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With my limited knowledge of Deutsch, I'm attempting to write a "get well soon" greeting card to a native German speaker from Frankfurt. Below is what I wrote as a first draft, but I have some questions:

  • Am I using the tenses (especially past) correctly for informal written communication directed to someone I know only indirectly (a friend's elderly mother)?
  • Is "Sturz" the correct way to describe a physical fall that results in injury?
  • Is "quetsches" the correct adjective to use to describe a bruised body part? Or is "verletztes" better?
  • Is "in Bälde heilen" or "bald heilen" more idiomatic for my setting?
  • Are the various declensions correct?

Er erzählte mir von Ihrem Sturz.  Es tut mir leid, dass Sie einen gebrochenen Arm und ein quetsches Gesicht haben.  Ich hoffe, dass Ihre Verletzungen in Bälde heilen.

(Es tut mir leid, wenn ich einen Fehler machte.  Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut.)

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  • Who is er? If that person wasn't mentioned previously, you have to use the pronoun man. That's "someone".
    – Janka
    May 20 at 19:57
  • @Janka I wrote er only to anonymize the writing. In my card, my friend's name will be given there. Thanks!
    – Henry DeYoung
    May 20 at 20:26

2 Answers 2

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  1. It's fine.
  2. Yes.
  3. The participle II is "gequetscht". But it's not correct anyways. You should consider "geprellt" (from verb prellen) or verletzt.
  4. "in Bälde heilen" fits best.
  5. Yes, all declensions are correct.
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  • Thank you very much! Just so I understand: what makes gequetscht incorrect? Does it mean something other than bruised? Also, would Er erzaehlen mir hast have been incorrect? Thank you very much!
    – Henry DeYoung
    May 20 at 20:31
  • Yes, gequetscht is closer to "squashed" or "squeezed" resulting in injury through that. It depends on how she got hurt. Did her whole face get squeezed between the doors of a car, for example? "Er hat mir erzählt, ..." would also work. (But use "man" if you don't refer to someone with "er".
    – EagleFliesBanana
    May 21 at 1:38
  • No, her face was bruised by falling onto the pavement, so now I understand why gequetscht would be wrong. Thank you again!
    – Henry DeYoung
    May 21 at 17:35
  • "in Bälde heilen" is very unidiomatic, at least for somebody who is "only" 40 and grew up in Niedersachsen. "bald heilen" is much more natural. Might be different regionally, but I doubt that "bald heilen" will raise eyebrows anywhere (in contrast to "in Bälde").
    – Raketenolli
    May 26 at 12:57
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Although your question has already been answered, let me add some remarks. With the exception of "quetsches" everything is formally correct, but one would normally use different phrasings in the second and third sentence.

  • Es tut mir leid, dass Sie sich den Arm gebrochen und das Gesicht geprellt (or verletzt) haben.

  • Ich hoffe, dass Ihre Verletzungen bald heilen. [As you suggested in your question.]

But do not worry, also your text is perfectly clear. And the addressee knows that you are not a native German speaker, so he will be happy to read your greeting card as it is.

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