s normal, not rude.

If you grew up with “good morning” in English or Swedish, keep it for those languages. Nobody in a Thai kitchen will miss it.

How do you say goodbye in Thai?

The everyday goodbye is the same word as hello. My Sakon Nakhon’s guide calls sa-wat-dii “the most common way to say goodbye”, with the usual ครับ or ค่ะ.

Leaving a gathering, though, people say something friendlier: ไปก่อนนะ (pai gorn na), literally “I go first”. It means “I’m heading off, see you”. It’s polite: you’re only leaving before the others. In English it can sound like you’re cutting the queue, but your Thai friends will get it right away.

With Yai, the goodbye carries care and a plan:

อาทิตย์หน้าโทรหาใหม่นะ

aa-thit naa thoh haa mai na

อาทิตย์หน้าโทรหาใหม่นะครับ

aa-thit naa thoh haa mai na khrap

อาทิตย์หน้าโทรหาใหม่นะคะ

aa-thit naa thoh haa mai na kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

And when someone is setting off on a long trip home, or back abroad:

เดินทางปลอดภัยนะ

dern thaang plort phai na

เดินทางปลอดภัยนะครับ

dern thaang plort phai na khrap

เดินทางปลอดภัยนะคะ

dern thaang plort phai na kha

Who is speaking?

ครับ said by a manค่ะ said by a woman

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

What about the textbook word for goodbye? The same guide says it’s “only occasionally heard in formal situations”. It carries a sense of a long or final parting, so at the end of a family dinner it would sound a bit like a farewell scene in a film. Younger Thais also say “bye-bye”, borrowed from English, though the guide notes it can sound a little abrupt on its own.

How do you say good night in Thai?

There’s a formal good night too, labelled “formal” by Learn Thai with Mod. At home, people mostly wish each other good dreams instead: Mod gives the two-word “dream good” phrase as “Good night / Have a nice dream”, softened with na. To a child it sounds like this:

ฝันดีนะลูก

fan dii na luuk

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

Luuk means “child”, so this one is for your kids, not for Yai. To an elder, a warm goodbye like “take care of yourself, Yai” does the good-night work, especially at the end of an evening call.

Which phrase for which moment?

Polite vs casual. With elders, add ครับ (men) or ค่ะ / คะ (women) and use their kinship word. With friends your age you can drop the ending, and pai gorn na or a quick “bye-bye” is plenty.

Say it before the call, not during it

In Reply Thai, the Video call with Yai moment practises exactly this sequence, from “how are you, Yai?” to “I’ll call you again next week”, as replies you can say out loud before the screen lights up.

Reply Thai for iPhoneComing soon

For more words with a warm family job, see thank you in Thai.

Thai words on this page are a draft until a native speaker has reviewed them.