hey

English

Alternative forms

• hay

Etymology

From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection), attested as first element in Old English hēlā, ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch he, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Icelandic hei (“hey”), see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (hei), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin Chinese 哎 (āi), and various sound-alikes as Roman eho, Greek εἴα (eia), Latin eia, Sanskrit हे (he). See also hello.

Pronunciation

• enPR: hā, IPA: /heɪ/, X-SAMPA: /heI/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: hay
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Interjection

hey

1. An exclamation to get attention.

   Hey, look at this!

2. A protest or reprimand.

   Hey! Stop that!

3. An expression of surprise.

   Hey! This is new!

4. An informal greeting, similar to hi (used in the US, Australia and Canada).

   Hey! How's it going?

5. A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion (see also eh, huh).

   Hey? How's that?

6. A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in musical lyrics.

   The chorus is "nana na na, nana na na hey hey hey, good bye"

Related terms

• heyda, heyday
• what the hey
• hey up

Translations

exclamation to get attention

• Arabic: ياه (ar) (yaah)
• Belarusian: гэй (be) (hej) , эй (be) (ej) 
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 喂 (cmn) (wèi), 哎 (cmn) (āi), 嗨 (cmn) (hāi), 嘿 (cmn) (hēi)

• Czech: hele (cs)
• Dutch: he, he daar
• Filipino: hoy, uy/ui, oi
• Finnish: hei (fi)
• French: hé (fr)
• German: Hallo (de)
• Hindi: अरे (hi) (arē), अजी (hi) (ajī), हे (hi) (hē), रे (hi) (rē)

• Italian: ehi (it)
• Japanese: おい (ja) (oi), ねえ (ja) (nē)
• Latgalian: dzie, klaus
• Latin: salve (la), salvete (la) pl, eho (la)
• Latvian: klau (lv), eu (lv)
• Portuguese: ei (pt)
• Romanian: hei (ro)
• Russian: эй (ru) (ej) 
• Scottish Gaelic: hòigh (gd)
• Spanish: oye (es), hey (es), eh (es)
• Swedish: hallå (sv)
• Tagalog: hoy, uy
• Ukrainian: гей (uk) (hej) , ей (uk) (ej) 

protest or reprimand

• Dutch: he, hela, ho, hola, homaar
• Filipino: hoy
• Finnish: hei (fi)
• French: hé (fr)
• Italian: ehi (it)

• Portuguese: ei (pt), epa (pt), opa (pt)
• Russian: эй (ru) (ej) , э (ru) (e) 
• Spanish: oye (es)
• Tagalog: hoy

expression of surprise

• Dutch: he (nl), heh (nl), huh (nl)
• Filipino: hoy, uy/ui, talaga, a/ah
• Finnish: oh-hoh

• Portuguese: epa (pt), opa (pt)
• Romanian: hop (ro)
• Russian: ой (ru) (oj) , ух ты (ru) (ux ty) , ого (ru) (ogó, ohó) 

informal greeting

• Arabic: هلا (ar) (halā)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 嗨 (cmn)

• Dutch: hoi (nl)
• Filipino: hoy, uy/ui, oi, ei
• Finnish: hei (fi), terve (fi), moro (fi)

• French: coucou (fr)
• Latin: eho (la)
• Polish: hej (pl)
• Portuguese: oi (pt)
• Scottish Gaelic: hòigh (gd)
• Tagalog: hoy, uy

request for repetition or explanation

• Filipino: uy/ui, ei
• Finnish: hei (fi)

• Portuguese: hã, hem
• Tagalog: uy

meaningless beat marker, filler syllable

• Finnish: hei (fi)
• Latin: o (la), ō (la), jo (la)

• Portuguese: é, hey
• Tagalog: hoy, uy

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Bulgarian: zdrasti, здрасти
• French: hé, eh, hep

• Slovene: hej, ej
• Spanish: ¡eh!,
• Swedish: hallå (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), tja (4), hej (4, 6), hej hå (6)

See also

• Huh
• hay is for horses
• Hey on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Noun

hey (plural heys)

1. (country dancing) A choreographic figure in which the dancers weave between one another.

Translations

country dancing figure

• Danish: hej (da)

• Dutch: hey (nl)

Anagrams

• yeh

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Faroese

Interjection

hey

1. hi, hey, hello

   hey aftur! - hello again!

Synonyms

• halló
• góðan morgun
• góðan dag
• gott kvøld

Antonyms

• farvæl
• vit síggjast

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Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA: /heiː/
• Rhymes: -eiː

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hey, from Proto-Germanic *hawjan.

Noun

hey n (genitive singular heys, plural hey)

1. (usually uncountable) hay

Declension

declension of hey

n-s	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	hey	heyið	hey	heyin
accusative	hey	heyið	hey	heyin
dative	heyi	heyinu	heyjum	heyjunum
genitive	heys	heysins	heyja	heyjanna

Etymology 2

Interjection

hey

1. hey