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Are both these German phrases valid? My translator app came up with both of these somehow but I'm not sure what the difference is.

My translator app translated "What are other ways to say 'How are you?'" to the following:

Was sind andere Möglichkeiten, um "Wie geht es dir?" zu sagen?

But when I put the German into another translator it translated to "What are other ways to say 'How are you?' accept?"

So I tried removing the last part like this:

Was sind andere Möglichkeiten, um "Wie geht es dir?".

And it translated to the correct English.

Which one of these is actually correct or are they both correct?

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2 Answers 2

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The first translation was correct.

Was sind andere Möglichkeiten, um "Wie geht es dir?" zu sagen?

The back-translation to English failed - seems it dropped/ignored the space in "zu sagen" and read "zusagen" instead (which can mean "to accept").

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"How are you?" translates to "Wie geht es dir?", yes, that's true.

You should, however, note that while "how are you" is somewhat of a greeting in the English-speaking world - That's not the case in German.

Germans will say "Hello" and "Guten Morgen" to greet you but will normally only ask "wie geht es dir" if they know you reasonably well, are really interested in your well-being and expect a lengthy answer (more than just another "Fine, and you?"). So, "wie geht es dir" may be a proper greeting when entering a hospital room, but not when occasionally meeting someone.

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