喂

喂 (wèi) is the Chinese 'hello' used when answering or making phone calls — the equivalent of English 'hello?' as you pick up. It is the default phone greeting across all generations and registers: when you hear the line connect, you say 喂？ with a slight rising or questioning tone. It's also used face-to-face to call someone's attention from a distance — 喂！你的钱包掉了！('hey! you dropped your wallet!') — but that use can sound rude or abrupt depending on tone, so soften with 你好 or the person's name when politeness matters. 喂 is informal; you'd never use it to greet a customer at the start of a meeting in person. The character 喂 has a second, totally different sense in tone wéi or wèi: 'to feed' (an animal or person). At HSK 1, you only need the 'hello / hey' meaning.

Note: 喂 is informal. On the phone, it's universal and neutral, but in face-to-face use ('hey, you!') it can sound abrupt or rude. Soften with 你好 or the person's name when in doubt.

Memory hook: Think of 喂 as the sound you make when you pick up the phone — 'wèi?' It's almost onomatopoeia for the questioning 'hello?'