LESSON NOTES

Survival Phrases S1 #4
Basic Greetings

CONTENTS
2
2
2
3
4
4

German
English
Vocabulary
Sample Sentences
Grammar
Cultural Insight

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GERMAN
1.

Hallo

2.

Guten Morgen.

3.

Guten Tag.

4.

Guten Abend.

ENGLISH
1.

Hello

2.

Good morning.

3.

Good day.

4.

Good evening.

VOCABULARY
Ge r man

English

C lass

Ge nde r

Morgen

morning

noun

masculine

Abend

evening

noun

Tag

day

noun

guten Morgen

good morning

expression

guten Tag

good day

expression

hallo

hello

salutation

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plural: Tage

SURVIVAL PHRASES S1 #4 - BASIC GREETINGS

gut, gute, guter,

gutes

good

adjective

guten Abend

good evening

expression

SAMPLE SENTENCES
H e u te i st e i n w u n d e rsch n e r
Mo rg e n .

G u te n Mo rg e n !
Good morning!

Today is a beautiful morning.

Am Abe n d w i rd e s ka l t.
It gets cold in the evening.

H e u te Abe n d w e rd e n w i r a u f d e r
Te rra sse g ri l l e n .
Tonight we'll have a barbecue on the patio.

D i e se r Ta g i st e i n Fe i e rta g .

H e u te i st e i n g u te r Ta g .

This day is a public holiday.

Today is a good day.

G u te n Mo rg e n , m e i n S ch a tz!

Ma ri e w n sch t i h re r Fa m i l i e e i n e n
g u te n Mo rg e n .

Good morning, my dear!

Marie wishes her family a good morning.

Ich w n sch e Ih n e n e i n e n g u te n
Ta g !

G u te n Ta g H e rr D r. H e i n ri ch .
Good day doctor Heinrich.

Have a good day!

H a l l o ! Wi e g e h t e s D i r?
Hello! How are you?

H a l l o ? Ich bra u ch e e i n Ta xi a n d e r
K n i g sstra e Ecke
Fri e d ri ch sstra e .
Hello? I need a taxi at the corner of
Knigsstrae and Friedrichsstrae.

D a s w a r e i n g u te r Fi l m .

D a s i st e i n w i rkl i ch g u te s Esse n .

That was a good movie.

That really is a good meal.

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SURVIVAL PHRASES S1 #4 - BASIC GREETINGS

G u te n Abe n d ! Ka n n i ch Ih n e n
h e l fe n ?

G u te n Abe n d Ma m a .
Good evening mom.

Good evening! May I help you?

GRAMMAR
In Germany there are four main greetings. Hallo, is the most general greeting and can be
used anytime. There are also different greetings for different times of the day. Guten Morgen
or Morgen is the greeting used before noon. Guten Tag or simply Tag, is the afternoon
greeting but can be used throughout the day. After about six oclock you can use the evening
greeting, guten Abend or Abend. Lets learn about German nouns. In German all nouns are
capitalized. You can see here as well as in the vocabulary lists how they are written. Also,
unlike English with its single article the, German has three definite articles: der (masculine),
die (feminine), and das (neutral). You will see that these sometimes change depending on
the gender of the noun, whether it is singular or plural and its case (nominative, genitive,
dative and accusative).We will not get into how this effects the grammar yet, because it gets
complicated. I just wanted to point this out so you are not wondering why the articles are
changing. I will note in the vocabulary the gender of each noun with the first letter of the
gender: (m) masculine, (f) feminine, and (n) neutral.

CULTURAL INSIGHT
In some parts of Germany they use different greetings. In Bayern or Bavaria which is southern
Germany, a very common greeting is Gr Gott, which means greet god. (The symbol in the
word Gr is a double s and is pronounced like a long s. It is not used as often today but you
will still encounter it.) . If you're not sure how to greet someone a simple hallo will never fail
you. In Germany, when one enters a room from outside, it is custom for the person to give a
greeting as they enter.

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SURVIVAL PHRASES S1 #4 - BASIC GREETINGS