Versatile, entertaining German is spoken throughout Germany, Austria, and most of Switzerland. In addition, German rivals English as the handiest second language in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe, and Turkey.
German is kind of a “Lego language.” Be on the lookout for fun combination words. A glove is a “hand shoe” (Handschuh), a peninsula is a “half island” (Halbinsel), and a skunk is a stinky animal (Stinktier). It follows that a Dummkopf (dumb head) is... um... uh...
German pronunciation differs from English in some key ways:
CH sounds like the guttural CH in Scottish loch.
G usually sounds like G in go (rarely like G in giant).
J sounds like Y in yes.
K is never silent.
S can sound like S in sun or Z in zoo.
SCH sounds like SH in shine.
TH sounds like T in top.
V usually sounds like F in fun.
W sounds like V in volt.
Z sounds like TS in hits.
AU sounds like OW in cow.
ÄU and EU sound like OY in joy.
EI and AI sound like I in light.
IE sounds like EE in seed.
German has a few unusual signs and sounds. The letter ß is not a letter B at all—it’s interchangeable with “ss.” Some of the German vowels are double-dotted with an umlaut. The ä usually has a sound like E in “get.” The ö has a sound uncommon in English. To make the ö sound, round your lips to say “o,” but say “ee.” To say ü, pucker your lips to make an “oo” sound, but say “ee.” The German ch has a clearing-your-throat sound. Say Achtung!
You can communicate a lot with only a few key German phrases. For example, the versatile es gibt and geht das have only two syllables apiece, but they can be useful in many situations. Here’s how:
Es gibt (which means “there is” and is pronounced ehs gibt) can be used with any noun to create a statement of fact. If you don’t know how to say “It’s raining,” just say Es gibt Regen (There is rain). And if you reverse the words, it becomes an all-purpose question: Gibt es Toilette? (Is there a toilet?)
Geht das? (pronounced gayt dahs) literally means “Does this go?”—basically “Is this OK?” It’s a handy phrase when combined with a gesture. When showing your sightseeing pass to a museum ticket-taker, it means “Is this ticket valid at your museum?” When pointing to your camera at a market stall, it means “May I please take a picture?” The answer (you hope) will be Das geht. The globally understood “OK?” works in many of the same situations.
Here’s a quick guide to the phonetics in this book:
| ah | like A in father |
| ar | like AR in far |
| ay | like AY in play |
| ee | like EE in seed |
| eh | like E in get |
| ehr | sounds like “air” |
| ew | pucker your lips and say “ee” |
| g | like G in go |
| kh | like the guttural CH in Achtung |
| i | like I in hit |
| ī | like I in light |
| oh | like O in note |
| oo | like OO in moon |
| ow | like OW in cow |
| oy | like OY in toy |
| s | like S in sun |
| ur | like UR in purr |
| ts | like TS in hits; it’s a small explosive sound. |
| zh | like S in treasure |
In German, the verb is sometimes at the end of the sentence; for instance, “I’d like to reserve a room” in German is Ich möchte ein Zimmer reservieren (literally “I’d like a room to reserve”). Note that when you’re using the German phrases in this book, some fill-in-the-blank choices will come before the verb at the end. If you’re curious about German sentence structure, SEE HERE.
Germans capitalize all nouns. Each noun has a gender, which determines which “the” you’ll use: der, die, das, den, dem, or des. This is determined by the grammatical gender of the word, and how it’s being used in the sentence. But no traveler is expected to remember which is which. It’s OK to just grab whichever “the” comes to mind. In the interest of simplicity, we’ve occasionally left out the articles. And for brevity, we often drop the all-important “please” from the phrases. Please use “please” (bitte, pronounced bit-teh) liberally.
Spoken German varies tremendously by region, with dialects that can differ noticeably within even a small area. Lilting Swiss German is particularly distinctive—and nearly unintelligible to many northern Germans. Swiss Germans speak it around the home, but in schools and at work they speak and write in the standard German used in Germany and Austria (called “High German,” or Hochdeutsch). (For more on Swiss German, SEE HERE.) Throughout this book, I’ve noted if a particular term or phrase is used predominantly or exclusively in a particular region: (Aus.) for Austria, (Switz.) for Switzerland, and (Bav.) for Bavaria—which, while part of Germany, has a dialect all its own.
It’s fun to keep an eye out for the various diminutives that German speakers tack on to the end of nouns to make things smaller and/or cuter. Germans usually use chen or lein: Häuschen means small house, Hündchen is a little dog, Fraülein is a young woman. The Swiss use li: Brötli to the Swiss is a “little bread”—a roll. Austrians tend to add just l (a German girl is a Mädchen, but in Austria she’s a Mädl).
Greetings, however, vary the most across regions. Most Germans stick with Guten Tag (good day, goo-tehn tahg). The multilingual Swiss say hi with a cheery Grüetzi (grit-see), thank you by saying Merci (mer-see), and bid goodbye with Ciao. And Austrians and Bavarians greet one another with Grüss Gott (grews goht), which means “May God greet you.”