Day 2: Greetings, and the du/Sie decision
Every German conversation opens with a choice English does not make you make: du or Sie. Get it wrong and you are either rude or oddly stiff — and there is no neutral option to hide behind.
Today is that decision, plus the greetings you will use on Day 30. It is a light day on purpose. Day 1 was dense; Day 6 will be denser.
1. Greetings by the clock
| Time | German | Respelling | |
|---|---|---|---|
| until ~11:00 | Guten Morgen | GOO-ten MOR-gen | Good morning |
| ~11:00 – 18:00 | Guten Tag | GOO-ten TAHK | the default daytime greeting |
| after ~18:00 | Guten Abend | GOO-ten AH-bent | Good evening |
| going to bed | Gute Nacht | GOO-tuh NAKHT | only for leaving / sleeping |
⚠️ Gute Nacht is not an evening greeting. It is what you say when someone is going to bed. Walk into a restaurant at 21:00 with Gute Nacht and you have told the room you are leaving.
★ Did you notice Gute lost its n?
Guten Morgen · Guten Tag · Guten Abend · Gute Nacht
That is not a typo, and it is not random. Morgen, Tag, Abend are der-words; Nacht is a die-word. The ending on the adjective changes to match.
You do not have to understand it today — Day 6 and Day 11 are entirely about this. Just notice that German adjectives carry information English adjectives do not, and that you have already memorised four correct examples of it.
2. Where you are matters
| German | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hallo | everywhere | ★ The safe default. Works with du and Sie, any time of day |
| Moin | the north (Hamburg, Bremen) | Any time — despite sounding like Morgen |
| Grüß Gott | Bavaria, Austria | Literally "greet God" — completely secular in practice |
| Servus | Bavaria, Austria | Hello and goodbye, informal |
| Hi / Hey | young people, cities | Borrowed from English, du-only |
★ If you remember one word from this section, remember Hallo. It never offends anyone anywhere. Grüß Gott in Hamburg marks you as a tourist who studied the wrong page.3. ★★ du or Sie — today's real work
German has two words for "you", and choosing is not optional.
| du | Sie | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | friends, family, children, students, animals, God | strangers, officials, shopkeepers, colleagues you just met |
| Age | anyone under ~16, always du | any adult stranger |
| Verb | du bist, du hast, du kommst | Sie sind, Sie haben, Sie kommen |
| Written | lowercase | ★ always capitalised — mid-sentence too |
The rule that actually works
Start with Sie for any adult you do not know. Wait to be offered du.
Being too formal is a tiny, forgettable mistake. Being too familiar is a real one.
⚠️ Do not switch to du on your own. The offer is made, usually by the older person or the one with more standing:
- Wir können uns duzen. — veer KER-nen oons DOO-tsen — "We can use du."
- Sag doch du zu mir. — zahk dokh DOO tsoo meer — "Just call me du."
Answer: Gern! (gairn — "gladly") and then switch immediately and stay switched.
Where the line actually falls
| Situation | |
|---|---|
| Bakery, bank, doctor, police, hotel | Sie |
| A new colleague at a bank or law firm | Sie until offered |
| A new colleague at a startup or agency | usually du from minute one |
| Anyone in a bar, a hostel, a climbing gym | du |
| University students to each other | du |
| University student to professor | Sie |
★ If you have done French: this is not quite tu/vous. French vous is also the plural; German Sie is formal-singular and formal-plural, but informal plural is ihr — a third word French does not have. You meet ihr on Day 5.
4. Wie geht's? — and how to actually answer
| German | Respelling | When |
|---|---|---|
| Wie geht's? | vee GAYTS | du — casual, the everyday form |
| Wie geht es Ihnen? | vee GAYT es EE-nen | Sie — full and formal |
Answers, from best to worst
| German | Respelling | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Sehr gut! | zair GOOT | Very good |
| Gut, danke. Und dir? | goot, DAHN-kuh. oont DEER | Good thanks. And you? (du) |
| Gut, danke. Und Ihnen? | … oont EE-nen | (Sie) |
| Es geht. | es GAYT | So-so — ★ the most German answer there is |
| Nicht so gut. | nikht zo GOOT | Not so good |
⚠️ Answer honestly and briefly. Wie geht's? is a real question in German, not the pure formula English "How are you?" has become. A flat cheerful "Great!" from a stranger reads as odd. Es geht is safe, normal, and very local.
5. Goodbyes
| German | Respelling | |
|---|---|---|
| Auf Wiedersehen | owf VEE-duh-zayn | Formal. Literally "until seeing again" |
| Tschüss | chewss | ★ Informal, and what you will actually hear all day |
| Bis später | biss SHPAY-tuh | See you later |
| Bis morgen | biss MOR-gen | See you tomorrow |
| Bis bald | biss BALT | See you soon |
| Schönen Tag noch! | SHER-nen TAHK nokh | Have a nice day! |
Tschüss has drifted formal enough that shop staff use it with customers.Auf Wiedersehen is not wrong, just a notch more official — banks, doctors, older people.
6. bitte does four different jobs
bitte is the hardest-working word in German. Same spelling, four meanings, told apart only by when it happens:
| Job | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| please | Ein Kaffee, bitte. | A coffee, please |
| here you go | (handing something over) Bitte schön. | There you are |
| you're welcome | — Danke! — Bitte! | You're welcome |
| pardon? | Bitte? (rising tone) | Sorry, what? |
★ The fourth one is the useful one. A single rising Bitte? is the politest way to say "I did not catch that", and you will need it far more than you expect this month.
The danke family
| German | Strength |
|---|---|
| Danke | thanks |
| Danke schön / Danke sehr | thank you very much |
| Vielen Dank | many thanks — slightly more formal |
| Nein, danke | no thank you |
⚠️ A bare "Danke" to an offer means NO. Offered another beer and you say Danke, you have declined it. To accept, say Ja, bitte.
7. Dialogue
A. Sie — checking into a hotel
Rezeption: Guten Abend! Wie kann ich Ihnen helfen?GOO-ten AH-bent! vee kan ikh EE-nen HEL-fen Good evening! How can I help you?Sie: Guten Abend. Ich habe eine Reservierung.GOO-ten AH-bent. ikh HAH-buh INE-uh re-zer-VEE-roong Good evening. I have a reservation.Rezeption: Ihr Name, bitte?eer NAH-muh, BIT-tuh — Your name, please?Sie: Alex Kim. — Rezeption: Danke schön. Einen Moment, bitte.Sie: Vielen Dank. Schönen Abend noch!
B. du — meeting someone in a bar
Max: Hallo! Ich bin Max. — ikh bin MAXSie: Hi, ich bin Alex. Wie geht's?Max: Es geht. Und dir? — es GAYT. oont DEERSie: Gut, danke!Max: Bis später! — Sie: Tschüss!
★ Read both aloud and listen to the difference. Same conversation, two different languages socially. Dialogue A has no du in it at all; dialogue B has no Sie.
8. Exercises
A. du or Sie?
- A police officer 2. Your friend's 8-year-old 3. A new colleague at a law firm
- Someone your age at a hostel 5. A university professor 6. A dog
B. Which greeting? (time in brackets)
- (08:00, bakery) 2. (14:00, office) 3. (20:00, restaurant) 4. (23:00, leaving a friend's flat) 5. (anywhere, anytime, safest)
C. What does bitte mean here?
- Zwei Bier, bitte. 2. — Danke! — Bitte! 3. Bitte? (rising) 4. (handing you a bag) Bitte schön.
D. You are offered another coffee. You want it. What do you say?
E. Fix the mistake.
- (to a stranger at the bank) Wie geht's, du?
- (walking into a restaurant at 20:00) Gute Nacht!
- (to your close friend) Wie geht es Ihnen?
Answers
A. Sie: 1, 3, 5 · du: 2, 4, 6 (children and animals are always du) B. 1. Guten Morgen 2. Guten Tag 3. Guten Abend 4. Gute Nacht (you are leaving — and note Gute, not Guten) 5. Hallo C. 1. please 2. you're welcome 3. pardon? 4. here you go D. Ja, bitte. — a bare Danke would decline it. E. 1. Wie geht es Ihnen? — a stranger at a bank gets Sie
- Guten Abend! — Gute Nacht means you are leaving
- Wie geht's? — Ihnen to a close friend is oddly cold
9. Today's 10 sentences (flashcards)
- Guten Morgen! — Good morning (GOO-ten MOR-gen)
- Guten Abend! — Good evening (GOO-ten AH-bent)
- Wie geht's? — How's it going? (vee GAYTS)
- Gut, danke. Und dir? — Good thanks. And you? (goot, DAHN-kuh. oont DEER)
- Es geht. — So-so (es GAYT)
- Wie geht es Ihnen? — How are you? (formal) (vee GAYT es EE-nen)
- Vielen Dank! — Many thanks (FEE-len DANK)
- Ja, bitte. / Nein, danke. — Yes please / No thanks (yah BIT-tuh / nine DAHN-kuh)
- Tschüss! — Bye (chewss)
- Schönen Tag noch! — Have a nice day (SHER-nen TAHK nokh)
10. 📲 Upload to LangNote
Upload section 7 (both dialogues) and section 9 → study language German.
| Mission | What to do with it today |
|---|---|
| 🎧 Podcast | Both dialogues back to back — hear how different du and Sie sound |
| ✍️ Dictation | Tschüss and Wie geht's are contraction-heavy — good dictation targets |
| 🗣 Shadowing | Today's key mission. Record dialogue B as both speakers |
| 📖 Vocab | Today's 10 sentences |
| ❓ Quiz | du/Sie, and the four jobs of bitte |
★ Tomorrow you say your name, your country and your job — the first sentences that are actually about you, and the first time you meet a verb table.
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