Ways of saying "thank you" in German
A lot of countries around the world are celebrating their Thanksgiving holiday! Even though Erntedankfest (or "harvest thanksgiving festival"), which is widely regarded as the German Thanksgiving, has ended in October, let's use this opportunity to check out some vocabulary related to this topic and practice expressing our gratitude in the German language!
1. Informal "thanks"
The most common informal way to say thank you in German is danke (“thanks”)!
Danke is the equivalent of “thanks” in German. It’s a good “thank you” to use with friends, family and for peers.
A few examples of danke in use are:
- Danke für die Schokolade! (Thanks for the chocolate!)
- Sie waren eine große hilfe, danke! (You were a big help, thanks!)
- Danke, gleichfalls! (Thanks, same to you!)
- Danke nochmals! (Thanks again!)
- Trotzdem danke! (Thanks anyway!)
2. "Thank you very much"
There are many ways to say this in German, which typically includes:
- Danke sehr: thank you very much
- Danke schön: thank you kindly
- Vielen Dank: many thanks
- Herzlichen Dank (“A heartfelt thank you”)!
- Tausend Dank (“Thanks a million”)!
Examples of German “thank you very much” expressions in use:
- Vielen Dank für die weitere Hilfe mit meinem Projekt. (Thank you very much for the further help with my project.)
- Die verlängerte Zeit um die Hausaufgaben zu machen war sehr nützlich gewesen. Danke sehr! (The extra time to finish homework was very useful. Thank you very much!)
- Ich habe das Geschenk heute in die Post bekommen. Danke schön! (I received the gift in the mail today. Thank you, kindly!)
- Ich hatte gestern spaß gehabt. Tausend Dank! (I had fun yesterday. Thanks a million!)
- Sie haben unsere Hochzeit besonders schön gemacht. Herzlichen Dank! (You made our wedding extra special. Thank you, from the heart!)
3. Formal "thank you"
Remember that German has different pronouns for different levels of formality? Using a more formal second-person pronoun (Ihnen) will raise the formality level of any phrase.
Ich danke Ihnen (“I thank you” [sing.|formal]) = Maximum formality
Two Variations:
- Ich danke Ihnen vielmals (I thank you very much, indeed) is also a viable version of this formal phrase.
- If you wanted to be yet more formal or specific you could add the person’s name with title to the end. For example: Ich danke Ihnen, Frau Schmidt. (I thank you, Mrs. Schmidt)
With these expressions being clearly defined, we hope that you can now say "thank you" in much more different ways and context!
Thank you for reading and Vielen Dank!
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