German vocabulary/Greetings and Phrases

(inf) = informal (for) = formal Lit. = Literally
 * Key

Greetings used throughout Germany
 * Guten Morgen - Good Morning
 * Guten Tag - Good Day, Good Afternoon (Note: Germans don't normally say Good Afternoon).
 * Guten Mittag - Good noon. (very rare)
 * Guten Abend - Good Evening ~ After Work; regional? past 17:00 or 18:00
 * Gute Nacht - Good Night ~ reserved for right before bedtime


 * Hallo - Hello (Note: Informal: used when speaking to people with whom you are on familiar terms).

Greetings specific to southern Germany
 * Grüss Gott (God's greetings -- used predominantly in the South of Germany such as Bavaria and also in Austria)
 * Grützi! (used in German speaking Switzerland)

Greetings specific to Austria
 * Servus - Hello, Good Day, Good bye (used predominantly in Austria/Vienna and Bavaria, colloquial, informal only)

Informal and Formal
Germans, to those that are of higher authority or people that they do not know, use formal phrases--such as Guten Morgen and Guten Tag. Informal phrases, such as Tschüss, are used with friends/people you know well. If you were to meet with your teacher (Der Lehrer), you would use formal phrases such as Guten Morgen instead of Hallo, and likewise: Auf Wiedersehen instead of Tschüss.