German Phrases Greetings in German Hi!
Hallo!
Good Morning!
Guten Morgen!
Good Evening!
Guten Abend!
Welcome! (to greet someone)
Willkommen!
How Are You?
Wie geht's dir/ Ihnen?
I'm Fine, Thanks!
Danke, mir geht's gut!
And You?
Und dir/ Ihnen?
Good/ So-So.
Gut/ So la-la
Thank You (Very Much)!
Danke (vielmals)!/ Vielen Dank!
You're Welcome! (answering "thank you")
Gern gescheh'n!/ Keine Ursache!/ Kein Problem!
Hey! Friend!
Hey! Kumpel! (only for male people)
I Missed You So Much!
Du hast/ Sie haben mir so gefehlt!
What's New?
Was gibt's Neues?
Nothing Much
Nicht viel.
Good Night!
Gute Nacht!
See You Later!
Bis später!
Good Bye!
Auf Wiedersehen!/ Tschüß!
Help & Directions in German I'm Lost
Ich habe mich verlaufen!
Can I Help You?
Kann ich dir/ Ihnen helfen?
Can You Help Me?
Kannst du/ Können Sie mir helfen?
Where is the (bathroom/ pharmacy)?
Wo ist (das Badezimmer/ die Apotheke?)
Go Straight! Then Turn Left/ Right!
Gehen Sie geradeaus! Dann links / rechts abbiegen!
I'm Looking For John.
Ich suche John.
One Moment Please!
Einen Augenblick, bitte!
Hold On Please! (phone)
Bleiben Sie dran, bitte!
How Much Is This?
Was kostet das?/ Wie teuer ist das?
Excuse Me ...! ( to ask for something)
Entschuldigen Sie bitte...!
Excuse Me! ( to pass by)
Darf ich mal vorbei?
Come With Me!
Kommen Sie mit!
Personal Info in German Do You Speak (English/ German)?
Sprechen Sie (Englisch/ Deutsch)?
Just a Little.
Nur ein bißchen.
What's Your Name?
Wie heißen Sie?
My Name Is ….
Ich heiße... / Mein Name ist...
Mr.../ Mrs.…/ Miss…
Herr/ Frau/ Fräulein (not used anymore)
Nice To Meet You!
Schön, Sie kennenzulernen!
You're Very Kind!
Du bist/ Sie sind sehr freundlich!
Where Are You From?
Woher kommst du/ kommen Sie?
I'm From (the U.S/ Germany)
Ich komme (aus den U.S.A./ aus Amerika / aus Deutschland)
I’m (American)
Ich bin (Amerikaner)
Where Do You Live?
Wo wohnst du/ wohnen Sie?
I live in (the U.S/ Germany)
Ich wohne (in den U.S.A./ in Amerika/ in Deutschland)
Did You Like It Here?
Gefällt es dir/ Ihnen hier?
Germany Is a Wonderful Country
Deutschland ist wunderschön.
What Do You Do For A Living?
Was ist dein/ Ihr Beruf?
I Work As A (Translator/ Businessman)
Ich bin (Übersetzer/Dolmetscher) / Geschäftsmann
I Like German
Ich mag Deutsch
I've Been Learning German For 1 Month
Ich lerne seit einem Monat Deutsch
Oh! That's Good!
Oh! Das ist toll!
How Old Are You?
Wie alt bist du/ sind Sie?
I'm (twenty, thirty…) Years Old.
Ich bin (zwanzig, dreißig,...) Jahre (alt).
I Have To Go
Ich muß gehen/ los!
I Will Be Right Back!
Ich bin sofort wieder da!
Wishes in German Good Luck!
Viel Glück!
Happy Birthday!
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!
Happy New Year!
Ein frohes neues Jahr!
Merry Christmas!
Fröhliche Weihnachten!
Congratulations!
(Herzlichen) Glückwunsch!
Enjoy! (For meals…)
Guten Appetit!
I'd Like To Visit Germany One Day
Ich möchte eines Tages (mal) nach Deutschland reisen
Say Hi To John For me.
Grüß/ Grüßen Sie John von mir!
Bless you (when sneezing)
Gesundheit!
Good Night & Sweet Dreams!
Gute Nacht und träum was schönes!
Misunderstanding in German I'm Sorry! (if you don't hear something)
Entschuldigung, ich habe Sie nicht verstanden!
Sorry (for a mistake)
Entschuldigung!/ Es tut mir leid!
No Problem!
Kein Problem!/ Keine Ursache!
Can You Say It Again?
Kannst du/ Können Sie das nochmal wiederholen?
Can You Speak Slowly?
Kannst du/ Können Sie (etwas) langsamer sprechen?
Write It Down Please!
Schreib/ Schreiben Sie es bitte auf!
I Don't Understand!
Ich verstehe das/ dich/ Sie nicht! (das:that, dich:you, Sie:you polite)
I Don't Know!
Ich weiß (es) nicht!
I Have No Idea.
Ich habe keine Ahnung.
What's That Called In German?
Wie heißt das auf deutsch?
What Does " gato" Mean In English?
Was bedeutet "nacht" auf englisch?
How Do You Say "Please" In German?
Wie sagt man "please" auf deutsch?
What Is This?
Was ist das (hier)?
My German Is Bad.
Mein Deutsch ist schlecht.
I need to practice my German
Ich muß (mein) Deutsch üben.
Don't Worry!
(Nur) Keine Sorge!
Expressions & Words in German Good/ Bad/ So-So.
gut/ schlecht/ so la-la
Big/ Small
groß/ klein.
Today/ Now
heute/ jetzt
Tomorrow/ Yesterday
morgen/ gestern
Yes/ No
ja/ nein
Here You Go! (when giving something)
Bitte sehr!/ Bitte schön!
Do You Like It?
Gefällt's dir/ Ihnen?
I Really Like It!
Mir gefällt es sehr gut!
I'm Hungry/ Thirsty.
Ich habe Hunger/ Durst.
In The Morning/ Evening/ At Night.
am Morgen/ morgens/ am Abend/ abends/ in der Nacht
This/ That. Here/There
dies(es/er/e)/ das. hier/ dort.
Me/ You. Him/ Her.
Ich/ Du. Er/ sie
Really!
Wirklich?!/ Echt?!
Look!
Guck (mal)/ Schau (mal)!
Hurry Up!
Beeil dich!/ beeilen Sie sich!
What? Where?
was?/ wo?
What Time Is It?
Wieviel Uhr ist es?/ Wie spät ist es?
It's 10 o'clock. 07:30pm.
Es ist zehn Uhr. Sieben Uhr dreißig/ halb acht.
Give Me This!
Gib mir das!
I Love You!
Ich liebe dich/ Sie!
I Feel Sick.
Ich fühle mich nicht wohl.
I Need A Doctor
Ich brauche einen Arzt.
One, Two, Three
eins, zwei, drei
Four, Five, Six
vier, fünf, sechs
Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten
sieben, acht, neun, zehn
Wie heißen Sie? (What's your name?), Ich heiße Speak7 , Mein Name ist Speak7 (my name is Speak7 ), Wie bitte? (I'm sorry, literally: how please?), Wie geht„s? (How is it going? how are things going with you?), Es geht, und Ihnen? (things are going okay, how about you? It's the answer to "Wie geht's") Danke, gut! Good, thanks (literally: Thanks, good) Tschüß (bye) Woher kommen Sie? (Where are you from?) Ich komme aus Marokko. (I'm from Morocco) Wo wohnen Sie? (Where do you live?) Wo ist das? (Where is that?) Ich verstehe nicht (I don't understand) Oh, Entschuldigung! (Oh sorry)
Macht nichts (don't worry about it, .or., it's okay) Danke schön (Thanks a lot) Es tut mir leid (I'm sorry) Was machen Sie? (What do you do?) Was sind Sie von Beruf? (What do you do for a living?) Ich bin ... (I'm a "your job") Ich meine. (I mean.) Wirklich? (Really?) Ich bin in Frankfurt geboren (I was born in Frankfurt) Ich bin verheiratet (I.m married) Ich bin solo (I'm single) Ja, richtig (yes that's true, or that's correct) Das stimmt! (exactly!) Das stimmt nicht (that's not true) Ich spreche mit einem Akzent (I speak with an accent) Was ist das? (What is that?) Sie sprechen zu schnell für mich (you.re speaking too fast for me) Was ist los? (What is going on?) Gar nichts (nothing at all) Warum nicht? (Why not?) Wie spät ist es? (What time is it?) Zehn vor sieben (6:50), zwanzig nach fünf (5:20), viertel vor zehn (9:45) Kommst du mit? (Are you coming along?) Kann ich Sie duzen? (Can I use the informal form used in German with you?) Hier kann man viel Geld ausgeben (you can spend a lot of money here; note that "man" here means "people, you, one...") Ich schlage vor, wir gehen ins Kino (I suggest, we go to the movies/ cinema) Wie lange leben Sie schon hier? (How long have you been living here?) Wie finden Sie Amerika? (How do you like the U.S?) Ich habe in Amerika Deutsch gelernt (I learned German in the U.S) Er hat Sie verstanden (he understood you). Wie groß ist es? (How big is it?) Wie viel kostet das? (How much is it?) Das ist sehr wichtig (it's very important) Haben Sie Geschwister/ Kinder? (Do you have sisters/ kids?) Können Sie mir helfen? (Can you help me?) Haben Sie eine Nachricht? (Do you have a message for me?) Legen Sie nicht auf (don't hang up! "On the phone") Was kann ich für Sie tun? (What can I do for you?) Sag mal! (Tell me!) Jeden Tag studiere ich Deutsch (every day I study German) Um wie viel Uhr...? (At what time ...?) Bis wann? (Till what time?)
Morgen, Nachmittag, Abend (morning, afternoon, evening) Wann kommen Sie heute? (When are you coming today?) Von neun bis sechs (from nine to six) Das weiß ich nicht (I don't know about that) Noch nicht (not yet) Also, bis dann! (So, see you!) Toll! (Wow, "or" Awesome!) Mach schnell! (Hurry up!) Was haben Sie heute Abend vor? (Do you have any plans for this evening?) Ich kann Deutsch nur lesen und schreiben, aber nicht sprechen (I can only read and write German, but cannot speak it) Darf ich hereinkommen? (Can I come in?) Ja, natürlich, kommen Sie bitte! (Of course, come in please!) Nehmen Sie doch bitte Platz! Mögen Sie etwas trinken? (Have a seat, would you like to drink something?) Nein, danke, ich will nicht lange bleiben (no, thanks, I will not stay for long) Darf ich etwas fragen? (Can I ask you something?) Morgen habe ich wieder Freizeit (tomorrow I have free time again) Was fehlt Ihnen? (What's wrong? are you okay?) Auf keinen Fall (by no means) Auf jeden Fall (by all means) Viel Erfolg (good luck!)
German Alphabet Aa as in the word “ask” and never as in the word “able” Bb same as in English Cc usually in “sch” “ch” or “ck” rarely out of these letters. Dd same as in English Ee as in “elevated” Ff same as in English Gg like in the word "God", never pronounced as in the word “gym”. Hh same as in English. Ii as in the word “ink” never as in the word “island” Jj similar to the letter “y” in “yacht” Kk same as in English Ll same as in English Mm same as in English Nn same as in English, most of the German letters are just like English.
Oo same as in English “Old” never as in “Hot” which is pronounced somehow like {hat} Pp same as in English Qq same as in English but rare. Rr same as in English but slightly like as in “gh” as in the French “Merci” Ss sounds like “z”. Tt same as in English but not as sharp. Uu sounds like “oo” or “uu”, never as in the word “up” or “university” Vv sounds like “f” Ww sounds like “v” Xx same as in English although rare. Yy same as in English although rare. Zz sounds like “ts”
Additional German letters: Ä /ä, Ö/ ö, Ü / ü. ß (called scharfes s) Ä /ä sounds more like “e” Ö/ ö sounds more like “oe” Ü / ü sounds more like “ue” ß sounds like “ss”
Compound letters: Sch: sounds like “sh” Ch: sounds sometimes like “sh” or like “kh”. St: sounds like “sht” at the beginning, and like “st” at the end of a word.
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
German Definite Article der Mann (the man) die Frau (the woman) das Brot (the bread) die Männer (the men), die Frauen (the women), die Brote (the breads)
Well, that‟s not all; the form we went through above is only for the nominative case. Now let‟s have a look at all the rest:
Nominative case Accusative case Dative case Genitive cases
German Definite Articles Masculin feminin neuter plural e e Der die das die Den die das die Dem der dem den Des der des der
the the to the of the
Here are some examples: Nominative: der Mann ist hier (the man is here) Accusative: Ich grüße den Mann (I greet the man) Dative: Ich gebe dem Mann ein Buch (I give the book to the man) Genitive: Ich habe das Buch des Mannes (I have the book of the man)
You may have noticed how the definite article changes each time the case changes. So try to memorize the table above by heart, I‟m sure it‟s not that hard.
German cases are four: the nominative case (subject of the sentence); the accusative case (the direct object); the dative case (the indirect object), and the genitive case (possessive). Cases are not something strange to English, pronouns for example use a certain kind of cases, for example we say “he speaks”, and “give him” and not “give he”, did you see how “he” became “him” in the second example, well the same thing happens in German, the only difference is that in German it‟s much more widely used, not only in pronouns, even nouns/ adjectives/ articles … use the same thing. The German case indicates the role of an element in a sentence.
German Nominative
The nominative is the easiest case in German and also the one dictionaries use as the standard form of nouns, adjectives, articles…and refers to the subject of the sentence. The teacher went to school, “The teacher” is the subject of the sentence, and therefore “The teacher” is nominative. So it will take the nominative form in German, which is “Der Lehrer”. Below is a table of some forms of Nominative, you will only know the difference when you will go through the 3 other cases (accusative, Dative, Genitive).
Der, die, das, die
German Nominative Case Indefinite Articles Personal Pronouns Adjectives (masc., fem, neuter, plural) Ein, Eine, Ein Ich, du, er, sie, Weißer, weiße, weißes, weiße
(they all means the)
(they all mean a, an)
Definite Articles
wir, ihr, sie.
(all these forms mean white)
(I, you, he, she...)
These are just some examples to show the nominative form of some elements such as articles, pronouns, adjectives. Note that the nominative case can be used in a much wider scope such as in Nouns, interrogative pronouns…what comes next will help you notice the difference between Nominative and what the other 3 German cases.
German Accusative Now we will learn the second case in German which is the accusative, the good news is that apart from the masculine, the other 2 genders + the plural (feminine, neuter and plural) look just like the Nominative. Now let‟s learn what the accusative really is. The accusative case is considered the direct object. I see the teacher, “the teacher” is the direct object of the sentence, and therefore would take the accusative form, and since “the teacher” is masculine it will become in German “den Lehrer” and not “der Lehrer” as in the nominative case. I see the teacher = Ich sehe den Lehrer.
Definite Articles Den, die, das, die
German Accusative Case Indefinite Articles Personal Pronouns Adjectives (masc., fem, neuter, plural) Einen, Eine, Ein Weißen, weiße, weißes, weiße mich, dich, ihn,
(they all means the)
(they all mean a, an)
sie,
(all these forms mean white)
uns, euch, sie. (me, you, him, her...)
Let‟s get adjectives involved as well. I see the young teacher = ich sehe den jungen Lehrer. Young in German is jung, but since we‟re using the accusative case, then the adjective should copy the article it follows, which is “den/ the” = masculine, so “den jungen”. If you look at the table above you will understand why we added “en” after the adjective “jung”. Now let‟s get personal pronouns involved. I see him = ich sehe ihn. Easy, isn‟t it!
A pronoun in German as well as in English is like a shortcut to refer to a noun, a word that stands for or represents a noun or noun phrase, a pronoun is identified only in the context of the sentence in which it is used. So you must have a prior idea about who "he or she" "er or sie" is. In English we find "I, her, what, that, his", In German pronouns use is governed by cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive), number and gender. All these three factors can affect the pronoun. Types of pronouns include personal pronouns (refer to the persons speaking, the persons spoken to, or the persons or things spoken about), indefinite pronouns, relative (connect parts of sentences), reciprocal or reflexive pronouns (in which the object of a verb is being acted on by verb's subject), demonstrative, and interrogative pronouns.
German Personal Pronouns The personal (subject) pronouns in German are (ich, du, er, sie, es, wir, ihr, Sie, sie.), and make the equivalent of (I, you, he, she, it, we, you people, you all, they) in English, usually they take the nominative form, since they‟re the subject of the sentence. They‟re very important and therefore they must be memorized by heart. I have a pen = Ich habe einen Kugelschreiber.
Personal Pronouns in German Singular I Ich you (familiar) Du
you (formal) he, she, it
Sie er, sie, es Plural we Wir you (familiar) Ihr you (formal) Sie they Sie
German Object Pronouns Object pronouns replace the object of a sentence; direct object pronouns take the place of the direct object nouns, let‟s take this example “I see a man”, “a man” can be replaced in English by the direct object pronoun “him” and not “he”, so it would be “I see him”, the same thing happens in German: Ich sehe einen Mann becomes Ich sehe ihn. Note that the direct object pronoun in German is associated with the accusative case:
Direct Object Pronouns in German Singular me Mich you (familiar) Dich you (formal) Sie him, her, it ihn, sie, es Plural us Uns you (familiar) Euch you (formal) Sie them Sie
The indirect object pronouns (IOP) are used to replace nouns (people or things) in a sentence to which the action of the verb occurs. In English usually it is preceded by a preposition, “I give the book to Katja”, the name “Katja” is an indirect object noun, to replace it with a pronoun we would say in English “her”, in German we would say “ihr”, note that since the IOP is associated with the dative, the preposition “to” that we would usually use in English is not used in German, or rather we would say that it‟s mixed with the pronoun (look at the table below to understand the concept better), for example “to her” in German will become one word “ihr”.
Indirect Object Pronouns in German Singular to me Mir to you (familiar) Dir to you (familiar) Ihnen to him, to her, to it ihm, ihr, ihm Plural to us Uns to you (familiar) Euch to you (formal) Ihnen to them Ihnen
German Possessive Pronouns The possessive is another aspect that you need to master in German, the possessive pronouns indicate ownership and they replace a noun just like in English, example: “it is my house” becomes “it is mine”. but while in English you can use “mine” to the singular and feminine, in German you have to add an “e” to for the feminine,
Possessive Pronouns in German Singular mine mein/e yours mein/e yours (formal) Ihr/e his, hers, its sein/e Plural our unser/e yours (familiar) eur/e yours (formal) Ihr/e theirs ihr/e
Now we will look at possessive adjectives, which are used more than the pronouns we‟ve seen above. And since we‟re talking about “adjectives” it means that they will take different forms in different cases. For example let‟s have a look at “my” and “our” in German:
Possessive Adjectives in German
Nominative Masculine mein Feminine meine mein Neuter meine Plural
Accusative Meinen Meine Mein Meine
Dative meinem meiner meinem meinen
Genitive meines meiner meines meiner
Nominative Masculine unser Feminine uns(e)re unser Neuter uns(e)re Plural
Accusative uns(e)ren uns(e)re Unser uns(e)re
Dative uns(e)rem uns(e)rer uns(e)rem uns(e)ren
Genitive uns(e)res uns(e)rer uns(e)res uns(e)rer
Note that we add an “e” when we deal with the feminine, either in the singular or the plural; I put it between parentheses above.
As we have learned in the verbs section, reflexive verbs express an action that acts upon the subject, and with the reflexive verbs you will find reflexive pronouns, which are placed after of the conjugated verb, for example: Ich washe mich (I wash myself). Ich stelle mir vor (I imagine “myself”). Note that these pronouns have two forms, one with the accusative and another with the dative. When to use each one of them will depend on the verb, some reflexive verbs are associated with the accusative, and some others are associated with the dative, you can check the verbs page to learn more.
German Reflexive Pronouns Accusative myself Mich yourself (familiar) Dich yourself (formal) Sich himself, herself, itself Sich ourselves Uns yourselves (familiar) Euch yourselves (formal) Sich themselves Sich
Dative
myself yourself (familiar) yourself (formal) himself, herself, itself ourselves yourselves (familiar) yourselves (formal) themselves
Mir Dir Sich Sich Uns Euch Sich Sich
A brief summery of the pronouns we‟ve learned so far:
1st singular 2nd singular 3rd singular feminine 3rd singular masculine 3rd singular neuter 1st plural 2nd plural 3rd plural formal (singular and plural)
German Pronouns nominative ich du sie er es wir ihr sie Sie
accusative mich dich sie ihn es uns euch sie Sie
dative mir dir ihr ihm ihm uns euch ihnen Ihnen
genitive meindeinihrseinseinunsereurihrIhr-
German Demonstrative Pronouns Demonstratives usually refer to a previously mentioned noun in a sentence, just like adjectives they must agree with the gender and number of the noun. The equivalent to them in English would be “this/these”.
Nominative case Accusative case Dative case Genitive cases
German Demonstratives Masculine feminine neuter Dieser diese dieses Diesen diese dieses Diesem dieser diesem Dieses dieser dieses
plural diese diese diesen dieser
this/ these this/ these to this/ these of this/ these
Other Pronouns: Relative Pronouns: in German they are der, die, das (who, that, which), wer, was (who, that) and welcher (who, that). The gender, number, and case of the relative pronoun should agree with its antecedent. Interrogative Pronouns: the most important in German are: wer (who), wen (whom), wem (to whom), wessen (whose), was (what), welcher (which). Indefinite pronouns are: all- (all), ander- (other), einig- (one), etwas (some), jed- (each), kein- (no), nichts (nothing), man (we, one), niemand (no one).
Gender in German Nouns in German are quite different than in English; the gender is not an issue in English because all nouns have the same gender, well except humans and some animals... for example “a spoon” and “a fork” have the same gender, but in German it‟s a little bit more diverse, for some reason the spoon is masculine (der Löffel), the fork is feminine (die Gabel), and the knife is neuter (das Messer). This may sound weird but well even in English in some rare cases we do the same thing, for example you may hear in rare occasions “she is a nice car”, as if a car is feminine, or when talking about a baby we use “it” instead of „he/she”. In German this happens all the time with all nouns, so the best thing to do is: when you memorize new words try to memorize them with their definite article, for example the word “book” in German is “das Buch”, note that I added the definite articles “das” to it, which tells me that the book is “neuter” in German. If you get used to doing that way you would know if nouns are masculine, feminine or neuter, the good news is that in may occasions you can guess the gender of nouns given some hints, either thanks to a suffix or to a rule:
German Gender: Masuline Suffix: Most nouns ending in -en, -el, -ling, -ner, -ismus, -ig, -ich, or -er are masculine: der Boden (ground), der Vogel (bird), der Frühling (spring), der Vater (father). Rules: Days, months, and seasons, weather (rain, snow…) are usually masculine in German. der Sonntag (Sunday), der Winter (winter), der Februar (February, der Regen (rain), der Schnee (snow), but das Wetter (the weather). Note that these suffixes and rules can only assist you in increasing your chance of guessing what the gender would be, but it‟s still guessing, because there are some exceptions that can be found time to time.
German Gender: Feminine Suffix: Nouns ending in -heit, -ie, -ik, -age, -ei ,-ion, -itis, -keit, -ur, -schaft, -tät, and -ung are feminine: die Freiheit (freedom), die Garage (garage), die Operation (operation), die Möglichkeit (possibility), die Natur (nature), die Freundschaft (friendship), die Qualität (quality), die Ehrung, (honor). Rules: Trees, flowers, fruit, and cardinal numbers are most of the time feminine: die Föhre (pine tree), die Rose (rose), die Orange (Orange), die Sieben (the seven).
German Gender: Neuter Suffix: Nouns ending in -ett, -chen, -lein, -il, -ium, -ma, -ment, -nis, -tel, -tum, -um and -o are neuter: das Bett (bed), das Kaninchen (Rabbit), das Stadium (stage), das Klima (climat), das Geheimnis (secret), das Viertel (quarter), das Album (album), das Fräulein (young lady). Rules: Names of towns, countries, colors, infinitives used as nouns, and the diminutives that we‟ve seen above ending in -chen or -lein, they‟re all usually neuter: das Berlin (Berlin), das Deutschland (Germany), das Rot (Red), das Schwimmen (swimming), das Hündchen (little dog), das Kindlein (little child).
Note that you should check the other pages of German Cases and Articles to have a better idea on how nouns can change depending on the case, and what articles they take in each case. s
The Plural in German German is more diverse in its plural than in English, to express the plural in English we simply add “s” or “es” to the end of the noun, well in German it‟s not the case. Some nouns add “e” to their end: der Freund (friend) becomes die Freunde (friends), der Schuh (a shoe) becomes die Schuhe (shoes). Other nouns add “en” to their end: der Student (student) becomes die Studenten (students), die Zeit (time) becomes die Zeiten (times). The other forms of plural in German are: (-n) for example: die Schule becomes die Schulen (schools). (no diffrence) for example: das Fenster (window) stays die Fenster (windows).
(-¨) for example: der Bruder becomes die Brüder (brothers). (-¨er or -er) for example: das Haus becomes die Häuser (houses), or das Kind becomes die Kinder (childen). (-s) for example: das Radio becomes die Radios (this form can be used usually with foreign words) das Baby becomes die Babys
Tips: Note that most nouns ending in the suffixes (-heit, -ie, -ik, -age, -ei ,-ion, -itis, -keit, -ur, schaft, -tät, and -ung) add -en in the plural. Feminine nouns ending in (-in) add -nen to form their plural. Note that most German plurals add an extra -n or -en to the plural form in the dative case. Finally note that while English takes capital letter only in countries names or days… in German all nouns take a capital letter as you may have noticed in this lesson. Verbs in German are more diverse than in English; in this page we will learn their categories, and the most used tenses in German, note that this page is including only the important information you should know about in German verbs, and it doesn‟t include details about each category or each tense.
German Verbs In German verbs are categorized into three categories: weak verbs, strong, and mixed verbs. Weak verbs (schwache Verben) do not change the stem vowel in the past tense and the past participle and they‟re considered like regular verbs in English, examples: arbeiten (to work), spielen (to play). Strong verbs (starke Verben) do change the stem vowel in both the past tense and the past participle, examples: sprechen (to speak), fahren (to drive, go) Mixed verbs contain parts of both weak and strong verbs. They‟re used very often and therefore they should not be overlooked, examples: bringen (to bring), senden (to send)
Some verbs in the 3 categories above may contain separable (trennbar) or inseparable (untrennbar) prefixes. The point of using these prefixes is to create new meanings from the original verb. This concept is not strange to English, let‟s look at the verb “to stand” if we add the prefix “under” it will give us a whole new verb “to understand”, the same thing in German,
“stehen” means “to stand”, “verstehen” means “to understand”. Easy, right! Well not exactly, because German uses these prefixes more often. And some prefixes can be detached from the original verb and take a specific spot in the sentences, sometimes even far from the verb.
Separable prefixes (trennbar) are (ab, bei, ein, vor, an, auf, mit, weg, etc.) can stand independently as words, or can stay connected to the verb, Kann ich mitkommen? (Can I come with “you”?), kommen Sie mit ans Meer? (are you coming with to the sea), here the verb is “mitkommen”, see how in the first example it was connected, and in the second example the prefix “mit” was placed after Sie. The meaning of “mitkommen” is “to accompany” or “come with”.
The inseparable prefixes (untrennbar) are (be-, emp-, ent-, er-, ver-, zer-). These kind of prefixes cannot be removed from their verbs, The most common inseparable prefix verbs are: verkaufen (to sell), bekommen (to get), empfangen (to receive), empfehlen (to recommend), entdecken (to discover), verstehen (to understand), versagen (to fail), zerstören (to destroy).
German Tenses Below you will find the most used tenses in German, with the verb endings in each tense, as well as some examples, try to master them if you can, that would help you a lot and makes you feel comfortable expressing yourself in German, we will start with the present tense, which is a very important and a must to learn tense:
Present Tense in German It‟s the first tense we will learn, weak German verbs take the following endings to form the present tense:
Weak verb
Stro
spielen (to play)
neh
ich spiele
ich n
du spielst (familiar)
du n
er, sie, es spielt
er, s
wir spielen
wir
ihr spielt (familiar)
ihr n
ich -e, du -st, er (sie, es) -t, wir -en, ihr -t, Sie -en, sie -en. These endings can help you a lot, because with them you can conjugate most of weak verbs into the present tense, you only need the stem of the verb, for example the stem of spielen (to play) is “spiel”.
Strong verbs change in the singular second person familiar and third person forms, for example the verb nehmen “to take”, look at the side of the table. Usually strong verbs changes are regular and predictable: a becomes ä, e becomes ie or i, au becomes äu, o becomes ö. Note that the plural form is
regular.
Sie spielen (formal)
Sie
sie spielen
sie n
Mixed verbs are irregular and are best learnt by heart, because they‟re unpredictable. The good news is that te most common conjugation is the one for the weak verb. But like any other language there are some exceptions for all three types of verbs.
Now we will have a look at the past tense, also called the imperfect, another very important fact in knowing how to conjugate verbs in German:
German Past Tense (Imperfect) In German as well as in English the simple past tense (imperfect) is used to describe past events, more literal than conversational, regularly used when writing about the past. The endings for the weak verb are:
Strong verb
Irre
kommen (to come)
wiss
ich -te, du -test, Sie -ten, er (sie, es, man) -te, wir -ten, ihr -tet, Sie -ten, sie ten.
ich kam
ich w
du kamst (familiar)
du w
Sie kamen (formal)
Sie
er, sie, es kam
er, s
wir kamen
wir
ihr kamt (familiar)
ihr w
Sie kamen (formal)
Sie
sie kamen
sie w
So just take any weak verb stem and add it to the endings above, for example our previous verb spielen (to play), its stem is “spiel”, plus the endings above we will get: ich spielte, du spieltest, er spielte, wir spielten, ihr spieltet, Sie, sie spielten
To form the past tense with strong verbs, the trickiest part is knowing the stem, for example in English, you don‟t say “I comed”, but you say “I came” to refer to the past of the verb “to come”, strong verbs in German change their stem vowels and add the following endings: ich (-nothing added to the stem), du -st, Sie -en, er, sie, es (-nothing added to the stem), wir -en, ihr -t, Sie -en, sie -en. (look at the example on the side)
For the irregular verbs, they‟re tricky too in forming their stem, sometimes the stem doesn‟t look like the original verb at all, just like “I go” and “I went”, but these German irregular verbs change the vowel in the stem and, in addition, they take weak verb endings in the past tense.
Now we will learn the future tense, which is considered the easiest, because you only need to learn the conjugated form of “werden” plus the infinitive of the verbs you want to conjugate:
Future Tense in German There are two ways to express the German future. The easiest and most common method is to use the present tense with an appropriate time marker; Wir gehen morgen nach Berlin (we‟re going to Berlin tomorrow). The other method is to use the appropriate present tense form of werden with the infinitive of the main verb, note that the main verb in this method comes at the end of the sentence, relatively far from the future verb “werden”. Wir werden Schach und Kreuzworträtsel spielen (we will play chess and cross puzzels). Did you see how the verb spielen was kicked to the end of the sentence, it‟s like you‟re saying in English: we will chess and cross puzzles play. Remember this structure, because this is how you will be forming verbs in the future if you use the verb “werden” with it. Note that if you choose to use the first method, which is “present tense” you have to mention the time marker such as “morgen/ tomorrow”, “nächstes Jahr/ next year”…not using them will make people think that you‟re talking about the present and not the future tense.
ich w
du w
er, s wir
ihr w
sie w Sie
Adjectives in German as well as in English describe or modify nouns, but in German they should agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Adjectives forms vary depending on the case (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive). Note how adjectives take an extra “e” when they‟re placed before nouns and a definite article is placed before them in the nominative:
German Adjectives Masculine: (schnell/ fast): der schnelle Tiger (the fast tiger). Feminine: (jung/ young): die junge Dame (the young lady). Neuter: (klug/ smart): das kluge Kind (the smart child). Plural: (gut/ good): sie sind gute Bücher (they‟re good books).
For all the rest of the cases (accusative, dative and genitive) adjectives ending take “en” in the masculine, and “e” in the feminine and neuter.
Accusative: Ich habe den schnellen Tiger gesehen (I have seen the fast tiger), Ich habe die junge Dame gesehen. (I have seen the young lady). The same thing happens with dative and genitive where the adjective take “en” in the masculine, and “e” in the feminine/ neuter/plural. Remember that this happens only when we add a definite article der, die, das (the) or the pronouns dieser (this), jener (that), solcher (such), jeder (each), welcher (which). The plural ending for these weak adjectives is “en” in ALL cases (nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive), which is good news. Ich habe die schnellen Katzen gesehen (I have seen the fast cats). Ich habe die jungen Damen gesehen (I have seen the young ladies).
Adjectives proceeded by the indefinite articles (ein/ eine/ ein) or the pronouns such as mein (my, mine), sein (his)… kein (no) have an irregular declension:
singular nominative accusative dative genitive
Adjetives in German Masculine feminine ein guter Mann eine schöne Rose einen guten Mann eine schöne Rose einem guten Mann einer schönen Rose eines guten Mannes einer schönen Rose
neuter ein altes Buch ein altes Buch einem alten Buch eines alten Buches
The plural endings for strong adjectives are the same for all three genders:
Plural adjectives keine guten Männer nominative keine guten Männer accusative keinen guten Männern dative keiner guten Männer genitive YES! I want to claim my free instant access to the Rocket German 6 day Learn German course ($27 value).
Below is a list of some common adjectives in German, they‟re in their original form, so they‟re not yet influenced by any other cases like (accusative, dative, and genitive), so take that into consideration when you put these adjectives in a non nominative case. For example: Er ist schnell (he is fast). (but) Er ist ein schneller Mann.(note how in the first setences the adjective schnell wasn‟t influenced by anything and therefore stayed in its original form, but in the second example “ein” made it take “er” at the end). The same thing may occur to the adjectives below:
ambitious American annoying bad beautiful big, large blonde boring brave careless cautious certain charming cheerful Chinese conceited conventional coward crazy, nuts cruel difficult disagreeable dull, boring easy English fake fat few, a little French frequent friendly fun, amusing funny general
List of German Adjectives ehrgeizig Amerikaner ärgerlich schlecht schön groß blondine langweilig tapfer unbesonnen vorsichtig bestimmt charmant fröhlich Chinesisch eingebildet herkömmlich feigling verrückt, Nüsse grausam schwierig unangenehm dumm, langweilig leicht Englisch unecht Fett wenige, ein wenig Französisch häufig freundlich lustig, amüsant komisch, komisch General
generous German good handsome hard-working high, tall honest intelligent interesting kind laid-back lazy little, small low, short mean modest moody naive narrow-minded new nice (person) old perfect personal pious polite poor possible pretty proud rapid, fast realistic recent reliable rich sad selfish sensitive shy silly, dumb skinny slender, slim slow small Spanish strict strong
großzügig Deutsch gut hübsch fleißig hoch, hoch ehrlich intelligent interessant Art entspannend faul wenig, klein niedrig, kurz niedrig bescheiden launisch naiv engstirnig neu nett alt vollkommen Persönlicher fromm höflich schlecht möglich ziemlich stolz schnell, schnell realistisch neu zuverlässig reich jämmerlich egoistisch empfindlich schüchtern dumm, stumm dünn schlank langsam klein Spanisch streng stark
stubborn talkative trustworthy ugly various weak weird white young
störrisch gesprächig vertrauenswürdig hässlich verschieden schwach unheimlich weiß jung
German Vocabulary a (indefinite article) a (indefinite article) ability able, capable about (circa) about (concerning) above abroad absent accept accident account achieve across (through) act (verb) action activity actor actress actual actually add added additional address adequate administration adult advanced advantage advertising advice affairs (plural)
eine (for feminine) ein (for masculine & neuter) Fähigkeit, f fähig etwa über über, darüber im Ausland abwesend annehmen Unfall, m Konto, n erreichen durch handeln Handlung, f Tätigkeit, f Schauspieler, m Schauspielerin, f tatsächlich eigentlich hinzufügen zusätzlich beigefügt Adresse, f angemessen Verwaltung, f erwachsen fortgeschritten Vorteil, m Werbung, f Rat, m Geschäfte, pl
afraid after after that afternoon afterwards again against age ago agree agreement aid (help) aim air airplane airport alarm clock alcohol alive all allow almost alone along already also (too) although always among amount amuse ancient and and so on angle angry animal ankle announce annual another answer ant any anyone anything anywhere
besorgt nach darnach Nachmittag, m nachher wieder gegen Alter, n vor zustimmen Vereinbarung, f Hilfe, f Ziel, n Luft, f Flugzeug, n Flughafen, m Wecker, m Alkohol, m lebendig alle erlauben fast allein entlang schon auch obwohl immer unter, zwischen Betrag, m vergnügen alt und und so weiter (or simply usw.) Winkel, m wütend Tier, n Fessel, f ankündigen jährlich ein anderer,-e,-es Antwort, f Ameise, f jeder, e, -es irgend jemand irgend etwas irgendwo
apartment appear appetite apple apply approach appropriate approval approximately apricot April area argument arm armchair arms (plural) army around arrival arrive art article artist (feminine) artist (masculine) as (like) as (when) ask (beg) ask (question) aspect assembly assignment assistance association assume at (hour) at (place) at last at least at most at the same time attack attempt attention attitude attorney August aunt
Wohnung, f erscheinen Appetit, m Apfel, m anwenden sich nähern passend Billigung, f ungefähr Aprikose, f April, m Gebiet, n Beweis, m Arm, m Sessel, m Waffen, pl Armee, f herum Ankunft, f ankommen Kunst, f Artikel, m Künstlerin, f Künstler, m, wie als bitten fragen Anblick, m Versammlung, f Zuweisung, f Beistand, m, Assistenz, f Verband, m annehmen um an endlich wenigstens höchstens zur gleichen Zeit angreifen Versuch, m Achtung, f Haltung, f Anwalt, m August, m Tante, f
author (feminine) author (masculine) autumn available avoid awake aware away
baby back back (body) background bacon bad badly bag baggage bake baker bakery balcony ball banana band bank bank note bar base based basement basic basket bath bathroom battle bay be be called be valid beach bean bear beard
Schriftstellerin, f Schriftsteller, m, Herbst, m käuflich vermeiden erwachen aufgeweckt weg
More German Words Baby, n zurück Rücken, m Hintergrund, m Speck, m schlechter,-e,-es schlecht Tasche, f Gepäck, n backen Bäcker, m Bäckerei, f Balkon, m Ball, m Banane, f Band, n Bank, f Banknote, f Bar, f Grundlage, f beruhen auf Keller, m grundlegend Korb, m Bad, n Badezimmer, n Schlacht, f Bucht, f sein heissen gültig sein Strand, m Bohne, f Bär, m Bart, m
beat beautiful beauty because become bed bedroom bee beef beefsteak beer before begin beginning behavior behind belief believe bell (door) below belt beneath benefit beside besides best bet better between beverage beyond bible bicycle big bill bird birth birthday biscuit bit bitter black black blanket blind block blood
schlagen schön Schönheit, f weil werden Bett, n Schlafzimmer, n Biene, f Rindfleisch, n Steak, n Bier, n vor beginnen Anfang, m Benehmen, n hinter Glauben, m glauben Klingel, f unter Gurt, m unter Nutzen, m neben ausserdem bester,-e,-es Wette, f besser zwischen Getränk, n jenseits Bibel, f Fahrrad, n gross Rechnung, f Vogel, m Geburt, f Geburtstag, m Biscuit, n Stück, f bitter schwarz schwarz Decke, f blind Block, m Blut, n
blouse blue board boat body boil bone book bookshop boring both bottle bottom bowl box boy brain brake bread break breakfast breast breath bridge brief bright brilliant bring broad broke broom brother brown brush budget build building burn burning bus business busy but butcher butter butterfly button
Bluse, f blau Brett, f Boot, n Körper, m kochen Knochen, m Buch, n Buchhandlung, f langweilg beide Flasche, f Boden, m Schale, f Schachtel, f Junge, m Gehirn, n Bremse, f Brot, n brechen Frühstück, n Brust, f Atem, m Brücke, f kurz hell strahlend bringen breit pleite Besen, m Bruder, m braun Bürste, f Budget, f bauen Gebäude, n brennen Verbrennung, f Bus, m Geschäft, n beschäftigt aber Metzger, m Butter, f Schmetterling, m Knopf, m
buy buy by (a person) by chance by heart by the way
kaufen kaufen durch, von zufällig auswendig übrigens
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Some more German words cabbage Kohl, m café Café, n cake Kuchen, m calf Kalb, n call rufen, anrufen camp Lager, n can können candle Kerze, f capacity Aufnahmefähigkeit, f capital Kapital, n captain Kapitän, m car Wagen, m, Auto, n card Karte, f care sorgen career Karriere, f careful vorsichtig carpet Teppich, m carrot Rübe, f, Karrotte, f carry tragen case, instance Fall, m cashier Kassierer, m, cat Katze catch fangen cathedral Kathedrale, f
cattle cauliflower cause cell cellar center central century certain certainly chain chair chairman chance changable change (noun) change (verb) chapter character characteristics charge cheap check (verb) cheek cheese chemical cherry chest chicken chief child childhood chill chin china chinese chocolate choice choose christian christmas church cigarette circle circumstances citizen city
Vieh, n Blumenkohl, m Grund, m Zelle, f Keller, m Zentrum, n zentral Jahrhundert, n gewiss gewiss Kette, f Stuhl, m Vordsitzender, m Chance, f veränderlich Wechsel wechseln Kapitel, f Charakter, m Merkmal beladen billig prüfen Wange, f Käse, m chemisch Kirsche, f Brust, f Hühnchen, n Leiter, m Kind, n Kindheit, f kühlen Kinn, n Porzellan, n chinesisch Schokolade, f Wahl, f wählen, auswählen christlich Weihnachten Kirche, f Zigarette, f Kreis, m Umstände, pl Bürger, m Stadt, f
civil claim class clay clean clear client clock(tower) clock,watch close closely clothes cloud club coast coat coffee cold collar collection college color column comb combination come come back command commerce commercial commission committee common communication company compare competition complete complexion comrade concept concern conclusion condition conduct conference confess
bürgerlich Anspruch, m Klasse, f Lehm, m sauber klar, hell Kunde, m Uhr, f Armbanduhr, f nahe, bei eng Kleider, pl Wolke, f Club, m Küste, f Mantel, m Kaffee, m kalt Kragen, m Sammlung, f College, n Farbe, f Säule, f Kamm, m Verbindung, f kommen zurückkommen befehlen Handel, m Werbespot, m Kommission, f Komittee, n gewöhnlich Verbindung, f Gesellschaft, f vergleichen Wettbewerb, m vollständig Hautfarbe, f Kamarad, m Planung, f betreffen Ergebnis, n Bedingung, f Verhalten, n Besprechung, f bekennen
confidence conflict congress connection consider considerable construction contact contain contemporary content continue contract contrary contrast control conversation conviction convince cook cook cool cord corner corporation correct cost council count country county couple course court cousin cover cow cream create credit crime crisis critical cross crowd crown cry, weep
Zutrauen, n Konflikt, m Kongress, m Verbindung, f erwägen, überlegen beträchtlich Bauwerk, n kontaktieren enthalten zeitgenössisch Inhalt, m fortsetzen Vertrag, m Gegenteil, n Gegensatz, m Kontrolle, f Gespräch, n Ueberzeugung, f überzeugen kochen Koch, m, Köchin, f kühl Seil, n Ecke, f Gesellschaft, f richtig kosten Ratsversammlung, f zählen, berechnen Land, n Grafschaft, f Paar, n Lauf, m, Verlauf, m Gericht, n Cousin, m, Cousine, f bedecken Kuh, f Sahne, f erschaffen Kredit, m Verbrechen, n Krise, f kritisch Kreuz, n Menge, f Krone, f weinen
cucumber cultural culture cup cupboard current curtain customs cut
Gurke, f kulturell Kultur, f Tasse, f Schrank, m laufend Vorhang, m Zoll, m schneiden
daddy daily dance danger dangerous dark data date daughter day dead deaf deal dear December decide decision declare deep defense degree demand demand democratic dentist depart, leave department departure depth describe desert design desire desk despite
Papa, m täglich tanzen Gefahr, f gefährlich dunkel Daten, pl Datum, n Tochter, f Tag, m tot taub Abmachung, f teuer, lieb Dezember entscheiden Entscheidung, f bekanntgeben tief Verteidigung, f Grad, m Anfrage, f verlangen demokratisch Zahnarzt, m abreisen Abteilung, f Abfahrt, f Tiefe, f beschreiben Wüste, f entwerfen begehren Schreibtisch, m trotz
dessert detail detective determine determined develop development device devoted dictionary die difference different difficult dining room dinner direct direction directly director dirty disappointed discover discuss discussion disease distance distribute district divided division do doctor dog domestic dominant donkey door double doubt down dozen dramatic draw drawer dream dress
Dessert, n Detail, f Detektiv, m bestimmen entschlossen entwickeln Entwicklung, f Gerät, n ergeben Wörterbuch, n sterben Unterschied, m verschieden schwierig Esszimmer, n Abendessen, n lenken Richtung, f direkt Direktor, m schmutzig enttäuscht entdecken besprechen Besprechung Krankheit, f Distanz, f verteilen Distrikt, m geteilt Abteilung, f tun, machen Arzt, m, Aerztin, f Hund, m häuslich herrschend Esel, m Türe, f doppelt Zweifel, m unten, hinunter Dutzend, n dramatisch zeichnen Schublade, f Traum, m Kleid, n
drink drive drunk dry duck due during dust duty dwelling each ear early earn earth east easy eat economy edge editor education effect effective effort egg eight either elbow election electric electronic element elephant elevator eleven else emotional employee empty end enemy energy engine enjoy enough enter
trinken Auto fahren betrunken trocken Ente, f Gebühr, f während Staub, m Pflicht, f Wohnung, f jeder, -e, -es Ohr, n früh verdienen Erde, f Osten leicht essen Wirtschaft, f Kante, f Herausgeber, m Erziehung, f, Bildung, f Wirkung, f wirksam Anstrengung, f Ei, n acht beide Ellbogen, m Wahl, f elektrisch elektronisch Element, n Elefant, m Fahrstuhl, m, Lift, m elf sonst gefühlsmässig Angestellter, m leer Ende, n Feind, m Energie, f Motor, m geniessen genug eintreten
entire entrance envelope equal equipment escape especially essential establish estate estimated even A622 evening event eventually ever every everybody everyone everything everywhere evidence evil exactly example excellent except exchange executive exercise exist existence exit expect expenses expensive experience experiment explain express expression extended extent extra extreme eye
ganzer Eingang, m Briefumschlag, m gleich Ausrüstung, f entkommen besonders wesentlich einrichten Liegenschaft, f geschätzt sogar Abend, m Ereignis, n schliesslich jemals, immer jeden,-e,-es jeder jeder alles überall Beweis, m Übel, n genau Beispiel, f ausgezeichnet ausser Wechsel, m Geschäftsführer, m Uebung, f existieren Dasein, n Ausgang, m erwarten Auslagen, pl teuer Erfahrung, f Experiment, n erklären ausdrücken Ausdruck, m erweitert Ausdehnung, f zusätzlich äusserst Auge, n
German Vocabulary face facilities fact factor factory fail failure fair fairly fairy tale faith fall false, familiar family far farm fashion fast fat father fault favor fear features February feed feel (good) feeling felicitate female fetch few field fifteen fifty fig fight figure out file fill film finally
Gesicht, n Möglichkeiten Tatsache, f Faktor, m Fabrik, f fehlschlagen Versagen, n ehrlich eher Märchen, n Glauben, m fallen falsch gewohnt, vertraut Familie, f weit Bauernhof, m Mode, f schnell fett Vater, m Fehler, m Gefallen, m Angst, f Eigenschaften Februar, m ernähren, füttern sich fühlen Gefühl, n beglückwünschen weiblich holen wenig Feld, n fünfzehn fünfzig Feige, f Kampf, m herausfinden Akte, f füllen Film, m endlich
find fine finger finish (verb) fire first fish five flat flat (adj.) flesh (body) floor flour flow flower fly (insect) fly (verb) follow food foot for forbidden force foreign forest forget forgive fork form former forty fountain four fourteen fox frame free free (not occupied) frequently fresh Friday friend friendly frighten from front full
finden fein, schön Finger, m beenden Feuer, n erster,-e,-es Fisch, m fünf Wohnung flach Fleisch Boden, m Mehl, n fliessen Blume, f Fliege, f fliegen folgen Nahrung, f, Essen, n Fuss, m für verboten Kraft, f fremd, ausländisch Wald, m vergessen vergeben Gabel, f Form, f früherer vierzig Brunnen, m vier vierzehn Fuchs, m Rahmen, m gratis frei häufig frisch Freitag, m Freund, m, freundin, f freundlich erschrecken von Vorderseite, f voll
fundamental funny furniture further future
grundlegend lustig Möbel, pl weiterer, -e, -es Zukunft, f
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gain game garden gas gasoline general get girl give glad gladly glass glasses go goal God gold goldfish good good-bye goods goose government gradually grandfather grandmother
Gewinn, m Spiel, n Garten, m Gas, n Benzin, n allgemein bekommen Mädchen, n geben fröhlich, froh gerne Glas, n Brille, f gehen Ziel, n Gott, n Gold, n Goldfisch, m gut auf Wiedersehen Waren, pl Gans, f Regierung, f allmählich Grossvater, m Grossmutter, f
grass gray green green greetings grey ground group grow guess guest gun guy hair half hall ham hammer hamster hand handbag handkerchief handle hang happen happy hard hardly harvest hat hate have he head health healthy hear heart heat heavy hell help (noun) help (verb) hen here hero high
Gras, n grau grün grün Wünsche, pl grau Boden, m Gruppe, f wachsen vermuten Gast, m Gewehr, n Kerl, m Haare, pl halb Halle, f Schinken, m Hammer, m Hamster, m Hand, f Handtasche, f Taschentuch, n umgehen mit hängen geschehen glücklich hard kaum Ernte, f Hut, m hassen haben er Kopf, m Gesundheit, f gesund hören Herz, n Hitze, f schwer Hölle, f Hilfe helfen Huhn, n hier Held, m hoch
highway hill him,her, it his history hit hold hole holiday home, at home honor hope horrible horse hospital hot hotel, inn hour house how however huge human hundred hungry hurry hurt, injure husband I ice ice cream idea ideal if image imagine immediately impact important impossible improve in in front of in spite of inch include increase
Landstrasse, f Hügel, m ihn, sie, es sein Geschichte, f schlagen halten Loch, n Ferien, pl zuhause Ehre, f Hoffnung, f schrecklich Pferd, n Spital, n heiss Hotel, n Stunde, f Haus, n wie wie auch immer riesig menschlich hundert hungrig sich beeilen verletzen Ehemann, m ich Eis, n Eiskrem, Eis Idee, f ideal wenn Bild, n sich vorstellen sofort Einfluss, m wichtig unmöglich verbessern in vor trotz Zoll, m beinhalten zunehmen
indeed independent index index finger influence initial inner insect inside instead interest interesting interior into invite involve iron island issue it it's cold it's foggy it's freezing it's hot it's nice it's rainy it's snowy it's sunny it's windy
tatsächlich unabhängig Inhaltsverzeichnis Zeigefinger Einfluss, m anfänglich innerer, -e, -es Insekt, n drinnen anstatt Interesse interessant Innere, f in.....hinein einladen verwickeln Eisen, n Insel, f Problem, n es es ist kalt es ist neblig es friert Kälte ein es ist heiß es ist nett es ist regnerisch es ist schneebedeckt es ist sonnig es ist windig
jacket jam January job join judge juice July jump June just (only) justice keep key kill
Jacke, f Marmelade, f Januar, m Job, m sich anschliessen Richter, m Saft, m Juli, m springen Juni, m nur Gerechtigkeit, f halten Schlüssel, m töten
kind king kiss kitchen kitten knee knife know (person) know to knowledge labor lack ladder lady lake lamp land language large last last (previous) late laugh law lay lead leader learn leave left leg legal lemon length less let (allow) letter library lie lie life lift (verb) light (adjective) light (electr) lightning like (as) like (verb)
Art, f König, m Kuss, m Küche, f Kätzchen, n Knie, n Messer, n kennen können Wissen, n Arbeit, f mangeln Leiter, f Dame, f See, m Lampe, f Land, n Sprache, d breit letzter,-e,-es letzte spät lachen Recht, n legen führen Anführer, d lernen weggehen links Bein, n gesetzlich Zitrone, f Länge, f weniger lassen Brief, m Bibliothek, f liegen lügen Leben, f heben leicht Licht Blitz, m wie mögen
likely line lip liquid list listen literature little (amount) little (size) live live, dwell local located location lock (noun) long (object) long (time) look lose loss lot loud love (noun) love (verb) low luck lunch
wahrscheinlich Linie, f Lippe, f flüssig Liste, f hören, zuhören Literatur, f wenig klein leben wohnen lokal gelegen Standort, m Schloss, n lang lange schauen verlieren Verlust, m Haufen, m laut Liebe, f lieben leise Glück, n Mittagessen, n
machine magazine mail maintain majority make man manner many map March march mark market marriage married mass
Maschine, f Magazin, n Post, f instandhalten Mehrheit, f machen Mann, m, Mensch, m Art, f viele Landkarte, f März, m marschieren kennzeichnen Markt, m Hochzeit, f verheiratet Messe, f
material matter maximum May may maybe me meadow meal mean meaning means meanwhile measure meat meet member memory mention merely message metal method midday, noon middle midnight mile milk million mind minimum minister minute mirror Miss miss (verb) mistake modern moment Monday money month moon more more... than morning most
Material, n Gegenstand, m Maximum, n Mai, m dürfen vielleicht mich (accusative), mir (dative) Wiese, f Mahlzeit, f meinen, denken Bedeutung, f Mittel, n unterdessen Mass, n Fleisch, n treffen Mitglied, n Gedächtnis, n erwähnen kaum Botschaft, f Metall, n Methode, f Mittag mittlerer,-e,-es Mitternacht Meile, f Milch, f Million, f Sinn, m, Geist, m Minimum, n Minister, m Minute, f Spiegel, m Fräulein vermissen Fehler, m modern Augenblick, m, Moment, m Montag, m Geld, n Monat, m Mond, m mehr mehr...als Morgen, m die meisten
mother motion motor mountain mouse mouth move movement Mr. Mrs. much murder music must my myself nail name napkin narrow nasty natural nature near necessary neck need needle neighbor neighborhood neither...nor never nevertheless new news newspaper next nice night nine nineteen ninety no nobody nod noise none
Mutter, f Bewegung, f Motor, m Berg, m Maus, f Mund, m bewegen Bewegung, f Herr Frau viel Mord, m Musik, f müssen mein,-e mich Nagel, m Name, m Serviette, f eng böse, schlimm natürlich Natur, f nahe notwendig Hals, m brauchen Nadel, f Nachbar, m Nachbarschaft, f weder...noch nie trotzdem neu Nachrichten, pl Zeitung, f nächster,-e,-es nett Nacht, f neun neunzehn neunzig nein niemand nicken Lärm, m niemand
nor normal north nose not note nothing notice novel November now nowhere number nurse nut oak observe obtain obvious occasion occur October of of course off offer office officer official often oil old on on time,in time once one one(impers.) oneself onion only open opinion opportunity opposite or orange orange (color)
weder normal Norden Nase, f nicht Notiz, f nichts bemerken Roman, m November, m jetzt nirgendwo Zahl, f Krankenschwester, f Nuss, f Eiche, f beobachten erhalten offensichtlich Gelegenheit, f vorfallen Oktober, m von natürlich, gewiss weg anbieten Büro, n Offizier, Beamter offiziell oft Oel, n alt auf pünktlich ein mal ein, eine man sich Zwiebel, f nur öffnen Meinung, f Gelegenheit, f gegenüberstehend oder Orange, f orangegelb
orchestra order ordinary organization original orning other otherwise our outside oven over overcoat own
Orchester, n bestellen gewöhnlich Organisation, f original Morgen, m anderer,-e,-es sonst unser, -e draussen Ofen über Mantel, m eigener,-e,-es
German Vocabulary page pain painting pair pale paper parents park parking part particular partly party passport past patient pattern pay payment pea peace pear pen people performance perhaps period permit
Seite, f Schmerz, m Gemälde, n Paar, n Bleich Papier, n Eltern, pl Park, m Parkieren Teil, m Besonders teilweise Party, f Pass, m Vergangenheit, f geduldig Muster, n zahlen Zahlung, f Erbe, f Frieden, m Birne, f Kugelschreiber, m Leute, pl Leistung,Vorstellung, f vielleicht Punkt(Zeichen), m erlauben
person personal pick picture piece pig pink place, spot plan plant plate play pleasant please pleasure plenty point police pool poor popular population pork portion position possible post office postcard pot potato power powerful practice pray prepare present president pressure pretty prevent previous price probably problem product program progress
Person, f persönlich pflücken Bild, n Stück, n Schwein, n blaßrot Ort, m, Stelle, f Plan, m Pflanze, f Teller, m spielen angenehm bitte Vergnügen, n sehr viel Punkt, m Polizei, f Schwimmbecken, n arm beliebt Bevölkerung, f Schweinefleisch, n Teil, m Lage, f möglich Postbüro, n Postkarte, f Topf, m Kartoffel, f Macht, f,Kraft, f mächtig Uebung, f beten, bitten vorbereiten Geschenk, n Präsident, m Druck, m hübsch vorbeugen vorheriger,-e,-es Preis, m wahrscheinlich Problem, n Produkt, n Programm, n Fortschritt, m
promise property proposal propose protection proud prove provide prune
versprechen Eigentum, n Vorschlag vorschlagen Schutz, m stolz beweisen liefern Zwetschge, f
some more German words public öffentlich publish veröffentlichen pull ziehen pure rein purple purpurfarbig purpose Zweck, m push stossen put legen, stellen quality Qualität, f queen Königin, f question Frage, f quickly schnell quiet ruhig quite ganz rabbit Kaninchen, n race Rasse, f radio Radio, n railroad Eisenbahn, f rain Regen, m rain (verb) regnen raise aufziehen range Bereich, m rapidly schnell rare selten rate Kurs, m,Preis, m rather eher raw roh reach, manage erreichen read lesen ready bereit real wirklich reality Wirklichkeit, f realize erkennen,ausführen really wirklich
rear reason reasonable receive recently recognize record recover red reduce refrigerator refuse regard region regular relation relatively relief religion remain remark remember remove repeat reply report represent require research (do ~) research (noun) responsible rest restaurant result return rice rich right (direction) right (fair) right (noun) ring rise risk river road rock role
Hinterseite, f Grund, m vernünftig erhalten, bekommen kürzlich erkennen Schallplatte, f sich erholen rot verringern Kühlschrank, m ablehnen Hinblick, m Gegend regelmässig, üblich Verhältnis, n verhältnismässig Erleichterung, f Religion, f zurückbleiben Bemerkung, f sich erinnern entfernen wiedeerholen antworten berichten darstellen erfordern Forschen Forschung, f verantwortlich sich ausruhen Restaurant, n Ergebnis, n zurückkehren Reis, m reich rechts rechtig Recht, n läuten aufstehen Risiko, n Fluss Landstrasse, f Fels, m Rolle, f
roof room round rule run
Dach, n Zimmer, n rund Regel, f laufen, rennen
sad safe salad salt same sample satisfied Saturday sausage save say scarcely scene school science scissors screw sea search season seat second secret secretary see seek seem seldom select sell send sense September serious serve as service settled seven seventeen
traurig sicher Salat, m Salz, n gleicher,-e,-es Probe, f zufrieden Samstag, m Wurst, f retten, sichern sagen kaum Szene Schule, f Wissenschaft, f Schere, f Schraube, f Meer, n suchen Jahreszeit, f Sitz, m zweiter,-e,-es Geheimnis, n Sekretärin, f sehen suchen scheinen selten auswählen verkaufen senden, schicken Sinn, m, Gefühl, n September, m ernsthaft dienen als Dienst, m abgemacht sieben siebzehn
seventy several sex sexual shadow shall shape share sharp shave she sheep shelter ship shirt shoes shoot shop shore short shot shoulder show sick, ill side sign (noun) sign (verb) signal signify silence silver similar simple sin since sing sister sit situation six sixteen sixty size skin skirt sky sleep
siebzig mehrere Geschlecht, n sexuell Schatten, m sollen Form, f teilen scharf sich rasieren sie Schaf, n Obdach, n Schiff, n Hemd, n Schuhe, pl schiessen Laden, m Strand, m kurz Schuss Schulter, f zeigen krank Seite, f Zeichen, n unterschreiben Signal, n bedeuten Ruhe, f Silber, n gleich einfach Sünde, f seit singen Schwester, f sich setzen Lage, f sechs sechzehn sechzig Grösse, f Haut, f Rock, m Himmel, m schlafen
slight slow small smell smile smith smoke smooth snail snake snow so soap society soft soil soldier solid solution some (object) somebody someone sometimes somewhere son song soon sound soup sour source south space speak speed spend spider spirit splendid spoon spot spread spring square staff stage stairs
geringfügig langsam klein riechen lächeln Schmied, m rauchen weich, glatt Schnecke, f Schlange, f Schnee, m so Seife, f Gesellschaft, f weich Boden(Erde), m Soldat, m fest Lösung, f einige jemand jemand manchmal irgendwo Sohn, m Lied, n bald Klang, m Suppe, f sauer Quelle, f Süden Raum, m sprechen Geschwindigkeit, f ausgeben Stall, m Geist, m prächtig Löffel, m Stelle, f, Ort, m ausbreiten Frühling, m Platz, m Personal, n Bühne, f Treppe, f
stamp stand star stare start state station stay steel step still stir stock stomach stone stop stop (verb) store storm story stove straight strange strawberry stream street strength strong struggle student study success successful such suddenly sufficient sugar suggest suit suit (verb) suitable summer sun Sunday supper supply support
Briefmarke, f stehen Stern, m starren, blicken beginnen Staat, m Bahnhof, m bleiben Stahl, m Schritt, m immer noch rühren Aktie, f Magen, m Stein, m Haltestelle, f anhalten Laden, m Sturm, m Geschichte, f Ofen, m geradeaus fremd, seltsam Erdbeere, f Strom, m, Fluss, m Strasse Kraft, f , Stärke, f stark streiten,kämpfen Student, m,-in, f studieren Erfolg, m erfolgreich solcher,-e,-es plötzlich genügend Zucker, m empfehlen Anzug, m passen passend Sommer, m Sonne, f Sonntag, m Abendessen, n liefern unterstützen
suppose supreme sure surface surprise sweet swim
annehmen höchster,-e,-es sicher Oberfläche, f Ueberraschung, f süss schwimmen
table take talk tall task taste (noun) taste (verb) taxes tea teach teacher tear (verb) tears technique telephone television tell temperature ten tension term test than thank thank you that that (which) the the( plural) theater their then there therefore these they thick
Tisch, f nehmen reden gross Aufgabe, f Geschmack, m abschmecken Steuern, pl Tee, m lehren Lehrer, m, Lehrerin, f reissen Tränen, pl Technik, f Telefon, n Fernsehen, n erzählen Temperatur, f zehn Spannung, f Semester, n testen als danken danke das welcher,-e,-es der, die, das die Theater, n ihre dann dort deswegen diese sie dick
thin thing think thirst thirteen thirty this this morning though thought thousand thread three throat through throw thumb thunder Thursday thus ticket tie tiger till time times (many) tiny tire tired title to to you today toe together toilet tomato tomorrow tone tongs tongue too too much tooth toothbrush tortoise total
dünn Sache, f, Ding, n denken Durst, m dreizehn dreissig dieser,-e,-es heute morgen obwohl Gedanke, m tausend Faden, m drei Hals, m durch werfen Daumen, m Donner, m Donnerstag, m so, darum Fahrkarte, f Kravatte, f Tiger, m bis Zeit, f mal winzig Reifen, m müde Titel, m zu dir heute Zehe, f zusammen Toilette, f Tomate, f morgen Ton, m,Klang, m Zange, f Zunge, f auch zu viel Zahn, m Zahnbürste, f Schildkröte, f total
touch tower town trade traffic train translate travel (verb) treatment tree trip trouble trousers truck true, trust truth try Tuesday turn twelve twenty twice two ugly umbrella uncle under underground understand unique universe university unless until unusual up up to now us use vacuum cleaner valley value various vast veal vegetable
berühren Turm, m Stadt, f Handel, m Verkehr, m Zug, m übersetzen reisen Behandlung, f Baum, m Reise, f Schwierigkeiten Hose, f Lastwagen, m wahr Vertrauen, n, Trust, m Wahrheit, f versuchen Dienstag, m Kurve, f, Reihe, f zwölf zwanzig zwei mal zwei hässlich Schirm, m Onkel, m unter U-Bahn verstehen einmalig Weltall, n Universität, f falls nicht bis unüblich auf, nach oben bis jetzt uns gebrauchen Staubsauger, m Tal, n Wert, m verschieden weit, ausgedehnt Kalbfleisch, n Gemüse, n
very victory view village visit voice volume vote wage wagon wait waiter walk (go) wall want war warm wash watch (noun) watch (verb) water way we weapons wear (clothes) weather Wednesday week weight welcome welfare well west wet what wheel when where whether which while white who whole whom whose why
sehr Sieg, m Sicht, f , Ansicht, f Dorf, n besuchen Stimme, f Lautstärke, f wählen, abstimmen Lohn, m Lastwagen, m warten Kellner, m gehen Mauer, f wollen Krieg, m warm waschen Uhr, f betrachten Wasser, n Weg, m wir Waffen, pl tragen Wetter, n Mittwoch, m Woche, f Gewicht, n willkommen Fürsorge, f gut Westen nass was Rad, n wann wo ob welcher,-e,-es während weiß wer, welcher ganz welchen,-e,-es wessen warum
wide wife wild win wind window wine winter wish (verb) with with that within without woman wonder (verb) wonderful wood wool word work (noun) work (verb) worker world worse worthless write wrong yard year yellow yellow yes yesterday yet you you (plural) you(singular) young your (plural) your (singular) youth zero
weit Ehefrau, f wild gewinnen Wind, m Fenster, n Wein, m Winter, m wünschen mit damit darin ohne Frau, f sich fragen wunderbar Holz, n Wolle, f Wort, n Arbeit, f arbeiten Arbeiter Welt, f schlimmer wertlos schreiben falsch Hof, m,Yard, m Jahr, n gelb gelb ja gestern noch dich, dir ihr du, Sie jung euer, Ihr dein, Ihr Jugend, f null
Basic phrases « Previous page
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Phrases – main page Emergencies
Here are some basic German phrases which you can use in everyday conversation, as well as some common words you will see on signs.
ja
yes
nein
no
vielleicht
maybe
bitte
please
danke
thanks
danke schön thanks very much vielen Dank thanks very much
The following are some polite ways you can reply to someone who thanks you: bitte schön
you're welcome
gern geschehen
you're welcome
keine Ursache
don’t mention it
nicht der Rede wert not at all
Hallo und Auf Wiedersehen sagen – Saying hello and goodbye Here are some different ways to greet people: hi
hi (informal)
hallo
hello
guten Morgen good morning (used before noon) guten Tag
good afternoon (used between noon and 6pm)
guten Abend good evening (used after 6pm)
The following expressions, on the other hand, are some different things you can say when saying goodbye: tschüß
bye
machs gut!
take care! (informal)
auf Wiedersehen
goodbye
gute Nacht
goodnight
bis dann!
see you!
bis gleich!
see you soon!
bis bald!
see you soon!
bis später!
see you later!
einen schönen Tag noch! have a nice day!
schönes Wochenende!
have a good weekend!
Jemanden auf sich aufmerksam machen und sich entschuldigen – Getting someone's attention and apologising entschuldigen Sie bitte
excuse me (can be used to get someone’s attention, to get past someone, or to apologise)
Entschuldigung
sorry
If someone apologises to you, you can reply using one of the following expressions: kein Problem
no problem
das macht nichts or macht nichts
that's OK
machen Sie sich keine Sorgen
don't worry about it
Sound is available for all the German phrases on this page — simply click on any phrase to hear it.
Sich verständlich machen – Making yourself understood sprechen Sie Deutsch?
do you speak German?
ich spreche kein Deutsch
I don't speak German
mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut
my German isn't very good
ich spreche nur ein kleines bisschen Deutsch I only speak very little German ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch
I speak a little German
können Sie bitte etwas langsamer sprechen? could you please speak more slowly?
können Sie das bitte aufschreiben?
could you please write it down?
könnten Sie das bitte wiederholen?
could you please repeat that?
ich verstehe
I understand
ich verstehe nicht
I don't understand
Andere einfache Ausdrücke – Other basic phrases ich weiß
I know
ich weiß nicht
I don't know
entschuldigen Sie bitte, wo ist die Toilette? excuse me, where's the toilet?
Schilder, die man häufig sieht – Things you might see Eingang
Entrance
Ausgang
Exit
Notausgang
Emergency exit
Drücken
Push
Ziehen
Pull
Toiletten
Toilets
WC
WC
Herren
Gentlemen
Damen
Ladies
Frei
Vacant
Besetzt
Engaged
Außer Betrieb
Out of order
Rauchen verboten No smoking Privat
Private
Kein Zutritt
No entry
Making friends « Previous page
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General conversation
Family and relationships
wie heisst du?
what's your name?
ich heisse ...
my name's ...
ich bin ...
I'm ...
dies ist ...
this is ...
schön, dich kennenzulernen
nice to meet you
freut mich sehr, dich kennenzulernen pleased to meet you
wie alt bist du?
how old are you?
ich bin ... (Jahre alt)
I'm ... (years old)
22
22
wann hast du Geburtstag?
when is your birthday?
am ...
it's ...
16 May
16. Mai
woher kommst du?
where are you from?
wo wohnst du?
where do you live?
ich wohne in ...
I live in ...
Berlin
Berlin
ich komme ursprünglich aus ..., aber jetzt lebe ich in ...
I'm originally from ... but now live in ...
ich bin in ... geboren, aber in ... aufgewachsen
I was born in ... but grew up in ...
Family and relationships « Previous page
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Making friends
Times and dates
hast du Geschwister?
do you have any brothers or sisters?
ja, ich habe ... Brüder und ... Schwestern
yes, I have ... brothers and ... sisters
nein, ich bin Einzelkind
no, I'm an only child
hast du einen Freund?
do you have a boyfriend?
hast du eine Freundin?
do you have a girlfriend?
bist du verheiratet?
are you married?
bist du Single?
are you single?
bist du mit jemandem zusammen?
are you seeing anyone?
ich bin ...
I'm ...
Single
single
verlobt
engaged
verheiratet
married
geschieden
divorced
verwitwet / Witwe
a widow
verwitwet / Witwer
a widower
ich bin mit jemandem zusammen
I'm seeing someone
ich lebe getrennt
I'm separated
hast du Kinder?
do you have any children?
yes, I've got ...
ja, ich habe ...
einen Jungen und ein Mädchen a boy and a girl ein kleines Baby
a young baby
drei Kinder
three kids
ich habe keine Kinder
I don't have any children
