Letter writting in German

Letter Writing in German is an important writing skill which one should acquire. In the previous part, we explained to you in depth, how to write formal letters in German. In this part, we will talk about writing informal letters in German.

Below is a guide to make German letter writing easy for you. We will also be sharing a few German letter writing examples with you as well as some useful vocabulary for letter writing in German

Memorize the format for letter writing in German

We are repeating the format here in this part too, as it makes it easy to remember it visually. The main elements of a letter are the place, date, salutation, text segment, closing lines, closing and the signature. Although the format for both is same, different salutations and closings are used for formal and informal letter writing in German. We will explain more about it shortly.

German A1 Level Informal Letter Example

In the example below, a person from Poland is visiting his friend in Dresden. He wants to know details about museums and hotels since he will be there for 4 days. He also needs the hotel to be near the station for convenience.

How to Write an Informal Letter in German

Place, Date Segment – Format for writing place and date in informal letters

Place translates to “der Ort” in German, date translates to “das Datum” and day translates to “der Tag” in German.

In the above example, we have written the place and date in the top right corner. You have to write the place first and after a comma, you can continue writing the date. We follow the mm.dd.yyyy format to write the date. If you observe, we have used the accusative “den” before the date.

Salutation Segment

Salutation translates to “die Anrede” in German. A salutation is a greeting used in a letter.

Liebe

This is the most common salutation in informal letter writing in German. It translates to dear. We have used this example in the letter above. Liebe is used while writing to females. Learn the accusative case to know the reason behind the same.

Lieber

This is the most common salutation in informal letter writing in German. It translates to dear. Lieber is used while writing to males. Learn the accusative case to know the reason behind the same.

Hallo

Another common salutation while writing informal letters is “hallo”. It translates to hello.

Text Segment – Tips to write informal German letter

Always start the opening word of the text segment in lower case

This is not really a tip, but a note. Did you observe in the above example how we started the letter with “ich möchte im August Dresden besuchen” but not “Ich möchte im August Dresden besuchen“? The reason is that our sentence actually starts with “Liebe oder Lieber … ,”. Post the comma, we should start the words with small letters and not capital letters. Hence we use ich, but not Ich.

Use the “du” form

Unlike formal letters where the “Sie” form is used, make use of the “du” form of pronouns while writing informal letters – du, dich, dir.

Closing and Signature Segment – How to end informal German letters

Liebe Grüße

“Liebe Grüße” translates to lots of love. It is commonly used in informal letters.

Alles Liebe

Another commonly used closing line is “Alles Liebe” which also means lots of love.

Beste Wünsche

To give your best wishes, “Beste Wünsche” can be used.

Dein

“Dein” means your and can be used before a male name. Example: Dein Marko.

Deine

“Deine” means your and can be used before a female name. Example: Deine Monika.

Posting the Letter

The Deutsche Post website has some important tips regarding posting of letters and postcards.

Only write on the front of the envelope.

Position the sender address at the top left, and recipient address at the bottom right.

Stamps or other forms of franking, top right.

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