'thank you kindly'. The word Danke means 'thanks' and schön means 'pretty', 'lovely', or 'nice'. In Standard German the word schön is pronounced with a close-mid front rounded vowel, that is not used in English phonology. In Newton's version of the song, however, the word schön is pronounced to rhyme with the English words pain and explain. In many High German dialects spoken in Austria, Switzerland, and central and southern Germany, the front rounded vowels , , , are lacking and are replaced in these dialects with their unrounded counterparts, , , , . Orthographically, when writing in these dialects, ö becomes e or ee and ü becomes i or ie. Hence, in Low German dialects commonly encountered in the United States, such as Pennsylvania German, the word schön rhymes with the English words 'pain' and 'explain'. Standard German Danke schön would be translated into Pennsylvania German as danki schee () or dank scheene (). Similarly, it would be translated into Yiddish (, ). The German letter "ö" can also be written using the older typography "oe" (schön = schoen) – of which the umlauted "O" is a contraction – when umlauts are unavailable or not readily accessible. Milt Gabler, the author of the English lyrics of the song, was the son of Austrian and Russian Jewish immigrants and would have been most familiar with the Yiddish pronunciation of the word schön (or schoen) as sheyn. In media In 2020, the song was used in the "Come Dance" trailer for the video game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 which premiered at the Inside Xbox online showcase. References External links Song lyrics 1962 songs German-language songs Songs with music by Bert Kaempfert Songs with lyrics by Milt Gabler Wayne Newton songs Anita Lindblom songs Capitol Records singles