German Phrase
War schön, dich zu sehen.
Meaning
Literally ‘It was nice, to see you.’ The sentence is used to express that you enjoyed meeting or seeing someone, usually right after the encounter has ended.
When to use
Use it right after a casual meeting, a short chat, or when you part ways. It works in spoken conversation, text messages, or informal emails. For formal situations replace ‘dich’ with ‘Sie’.
✦Grammar Breakdown
Warschön,dichzusehen.
War (sein, past)
‘War’ is the simple past (Präteritum) of the verb ‘sein’ and means ‘was’.
schön (adjective)
‘schön’ means ‘nice/beautiful’ and here modifies the whole situation.
dich (accusative pronoun)
‘dich’ is the accusative form of ‘du’; it is used because the infinitive ‘zu sehen’ takes a direct object.
zu + infinitive
The particle ‘zu’ introduces an infinitive clause, similar to ‘to’ in English.
sehen (infinitive)
‘sehen’ means ‘to see’; together with ‘zu’ it forms ‘zu sehen’ – ‘to see’.
🗨In Conversation
War schön, dich zu sehen.
It was nice to see you.
Ja, ich habe mich auch gefreut.
Yes, I was happy to see you too.
✕Common Mistakes
War schön dich zu sehen.
Missing comma after ‘schön’; the infinitive clause must be separated by a comma.
War schön, du zu sehen.
‘du’ is the nominative pronoun; the correct accusative form is ‘dich’.
War schön, Sie zu sehen.
If you use the formal ‘Sie’, the verb must agree: ‘Es war schön, Sie zu sehen.’
↔Alternatives
Es war schön, dich zu sehen.
It was nice to see you.
Ich habe mich gefreut, dich zu sehen.
I was glad to see you.
Schön, dich wiederzusehen.
Nice to see you again.
Cultural Tip
‘dich’ signals an informal relationship (friends, family, peers). In business or with strangers you should use the formal ‘Sie’: ‘War schön, Sie zu sehen.’ Also, German speakers often place a comma before the infinitive clause, as shown here.