"We are going out."

Translation: Wir gehen hinaus.

[simopr1]

what is the difference between?

Wir gehen hinaus.

Wir gehen heraus.

[mizinamo]

The first one means that you are going towards the outside and away from the position where the speaker is.

The second one means that you are going outside and towards the position where the speaker is. It makes no sense to me, since the speaker is part of wir and so he can't move towards his current position; also, movement towards the speaker's position is usually described as "coming" rather than "going".

[nbadg]

Szene: ich bin zu Hause. Ein Freund ist schon in einer Bar. Ich will ihm Bescheid geben, dass ich bald unterwegs bin, ihn zu treffen, und schicke ihm eine SMS. Was würde ich ihm schreiben?

Es scheint mir, es soll "Ich komme heraus" sein, oder?

[mizinamo]

Two possibilities: Ich geh gleich (i.e. I'll be leaving my house soon) or Ich komme gleich (i.e. I'll arrive at the bar soon).

Ich komme jetzt raus would be appropriate if someone is waiting for you outside a locked toilet stall, for example, and you're telling them that you're about to come out.

[clintack]

Is there a difference between "Wir gehen hinaus." and "Wir gehen raus."?

[mizinamo]

In meaning, no.

raus is a bit less formal than hinaus, so you might not use that in an academic thesis or something like that; and conversely, in everyday speech you would probably be more likely to use raus than hinaus.

But the meanings are the same. raus is simply a short form of heraus or hinaus.

(It must have originated as a short form of heraus, but is also used as a short form of hinaus. So it doesn't matter whether the movement towards the outside is away from you [you are inside] or towards you [you are outside]; raus works in both cases.)

[snpolishchuk]

Very interesting point. It would be great if it also was in tips for the lesson.

[FilipFilip17]

So you say this to people who are already out.

[RedAngel666]

Hi Filip,

with 'who are already out' you mean people out of the closet? If you mean that, this is not the meaning of the sentence. It's just saying. Wir gehen raus/hinaus. Out of the house or going out for a beer or two. Please define your question.

best regards Angel

[bota.laszlo]

Why is "Wir gehen aus" bad?

[simopr1]

Because it does not show a direction. It muss be either hingehen or hergehen. Read mizinamo's answer above.

I think "Wir gehen aus" is understandable by any German but it is not the proper way to say it.