Greetings in German

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. Nowadays it is quite common to use English greetings, like “hi” and “bye bye”, but these are considered to be casual.

Let's check out this lesson on greetings in German...

Resources for further reading:

How to pronounce greetings in German

Here are some of the most basic German greetings to get you started. Further on in this lesson we will look at the pronunciation of these and more German greetings.

  • Guten Morgen - Good morning
  • Guten Tag - Good day/ good afternoon
  • Guten Abend - Good evening
  • Gute Nacht - Good night
  • Hallo - hello
  • Hey - hey
  • Hi - hi
  • Sei gegrüßt - "be greeted" (addressing one person)
  • Seid gegrüßt - "be greeted" (addressing more than one person)
  • Tschüss - bye

Saying Hello the Formal Way

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!
Guten Morgen
Good morning
Guten Tag
Good day/ good afternoon
Guten Abend
Good evening
Gute Nacht
Good night

Saying Hello the Casual Way

Hallo
hello
Hey
hey
Hi
hi
Sei gegrüßt
"be greeted" (addressing one person)
Seid gegrüßt
"be greeted" (addressing more than one person)

Regional Differences:

In the south of Germany, in Bavaria, it is very common to say

Grüß Gott!
"greet God"
You won’t hear “Grüß Gott” anywhere else, it really is a Bavarian thing. It’s the same with "Moin", which is short for "Guten Morgen" and is used in the northern parts of Germany.
Moin!
Good Morning (North Germany)

which is used in the northern parts of Germany.

Another greeting you will only hear in the south of Germany is:

Servus
hello (South Germany)

Saying Good Bye the Formal Way

Auf Wiedersehen
good bye

You have probably heard “Auf Wiedersehen” before. It literally means “until we see each other again”.

Saying Good Bye the Casual Way

Tschüss
bye
Bis bald
see you soon
Bis später
see you later
Bis dann
see you then
Mach’s gut
“make it good”

If you want to learn how to say thank you in German or other German salutations then check these lessons out!

Bis bald!

Paul Weber: Rocket German

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Let's get you talking in German.

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