Let us start and learn German A1 by knowing how to introduce ourselves. You must definitely know these to pass the German A1 exam. Have a quick look at ways to introduce yourself.

• Ich heiße Jenny Dewati.
• Mein Name ist Walter Peters.
• Ich bin Sandra Jameson.
• Ich bin Tom.

There are two ways to introduce ourselves in German, the formal and the informal way. 

If you would like to introduce yourself in german in an informal situation, you would say:

“Hallo! Ich heiße…” (Hello! I am called…)

“Hallo! Ich bin…” (Hello! I am…)

Ich heiße literally means “I am called.” You can say your first name, or your first name and last name; it would depend on the situation. 

For informal or casual situations,  if you want to know the name of the person you are talking to, you can add:

“Und du?” (And you?)

If you want to introduce yourself in a formal situation, you would say:

“Guten Tag. My Name ist…” (Good day. My name is…)

And if you want to know the name of the person you are talking to, you can add:

 “Und Sie?” (And you?)

You can also be the first one to ask a person's name. Here are the phrases you may use:

What are you called?

Informal: Wie heißt du?

Formal: Wie heißen Sie?

Where are you from?

Of course, you may want to ask the other person where they come from, here are some of the ways to ask them:

Where are you from?

Informal: Woher kommst du?

Formal: Woher kommen Sie?

Who is that?

To ask a person who the another person is, you can say:

Wer ist das?

You can answer:

Das ist...

In a formal situation, you normally give your whole name. You can see it with the first two sentences from the list above.

In an informal or casual situation, you can just give your first name, as seen in the third and fourth sentences in the list above.

du and Sie

There are two words that mean "you" in german; du and Sie.

We use the informal address “du” when talking to kids, friends, family or people we know well. We use the formal address “Sie” to politely address a stranger or someone significantly older. The polite form “Sie” is always capitalized, even in the middle of a sentence.

Dialogues Practice

Here are more examples of simple German A1 dialogues. Practice by reading them out loud. See if you understand everything. 

Dialogue 1

● Guten Tag.

■ Guten Tag.

● Ich heiße Elif Demirci. Wie heißen Sie?

■ Ich heiße Jose Santos.

● Woher kommen Sie?

■ Ich komme aus Portugal. Und Sie?

● Ich komme aus der Türkei.

Dialogue 2

● Hallo, wie heißt du?

■ Paul, und du?

● Ich bin Maria. Woher kommst du?

■ Aus Hamburg, und du?

● Aus Spanien, aus Madrid.

■ Schön, dich kennenzulernen.

● Es ist auch schön, Sie kennenzulernen.

■ Bis später. Tschüss!

● Tschüss, bis später!

Dialogue 3

● Guten Tag, ich bin Frau Schmidt. 

■ Guten Tag, Frau Schmidt.

● Wie heißt du?

■ Sergio.

● Wie bitte?

■ Sergio.

● Wie schreibt man das?

■ Ich buchstabiere: S-E-R-G-I-O

● Woher kommst du?

■ Aus Mexiko, aus Polanco.

● Willkommen, Sergio!

Dialogue 4

● Guten Tag, ich bin neu hier in München. Ich heiße Pedro Silva. 

■ Entschuldigung, wie heißen Sie?

● Mein Name ist Silva. Pedro Silva. 

Dialogue 5

● Guten Tag! Wie heißen Sie, bitte?

■ Müller. 

● Und der Vorname?

■ Anton. 

● Wo wohnen Sie, Herr Müller?

■ Ich wohne in Frankfurt, Goethestraße 5.

● Danke, Herr Müller. Willkommen.

■ Danke. Auf Wiedersehen. 

In the next lesson, we are going to learn about the German articles: der, die and das. 

To go back to the lessons list, click here.

To learn German A1, a good starting point is by learning (memorizing) phrases that are used everyday. This will help you have a feel of how the words are spelled, how sentences are structured and how they sound. 

Here is a list of useful phrases you should start with if you want to start learning German A1. 

1. Hello! Hallo!
2. Good morning. Guten Morgen.
3. Good day. Guten Tag.
4. Good evening. Guten Abend.
5. Yes. Ja.
6. No. Nein.
7. Maybe. Vielleicht.
8. I’m sorry. Tut mir leid / Entschuldigung. 
9. Thank you. Danke.
10. You’re welcome. Gern geschehen.
11. Excuse me (to get attention) Entschuldigung.
12. I don’t understand. Ich verstehe nicht.
13. Do you speak English? Sprechen Sie Englisch?
14. What is your name? Wie heißen Sie? (formal) Wie heißt du? (informal) Wie ist Ihr Name? (formal)
15. How are you? Wie geht es Ihnen? (formal) Wie geht es dir? (informal)
16. Fine, thanks. And you? Gut, danke. Und Ihnen? (formal) Gut, danke. Und du? (informal)
17. My name is Carla. Mein Name ist Carla.
18. What is your name? Wie heißen Sie? (formal) Wie heißt du? (informal)

Play the video below to listen to these phrases. You can also click here to open the video on another tab.

Guten Tag means good day. We use it on formal occasions, or when we speak to older people, strangers and people of higher authority to show respect.

Guten Morgen means good morning. In casual German, we can shorten it and just say "Morgen" instead of the whole Guten Morgen.

In German, we can use both “Hallo” and “Guten Tag” to greet people. “Hallo" (hi/hello) is more common and can be used in any context and at any time. We usually use “Guten Tag” (good day) in more formal situations and only during the day. We say "Guten Abend" in the evening for both formal and informal situations.

Here are the different variants of saying "hello" in  German.

Moin (moin)! - Northern Germany. Saying "Moin" once is enough, saying it twice puts a happier tone to your greeting.

Servus! - Austria and Southern Germany

"Servus" is Latin and it means "at your service". People in Austria and some parts of Southern Germany say it as "hi" and "bye".

Hoi! - Switzerland 

We can show respect through formal language. We refer to others as Frau (Ms./Mrs) and Herr (Mr.) on formal occasions. 

We can write them as:

Fr. (Frau)

Hr. (Herr)

Auf Wiedersehen - goodbye 

Auf - on 

Wieder- again

Sehen- to see

"Auf Wiedersehen" literally means "on-again-to see", that means till we see each other again. 

For casual or informal situations, we can just say Tschüss!

We can use the word "Entschuldigung" to apologize ("I'm sorry") as well as to approach someone politely or get attention ("Excuse me").

The word "bitte" can have a few slightly different meanings, depending on the context and tone we use it in. Bitte could be used to say “please”, “you’re welcome” and “here you go” (for example a waitress giving you a cup of coffee would say bitte).

To ask somebody to repeat what they said, you can say "wie bitte?". This means "pardon?"

“Wie geht's" is the short form of "Wie geht es dir (informal)?"

You can answer: 

• Mir geht's (geht es) gut. (It's going well)
• Mir geht's super! (It's going great!)
• Mir geht's schlecht. (It's going badly.)

Take your time in memorizing these phrases. Write these phrases down by hand, and that will help you memorize them faster. You will also see patterns and learn new words with the translation given above. 

In the next lesson, we are going to learn how to introduce ourselves. 

To go back to the lessons list, click here.