High Valyrian Greetings: Hello, Goodbye and Polite Phrases

Quick Answer: Hello in High Valyrian is rytsas (RIT-sahs). The most famous greeting exchange is Braavosi: valar morghulis ("all men must die") answered with valar dohaeris ("all men must serve"). Address a lord as āeksio, parents as muña and kepa, and thank people with kirimvose. No standalone word for "goodbye" is attested in the sources we use, so this guide does not invent one.

High Valyrian is the old language of the Valyrian Freehold, the dragonlord empire whose fall shaped the world of Game of Thrones. On screen it is mostly heard in big moments — Daenerys giving orders in Astapor, Targaryens speaking privately in House of the Dragon. But a language is also used for small moments: saying hello, greeting a superior, parting from a friend.

This guide collects the High Valyrian greetings and polite openers you can actually use, all drawn from David J. Peterson's vocabulary for the shows and the official course. Where a word you might expect is missing from those sources, we say so instead of filling the gap.

---

Hello: Rytsas

Rytsas is the High Valyrian word for "hello." It is the first word taught in the Duolingo High Valyrian course, which Peterson helped create, and it is the one greeting you will see in almost every beginner resource.

Put together: RIT-sahs.

Two notes on the sound:

• The y is not English y. In High Valyrian, y is a vowel, a rounded "ee" like German ü or French u. If that is hard, a plain "ih" is an acceptable beginner's approximation, but try rounding your lips as you say it.
• Why the first syllable is stressed. High Valyrian puts stress on the second-to-last syllable when it is heavy. Ryt ends in a consonant, so it is heavy, and it takes the stress.

Use rytsas the way you use "hello": to open a conversation, to greet someone arriving, or as the first line of a message. It does not change for the person you greet.

---

The Braavosi Exchange: Valar Morghulis, Valar Dohaeris

The most famous greeting in High Valyrian comes from Braavos, not from the Targaryens.

Valar morghulis. — "All men must die." Valar dohaeris. — "All men must serve."

In Game of Thrones, the Faceless Men of Braavos use this pair as a ritual exchange. The first speaker says valar morghulis; the expected answer is valar dohaeris. Arya Stark learns it as a password, and in Braavos it also works as a greeting between people who share the creed.

What it means as a greeting is worth thinking about. It is not "good morning." It is a shared reminder that death and duty bind everyone, said as two halves of one thought. If you use it with another fan, the convention is the same: whoever hears valar morghulis answers valar dohaeris.

Both halves rest on the noun valar, "all men" or "all people," which is one of the seed words that existed in George R.R. Martin's books before Peterson built the full grammar. For the full background of each phrase, see Valar Morghulis Meaning and Valar Dohaeris Meaning.

---

Greeting Someone of Rank: Āeksio

High Valyrian was the language of an aristocracy, and its vocabulary for rank is well developed. The standard respectful address for someone in power is:

Āeksio (AEK-see-oh) — "master" or "lord."

You can use it after a greeting to show deference: rytsas, āeksio reads naturally as "hello, my lord" in spirit. The word marks the relationship, not the person's name, so it works for anyone you want to treat as a superior.

Related rank words that often appear alongside greetings at court:

Dāeron and dāria share a root, and dāria belongs to the lunar gender, one of High Valyrian's noun classes. The High Valyrian Grammar Guide explains how the genders work.

---

Greeting Family: Muña and Kepa

House of the Dragon made High Valyrian a family language. Targaryen parents and children use it in private, and the two most common address terms are:

These are what a child calls out when a parent walks in — the High Valyrian equivalent of "Mum!" or "Dad!" Tubī is a softer word of intimate address, used for someone dear rather than as a family title.

If you are writing a scene or a message between family members, opening with the address term is the most natural greeting of all. It is also exactly how the show uses the language: not as a speech, but as a word said in passing. The episode-by-episode list is in High Valyrian Phrases in House of the Dragon.

---

Thanks and Please: The Polite Closers

A greeting often comes with a courtesy. High Valyrian has both of the basic ones:

• Kirimvose (kee-RIM-voh-seh) — "thank you."
• Kostilus (KOS-tih-lus) — "please."

Kirimvose is also a good way to end an exchange politely, which matters because of the next section. Its pronunciation, the stress rule behind it, and warmer versions like Kirimvose, ñuha sȳr ("thank you, my joy") are covered in How to Say Thank You in High Valyrian.

---

Goodbye: What the Sources Do and Don't Give

This is where many High Valyrian phrase lists go wrong. People search for "goodbye in High Valyrian" and expect a single word to match English "goodbye." The sources this site works from — Peterson's vocabulary as used on the shows and in this site's word lists — do not give us a standalone farewell word that we can verify.

You will see fan lists offer one anyway. We do not repeat words we cannot trace to Peterson's published work, because a confident-looking wrong word is worse than an honest gap. If you are taking the Duolingo course, check the farewell it teaches there, since that course comes from Peterson directly.

What you can do with attested words:

1. Part with thanks. Kirimvose closes an exchange politely, the same way "thanks" often ends a conversation in English.
2. Use the Braavosi pair. Among fans, valar morghulis and valar dohaeris work at the end of a conversation as well as the start, because they are a ritual exchange, not a time-of-day greeting.
3. Address the person. Saying āeksio or muña with a nod is a complete, natural parting in context.

---

Putting It Together: Short Exchanges

Here are three exchanges built only from attested words.

Meeting a friend:

A: Rytsas. B: Rytsas.

Greeting a lord, then thanking him:

A: Rytsas, āeksio. (The lord grants a request.) A: Kirimvose, āeksio.

The Braavosi greeting:

A: Valar morghulis. B: Valar dohaeris.

None of these needs grammar beyond the words themselves. That is deliberate: greetings are fixed expressions, and fixed expressions are where a learner is safest.

---

Pronunciation Cheat Sheet

Three rules make all of these sound right:

1. Tap the R. A quick tap, as in Spanish, never the American R.
2. Hold long vowels. A macron (ā, ī, ō) means the vowel is held about twice as long, and a long vowel usually pulls the stress.
3. No lazy vowels. Every vowel keeps its full sound, even when unstressed.

The full rules are in the High Valyrian Pronunciation Guide.

---

What to Avoid

• Do not translate English greetings word by word. "Good morning," "how are you" and "see you later" are not attested as fixed High Valyrian expressions in our sources. Stringing words together to imitate them produces something no Peterson speaker would recognise.
• Do not mix in Dothraki. M'athchomaroon and fonas chek are Dothraki, a completely different language from the same show. They do not belong in a High Valyrian exchange. If you want those, see Dothraki Greetings: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything Between.
• Do not treat valar morghulis as casual. It is a creed. Used playfully between fans it is fine, but it carries the weight of the Faceless Men behind it.

---

A Note on Culture

Why does a language of dragonlords have a rich vocabulary of rank and family, but few small-talk phrases in the public record? Partly because of how the shows use it. In Game of Thrones, by the time of the story, High Valyrian is a learned, ceremonial language, the "Latin of Westeros." In House of the Dragon, it is the private language of one family. Both settings produce words for lords, kings, mothers and fathers long before they produce words for "see you tomorrow."

For learners this is actually helpful. The attested greetings are few, but they are solid, and they connect directly to scenes you know. Learn rytsas, the Braavosi pair, āeksio, muña and kepa, and kirimvose, and you can greet almost anyone in the world of the shows correctly.

If you want structured lessons in one of Peterson's languages, High Valyrian is not on Tengwar, but Dothraki is — you can learn Dothraki free with lessons and an AI tutor.

---

People Also Ask

How do you say hello in High Valyrian? Hello in High Valyrian is rytsas, pronounced roughly RIT-sahs. It is the greeting taught in the Duolingo High Valyrian course, which David J. Peterson helped write.

How do you say goodbye in High Valyrian? Our sources do not give a standalone goodbye word we can verify, so we do not list one. You can part with kirimvose (thank you) or, in Braavosi style, with valar morghulis and valar dohaeris.

Is valar morghulis a greeting? In Braavos it works as one. Valar morghulis means "all men must die," and the reply is valar dohaeris, "all men must serve."

How do you address a lord in High Valyrian? Use āeksio, pronounced AEK-see-oh, meaning "master" or "lord."

---

Related Reading

• How to Say Thank You in High Valyrian: Kirimvose Explained
• 50+ High Valyrian Words & Phrases (With Meanings)
• High Valyrian Phrases in House of the Dragon — Complete Guide
• High Valyrian Pronunciation Guide — Sound Like a Targaryen
• The High Valyrian Language: A Complete Guide
• Dothraki Greetings: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything Between
• Valar Morghulis Meaning — 'All Men Must Die' Explained