Talk Elections

do you mostly use to greet someone or if you say goodbye to someone ?

http://austriantimes.at/news/Blog/2012-04-29/41284/Does_Servus_really_mean_Yo_Bubba%3F_Hello_and_Goodbye_in_Austria.

...

In Austria you can use a lot of words and it also depends where you live.

http://www.spectra.at/archiv/Aktuell_05_12_Grussformen.pdf

You mostly say:

* Servus
* Griass di
* Heil (mostly used in Tyrol, like my brother does)
* Hi
* Hallo
* Grüß Gott (to older people who I don't know)
* Hawedere

When saying goodbye:

* Servus
* Pfiat di
* Ciao
* Heil
* Tschüss (much more used by women)
* Auf Wiedersehen/schaun (to older people who I don't know)
* Ba-Ba (mostly used in Vienna)

...

You can use "Servus" and "Pfiat di" in almost all of Austria, except in Vienna, where most people will think of you as "provincial" if you use these words. Vienna people are more snobby and use "Grüß Gott" or "Guten Tag", like the Germans.

"Servus" is a good word though, because you can use it for greetings and saying goodbye alike.

You can pronounce it like "Servus" in urban areas, "Serwos" in the Salzburg/Tirol area and "Servas" in the Lower Austrian area.

In Vorarlberg, they talk Swiss German, so this is a totally different construction site and they are using "Grüazi" and "Aufwiederluaga".

What about you ?

You're not supposed to go saying "Gruss Gott" to everyone? Uh oh- that's what I did.

Depends how old you are and if you know the person or not.

Mostly old people say "Grüß Gott" or to people that you have never met before.

Young people mostly say: "Servus" or "Servus, oida" ("Servus, dude") or "Hi", "Hallo" or just "Hawe" as a short form for "Hawedere" (something like "I have the honour") or "Griass di".

If you are an American though and want to pronounce "Servus" correctly, you must NOT pronounce it like an American in "serve us". That's TOTALLY wrong.

You have to pronounce it like the "SEA" in "SEAT", the car company.

... followed by a "wuss". So, "Sea" (but not like the ocean !!!) and "wuss".

But how does one pronounce "SEAT"? Seh?

But it would be acceptable for a foreigner like myself to simply use Gruss Gott?

"Se-uh-wuss" probably ... ;)

Oh dear.

Of course you can use it, but you have to say it as "GrÜss Gott", not "GrUss Gott", that makes a big difference, because the "ü" sounds different than the "u".

Take for example "California Über Alles". You don't pronounce it as "uh-bear", but as "ü-bear".

Simfan, this helps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nma3uC5moNU

:)

"hüpf, hüpf"

"üüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüüü"

My personal (and fairly common) preferences:

Informal greeting/goodbye:

"Hoi"/"Tschau"

Formal greeting/goodbye:

"Grüezi"/"Adie" (shortened form of French "Adieu") or "Uf Wiederluege"

When greeting someone, I usually say "hi" or "sup?"

But, as per the American standard, when someone leaves I say "get the [inks] out of my house."

Sup, Hi, Hey, Hello, Scar non?

Farewell, peace and love, hasta luego

Sup?  That is English?  What does it mean?

"What'S UP"

When I was in Vienna everyone was just saying Grüss Gott to everyone else constantly.

greetings:
how ya doin
hey
tsup
yo

leavings:
later
late
have a good un

That's for informal things...if it's a more...formal setting, I'll use the more appropriate things...Good morning(afternoon,evening), thank you and have a good day....that kind of thing

Morgen / Morshe (German having no adequate rendition of the Hessian pronunciation)
Hi / Ei (often prefixed with the name of the person)
Servus
Tach auch
Hallo

Guten Morgen / Guten Tag is already semi-formal/professional.

When people say "Grüß dich" to me, as some people here do, I sometimes reply "Mach ich" or "okay".