Breakdown of Hallo Anna! Wie geht es dir?
Hallo
hello (informal, any time of day)
Wie geht es dir
how are you (informal)
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Questions & Answers about Hallo Anna! Wie geht es dir?
Why does the sentence use dir instead of du?
In German, the phrase for "How are you?" literally translates to "How goes it to you?". Because the action is happening to you, German uses the dative pronoun dir (to you) instead of the basic subject pronoun du (you).
What does es geht literally mean here?
The words es geht translate to "it goes". When combined with wie (how), the whole phrase Wie geht es dir? is the standard way to ask someone how they are doing.
Would I use this exact phrase if I were talking to a teacher or a stranger?
No. Because we are talking to Anna on a first-name basis, we use the informal dir. If you were speaking formally to a stranger or someone in authority, you would use the formal pronoun and ask Wie geht es Ihnen?.
Can I shorten Wie geht es dir? in casual conversation?
Yes! In everyday spoken German, people often combine geht and es to ask Wie geht's?. This is exactly like asking "How's it going?" in English.