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I know that they are both essentially polite and mean Thanks a lot, Many thanks etc. but I’ve always wondered if there is a specific difference between the two.
Is there a specific context or situation where one is clearly more appropriate to use than the other? Or are both terms entirely interchangeable?
I cannot tell you anything about etymology and so forth, but my (native German) gut tells me this:
As an interjection in a conversation, I’d say both terms are virtually equivalent, at least it’s hard to think of any situation where one would be appropriate while the other would not. Even if you encounter the counterpart of “Danke schön” — “Bitte schön” — it is still fine to use either.
However, if used with für, it would sound odd not to use “… Dank”:
- Hab [vielen] Dank für das nette Geschenk! <— okay
- [Haben Sie] vielen Dank für die Blumen! <— okay and even idiomatic
- Danke schön für das Eis! <— sounds weird (and wrong) to me, but I’m not sure if it is technically admissible
In written text, such as e-mails, I would rather not use Danke schön but always Vielen Dank.
I asked some native German speakers about it, they answered:
(1): Das ist fast gleich
(2): Wenn jemand eine nette Rede hält, sage ich: vielen Dank,
Wenn jemand etwas Gutes für mich macht sage ich: danke schön
Aber das ist eigentlich alles gleich(3): Als Deutscher ist beides für mich gleich
So there isn’t a situation where one is more appropriate than the other, it’s a matter of taste. Just like English, people don’t say “thanks a lot” as much as “thanks” or “thank you” and “thank you” is more formal. I’d say “vielen Dank” is like “thanks a lot”, as someone else said:
Für mich ist vielen Dank noch höflicher als nur danke schön
Außerdem würde ich in einer offiziellen email nur vielen Dank und nicht danke schön" schreiben.
Dankeschön is less formal than vielen Dank and is widely used among friends and families in Germany.
It depends on social class of the person somehow. As I found out, educated people distinguish between them but normal people do not.
I would say vielen Dank can be both speaking (semi-formal) and writing, whereas Danke schön is used only in speaking and more casual way.
Vielen Dank kann man bei fast jeder Gelegenheit sagen, gerade auch bei eher formellen Anlässen.
Danke schön ist weniger formell und bezieht sich eher nicht auf einen allgemeinen Dank, sondern wird persönlich ausgesprochen für etwas direkt Erlebtes.
Both are more formal than a simple Danke.
Danke schön
sounds almost old fashioned.
Vielen Dank
shows a little more thankfulness than Danke.
In addition to the other answers provided here, I’d like to point out the grammatical difference between the two. While both sentences are ellipses, two different parts of the sentence have been omitted:
In “Vielen Dank”, Dank is a noun, and the full sentence would thus require a subject and a predicate which have both been left out: “Ich habe (vielen) Dank.”
In “Danke schön”, danke is (or: used to be) a verb (usually first person singular; indicative mode), and the full sentence would read “Ich danke (schön).”
Since both shortened collocations have found their way into everyday language, they are not considered to be shortened versions of the long sentences any more. This can be seen for example in the contraction of danke and schön into the neuter noun Dankeschön.
No, there is no difference in usage.
Nein, es gibt keinen Unterschied in der Verwendung.
You got it all wrong. Vielen Dank means "Many Thanks". Danke schön Means "Thanks Nicely". Both are literal translations. I would say Danke schön is the more formal of the two, and Vielen dank is almost like saying "Thanks a Lot!"
