Basic Phrases
Note: 
means that audio is not available for that word or phrase.
| Hello |  | Hallo |
| Goodbye | | Auf wiedersehen (formal) | | Tschüß (informal) |
| Yes | | Ja |
| No | | Nein |
| How are you? | | Wie geht es Ihnen? (formal) |
| Wie geht's (Dir)? (informal) | |
| Good | | Gut |
| Very good | | Sehr gut |
| Good thanks, and you? | | Danke gut, und Ihnen? (formal) |
| Danke gut, und Dir? (informal) | |
| Excellent | | Ausgezeichnet |
| Very good, thanks. | | Sehr gut, danke. |
| Thank you | | Danke |
| Thank you very much. | | Danke schön |
| - or - | | Vielen dank. |
| Please | | Bitte |
| You're welcome | | Bitte |
| ('Please' and 'You're welcome' both use the same word in German.) | ||
| Good morning | | Guten Morgen |
| Good day | | Guten Tag |
| Good evening | | Guten Abend |
| Good night | | Gute Nacht |
| See you later. | | Bis später. |
| See you tomorrow. | | Bis Morgen. |
| Cheers! (toast) | | Prost! |
| Sorry! | | Entschuldigung! |
| May I? | | Darf ich? |
| Open |  | Offen |
| (but Germans often just say 'sorry!') | ||
| Closed | | Geschlossen |
| Pull | | Ziehen |
| small | | klein |
| Push | | Drücken |
| big | | groß |
| Do you speak English? | | Sprechen Sie English? |
| A little. | | Ein bisschen. |
| I don't speak German. | | Ich spreche kein Deutsch. |
| I only speak a little German. | | Ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch. |
| I understood. | | Ich habe verstanden. |
| I don't understand. | | Das habe ich nicht verstanden. |
| Could you please say that again? | | Können Sie das bitte wiederholen? |
| Could you please speak more slowly? | | Können Sie bitte langsamer sprechen? |
| Could you please write that down? | | Können Sie das bitte aufschreiben? |
| My bag was stolen! | | Meine Tasche wurde gestohlen!. |
| My wallet was stolen! | | Mein Geldbeutel wurde gestohlen!. |
| My passport was stolen! | | Mein Pass wurde gestohlen!. |
| I need a doctor! | | Ich brauche einen Arzt! |
| Call the police! | | Rufen Sie die Polizei! |
German Phrases
If you need to Learn German Fast, we recommend the German Courses from Languagetrainers. Cities avialable are:
Schau ins Land is a monthly audio and print magazine on a variety of topics delivered on CDs along with accompanying booklets. The format is a little much for beginners, but once you're able to understand some of the language, this is probably one of the best methods of learning, next to having willing native speakers around! In addition to the magazine stories, there is music with the lyrics in the booklets, and a vocabulary section that covers the vocabulary that is used in the articles to better help you understand what you are hearing and reading. Subscribe
- highly recommended
Read Mark Twain's wonderfully sarcastic essay on The Awful German Language.
Deutche Welle has all sorts of German content, but most importantly, they have a great Learning German language section.
Join a German Language Meetup in your town.
Download the full Basic Phrases mp3 Audio (3.5 MB)
Listen to the audio and follow along in the printable booklet.
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Need a nice gift for someone travelling soon?
Buy German audio CD or Western Europe mp3 CD
The German was created by Dagmar and me. The content was checked for relevancy by my co-workers and proofread by Dagmar. The audio was all spoken by Dagmar, in the guise of Petra.
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