The first thing we want to know in a foreign language is how to say hello.
In Lithuanian there are different ways to say hello. As in any language, we have informal and formal forms.
When I teach a phrase I always want to reveal of what this phrase consists. In these phrases the main word is labas, which means hello ( informal ). If we add a diminutive ending to this word, we get labukas, which means hello only for friends ( informal ). And the 3rd way to say hello ( informal ) is sveikas for masculine and sveika for feminine, which is literally an adjective of healthy.
The summary:
labas ( a neutral way of informal hello )
labukas, labutis ( informal and cute )
sveikas (masc), sveika (fem), sveiki ( plural, all genders ), sveikos ( plural, only fem ) ( has a friendly feeling of hello )
Talking about formal versions of saying hello, we always name a part of the day. Actually, most of the times Lithuanian intends to be more specific about things compared to English :). Here we need to know that rytas is morning, diena is day / daytime and vakaras is evening. In order to say the formal way of hello, we need to add a second word of hello - labas.
So here is what we get:
labas rytas - good morning
laba diena ( here we drop an ending -s of the word labas ) - good day
labas vakaras - good evening