We all like to make a good first impression, and feeling confident with some basic German will help you do just that. And because you never know when you might need to say “I’m sorry” in German, we’ll teach you that too.

Resources for further reading:
Find out how to pronounce German words properly
Find out how to learn German fast

Listen carefully to the German pronunciation and practice speaking aloud. Make sure you take the first opportunity to try these phrases out on a native speaker – it will help you to remember them!

Let's begin this lesson on how are you in German!

Asking how are you in German

For friends or family :

Practice Your Pronunciation With Rocket Record

Rocket Record lets you perfect your German pronunciation. Just listen to the native speaker audio and then use the microphone icon to record yourself. Once you’re done, you’ll get a score out of 100 on your pronunciation and can listen to your own audio playback. (Use a headset mic for best results.) Problems? Click here!

Wie geht es dir?

How are you?

Wie geht’s?

How are you?

For strangers or more senior persons:

Wie geht es Ihnen?

How are you?

What do you say if someone asks you one of these questions?

Gut, danke.

Well, thanks.

Sehr gut.

Very well.

Wie immer.

As always.

Ein bisschen müde.

A little tired.

Ich bin krank.

I'm sick.

So la-la.

So-so.

Nicht schlecht.

Not bad.

Schlecht.

Bad.

Alles in Ordnung.

All good.

Ganz gut.

Quite good.

A common follow-up question is , “And you?”, “Und Ihnen?” or more informal “Und dir?”

Und Ihnen?

And you? (formal)

Und dir?

And you?

If someone tells you that he or she is not feeling well you could say the following…

Das tut mir leid.

I'm sorry.

If someone is feeling great you might want to say the following…

Das freut mich.

Nice to hear.

The above words are extremely important. From experience, I know that the most important phrase in any language is how to say you’re sorry!

Others disagree. They say that there are THREE important phrases that you absolutely must know in any language. They are:

Das tut mir leid

I'm sorry

Ich liebe dich

I love you

Ich brauche Hilfe

I need help

Hmm, I can’t think of a situation in which I’d need to use all three, but I’ll leave it to your imagination!

For more on the use of German questions check out these lessons...

Dining in a German restaurant? How about asking for the bill in German. Your guests will be impressed!
In this lesson you'll find lots of helpful German question phrases.
Check out this lesson on the German question words.

Bis bald!

Paul Weber: Rocket German

Make It Stick With The Rocket Activities

Reinforce your learning with activities that test your recall, listening and speaking skills!

How are you in German

Asking how are you in German

Practice Your Pronunciation With Rocket Record

Make It Stick With The Rocket Activities