66 Expressing good wishes
The following cover a wide range of reasons for wishing someone well:jmdm. etw. wünschen ‘to wish sb. sth.’
viel Glück/Spaß ‘good luck/have a good time’
viel Erfolg/Vergnügen ‘every success/hope you enjoy yourself ’
viel Freude ‘much joy/happiness’
alles Gute ‘all the best’ (see 44.4)
gute Besserung ‘get well soon’
Gesundheit! ‘bless you’
sich (= dat.) etw. schmecken lassen ‘to enjoy food’
guten Appetit! ‘enjoy your meal’
zum Wohl! ‘cheers!’ For ‘good wishes’ see^18 (p. 24), particularly 18.7 (p. 26).
Almost all the greetings and expressions of good wishes that follow are assumed to be
preceded by Ich wünsche Ihnen/dir... ‘I wish you... ’ and as a result expressions are
in the accusative case. Inclusion of the verb is more typical of fairly formal style, as in
the third example of 66.8a.66.1 General wishes
(a) The following may be used when wishing someone well for a forthcoming activity
or event:
Viel Glück!
Good luck!
Viel Spaß (beim Autorennen)!
Hope you have fun/a good time (at the motor racing). See also 115.3 (p. 412) on ‘Enjoying oneself’.
Viel Vergnügen!
Hope you enjoy it.(b) In spoken German between friends and at the end of informal letters, good wishes
may be conveyed by:
Mach’s gut!/Ich wünsche dir was.
(I wish you) all the best.Mit den besten Wünschen, however, can only be used in letters.(c) At work, colleagues might wish each other Mahlzeit! ‘bon appetit’ at lunch time (see
also 66.5 on food and drink). You should say the same (or Guten Appetit!) when
passing people who are eating. After work it is normal to say (Schönen)
Feierabend! ‘Have a nice evening/Enjoy your evening off ’. On Fridays
Schönes Wochenende! ‘Have a nice weekend’ is more likely to be used.(d) To return good wishes simply say Gleichfalls or Ihnen/dir auch ‘To you too’.See 67.1–3 (pp. 201–4) for thanking people for their good wishes.
66
SOCIAL CONTACT