Texting a friend
Hallo … Bis morgen! Short informal messages that sound like a person, not a textbook.
Almost every message you send in German has the same three parts: a greeting, a short body, and a closing. Once those are automatic, writing a message stops being a translation exercise and becomes a matter of filling in the middle.
| Informal (du) | Formal (Sie) | |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | Hallo Anna, / Hi Anna, | Sehr geehrte Frau Weber, |
| Thanks | Danke dir! | Vielen Dank für Ihre Nachricht. |
| Closing | Liebe Grüße / Bis morgen! / Bis bald! | Mit freundlichen Grüßen |
German starts the sentence after a comma-greeting in lower case: Hallo Anna, then ich komme später. Not Ich.
The informal register is built from things you already have: present tense for the near future, modal verbs for what you can and cannot do, and weil when you want to give a reason. Nothing new grammatically — the work is in the phrasing.
Hallo, ich komme heute etwas später.
Hi, I am coming a bit later today.
etwas später softens it — very common
Leider kann ich morgen nicht kommen.
Unfortunately I cannot come tomorrow.
leider first is the standard way to break bad news
Passt dir Samstag um 18 Uhr?
Does Saturday at 6pm suit you?
passen takes the dative: dir
Können wir uns am Freitag treffen?
Can we meet on Friday?
Bis morgen!
See you tomorrow!
Liebe Grüße
Best wishes / love
the default informal sign-off, often shortened to LG
A useful habit: when you cancel or change something, German expects a reason — even a one-word one. Leider kann ich nicht kommen, weil ich arbeiten muss. Leaving it out reads as curt in a way it does not in English.
Hallo Anna, Ich komme später.Hallo Anna, ich komme später.
The greeting ends in a comma, so the sentence continues — lower case i.
Words from this topic
- etwas spätera bit later
- Bescheid sagento let someone know
- passento suit, to be convenient (+ dative)
- absagento cancel
- verschiebento move, to reschedule
- Bis bald!See you soon!
- Liebe GrüßeBest wishes (informal sign-off)
- die Nachrichtmessage