German Language Day: Saturday 14th September

German is a wonderful language! Sure some words can be a bit long and it seems like there’s a lot of the letter S, but it’s direct and does what it says on the tin. A lot of it also sounds quite English, which is probably due to the fact that both English and German come from a bigger language family called the ‘Indo-European’ languages. But we won’t bore you with that here!

This Saturday is German Language Day, so whether you’re headed to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, or a handful of other countries, it might be useful to pick up a few key words. We’ve listed a few of our favourites for your perusal.

1. The Basics

Hallo	hah-low	hello
Danke	dan-kuh	thank you
Bitte	bit-uh	please, you're welcome, or excuse me
Bier	bee-ur	beer

2. Places

Toilette	toy-uh-let-uh	toilet
Hotel	ho-tel	hotel (fairly self-explanatory, that one)
Krankenhaus	kran-ken-house	hospital (this one literally translates to 'sick-house')
Bushaltestelle	boos-hal-teh-shtel-uh	bus stop (three words in one: 'bus-stop-place')
Zentrum	zent-room	centre (look for this on the end of words - ie. stadtzentrum means 'city centre')

3. Items

Handy	hen-dy	mobile phone
Tasche	tash-uh	bag
Auto	ow-toe	car (think autobahn, meaning 'car-way')
Buch	boo-kh	book (that 'kh' is a sort of hiss from the back of the throat)
Schuh	schoo	shoe (shock horror)

4. Literal Translations which are Really Quite Good

So there you go! Regardless of whether you’re actually going anywhere that German is the common tongue, it can’t help to have a few words up your sleeve.

9th September 2024

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German Language Day: Saturday 14th September

1. The Basics

2. Places

3. Items

4. Literal Translations which are Really Quite Good