Question | Answer |
---|---|
Hi | Hallo You might have heard the formal greeting Guten Tag , but nowadays everyone says Hallo. If you enter a shop, people will greet you with Hallo. |
Bye | Tschüss You might have heard the formal greeting Auf Wiedersehen, but nowadays everyone says Tschüss. If you leave a shop, people will say Tschüss. |
I | ich |
to be | sein |
am | bin |
I am (name) | Ich bin ... Ich bin Ulrike. Ich bin Peter. |
to be called | heissen |
My name is ... | Ich heisse ... Normally ss is spelled ß in German, but since the invention of the computer and internet this spelling is no longer obliged. |
you | du du is informal, so don't use it with strangers, except if they are children. You might use it if your friend brings his buddies along, but generally we tend to first offer someone the right to use du with us. |
how | wie You have seen 'wie' in the question about the name before. We tend to rather ask 'How is your name?' than 'What is your name?' |
What's your name? | Wie heisst du? We tend to ask How is your name? rather than What is your name? |
you (polite) | Sie Sie is the formal version of you which you we use with everybody except close friends, family or children. Once we get more friendly with people, we might offer them or they might offer to us to use du instead. |
What's your name? (polite) | Wie heissen Sie? |
to go | gehen |
it | es |
du - dative case | dir You will learn more about the dative case later. |
How are you? | Wie geht es dir? informal |
Sie - dative case | Ihnen Du - dir Sie - Ihnen We'll look at how this works out later, just try to link them together in your brain for now :D |
How are you? polite | Wie geht es Ihnen? |
good; fine; well | gut |
ich - dative case | mir ich - mir du - dir Sie - Ihnen |
I am fine. | Mir geht es gut. |
I am fine. | Es geht mir gut. |
bad; unwell | schlecht |
I am unwell. | Mir geht es schlecht. Means I am not doing fine. Mir ist schlecht would mean I feel like vomiting. |
Are you doing well? | Geht es dir gut? By starting with the verb we can turn a normal sentence into a yes/no question: Es geht dir gut = You are doing well Geht es dir gut? = Are you doing well? |
Is your name Peter? | Heisst du Peter? |
Yes | Ja |
Yes, my name is Peter. | Ja, ich heisse Peter. |
Are you well? polite | Geht es Ihnen gut? |
thank you | danke You might have come across 'Dankeschön'. This word is not used in a regular sentence. It is simply too long. You use it only as a phrase and on special occasions. It means This is really kind of you or pretty thank you with a cherry on top :D |
Thank you, I am doing fine. | Danke, es geht mir gut. |
no | nein |
not | nicht |
so | so |
No, I am not very well. | Nein, es geht mir nicht so gut. |
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