Having different ways to say good afternoon in Italian will allow you to have very important elements for effective communication in that language.
That’s why, at Lingua Language Center, we won’t limit ourselves to giving you just one generic way to greet someone in the evening, but we’ll delve into the most common ones.
For Italians, afternoons are a time for “another coffee”, to meet friends or to continue the workday. Thus, to learn the elementary forms of communication is also to acquire the culture surrounding the language.
If we go to the literal translation of good afternoon in Italian, it is buon pomeriggio. But that is a rather formal way of greeting, and it is generally used on radio and television programs, in speeches and solemn situations or when you are greeted in the evening at a store or restaurant.
Sure, you can say boun pomeriggio in work environments or when talking to a teacher, but you’ll always need more, and that doesn’t just depend on what time you’re greeting someone.
That said, it will be worth remembering that buongiorno is used to say good morning and buonasera to say good evening. In fact, these two forms are much more common than bounpomeriggio because they cover more hours during the day.
At what time of the day do you say good afternoon in Italian?
From before dawn until 2:00 in the afternoon, people usually say buongiorno. From 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. is when boun pomeriggio is used; and buonasera is said from 6:00 p.m. to bedtime.
So buon pomeriggio only has a range of use of about four hours in most parts of Italy, although there are those who use it from midday.
However, we must insist that there are other ways to say good afternoon in Italian, and below, we will list a list of greetings in which we will include the main expressions used by Italians for evening greetings.
Ways to say good evening” in Italian
Among the following ways to say good afternoon in Italian that we will include in this list, there will be some that involve the vocative (the person we are addressing when we speak) and others that will have simple questions to introduce us to various types of conversations or simply be friendly.
English – Italian.
Good afternoon – Buon pomeriggio.
Good afternoon, sir – Buon pomeriggio, signore.
Good afternoon, madam – Buon pomeriggio, signora.
Good afternoon. How are you doing? – Buon pomeriggio. How is it?
Good afternoon everyone – Buon pomeriggio a tutti.
Good afternoon, colleagues – Buon pomeriggio, colleghi.
Good afternoon, nice to meet you – Buon pomeriggio. Piacere di conocerti.
Good afternoon. Nice to meet you – Buon pomeriggio. Piacere di conoscerla.
Those were the formal greetings that included buon pomeriggio in all cases. Now let’s move on to other types of greetings, less formal and more common in Italian, but which can always be used in the evening.
English – Italian
Hello – Ciao.
How is your day going? – How is your day?
Have a nice rest of the day – Buon proseguimento.
I hope you have a nice evening – Spero che pasa un buon pomeriggio.
See you later – Ci vediamo più tardi.
See you in a while – Ci vediamo fra un’ po! / Ci vediamo fra poco.
Take care – Stammi bene.
This is just a small part of what we want to teach you about Italian at Lingua Language Center. In fact, our mission is that you learn the language in the right way to communicate orally and written with anyone who speaks Italian.
We have expert Italian teachers who are ready to welcome you in Florida or through our online Italian program.
Contact us right now and we will give you all the information you need to take the first steps to learn this wonderful language.