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All 9 ways to say hello in German
| German | Say it like | Use it when… | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hallo | HAH-loh | anyone, anywhere, any time — the safe one | |
| Guten Morgen | GOO-ten MOR-gen | until about 11 am | |
| Guten Tag | GOO-ten TAHK | the polite daytime standard | |
| Guten Abend | GOO-ten AH-bent | evening, from about 6 pm | |
| Moin | moyn | northern Germany — all day long | |
| Servus | ZEHR-voos | Bavaria & Austria, friendly | |
| Grüß Gott | grewss GOT | the south’s polite greeting | |
| Na? | nah | informal “hey, how’s it going?” — big in the north | |
| Hi | high — just like English | young & casual, just like English |
Which one should you actually use?
Germany answers this question by geography. In Hamburg you’ll hear Moin at any hour; in Munich the same person says Servus or Grüß Gott; everywhere in between, Hallo and Guten Tag do the work. Using the local one instantly warms the room.
German greetings by time of day
This is the part English does not really do. In English “hello” covers the
whole day. German swaps the greeting as the day moves, and using the wrong one is the
quickest way to sound like you learned from a phrasebook.
| German | Say it like | When | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guten Morgen | GOO-ten MOR-gen | From waking until about 10 or 11am | |
| Guten Tag | GOO-ten TAHK | Late morning until about 6pm — the safe formal default | |
| Guten Abend | GOO-ten AH-bent | From about 6pm — arriving, not leaving | |
| Gute Nacht | GOO-tuh nahkht | Only as a goodbye, and only at bedtime |
is not the evening version of Guten Abend. It is a goodbye, said as someone leaves or
goes to bed. Walk into a room at 9pm and say Gute Nacht and you have just told the room
you are going home.
Formal or informal? The one question that decides everything
German splits “you” into Sie (polite) and du
(familiar), and the greeting you pick signals which one you are about to use. Get the greeting
right and the rest of the conversation follows it.
| German | Say it like | Use it with | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guten Tag | GOO-ten TAHK | Strangers, shopkeepers, anyone older, anyone at work | |
| Hallo | HAH-loh | Friends, family, children, colleagues you know well | |
| Auf Wiedersehen | owf VEE-der-zay-en | Leaving formally | |
| Tschüss | chewss | Leaving casually |
If you are genuinely unsure, Guten Tag is never wrong. Being slightly too formal in
German costs you nothing; being too familiar with someone older is the mistake people notice.
The greeting that is really a question
Germans often open with a question rather than a greeting, and — unlike the English
“how are you?” — they usually mean it. A one-word answer is fine, but a shrug and
nothing at all reads as rude.
| German | Say it like | What it really means | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wie geht’s? | vee GAYTS | How’s it going? — friends and family | |
| Alles klar? | AH-less klar | All good? — casual, almost a nod in words | |
| Na? | nah | The whole greeting in one syllable, between people who know each other |
There is a full lesson on the replies — how to answer
Wie geht’s? without saying gut every time.
And the goodbye half
“Greetings” in German covers both ends of the conversation. These four cover
almost every exit.
| German | Say it like | When | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auf Wiedersehen | owf VEE-der-zay-en | Formal, in person | |
| Tschüss | chewss | The everyday goodbye, friendly with almost anyone | |
| Bis bald | biss bahlt | See you soon — when you actually will | |
| Gute Nacht | GOO-tuh nahkht | Last thing at night, and only then |
The full goodbye lesson has the regional ones and the
letter-sign-off forms.
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