German belongs to one of the most important languages in the world and has approximately 90 million native speakers in the world, mainly concentrated in Europe. The European Union considers this language as one of its official languages, because around 100 million people have it as their mother tongue, that is, approximately 13.3% of all Europeans.
This language is even the most spoken above French and English within Europe. It is a language that many people want to learn. It is the third most widely taught foreign language in the United States and ranks second in Europe.
The main thing to learn when speaking a language is to say hello, so if you want to learn how to say hello in German, you’ve come to the right place.
The countries that have this language as official are, of course, Germany, as well as Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.
What do you need to say hello in German?
Eager to learn.
Instructions for saying hello in German
As in most languages we find formal and informal greetings, depending on the situation in which we find ourselves. Here we leave several examples and their respective pronunciation.
- Formal greetings. Hello=hallo/jálo/ is the most common greeting, however in Germany they also use other ways to say hello, depending on whether you are in the south or north of this country. Hello=Moin /móin/ used in North Germany. Hola = Servus /sérvus/ used in South Germany.
- Other ways to say hello informally are:
Hello=Grüß Dich/grues dij/
Hello=Grüß Gott/grues got/ in southern Germany. - There are also short versions of the formal greetings that we will see later.
Good morning: Morgen : / mórguen / until 10 am
Good morning : Tag : /tak/ from 10 am
Good afternoon: Abend : /abent/: from 5pm - Formal greetings When these greetings are required, it should be done depending on the time of day we are. Good morning: Guten Morgen /gúten mórguen/ depending on the area of Germany it is used until 10am or until 12m. But the most common is that it is until 10 am.
Good morning (afternoon) : Guten Tag /gúten tak/ is used between 10 am and 5 pm, so it can be used in a certain part of the day as good afternoon.
Greeting at lunchtime : Mahlzeit /maalsait/: there is a specific greeting for the time when lunch is usually eaten. Between 11 am and 1 pm.
Good afternoon, Guten Abend/gúten abent/ saying good afternoon is usually applied after 5pm.
Good night: Gute Nacht / gúte najt /: it is used when the person is going to sleep and says goodbye to their loved ones.
Good evening : Guten Abend / Gutehn Ahbend: it is the one used at a general level. - When emails or letters are written to a person who is not close, even much more formality is required, here we leave examples. It differs if it is masculine or feminine.
Dear Sir, Sehr geehrter Herr /sea gueerta jerr /
Dear Madam, Sehr geehrte Frau /sea gueerte frau.
Tips for saying hello in German
- It is good to keep in mind the area where you are going to travel, to know which greeting to use regardless of whether it is formal or informal.
- It’s also good to take a good look at the situation to see if formal or informal greetings should be used.
- When you write, keep in mind that nouns are capitalized.