Now let's have a look at the vocabulary for greetings in German.
good morning Guten Morgen
good day Guten Tag
good evening Guten Abend
good night Gute Nacht
Sleep tight Schlaf schön
Hello! Hallo! or Hi!
bye!(informal) tschüß
goodbye(formal) Auf Wiedersehen
See you soon. Bis bald.
See you later. Bis später.
See you tomorrow. Bis morgen.
Let's learn to introduce ourselves
I am ..(your name)... Ich heiße......
My name is.... Mein Name ist.....
And you? Und du? (Informal) Und Sie? (formal)
What is your name? Wie heißt du? (informal) Wei heißen Sie? (formal)
Making small talk
Where are you from? Woher kommst du? (informal) Woher kommen Sie? (formal)
I am from ..(country name).. Ich komme aus...
How are you? Wie geht es dir? or Wie gehts? (informal) Wie geht es Ihnen?(formal)
I am good. Mir gehts gut. or simply gut (Ich bin gut is wrong)
I am good. And you? Mir gehts gut. Und dir? (informal) or Und Ihnen?(formal)
In above sentences you must have noticed geht es and gehts. Here geht es is the shortened to form gehts. This is called contraction. We will be discussing it in detail later on.
How old are you? Wie alt bist du? (informal) Wie alt sind Sie? (formal)
I am .... years old. Ich bin..... jahre alt.
Where do you live? Wo wohnst du? (informal) Wo wohnen Sie (formal)
I live in ...city name.. Ich wohne in.....
I live close to...city name... Ich wohne in der Nähe von....
Other phrases
yes Ja
no nein
I am sorry. Entschuldigung
Entschuldigung literally means something like "deguiltification": "Take the guilt away from me"
Welcome ("Welcome to our home") Willkommen("Willkommen in unserem Zuhause")
Willkommen is not used for welcome as in "Thank you - You're welcome". The German for the latter is Gern geschehen (or just Gern!) or Keine Ursache.
Thank you! Danke!
Welcome! Gerngeschehen!
For Welcome some people will also say Bitte! or Bitteschön! Though Bitte also means Please.
Sit down, please. Setz dich, bitte.
To practice you can try writing a demo conversation introducing yourselves about a situation where you meet someone at a party or in a bus or in any formal setting.
For now bis später. Tschüß.
YOU ARE READING
Let's learn german
Non-FictionHello everyone! I am so excited to be writing this. OK, where do I start? I had been on Wattpad for some time now. However, this is my first time publishing anything. I had learned German some years back. But I couldn't complete it. I got busy with...
