How to Say Hello in German: 10 German Greetings for Every Situation
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How do you say “hello” in German? There are many options, from a simple hallo to a friendly alles klar?, a regional greeting like servus, or an informal na?.
In this article, I'll teach you several common and useful German greetings, with notes on where they’re used and how formal they sound.
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1. Hallo – the Easiest Way to Say “Hello” in German
This is a simple, friendly way to say “hello” in German. It works in many everyday situations, but for a formal first meeting, Guten Tag is a more cautious choice.
Two handy variations: Hallöchen is a cutesy diminutive, a kind of “little hello”, and Hallo zusammen means “hello everyone”, which is perfect for greeting a group without going round person by person.
2. Guten Tag – “Good day”
Guten Tag is the German “hello” that's best-known to English speakers. It's slightly formal, but only slightly.
Guten means “good” (it's the masculine accusative form of gut). Easy! Now add the right word for the time of day. These timings are a rough guide, not fixed rules:
- Before midday: say guten Morgen (good morning)
- Midday until approximately 6pm: say guten Tag (good day)
- 6pm until bedtime: say guten Abend (good evening)
In casual settings, Germans often clip these greetings right down: a quick Tag! (or Tach! in some regions) or a plain Morgen! does the job. And around midday in German workplaces you'll hear colleagues greet each other in passing with Mahlzeit!, which literally means “meal time”. (A greeting that doubles as a lunch announcement. Very efficient!)
A common question: why is it guten Tag and not guter Tag? In this masculine noun phrase, guten is accusative and guter is nominative. Bare gut isn’t the correct adjective form before Tag here.
First of all, note that Morgen, Tag, and Abend are all masculine nouns, so we know that gut must be masculine in all three phrases. But what case are the nouns?
Think about it like this. When you say “good day” to somebody, what are you actually saying? Probably something like “I wish you a good day”. In German that’s ich wünsche dir einen guten Tag.
In that sentence the word Tag is the direct object of the verb wünsche, so it (and any associated adjectives) must be accusative. Therefore we must use the masculine accusative form of gut, i.e. guten. Simple!
3. Alles klar – “All clear”
If you live or travel in Germany, you'll hear people saying alles klar all the time. It means “everything (is) clear!”.
It can be used as a question (alles klar?) a statement, or merely to fill empty space. What we care about here is that it's also used as a greeting, especially by young people.
Greeting someone with “alles klar?” is a lot like greeting someone with “what's up?” in English. The best way to answer alles klar? is with a simple ja, meaning “yes”. You could also reply with ja, alles klar, danke, meaning “Yes, everything is good, thanks”.
4. Was ist los? – “What’s up?”
Was ist los? is hard to translate directly.
The adjective los roughly means “separate” or “free”. Asking someone was ist los? means something like “what's going on?” or “what's the matter?”. It usually asks about a situation, so don’t treat it as a neutral replacement for hallo.
The confusing thing is that was ist los? can also mean “what's the matter?”, i.e. it implies that you perceive that something is strange or wrong.
However, from the context and the tone of voice it's usually obvious which meaning of was ist los? is being used.
It’s similar to how some English speakers, especially Brits, use “are you alright?” (or just “alright?”) as a greeting. Depending on the context, “are you alright?” may be a genuine question and a sign of concern. But when used as a greeting, it probably doesn’t require a thought-out answer.
5. Wie geht es dir? – “How’s it going?”
“How does it go to you?” is the literal translation of this essential German phrase. You can guess at a better translation: this is a common German way of saying “how’s it going?”
When you use dir, it’s informal. In a more formal situation, you should probably say wie geht es Ihnen?
When informally addressing a group, say Wie geht es euch?
The phrase is often shortened to wie geht's? The easiest response is a simple gut, danke – “good, thanks”.
6. Grüß Gott! – “God bless you”
Within and between the German-speaking countries, there’s a lot of linguistic and cultural diversity.
Not every greeting is in equal use across the entire Germanosphere. So for the next few items on this list, we'll look at some greetings that are unique to certain areas.
Grüß Gott is common in southern Germany, including Bavaria, and in Austria. It comes from a wish along the lines of “may God greet you”, often explained as “God bless you”. In everyday use it’s a conventional, polite hello, not necessarily a very formal or deliberately religious statement.
You’ll also hear Grüß dich!, which essentially means “greetings to you!”. It’s an informal greeting for someone you address as du; it isn’t restricted to older speakers.
In German-speaking Switzerland, Grüezi is a common polite greeting, especially in central and eastern areas such as Zürich. In western Swiss German, including Bern, you’ll also hear Grüessech.
7. Servus – “At your service”
Servus is Latin for “servant”, and its use as a greeting comes from a Latin phrase meaning “at your service”.
Like Grüß Gott, servus is mainly used in Bavaria and Austria. It can also be used to say goodbye.
8. Moin! – “Hi!”
Let's move to the other end of the German map. Moin is a common greeting in northern Germany, especially in and around Hamburg. You also sometimes hear people doubling it up: moin moin!
The origins of the word “moin” are uncertain. Many think that it comes from a regional pronunciation of Morgen (“morning”), but it's possible that it also comes from a Low German word meaning “good”.
Whatever the case, you can use moin at all times of day. The people of Schleswig-Holstein will love you for it.
9. Na – “Hi, how are you? Fine thanks, how are you?”
Na is an informal German greeting, not a word restricted to the north. Its meaning depends heavily on tone and context, which makes it hard to translate neatly.
There's no easy way to translate na into English. It's best explained by example: when two German speakers who know each other meet, one might say “na”, to which the other replies “na” – and then the conversation begins. It's like “hey”, “how are you?”, and “fine, thanks” all rolled into one versatile syllable. Germans are famous for their efficiency, after all.
To make your na a little warmer, add du: na du? is an affectionate “hey you, how's things?” reserved for people you know well.
10. Hier ist… – “It’s…”
This one might not technically count as a greeting, but it's still worth including, because you're likely to say it when meeting someone… but only if you're not meeting face-to-face. Let me explain:
Imagine you're calling, texting, emailing, or otherwise communicating at a distance with someone who already knows you. If they don't recognise your voice/number/address, what do you say to let them know who it is?
In English I'd say “it's Benny”, but you can't translate this directly into German (i.e. I can't say es ist Benny). Instead I'd have to say hier ist Benny – “here is Benny.”
This is a subtle detail, but it's absolutely something you should know!
11. Tschüss – “Goodbye”
Now let's look at some ways to say “goodbye” in German. Probably the most common way to do this is to say Tschüss – “bye”!
Don't be intimidated by the spelling. The cluster of consonants “tsch” is pronounced just like a “ch” in English.
You'll also hear the cutesy Tschüssi, especially between friends. It sits somewhere between “bye” and “byeee”.
12. Ciao – “Bye”
Ciao is Italian in origin, but it's common in Germany, as it is in many other parts of Europe!
13. Auf Wiedersehen – “See you again”
Wieder means “again” and sehen means “to see”. So auf Wiedersehen essentially means “when we see each other again!”
This is a standard polite farewell, useful in a shop, an office or with someone you don’t know well. It’s more formal than tschüss, but it isn’t inherently old-fashioned.
14. Bis bald – “See you soon”
This literally means “until soon”. So it's like saying “see you soon!”. It's a friendly, informal way of saying goodbye.
Now you have several ways to say hello in German and a better idea of when to use them. Keep the chat going with these 31 German conversation starters, or learn the language by speaking it from day one with my book Language Hacking German. And when you're ready to go all-in, the Fluent in 3 Months Bootcamp will get you to your first German conversation sooner than you'd think.
Here are 30 more ways to kick off a conversation in German:
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