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I often get confused replying to people in conversation and use the wrong option. I understand using "dir" conveys the message of "to you too", but there are some cases where it's a little confusing.

Are the answers below correct?

Schönen Abend noch! Dir auch? Mach's gut! Du auch? Schönen Feierabend. Dir auch? Schönes Wochenende. Dir auch! Bleib gesund. Du auch!

Can anyone provide more examples where "Du auch" would be the correct form?

Henry Firth
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2 Answers2

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"Du" is nominative while "Dir" is dative. Depending on the sentence, also the genitive "Dein" or accusative "Dich" may be required.

All your examples are abbreviated, so it may not be obvious immediately:

Schönen Abend noch!
Dir auch.

Ich wünsche dir noch einen schönen Abend.
Ich wünsche dir auch einen schönen Abend.
Wünschen requires dative. It's the same with Abend, Feierabend, Wochenende, Urlaub, whatever.

Mach's gut!
Du auch.

Mache Du es gut.
Mache Du es auch gut.
The verb is used as imperative and requires the nominative. Same with "bleib gesund".

The following examples of "Dein" and "Dich" are grammatically correct, but would not be used normally.

Möge Dein Glas immer voll sein.
Deines auch. (Dein Glas auch).

Möge Dich das Glück begleiten.
Dich auch. (Möge Dich auch das Glück begleiten).

RalfFriedl
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The examples that are "commands" in imperative ("Mach's gut!" "Bleib gesund!") are anwered with "Du auch!".

The other cases are short forms of statements (indicative): "[Ich wünsche dir ein] schönes Wochenende" etc. These can be answered with "[Ich] dir auch"

Hagen von Eitzen
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    Mh. Looks good for these examples, but I think that some would get the idea that it is dependent of the mood, but it's rather dependent of the casus (which in the examples above happens to be sorted out by the indicative or imperative moods). – c.p. Jan 13 '21 at 18:23