Learn how to use some common German greetings
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| Hallo, ich heiße Laura. Hi everybody! I’m Laura. |
| Welcome to GermanPod101.com’s “Deutsch in 3 Minuten”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn German. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to be grateful to people by saying Danke. In this lesson we’ll learn some of the most common greetings used in Germany. |
| Fertig? Are you ready? Los! So let’s start! |
| The most used informal greeting is: |
| Hallo! |
| [slowly] Hallo. |
| Hallo means “hi” or “hello”. We should only use this greeting with friends or relatives. |
| The most used *FORMAL* greetings will change depending on the time of day. Let’s start with: |
| Guten Tag! |
| [slowly] Guten Tag! |
| Literally, Guten Tag means "good day". As a rule of thumb we can use Guten Tag only during the daytime—from late morning until early evening. |
| In the morning we say Guten Morgen, “good morning!" |
| [slowly] Guten Morgen. |
| During the evening we say: |
| Guten Abend! |
| [slowly] Guten Abend! |
| Tag, Morgen, and Abend is German for day, morning, and evening, respectively. Easy, right? |
| What should you say when you leave? German people usually say Auf Wiedersehen! when leaving in a formal situation. |
| [slowly] Auf Wiedersehen. |
| Auf Wiedersehen means “good-bye.” |
| If we say good-bye to friends or our relatives, we use the informal word Tschüss! |
| [slowly] Tschüss! |
| Now you can greet people in many different ways in German! |
| Let’s review them all again. |
| First, the greetings: |
| Informally, we simply say Hallo. |
| Formally, use Guten Morgen! in the morning. |
| Guten Tag! in the afternoon |
| and Guten Abend! in the evening. |
| When leaving in a formal situation, we say: |
| Auf Wiedersehen! |
| And in an informal situation, it’s: |
| Tschüss! |
| It’s easy, isn’t it? |
| Now it’s time for Laura’s Insights. |
| Due to a huge variety of dialects in Gemany you might hear many different greeting phrases depending on the area. In Austria and in the catholic southern part of Germany they even say Grüß Gott, which means “greetings to god”. In the past, people from the north could barely talk to people from the south, since they spoke very different languages. But nowadays, if you use these common phrases then everyone will understand you, I’m sure! |
| During the next lesson we’ll learn the meaning of the phrase Sprechen Sie Englisch? Do you already know it? We'll be waiting to talk about it with you in our next Fast German/ Deutsch in drei Minuten lesson. |
| Tschüss! |
Comments
HideHi Rafael Torres Lopes!
Schönen Tag aus Schwerin! (Greetings from Schwerin!) 😊
Frühling ist eine wunderbare Zeit des Jahres, um die Natur zu genießen. (Spring is a wonderful time of the year to enjoy nature.) Wir hoffen, du genießt die schönen Tage und die blühende Landschaft. (We hope you enjoy the beautiful days and the blooming landscape.)
Have a great day!
Vielen Dank!
Team GermanPod101.com
Hallo Eslam bakheet!
Vielen Dank für deine freundlichen Worte! (Thank you very much for your kind words!) 😊 Wir freuen uns, dass du GermanPod101 nutzt und hoffen, dass du viel Spaß beim Deutschlernen hast. (We are happy that you are using GermanPod101 and hope you have a lot of fun learning German.)
Auf Wiedersehen und bis bald! (Goodbye and see you soon!) ❤️
Let us know if you have any questions.
Vielen Dank!
Team GermanPod101.com
Schönen Tag aus Schwerin! Der Frühling fängt langsam an, seine Power zu zeigen :)
Hallo, Guten Tag
danke sehr German Pod 101
Auf wiedersehen!❤️❤️
Hi Christina Wilke!
Guten Tag! Wie geht es Ihnen? (Good day! How are you?) 😊 Vielen Dank für Ihre freundlichen Worte an GermanPod101! (Thank you very much for your kind words to GermanPod101!)
Auf Wiedersehen und Tschüss! (Goodbye and bye!)
Let us know if you have any questions.
Vielen Dank!
Team GermanPod101.com
Hi Haya!
Great question! 😊
In German, "Ihnen" is indeed the formal way to say "you" when wishing someone a good day. If you're speaking to a friend, you would use the informal "dir." So you could say, "Ich wünsche dir einen guten Tag" (I wish you a good day).
Keep up the great work! If you have any questions, please let us know.
Danke!
Team GermanPod101.com
Guten Tag! Hallo! Wie geht es Dir?
Danke sehr German Pod 101
Auf Wiedersehen! Tschüss!
ch wünsche Ihnen einen guten Tag. Do we still use Ihnen (formal) even when speaking to a friend in this case?
Hi Joakim!
Vielen Dank für deine freundlichen Worte! 😊 (Thank you for your kind words!) Wir freuen uns, dass du hier bist und deine positive Energie mit uns teilst. (We are happy that you are here and sharing your positive energy with us.)
Dein Deutsch klingt großartig! Nur eine kleine Anmerkung: "mein Freunden" sollte "meine Freunde" sein, da "Freunde" im Plural steht. (Your German sounds great! Just a small note: "mein Freunden" should be "meine Freunde" because "Freunde" is in the plural form.)
Friede sei mit dir auch! (Peace be with you too!)
Have a great day!
Vielen Dank!
Team GermanPod101.com
Grüß Deutschland und Menschen der Welt.
Ich heiße Joakim aber mein Name ist nicht wichtig. Sie sind wichtig!
Auf Wiedersehen! Tschüss mein Freunden! Friede sei mit euch und Grüß Gott!
Hi Muhammad,
Thank you for getting back to us.
The most common translation I am aware of is
"Friede sei mit euch!"
But please know that a lot of Germans are familiar with the original. We usually say:
Salam alaykum.
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
Yours sincerely,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
Guten Abend, ich hieße Muhammad Zeeshan.
I want to ask you how I can say assalamualaikum in German and when I say good night so which time period I can use. Danke
Wiedersehen
Hi Brenda,
Thank you for posting. Good question.👍
I personally use "Guten Morgen" until about 9 - 10 o'clock.
"Guten Abend" from around 19:00 onwards. But you will find that this
is individually different. It might even depend on what part of Germany you're in(?). 😉
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
Yours sincerely,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
Hallo Team GermanPod101.com
Could you please provide me with some general guidance as to the approximate hours the greetings are used?
The lesson states that Guten Tag is used late morning until early evening. When does late morning begin? Is 5 PM (1700) considered early evening?
When is it appropriate to start using Guten Abend?
Ich danke Ihnen.
Hello Houssine,
Thank you for getting back to us. 👍
Practice makes perfect! (Übung macht den Meister.) 😄
If you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
Yours sincerely,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
Hallo,Ich Heiße Houssine . Ich wollen sagen Guten tag , guten morgen und guten Abend 😅 Auf Wiedersehen!
Hi Inke,
Thank you for posting. ❤️
Always a pleasure. 😉
If you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
Yours sincerely,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
Guten Abend. Vielen dank
Hi Adrian,
Thank you for getting back to us.
Homework well done! 👍😉
If you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us again.
Yours sincerely,
Reinhard
Team GermanPod101.com
Guten Morgen. Auf Wiedersehen.