What Does Grüezi Mean? Grüezi Mitenand and Hoi Zäme Explained

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Grüezi means “hello” or “good day”. It is the polite Swiss German greeting, used in shops, on trains and with anyone you would call Sie. Grüezi mitenand means “hello, everyone”, and Hoi zäme is the friendly version of the same thing.

Word for word, Grüezi says something older: it is a blessing worn down to two syllables. Here is where it comes from, how to say it, and what to answer. For every greeting and goodbye you need in daily life, see How to Say Hello in Swiss German.

What does Grüezi mean, and where does it come from?

According to an editor at the Schweizerisches Idiotikon, the national dictionary of Swiss German, Grüezi grew out of Gott grüez-i, “may God greet you”. The -i at the end is what remains of euch, an old word for “you”. In the original formula, God does the greeting, not the speaker.

Nobody hears anything religious in it today. To a Swiss ear it simply means hello, and it works at any time of day.

The history also explains Bern. East of the river Reuss, the verb “to greet” was grüeze, and west of it grüesse. So the east got Grüezi and the west got Grüessech, from Gott grüess ech.

How to pronounce Grüezi

Say roughly GRÜE-tsi, with the stress on the first syllable. The ü glides into a short e, so you hear both vowels, unlike the long ü of Standard German. The z is ts, as in “cats”. English speakers can try starting from the u in French tu.

You will see it spelled Grüezi or Gruezi, and our app’s notes mention Grüazi too. Swiss German has no official spelling, so these are all the same word. Grüezi is the form you will meet most often in print.

What does Grüezi mitenand mean?

Mitenand means “together”, so Grüezi mitenand is “hello, everyone”. You say it to two or more people when you would use Sie with them. A train conductor walking into a carriage says Grüezi mitenand, d’Billett bitte: “Hello everyone, tickets please.” A family you pass on a hiking trail gets the same greeting.

The second word can change. Zäme also means “together”, and it turns any greeting into a group greeting:

When to say Grüezi, and when not to

Use Grüezi for one person you would call Sie: the shop assistant, the doctor, your child’s teacher, a stranger you ask for directions. With friends and family it sounds stiff, so say Hoi or Sali instead.

Two places surprise newcomers. In a town, you do not greet people in the street. On a marked hiking trail it is the other way round: every hiker you pass gets a Grüezi, and walking past in silence is what marks you as a visitor.

What to reply to Grüezi

Say it back. The safe rule is to answer in the register you were greeted in: Grüezi to Grüezi, Hoi to Hoi. If someone adds wie gaht’s?, “how are you?”, you can answer Guet, merci. And if a shop assistant wishes you a nice day as you leave, try Merci, Ihne au!, “Thanks, you too!”. There is more on that in Thank You in Swiss German.

Do all Swiss people say Grüezi?

Not all, but everyone understands it. In Bern the polite hello is Grüessech, in Basel Grüezi arrives as Griezi, and the traditional Wallis greeting is Tag wohl. A visitor who says Grüezi anywhere is never wrong, only easy to spot. The French- and Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland use their own languages, so you would say bonjour in Geneva and buongiorno in Lugano.

Where Grüezi comes in

Our app Grüezi is named after the word, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android. Its first unit, Grüezi! Basics, opens with a lesson on greetings and is free, together with the greetings flashcards, the first two dialogues and the first five levels of Schwiizerli, the listening game. Its dialect is Zürich-based.

Grüezi, Grüezi mitenand, Grüezi zäme, Hoi and Sali each have a short clip you can tap. The clips are text-to-speech in one Zürich voice, not recordings of a person.