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Good Afternoon in German | Rosetta Stone®

Learn how to say “good afternoon” and other common German phrases using the award-winning Rosetta Stone app.

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How to Say Good Afternoon in German

If you want to say “good day” in German, you would simply say, “guten Tag.” It’s a general greeting that can be used throughout the day, just as in English. Want to be more specific? Use “guten Morgen” (good morning), “guten Abend” (good evening), or “gute Nacht” (good night). You’ll notice that the nouns are capitalised; it’s key to always be mindful of this when writing in German.

German is widely considered one of the least difficult languages for English speakers to learn. That’s because these two languages are true linguistic siblings—stemming from the same earlier Germanic language. In fact, a full eighty of the hundred most common words in English-speaking countries are of Germanic origin. That’s why the English “and” is “und” in German or why “mother” in English is “Mutter” in German. Plus, there are an unbelievable number of German words we use in English that aren’t only related, but completely identical: diesel, poltergeist, angst, kindergarten, hamburger, and many more.

Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion® methodology teaches you the language, not just the words. What makes it effective is that we prepare you to use your new language in the real world. So, it’s not just about the features, but what you’re able to do because of them. With practise, you’ll be ready to handle situations with confidence.

Learn German Words and Phrases

German is the second-most widely spoken language throughout the European Union, falling just after English in its popularity. This is understandable when you take into consideration the fact that German is the official language of many European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Germany, as well as parts of Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, and Switzerland. Worldwide, there are estimated to be more than 229 million German speakers. This widespread use makes German one of the most practical languages to learn for business and travel reasons.

Rosetta Stone German language lessons help new learners focus first on needed foundational language concepts. Every Rosetta Stone lesson provides brief and practical exercises that help you learn to speak German with correct pronunciation. Language lessons begin with helping you understand and say everyday phrases like; nice to meet you, good day, how are you, pardon me, and excuse me. So whether you have plans to travel across Northern Germany, ski through the Alps, or experience city life in Munich and Berlin, learning German with Rosetta Stone will serve you well.

One fun aspect of German is its tendency to combine multiple words into one word. So in English where you might use two or even three words, in German you might combine those two or three words into a single, compound word. As an example, the single word for orange juice in German is Orangensaft. Orangen + Saft = Orangensaft. And what’s more, these compounded German words also have a gender. Here’s how you determine a word’s gender: the gender of the word which comes last in the compound word (e.g., der, die, das) determines the gender of the compound word. For example, “die Orange” is feminine, but “der Saft” is masculine, so the resulting compound word “der Orangensaft” is also masculine.

The German language does present some unique challenges. Mark Twain is said to have famously taken issue with the “clumsy” German language practise of creating overly complicated, compound, multi-syllable words. As one example, let’s look at the German word Freundschaftsbezeugung. This lengthy word means “demonstrations of friendship.” Yes, the word is quite long, but it might help to try to break it into its recognizable and understandable parts. You can see that the compound word starts with the single word “Freund." The word “Freund” is what is called a cognate, a counterpart with the same meaning of the English word “friend.”

Polishing your German pronunciation will depend on your receipt of immediate and accurate feedback. Rosetta Stone’s patented TruAccent™ speech-recognition engine helps you get the pronunciation right in a snap. This proprietary technology instantly compares your voice to native and non-native speakers, so you get real-time feedback for the most accurate pronunciation. It’s also adjustable, which allows you to fine-tune your accent. TruAccent is a powerful tool for helping you learn and speak the German language.

After you have developed the ability to understand and speak the basics of the German language, you can move onto learning the longer phrases that come into play in everyday conversation. Rosetta Stone’s digestible, 10-minute lessons are built to lead you along the path of learning to confidently understand and correctly speak German. With Rosetta Stone, you’ll learn German vocabulary and proper pronunciation for real-world situations.

Try Our Award-Winning App

Surround yourself with German whenever, wherever with the Rosetta Stone app.

Download a unit and knock it out on the train or a flight. Select a 5-10 minute lesson and sneak it in while you wait in line or for your ride to show up. And explore dynamic features, like Seek and Speak, where you can point at an object in the real world and get a translation.

The best part? You don’t have to choose between app or desktop. Both come with your subscription and sync, so you can switch between devices seamlessly.

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