{"id":3935,"date":"2012-06-05T20:43:58","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T20:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=3935"},"modified":"2012-06-05T20:43:58","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T20:43:58","slug":"starting-a-conversation-in-german","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/starting-a-conversation-in-german\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting a conversation in German"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best way to learn German, or any other language, is using it in communicative situations, i.e. face-to-face situations. So, do not wait to speak German until you have learned some more grammar, but use every opportunity to speak German to test you newly acquired language skills.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Formal Greetings and Salutations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

German<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Pronunciation<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

English<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Guten Tag.<\/td>\ngew-tuhn tahk<\/td>\nHello.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ich hei\u00dfe \u2026<\/td>\niH hay-suh<\/td>\nMy name is \u2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wie hei\u00dfen Sie?<\/td>\nvee hay-suhn zee<\/td>\nWhat is your name?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Danke, sehr gut.<\/td>\ndAn-kuh, zeyR gewt<\/td>\nThank you, very well.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Danke, nicht schlecht.<\/td>\ndAn-kuh, niHt shleHt<\/td>\nThank you, not bad.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Danke, es geht so.<\/td>\ndAn-kuh, es gewt zo<\/td>\nThank you, so so.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mir geht\u2019s gut.<\/td>\nmeeR gayts gewt<\/td>\nI\u2019m fine.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cultural differences<\/strong><\/p>\n

Americans often ask \u201cHow are you?\u201d, which is rather an extension of a greeting. But when you ask a German \u201cWie geht es Ihnen?\u201d (formal) or \u201cWie geht es dir?\u201d (informal) they would rather take that question literally and probably tell you the story of their life. Fortunately, most Germans can \u2018deal\u2019 with that question and often respond with a simple \u201cMir geht\u2019s gut\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Informal Greetings and Salutations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

German<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Pronunciation<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

English<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Hallo!<\/td>\nhA-lo<\/td>\nHi!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ich hei\u00dfe \u2026<\/td>\niH hay-suh<\/td>\nMy name is \u2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wie hei\u00dft du?<\/td>\nvee hayst dew<\/td>\nWhat is your name?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wie geht\u2019s?<\/td>\nvee gayts<\/td>\nHow are you?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wie geht\u2019s dir?<\/td>\nvee gayts deeR<\/td>\nHow is it going with you?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Was machst du so?<\/td>\nvAs maHst dew zo<\/td>\nWhat\u2019s up?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ganz gut.<\/td>\ngAns gewt<\/td>\nOkay.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ich kann nicht klagen.<\/td>\niH kAn niHt kla-guhn<\/td>\nI can\u2019t complain.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

German \u201cGuten Tag\u201d and English \u201cHello\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In American or British English, there is no equivalent for German \u201cGuten Tag\u201d (lit. good day). In English, you would rather opt for the expression \u201cHello\u201d. But German \u201cHallo\u201d is rather informal, thus, it is not a good idea to greet someone with \u201cHallo\u201d in a rather official situation. In informal situations you can also use \u201cHi\u201d to greet someone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The best way to learn German, or any other language, is using it in communicative situations, i.e. face-to-face situations. So, do not wait to speak German until you have learned some more grammar, but use every opportunity to speak German to test you newly acquired language skills.   Formal Greetings and Salutations German Pronunciation English…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[76,95357],"class_list":["post-3935","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-language","tag-greetings","tag-salutations"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3935"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3938,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3935\/revisions\/3938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}