German phrasebook
Photo: Rex Germanus, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
- For a phrasebook specifically about the German dialects spoken in Switzerland, see Swiss-German phrasebook.
German (Deutsch) is a Germanic language spoken by over 100 million people worldwide. It is the official and main language of Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein. It is also an official language of Switzerland, Luxembourg and Belgium, and a national language in Namibia. German is also spoken by minorities in the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, in the northern Italian province of South Tyrol, and in a small part of southern Denmark.
Standard German (Hochdeutsch, or High German) is also generally spoken by many as a second language in much of Central Europe, with small groups of native speakers as well due to the historical influence of Austria (the former Austro-Hungarian Empire) and Germany over the region. Small isolated communities can be found elsewhere in the world, though their language may be far from standard German and interspersed with loanwords from other languages.
DialectsThere are very strong accentual and dialectic differences in German-speaking countries.
Pronunciation guideGerman pronunciation is relatively straightforward, although spelling is somewhat more involved.
GrammarMany languages in northern Europe belong to the Germanic language family, although German grammar itself retains many conjugations and declensions from proto-Germanic that have since been lost by other language…
Cognates in EnglishDue to their shared Germanic roots and common borrowings from Latin, Greek and French, English speakers will find many German words easy to understand (for example, Glas means "glass"; gut means "good"; kommen means…
Phrase listThe following phrases are for Standard German, and will generally be well understood across the German-speaking world.
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Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "German phrasebook" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Rex Germanus, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons