Hallo und Herzlich willkommen. Are you all ready to start a German journey ? As promised, my blogs will be more focused on communicative part of German language rather than going deep into grammar. At the end, it only matters how well you speak and no one is going to test your German grammar on the streets, or wherever you would like use to your German language. In fact, most of the Germans themselves do not know grammatical aspects of their language. Since it is their mother tongue and they have been using the language since they started to speak, they actually know what ‘sounds‘ right and speak accordingly.
This is not only the case with German language, but all other languages. For example, I speak Hindi and English very fluently and do not care about structure of grammar in my speech. This holds true for any language which is spoken as part of their mother tongue as opposed to ‘classroom language’ where you were made to learn lot of things which you actually seldom need or probably do not need at all.
Ok, enough of explanation. Let’s get started with our topic “Greetings” in German or as one may say in Deutsch “Begrüßungen.”
If you have been to any German class, you have been already taught about some of the common greetings that German use. Do not worry if you have not been to any class. We will learn all those plus some ‘non-academic’ greetings that you hear on streets.
“Hallo” is what Germans use to say Hello. Remember to also sound German by pronouncing it right ‘Haa-low.‘ This greeting is independent of the time of the day and is also used both as formal and informal greeting.
“Hi” might sound as an English greeting, but Germans have adapted to this greeting, so do not be surprised when someone at ‘Supermarkt’ (Zu-pehr-makt) greets you with a simple Hi.
“Guten Morgen” (gooh-ten mohr-gen) Sounds familiar ? Yes, one of the greetings which is most likely have been taught in our classroom. This is similar to good morning in English and it is used widely in formal context. Like English, we also limit the use of Guten Morgen until certain time of the day. There is, however, not a clear limit until when. I have had personally varied experiences. Sometimes I hear Guten Morgen until 11:00 a.m. and sometimes Guten Tag already by 10 a.m. I think it also depends on what time you start your day. Germans usually start their day early and so mostly you may hear Guten Morgen for a good couple of hours (until 10 a.m.) until they start using Guten Tag. Well, that’s our next greeting!
“Guten Tag” (gooh-ten taag). This greeting is used throughout the day until about 6 p.m. in the evening. This would more or less translates to good day in English. So don’t shy away saying Guten Tag to anyone you meet during the day!
“Guten Abend” (gooh-ten Aabend). Evenings in Germany are quite long. During summer times, the sun may set as late as 11 p.m. in the evening. This greeting is therefore used until very late in the evening (or until night).
“Gute Nacht” (gooh-teh naakt). I have personally never heard anyone saying Gute Nacht to me. You may not want to wish anyone “Gute Nacht” unless a person is actually going to bed. This is similar to Good Night in English.
“Grüß Gott” “ Grüß dich” “Grüß Sie” “Grüezi “ These are some of the variants also used in various parts of Germany. Grüß Gott translates to God’s greetings or God greets you. Grüß dich and Grüß Sie are used to convey greetings in informal and formal ways respectively. Grüezi can be heard as a way to greet someone around Austria and Switzerland.
“Servus” (cer-voos) typically a Bavarian greeting but do not be surprised if you hear this greeting around other parts of Germany. As they say, richness of the language is in it’s vast vocabulary.
“Moin” / “Moin Moin” It sounds like morning doesn’t it? Well, don’t let the sound make wrong impression. It is actually an evolved version of various regions (i do not want to go into history and word origin). For us, it is just important not to be unfamiliar to this word. Moin / Moin Moin is used as an all-day greeting irrespective of the time.
“Na?” This sounded a bit strange when I heard this for the first time. It took me some time to understand that this is a casual way of greeting, especially among youngsters. It would translate something like “and ? or what’s up”