A small set of German phrases covers most everyday interaction, and understanding the formal/informal "you" distinction alongside them avoids an easy early misstep.
| German | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Guten Tag | Good day (neutral/formal greeting) |
| Hallo | Hi (informal) |
| Danke | Thank you |
| Bitte | Please / you're welcome |
German has a genuinely separate formal "you" (Sie, capitalized, also used for plural formal address) and informal "you" (du) — used with strangers, elders, and professional contexts versus friends, family, and peers, respectively. Defaulting to Sie with people you don't know well is the safer habit, similar to the tu/vous or tu/jūs distinction in other European languages.
Sie is the formal "you," used with strangers, elders, and professional contexts; du is informal, used with friends, family, and peers — defaulting to Sie with people you don't know well is the safer habit.
Yes — Guten Tag is a neutral-to-formal greeting, while Hallo is casual, similar to the hello/hi distinction in English.
Yes — it covers both roles depending on context, similar to how some other European languages use one word for both.
That's the plan, matching the audio-based approach used for Tarc's existing courses.
See also: German Pronunciation · German Vocabulary · Learn German