German Formal Conversations

In this lesson , you will learn how to make German formal conversations and Kein-words in a proper way . In a previous lesson , you learned how to talk formally , using phrases like “Guten Morgen!” and “Wie heißen Sie?” . There are , however , a few words that are ‘survival words’ in Germany , specifically :

• 🔊 Listen Danke → Thank you , Thanks
• 🔊 Listen Bitte → Please and You’re welcome .

To make this even more formal , you can tack on the word ‘schön’ to the end of “Thank you” and “You’re welcome” to make ‘dankeschön’ and ‘bitteschön’ (both one word) in response . Schön literally means ‘pretty’ , so it turns those everyday phrases into compliments (“Thanks, pretty.”) .

Some other ways to say “thank you” :

• 🔊 Listen Dankeschön → Thank you very much
• 🔊 Listen Danke sehr → Thanks a lot
• 🔊 Listen Herzlichen Dank (“herzlichen” means sincere or from the heart ; you may remember it from “Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!” )
• 🔊 Listen Vielen Dank → Thanks a lot
• 🔊 Listen Tausend Dank → Thanks a million (literally means a thousand, but no one ever says “Thanks a thousand.”)
• 🔊 Listen Aufrichtigen Dank → would be “thank you sincerely” (very formal)

Some other ways to say “You are welcome” :

• 🔊 Listen Bitteschön !
• 🔊 Listen Bitte sehr !
• 🔊 Listen Gerne !
• 🔊 Listen Gern geschehen ! (Don’t mention it)
• 🔊 Listen Kein Problem ! (No problem)
• 🔊 Listen Dafür nicht ! → (Do) not (thank me) for this (only used in Northern Germany)

Kein-words

Twice you have been taught that the ending of the indefinite article for plurals would be eine (for Nominative and Accusative cases) , if there was an indefinite article for plurals . Now that lesson applies . The kein-words have the same endings as the ein-words , and they mean the opposite : no , not any , none . For example , “🔊 Listen kein Cheeseburger ” means “no cheeseburger” . “Keine Cheeseburger” (in this case Cheeseburger is plural) means “No cheeseburgers” . Notice the ‘e’ at the end of ‘keine’ . That’s the ending for plurals and feminine nouns and can be likened to the “der, die, das -> die” relationship , where the feminine article serves for the plural as well .