Rocket German Newsletter Series
Guten Tag! Welcome to the Rocket German Newsletter Series!
In today’s newsletter you’re going to learn some more greetings that are used every day in Germany.
Are you ready to start?
Greetings like “good morning” or “good afternoon” are incredibly important in German. As the German culture is more formal, going through the ritual of greeting another person is an important way of showing respect. Germans shake hands while saying “Guten Morgen” , “Guten Tag” or “Guten Abend” depending on the time of the day. You are expected to greet every person individually, even if they’re in a group. That means that if you’re walking along the road and pass a group of five people, you’ll have to say, “Guten Tag,” and shake hands five times!
» Audio 1 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Guten Tag | Guten Tag |
| Guten Tag | Guten Tag |
| Guten Tag |
As you have learned before, there are two ways of addressing someone in German: a polite or formal way using “Sie” and a more casual way using “du”. The same concept applies to greetings. Listen to the link below to hear formal German greetings…
» Audio 2 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Good morning! | Guten Morgen! |
| Good afternoon! | Guten Tag! |
| Good evening! | Guten Abend! |
| Good night! | Gute Nacht! |
Nowadays it is quite common to use English greetings, like “hi” and “bye bye”, but these are considered to be casual. Listen to the link below to hear some informal German greetings.
» Audio 3 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Hello | Hallo |
| Hi | Hi |
| “Be greeted” | Sei gegrüßt |
| “Be greeted” | Seid gegrüßt |
There are some greetings that you will only hear in certain regions.
» Audio 4 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Greet God | Grüß Gott |
| Hello | Servus |
In the south of Germany, in Bavaria, it is very common to greet someone by saying “Grüß Gott” or “Servus”. You won’t hear “Grüß Gott” anywhere else; it really is a Bavarian thing. It’s the same with “Moin”, the short version of “Guten Morgen” which is only used in the northern parts of Germany.
» Audio 5 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Good morning | Moin |
You have probably heard “Auf Wiedersehen” before. It literally means “until we see each other again” and is a formal way of saying good-bye.
» Audio 6 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Good-bye | Auf Wiedersehen |
Let’s listen to some casual farewells
» Audio 7 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Bye | Tschüß |
| See you soon | Bis bald |
| See you later | Bis später |
| See you then | Bis dann |
| “Make it good” | Mach’s gut |
That’s it for today’s lesson. Using different greetings will make you sound more fluent, so try to remember as many as you can.
Bis bald!
Paul Weber
Rocket German
P.S. Here is a little exercise for you to test your German skills.
Exercise 1. Match the German word with its English translation
1. |
Tschüß | (______) |
a. hello |
2. |
Hallo | (______) |
b.good night |
3. |
Auf Wiedersehen | (______) |
c. see you later |
4. |
Gute Nacht | (______) |
d. bye |
5. |
Bis später | (______) |
e. good-bye |
|
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