How to Say Bye in Russian

How to Say Bye in Russian

The casual way to say bye in Russian is Пока (pa-KA). It is the everyday goodbye between friends, family members and peers — the equivalent of English “bye” or “see ya”. Because it is informal, switch to the polite До свидания with strangers, elders or in professional settings. Once you have this down, learn to say goodbye (До свидания) and hi (Привет) in Russian too.

The Casual Farewell: Пока

Пока — pronounced pa-KA — is your everyday informal bye.

Use it with:

• Friends and close acquaintances
• Family members and relatives
• Children and teenagers
• Peers your own age in relaxed settings

On its own, пока literally means “for now” or “while/until”, so as a farewell it has the friendly sense of “see you for now”. Doubling it — Пока-пока — makes a warm, cheerful “bye-bye”.

Copy the Phrase

The Russian word for bye is Пока (pa-KA).

All the Ways to Say Bye in Russian

Russian	Transliteration	Pronunciation	When to Use
Пока	Poka	pa-KA	Casual “bye”
Пока-пока	Poka-poka	pa-KA pa-KA	Cheerful “bye-bye”
Давай	Davay	da-VAI	”Alright, bye” (phone, casual)
Увидимся	Uvidimsya	oo-VEE-dim-sya	”See you”
До встречи	Do vstrechi	da FSTRYE-chee	”Until we meet”
До завтра	Do zavtra	da ZAF-tra	”See you tomorrow”
Бай	Bay	bai	English-borrowed youth slang
До свидания	Do svidaniya	da svee-DA-nee-ya	Formal goodbye

Formal vs. Informal

Russian ties farewells to the pronouns ты (informal) and вы (formal).

Informal (ты):

• Пока — the everyday casual bye
• Пока-пока — playful “bye-bye”
• Давай — a breezy sign-off, hugely common on the phone (often Ну давай, пока!)
• Увидимся / До встречи — “see you / until we meet”

Formal (вы):

• До свидания — the polite, respectful goodbye
• Всего доброго (fsye-VO DOB-ra-va) — “all the best”

Using Пока with an elder or stranger can feel overly familiar — default to До свидания when in doubt.

Pronunciation Tips

• Stress the second syllable: pa-KA.
• The unstressed first ‘о’ reduces to an ‘a’ sound (akanye), so it is pa-KA, never po-ka.
• Давай stresses the second syllable: da-VAI, ending in a glide like English “buy”.
• In До встречи, the ‘в’ devoices beside the voiceless ‘с’, producing da FSTRYE-chee.

Cultural Notes

Пока is one of the friendliest, most-used words in spoken Russian, and texting culture loves it — often shortened or paired with emojis. The colloquial Давай! as a goodbye can puzzle learners since it literally means “give / let’s”, but among friends it is a relaxed “alright then, take care”. Reserve the heavier Прощай (“farewell”) for genuinely long or final partings. As with other goodbyes, Russians traditionally avoid drawn-out farewells across a threshold, considering it bad luck.