The German noun der Familienstand may be translated as "family status," "marital status," or "civil status." The different categories parallel the English usages of "single," "married," "divorced," and "widowed." You may have to state your status when you fill out job applications or write your work resumé, but there are also some options available when doing so, as we'll discuss below.

Ich bin 36 Jahre alt und ledig.

I am 36 years old and single.

Caption 32, Die Pfefferkörner: Gerüchteküche

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A person who is single is unverheiratet (unmarried). And while ledig translates as "single," it's not to be confused with the adjective/adverb einzeln, which may be translated as "singly" or "individually."

Annemarie ist verheiratet und hat zwei Kinder.

Annemarie is married and has two children.

Caption 24, Deutsch mit Eylin: Die Familie

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For the difference between verheiratet (sein) and geheiratet (haben), see this Yabla lesson.

Ulla lebt in Frankfurt und ist von ihrem Mann geschieden.

Ulla lives in Frankfurt and is divorced from her husband.

Captions 38-39, Deutsch mit Eylin: Die Familie

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The process of divorce is called die Scheidung (the divorce).

Der verwitwete Mann zog in ein Altersheim.
The widowed man moved into a nursing home.

A widow is called eine Witwe, and a widower ein Witwer.

If you happen to be divorced (geschieden) or widowed (verwitwet), it's perfectly permissible to write on a German job application or resumé that you are single (ledig). For official governmental documents, however, it's best to write geschieden or verwitwet, as your precise status may have legal implications.

To recapitulate:

Der Familienstand besagt, ob man ledig, verheiratet, geschieden oder verwitwet ist.

Your marital status indicates whether you are single, married, divorced, or widowed.

Captions 54-55, Deutsch mit Eylin: Personalien und Namen

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Further Learning
Read this page about Familienstand and job applications in German. You can also go to Yabla German and search for the above terms that you have learned to see them used in a variety of different contexts.

I've had native German-speaking colleagues tell me that I speak German with a very good accent. So it came as a shock to me a couple of years ago when a British friend (who had studied at a German university and whose accent is excellent) said to me: "You just said danke schon back there. It's danke schön!" I realized that I'd somehow slid from the uniquely German sound of the umlaut Ö into a standard O. I spent the next couple of months working to consciously improve my umlaut pronunciation awareness.

When you are first learning a foreign language, you will likely encounter letters and letter combinations that are unlike anything in your native language. We all know that it takes a while to learn to pronounce them, getting your mouth's muscle memory used to making completely new movements to get that sound to come out right.

But what we may be a bit less conscious of is the fact that it is also difficult to hear the sounds of some letters and letter combinations in a new non-native language. A native English speaker may, hearing German for the first time, try to mimic danke schön as "donkey shown." This is not only due to its difficult pronunciation. To some extent, a beginner may even hear it the way they mispronounced it.

You'll likely be familiar with the adjective schön, which is usually translated as "nice," "beautiful," or "pretty."

Die beiden sind doch ein richtig schönes Paar.

The two of them make a really nice couple.

Caption 83, Die Pfefferkörner - Endspurt

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Es war einmal eine schöne, junge Frau namens Jorinde.

There was once a beautiful young woman named Jorinde.

Caption 5, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Jorinde und Joringel

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The adverb schön, however, is rarely translated the same as the adjective. In the case of danke schön, it is usually translated as "thank you" or "thank you very much." The "very much" addresses the adverb schön, since with only danke then "thank you" or "thanks" is enough. The key to the adverb schön, however, is that it strengthens whatever it is modifying.

Hast es dir schön gemütlich gemacht hier.

You've made yourself nice and comfortable here.

Caption 30, Lerchenberg - Viva La Television!

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Ich liebe die Atmosphäre bei mir zu Hause,

I love the atmosphere in my home,

besonders, wenn alles schön sauber gemacht worden ist.

especially when everything has been made nice and clean.

Captions 1-2, Deutsch mit Eylin - Putzen

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In the two captions above, schön was translated as "nice" with the additional conjunction "and" so that it correlates with the standard English construction "nice and..." The above could have been translated, albeit it less gracefully, as "nicely comfortable" or "nicely clean." The above two captions are also perfect examples where somebody starting to learn German may misinterpret schön as schon, which would have a different meaning:

Du hast es dir schon gemütlich gemacht hier.
You've already made yourself comfortable here.

Ich liebe die Atmosphäre bei mir zu Hause, besonders, wenn alles schon sauber gemacht worden ist.
I love the atmosphere at my house, especially when everything has already been made clean.

Note that some of the German above is not quite grammatically correct, but it's written as a misheard statement. In the first one, the person who misheard might reply "Yes, of course I'm already comfortable, should I not be?" In the second, someone might reply "Oh, do you have a housekeeper who cleans for you in advance?" Mild misunderstandings to be sure, but misunderstandings nonetheless. Just imagine the confusion when this poor soul hears the following:

So, jetzt weißt du schon ganz schön viel

So now you already know quite a lot

über mich und meine Familie.

about me and my family.

Captions 51-52, Deutsch mit Eylin - Die Familie

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Or better yet:

Ist schon schön, ne?

It is nice, isn't it?

Caption 44, Angelique Kerber - Ihre tennisfreie Zeit

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Say that twenty times fast as a tongue-twister, or as the case may be, an umlaut twister! Note that schon isn't translated. That is because although it is technically an adverb, it's really more of a "filler word" or modal particle.

Further Learning
Go to Yabla German and search for schön being used as an adverb, which is any use of schön that does not appear before a noun. See all of the different ways that it can be translated according to the different contexts, including into the English adverb "pretty." But more about the strange relationship of schön and "pretty" in an upcoming lesson!