German Greetings: Your First 20 Words
Published 2026-08-06 · Language: en
🕐 Guten Tag, and the Clock That Decides Your Greeting Which German greeting is correct at 11am? The answer depends entirely on the clock. ⏰ Where an English speaker can say "hello" at any hour, German expects you to che
🕐 Guten Tag, and the Clock That Decides Your Greeting
Which German greeting is correct at 11am? The answer depends entirely on the clock. ⏰
Where an English speaker can say "hello" at any hour, German expects you to check the time first. There are four time-bound greetings, and one of them is a trap that almost every beginner falls into.
🌅 Guten Morgen — used before roughly 10am.
☀️ Guten Tag — the safe universal greeting from late morning to early evening.
🌆 Guten Abend — from about 6pm onward.
🌙 Gute Nacht — the trap. It is only said when someone is leaving to sleep.
Note the shortened adjective: Gute , not Guten .
That happens because Nacht is feminine, while Tag and Morgen are masculine.
😀 Hallo — neutral, friendly, and time-independent.
Its relaxed cousin Hi is borrowed straight from English and common among younger speakers.
If you remember only one word from this lesson, make it Hallo . It is never wrong enough to matter, and it buys you time while you work out which of the other three applies.
There is also one oddity worth banking early. Around midday, especially in offices and canteens, Germans greet each other with Mahlzeit — a greeting, not an invitation. The midday meal itself is Mittagessen.
Example: You walk into a bakery at 8am and say Guten Morgen . Return at 2pm and the same visit becomes Guten Tag . 🥐
⚠️ Note: Greeting a dinner host with Gute Nacht tells them you are about to go to bed. Expect a puzzled look.
💡 Pro-Tip: Memorise the four as fixed blocks rather than as grammar. The adjective ending will make sense later, once genders arrive.
Concept/Term
Explanation
Guten Morgen
Morning greeting, used until roughly 10am.
Guten Tag
The all-purpose polite greeting for most of the day.
Guten Abend
Evening greeting, from about 6pm.
Gute Nacht
Said only when parting for sleep, never on arrival.
Mahlzeit
Midday workplace greeting meaning "mealtime".
Diagram: which German greeting to use across a 24-hour day, from Guten Morgen through Guten Tag and Guten Abend to Gute Nacht. Morning: Guten Morgen. Daytime: Guten Tag. Midday: Mahlzeit. Evening: Guten Abend. Night: Gute Nacht.
Study Questions
Which greeting is safe for most of the daytime, and roughly when does it start?
Why is Gute Nacht spelled with "Gute" rather than "Guten"?
What does a colleague mean when they say Mahlzeit at 12:30?
📑 New Section
🤝 Sie or du: The Decision You Make Before You Speak
Photo by Mina Rad · unsplash
Before you can say "how are you?" in German, you have to decide how well you know the person. 🚦
German has two words for "you", and choosing the wrong one is the fastest way to sound either rude or oddly intimate. English lost this distinction centuries ago, which is why it feels arbitrary at first — but native speakers make the choice unconsciously, before the sentence starts.
🎩 Sie — always capitalised, and your default with anyone you do not know.
Use it with officials, older strangers, shopkeepers, and new colleagues.
The matching question is Wie geht es Ihnen.
👟 du — friends, family, children, classmates, and increasingly colleagues at younger companies.
The matching question is Wie geht es dir.
Among friends it collapses to a quick Wie geht's.
The switch between them is a small social ritual rather than a personal choice. The older or more senior person offers it, and the phrase you will hear is Wir können uns duzen. Until that offer arrives, stay formal.
Two verbs describe the act itself, and they are worth knowing as vocabulary: duzen and siezen.
Example: Your manager says Wir können uns duzen . From that moment you use du with them — but not automatically with everyone else in the room. 🎉
⚠️ Note: Using du with a police officer or an official reads as disrespectful. Using Sie with a close friend sounds cold and distancing.
💡 Pro-Tip: Default to Sie and wait. Nobody has ever been insulted by too much politeness. 🛡️
Concept/Term
Explanation
Sie
Formal "you", capitalised. The default with strangers and authority.
du
Informal "you", for friends, family, children, and peers.
duzen / siezen
The verbs for addressing someone with du or with Sie.
Wir können uns duzen
The offer to switch; normally made by the senior person.
Study Questions
Which form should a beginner default to with a stranger, and why?
Who normally makes the offer to switch from Sie to du?
What is the difference between duzen and siezen ?
📑 New Section
👋 Leaving Politely
Goodbyes are simpler than greetings — but one of them exists purely for the telephone. ☎️
The pattern to notice is that German goodbyes describe what happens next. Auf Wiedersehen promises seeing again; Auf Wiederhören promises hearing again. Once you see that, choosing between them stops being memorisation.
🎩 Auf Wiedersehen — literally "until seeing again". Slightly formal, never wrong.
😊 Tschüss — the everyday casual goodbye.
A softer variant among friends is Tschüssi.
☎️ Auf Wiederhören — "until hearing again", for calls only.
⏳ Bis bald and Bis morgen — one vague, one a real commitment.
🏔️ Servus — in Bavaria and Austria it does double duty, like the Italian "ciao".
Shop staff will often add Schönen Tag noch as you leave. It expects nothing back beyond a nod or a danke .
Example: You finish a phone call with your landlord. Auf Wiederhören — not Auf Wiedersehen , because nobody is being seen. 📵
⚠️ Note: Using the seeing-version on the phone is a small but very audible mistake.
💡 Pro-Tip: Tschüss covers roughly 90% of daily situations. Learn it first and add the others gradually. 🎯
Concept/Term
Explanation
Auf Wiedersehen
Formal, always-correct goodbye for shops, offices, appointments.
Tschüss
The standard casual goodbye in everyday life.
Auf Wiederhören
The telephone-only goodbye — "until hearing again".
Bis bald / Bis morgen
"See you soon" with no date, versus a commitment to tomorrow.
Study Questions
Which goodbye belongs on the telephone, and what does it literally mean?
What is the difference in commitment between Bis bald and Bis morgen ?
Which single goodbye would carry you through most everyday situations?
📑 New Section
💬 Answering "How Are You?" Without Freezing
German Phrase
English Meaning
Wie geht es dir
how are you (informal)
Es geht
so-so
Mir geht es gut
I'm doing well
sehr gut
very good
ausgezeichnet
excellent
Nicht so gut
not so good
Mir geht es schlecht
I'm doing badly
danke
thank you
Und dir
and you (informal)
Und Ihnen
and you (formal)
In English, "how are you?" is a greeting. In German, it is a question. 😳
This catches English speakers repeatedly. Germans are often surprised by how automatically we answer "fine" — because Wie geht es dir genuinely asks, and a real answer is expected. The good news is that the honest answers are short.
😐 Es geht — "I'm getting by". The neutral, entirely acceptable answer.
🙂 Mir geht es gut — the standard positive reply.
Stronger: sehr gut.
Stronger still, and a little grand for daily use: ausgezeichnet.
😕 Nicht so gut — a mild, safe way to signal a bad day.
Mir geht es schlecht is much stronger and invites a real conversation.
Whatever you answer, close the loop by returning the question. Add danke first, then Und dir or the formal Und Ihnen.
Example: Danke, gut. Und dir? — a complete, natural exchange in four words. ☕
⚠️ Note: Say Mir geht es schlecht only if you mean it. It is treated as a disclosure, not small talk.
💡 Pro-Tip: Memorise the full reply as one unit rather than three words. Under pressure you will produce it whole. 🎯
Concept/Term
Explanation
Es geht
Neutral answer — honest without inviting a long conversation.
Mir geht es gut
The standard positive answer, "I'm doing well".
Nicht so gut
Mild way to signal a bad day.
Und dir / Und Ihnen
"And you?" — informal and formal ways to return the question.
Study Questions
Why is answering "fine" automatically a mistake in German?
Which answer signals a bad day mildly, and which one seriously?
How do you return the question in the formal register?
📑 New Section
🗺️ Regional Greetings That Sound Like Mistakes But Aren't
Why does a Hamburg cashier say "morning" at nine in the evening? 🌃
Travel around the German-speaking world and the textbook greetings start competing with local ones. You never need to produce any of these — but a conversation that opens with one is a conversation you have already lost the first three seconds of.
⚓ Moin — Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, used at every hour despite sounding like "morning".
Doubling it to Moin Moin is common; some northerners joke that twice is unnecessary chatter.
⛪ Grüß Gott — Bavaria and Austria. It literally means "greet God" but functions as a plain hello.
The informal counterpart is Grüß dich.
Austrians also say Pfiat di when parting.
🇨🇭 Grüezi — standard Swiss German, with Grüezi mitenand for groups.
None of this changes what you should say. A foreigner saying Guten Tag anywhere in the German-speaking world is understood and welcomed, because Hochdeutsch is the shared fallback everywhere. 🛟
Example: A Munich shopkeeper opens with Grüß Gott . Answer with Guten Tag and nothing is lost.
⚠️ Note: A cashier saying Moin at 9pm is not confused about the time. The word simply is not time-bound.
💡 Pro-Tip: Aim for recognition, not production. Hearing these correctly matters far more than saying them. 👂
Concept/Term
Explanation
Moin
Northern German greeting used at any hour of day or night.
Grüß Gott
Bavarian and Austrian hello; religious in wording, ordinary in use.
Grüezi
The standard Swiss German greeting.
Hochdeutsch
Standard German — understood everywhere, the safe fallback.
Study Questions
At what times of day can Moin be used?
Which greeting would you expect from a shopkeeper in Munich?
Why does a learner not strictly need to produce any regional greeting?
📑 New Section
⚖️ Formal vs Informal at a Glance
Almost every greeting decision in German reduces to a single question: how well do you know this person? 🧭
The table below puts the two registers side by side. Read down one column and you have a complete, consistent way of speaking to someone — mixing columns is what sounds odd.
🎩 The formal column is your default with strangers, officials, and older people.
It stays correct forever; nobody outgrows politeness.
👟 The informal column unlocks once du has been offered.
The offer usually comes from the senior person, not from you.
When you genuinely cannot tell which applies, mirror whatever the other person used with you. That is what native speakers do when they are unsure. 🪞
Example: A neighbour opens with Hallo, wie geht's? — informal. Answer in kind rather than switching to Sie.
💡 Pro-Tip: If you must guess with a stranger, guess formal. The failure mode is much gentler.
Concept/Term
Explanation
Greeting
Formal: Guten Tag · Informal: Hallo
"You"
Formal: Sie · Informal: du
"How are you?"
Formal: Wie geht es Ihnen · Informal: Wie geht's
"And you?"
Formal: Und Ihnen · Informal: Und dir
Goodbye
Formal: Auf Wiedersehen · Informal: Tschüss
Study Questions
Give the formal and informal version of "how are you?".
Which goodbye pairs with Sie, and which with du?
What should you do if you cannot tell which register applies?
Core Takeaways
⏰ German greetings run on a clock: Guten Morgen, Guten Tag, Guten Abend — and Gute Nacht only for sleep.
🤝 The Sie/du choice comes first; default to formal and wait to be offered du.
👋 Tschüss is the everyday goodbye, Auf Wiedersehen the formal one, Auf Wiederhören the telephone one.
💬 "How are you?" expects a real answer — Danke, gut. Und dir? is complete.
🗺️ Recognise Moin, Grüß Gott, and Grüezi; fall back on Hochdeutsch.