Learn how to answer "how are you?" in German
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| Hey! What’s up, everybody? I’m Henrik. Welcome to the new episode of GermanPod101.com. Beautiful day here in Germany and today, I’m going to teach you how to respond to the question probably most asked in this world, “How are you?" Let’s go! Start off with number one... |
| 1. Wie geht es dir? “How are you?” |
| Yeah, that’s the question. Whenever you meet somebody new or somebody you have met before or just coming to a room and see the people, you ask, ‘Wie geht es dir?’ “How are you?" This is one of the few phrases you definitely should learn and should remember. |
| Number two... |
| 2. Und dir? “And you?” |
| That’s how you would respond if somebody comes to you, approaches you, asks this, “How are you?”, and you say, “Oh well, good maybe." And the people likely would respond, ‘Und dir?’ “And you?”, just to show also the interest that you want to know, “Hey, are you fine?” that you care how is the other person is feeling. |
| Number three... |
| 3. Wie ging es dir in letzter Zeit? “How have you been recently?” |
| You probably asked this when you have a friend or a family member or just somebody you know better than just anybody, but you haven’t seen this person in a while. So you want to know like, “Oh, in this period where I haven’t seen you, like have you been doing good?”, “What are the things you want to talk about or any bigger news?” So you just say, ‘Hey, Wie ging es dir in letzter Zeit?’ “How have you been recently?" It really just shows that, oh, I realize I haven’t seen you in a while, but I want to know, have you been doing fine? |
| Number four... |
| 4. Vielen Dank für die Nachfrage. “Thank you for asking.” |
| Yeah, if you appreciate that the person asks about how are you, maybe because the person knows that you’ve been sick recently or that there have been problems and you want to show, hey, it’s cool, I appreciate you caring for me, you care like how am I doing then you can say, ‘Oh, Vielen Dank für die Nachfrage.’ “Thank you for asking.” It’s just like a nice way to make the other person know, hey you realize that that person cares for how you’re doing. Also when you’ve not been through a rough race, you can say, ‘Oh, Vielen Dank für die Nachfrage.’ “Thanks for asking.”, if somebody asks how you are just to show, hey, I appreciate you asking me like you care how am I doing. So just a polite way to respond also. |
| 5. Mir geht es nicht schlecht. “I'm not bad.” |
| Yeah, this is a little bit of a weaker version, not too optimistic like, oh, it’s not okay, I’m doing fine. Yeah, maybe not everything is totally cool, there are some stuff in your mind that you worry about, but it’s also not too big, you don’t want anybody to worry about the stuff and it’s not really important right now in the moment so you just say, okay, ‘Mir geht es nicht schlecht.’ “I'm not bad." It’s also not like too crazily negative that you would be like, oh, shh… What’s up with this person? He’s not too bad. |
| Number six… |
| 6. Mir geht es auch gut. “I'm fine too.” |
| Oh yeah, that’s also like the response in this typical conversation, “Hey, how are you?” “I’m fine. And you?” “Oh, I’m fine too." Mir geht es auch gut. “I'm fine too.” |
| 7. Ich bin müde. “I’m sleepy.” |
| It’s also legitimate to say like if you really had a rough day or haven’t had enough sleep last night and you feel so tired or sleepy and you are, haaa…, ich bin müde. You can say you’re tired. It’s not impolite or it’s not like the other person would be worrying about you if you say, “Oh, I’m sleepy." But it also makes clear that, hey, you’re not in the best mood right now. Probably, you’re not going to start crazy stuff, something. You’re just a little bit sleepy, ich bin müde, haaa…. Ich bin ein bisschen müde. Recently, I’ve been quite sleepy from time to time because I started a new job and I have to wake up very early every day so I come home sleepy, but, yeah, that’s the way it is, but that’s no problem. At home, I like to calm down a little bit, have lunch, have a coffee and then everything is cool then I’m fine and it gets good. |
| 8. Ich fühle mich schlecht. “I'm feeling bad.” |
| Yeah, apparently, if you’re not really feeling good and the person who asks you, “How are you?”, is probably like a friend of yours or a family member that you want him or her to know how you feel, then you could say, hey, if you’re really not feeling good, you can say, hey, I’m feeling bad, ‘Mir geht es nicht gut / Mir geht es schlecht.’ “I’m feeling bad”, maybe because you’ve done something wrong. I don’t know, also maybe because you ate something wrong and like physically you’re feeling bad. But in general, for example, if you’ve done something wrong and you know it and it’s still in your head, it occupies your head and you want to talk with somebody about it and then somebody you know, you trust comes to you and asks you, “Hey, how are you doing?”, and then that’s your opportunity to say, ‘Hey, ich fühle mich schlecht. “I'm feeling bad." And then he would probably ask, “Oh, what’s up?”, and then you can come up with what happened or what’s your problem. Yeah, usually, it implies if you say you’re feeling bad that the other person politely would ask, “What’s the matter?" |
| 9. Ich bin ok. “I'm okay.” |
| That’s also just like, hey, yeah, I’m fine, nothing really to talk about. It also implies that you’re not doing really great, but really, you don’t want to talk about anything. Maybe, you actually feel bad like in the previous example, you’re feeling bad, but you really don’t want to talk about it with a person, then you would just say, ‘Ich bin ok.’ “I'm okay." Sometimes also, the other person maybe would ask, “What’s up?”, like why you’re not doing fine. Oh, nevermind, it’s all right, then the person knows, okay, yeah, probably not too big of a deal and he doesn’t want to talk about it. So if you’re not doing really great, but you also just want to keep it for yourself or it’s not a big deal, you can say, ‘Ich bin ok.’ “I'm okay." |
| Number 10 and this is my favorite.... |
| 10. Mir geht es großartig. “I'm great.” |
| I actually say this quite often like when other people maybe just would say I’m fine. I don’t know like if somebody asks me how am I, having no problem, I’m doing good, why not just say, ‘Mir geht es großartig.’ Hey, I’m doing great. I like the positivity about it and mostly also, it’s kind of a little bit contagious, oh cool like he’s doing great. It’s like, his smile on his face is already a positive atmosphere in the room. So yeah, if I’m doing good, I like to say, “hey, I’m great” like there’s nothing to complain about. |
| “Thank you for watching!” Danke fürs zuschauen! |
| Now you know how to respond to the question, “How are you?” and how to ask this question yourself, what are the ways to get onto it. If you like it, I hope you like it, please subscribe to the channel and go to GermanPod101.com to learn even more German and become fluent. I’ll see you next time, leave a comment. Bye-bye! |
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