If you want to say hello in ancient Rome, it would be enough to say Salvē (in case of one recipient) or Salvēte, if we would welcome a larger group of people. Naturally, you could also use the word Avē. Avē and Salvē can simply be translated as “Hi”.
If for a change, we would like to say goodbye, we could just say Vale to one person or Valete if there were more recipients.
If we want to pronounce words – in regards to pronuntiatio restituta – as the Romans spoke, letter “v” we should read as “v”. So:
- Avē – Ave
- Salvē – Salve
- Salvēte – Salvete
- Valē – Vale
- Valēte – Valete
