Formal German
Frau Höhne Guten Tag, Herr Jäger!
Herr Jäger Guten Tag, Frau Höhne!
Frau Höhne Wie geht es Ihnen?
Herr Jäger Gut, danke, und Ihnen?
Frau Höhne Auch gut, danke.
Herr Jäger Auf Wiedersehen!
Frau Höhne Auf Wiedersehen!
English
Ms Höhne Hello, Mr Jäger! (literally
Mr Jäger Hello, Ms Höhne! (literally
Ms Höhne How are you? (literally
Mr Jäger Good, thanks, and you?
Ms Höhne Also good, thanks.
Mr Jäger Goodbye! (literally
Ms Höhne Goodbye! (literally
Informal German
Lisa Hallo Thomas!
Thomas Hallo Lisa!
Lisa Wie geht es dir?
Thomas Gut, danke, und dir?
Lisa Auch gut, danke.
Thomas Tschüss!
Lisa Tschüss!
Informal English
Lisa Hey Thomas!
Thomas Hey Lisa!
Lisa How are you?
Thomas Good, thanks, and you?
Lisa Also good, thanks.
Thomas Bye!
Lisa Bye!
Vocabulary Sample Sentences
Du bist gut. You are good.
Heute ist ein guter Tag. Today is a good day.
Herr Smith Mr Smith
Frau Smith Mrs Smith.
Wie geht es Ihnen, Herr Müller? How are you, Mr Müller?
Thomas und Lisa. Thomas and Lisa.
Ich danke Ihnen. I thank you.
Thomas kommt auch. Thomas is coming, too.
Auf Wiedersehen, Professor Martins! Goodbye, professor Martins!
Grammar Points
Pronunciation
Unlike English, German is spelled almost phonetically. This will be a huge advantage in your studies.
First however, you will need to get accustomed to the German pronunciation. Throughout this course,listen carefully to the dialogue and imagine yourself saying the phrases, maybe even play dialoguesrepeatedly and whisper along. If at all possible, get at least a basic membership in order to have accessto the PDF transcript – this will immensely help you as you will then be able to read the dialogue whilelistening to it, matching letters and words to their sounds. Pay particular attention to the vowels, the R
and the Umlaute (Ä, Ö and Ü).
Politeness
Just like German, French and Italian, German distinguishes between a formal and an informal way of addressing people, depending on how familiar you are with them. Here are the main differences
between formal and informal language:
Situation Formal language Informal language
Names Use last name Use first name
Word for "you" "Sie" and derived forms like
"Ihnen"
"du" and derived forms like "dir"
Greeting when meeting "Guten Tag"(good day), "Guten
Morgen"(good morning), "Guten
Abend"(good evening)
"Hallo", "Hey", "Hi", depending
on age and style, also slurred
versions of the formal greetings,
such as "Tach"(day),
"n'Abend"(d'evening)
Greeting when leaving "Auf Wiedersehen"(till seeing-again)
"Tschüss"(Bye)
Cultural Insight
Germans are very peculiar about wishing to show respect and to be shown respect when talking withothers. That is why sometimes even people who have known each other for a long time use ‘formal’
language with each other – as a sign of mutual respect, not of coldness. Even kids were supposed toaddress their parents formally until about 100 years ago or so. Now this is no longer the case, but youshould still watch out who you address how. Generally, you should only use informal language with anew acquaintance if:
- you are talking to somebody under 18- you and the person you’re talking with are both around student age- you and the person you’re talking with are relativesIn all other cases, you should wait till you are asked to switch to informal language – it’s up to theolder person or the one higher in rank to do so or not. Your boss or teacher will certainly never askyou, as that would diminish his authority in the eyes of everybody. However, even regularacquaintances don’t switch to using first names nearly as quickly as they do in the USA. If you juststart by addressing a stranger informally, he may feel offended as you seem to treat him like a child.
That being said, as a foreigner you certainly have some leeway in case you should forget.
