hello
part of speech
exclamation (hello); noun (a hello, hellos); verb (hello, helloed — rare)
meaning for a pupil
1) A word you say when you meet someone or answer the phone. tree →
2) A word to get someone's attention: «Hello? Is anyone there?» tree →
3) Said when you are surprised (old-fashioned, UK): «Hello, what's this?» tree →
4) A noun: a greeting: «Say hello to your mum». tree →
sense in the lessons
In manners lessons: greet people with hello, look at them and smile; answer the phone «Hello» but do not give your name or address to callers you don't know. In stories a «hello» starts a meeting between characters. Phrases: say hello, hello there, say hello to someone for me, wave hello, hello again.
examples
- Hello, Mrs Brown! tree →
- Say hello to your grandma for me. tree →
- She waved hello from the bus. tree →
- «Hello? Who's calling?» tree →
- Hello? Is anybody home? tree →
- He said a quick hello and ran off. tree →
- It's polite to say hello when you come into a room. tree →
- Don't tell a caller you don't know that you're home alone. tree →
- “Hello!” replied the Tin Woodman calmly. tree →
note
Also spelled «hullo» or «hallo» (older UK). Informal: hi, hey (US, Australia: «g'day»). Plural noun: hellos. Opposite: goodbye.
In the corpora
- A welcome card from new neighbours is a friendly hello, and getting on with neighbours makes life easier.
- Newcomers are busy and tired; the friendly thing is to say hello first instead of deciding they are «stuck up».
- In the park a tiny chihuahua and a huge Great Dane sniff each other hello.
- The first word you catch is nǐ hǎo (hello, literally «you good»).
- Let a dog sniff you first; sniffing is how a dog says hello.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «hello» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.