There is nothing wrong with making mistakes – the point is to learn from them when you make them so you can avoid making them again and come yet one step closer to proficiency. Two of the common errors that beginners typically make are: first, those garbled sentences that you can avoid only by learning whole new structures and making sure you remember the right words and grammar. The second is the near misses: those that you can quickly fix and avoid in the future because what you are saying is so almost correct. Here are some tips to prevent making some of the most frequent errors made by beginning learners of German.

1. Use das da or das hier

German grammar endings can be difficult to use. Imagine you’re enjoying a wonderful afternoon Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake) session with your friend and you want to compliment her awesome Streuselkuchen (heavenly crumble cake).
You want to say ‘this is delicious!’, but how the heck do you say “this” again? It is, diese? dieses? dies? or dieser? What is even the gender of a streuselkuchen?

Spare yourself all the stress and sound super German by simply using the two expressions das da and das hier, which means “this thing here” and “that thing over there” respectively. They’re pretty independent of gender and will work for any singular word.

2. Don’t use “in” when saying a date in German

There are two ways of saying that something happened in a certain year, and neither of them contains the word ‘in’. You can either use the expression im Jahr (in the year of), or you can say the year, i.e. just the number.

Here’s how it looks:
English: I was born in 1985
German: Ich bin 1985 geboren

3. When talking about languages, use ‘kann’

Instead of saying that you can “speak” any language, you can tell a German simply that you ‘can’ language! For example, if you speak German, French, Turkish, Spanish and Italian, this is how you’d tell your German friends: Ich kann Deutsch, Französisch, Türkisch, Spanisch und Italienisch (I can speak German, French, Turkish, Spanish and Italian). This is the one time you’re allowed to forget the actual verb at the end!

This is just another way to be more efficient with your German language skills.

4. Don’t Say Ich bin heiß or Ich bin kalt

In Germany, the temperatures can get high in the summer and low in the winter, so it’s handy to know how to express your feelings about the temperature.

While heiß (hot), warm (warm) and kalt (cold) are the correct words to use for “hot” and “cold”, using them with ich bin will mean you’re telling people that you’re a hot or cold person. When you’re talking about how you’re feeling in the moment, simply replace the words ich bin with mir ist:

Mir ist heiß = I am feeling hot
Mir ist warm = I am feeling warm
Mir ist kalt = I am feeling cold

5. Watch out for the time

Germans say the time in two different ways. In schedules and formal environments, you will often hear the 24-hour clock times said out loud, as in Der Zug geht um 19 Uhr 45. (The train is leaving at nineteen hundred hours and forty-five). Once you get used to this, it’s a great way to avoid misunderstandings.

The other way of telling the time involves the words viertel (quarter) and halb (half) just like in English, but beware, when Germans say a time as halb, they actually mean one hour earlier than English speakers. This is because Germans think of half TO the hour, or the hour being half full.

So, remember: Half fünf is actually half past four.

6. Know Your Freund-ship

In English, you can simply call a friend a friend. But in German, watch out because the words Freund and Freundin can mean either a platonic friendship or a romantic relationship.

It’s common to use mein/meine (my) with the word Freund/Freundin. Be aware that this is ambiguous. It can mean a friend but often Germans will assume you are talking about a boyfriend or girlfriend. If you’re trying to impress a potential date when you drop a cool line about mein Freund (my boyfriend), things may not work out the way you liked.

So, how do you clear up your relationship status? Here are few tips:

When you want to say “my friend” as in “my buddy”, use the expressions ein Freund von mir (a friend of mine – male) and eine Freundin von mir (a friend of mine – female).
If it’s one of your besties, you can also say mein bester Freund (my best friend – male) or meine beste Freundin (my best friend – female).
The third way to make it clear that a friendship is platonic is to name that friend when you’re talking about them, for example, meine Freundin Daniela.

Here are some examples to help you clear it up:

Am Samstag gehe ich mit meiner Freundin ins Kino – On Saturday, I’m going to the cinema with my girlfriend. = LOVE RELATIONSHIP
Mein Freund Oliver und ich trinken heute Abend ein Bier zusammen – My friend Oliver and I are having a beer together tonight. = PLATONIC
Meine Freundin kommt auch zum Essen – My girlfriend is coming for the meal, too. = LOVE RELATIONSHIP…but we can’t be 100% sure.
Ich liebe meine Freundin. I love my girlfriend. = LOVE RELATIONSHIP…and we’re pretty sure 💋

Of course, Germany is a traditional country and many people assume your relationship preference is heterosexual. A female referring to her girlfriend as meine Freundin or a male referring to his boyfriend as mein Freund may find they need to make it clear that this IS a love relationship. As Pat Benatar said…love is a battlefield.

7. Don’t overuse the future tense

The German language does have a future tense which is not very difficult to use. However, in practice, most German speakers don’t actually use a future tense at all. When speaking the German language, I often hear learners tell me things like Ich werde am Wochenende nach Koblenz fahren (I will go to Koblenz at the weekend). It not incorrect German, but it feels complicated and doesn’t sound right..

The signal am Wochenende (at the weekend) tells your conversation partner that you’re referring to the future, so most native speakers will simply say Ich fahre am Wochenende nach Koblenz to express the same thing.

Language evolves to make communication as efficient as possible, so on this occasion, you can stick with using the present tense even when you’re talking about the future.

8. Put the verb in second position

The English language has a nice and firm sentence structure: Subject-verb-object. In German, the first sentences you learn are simple. They follow that same structure, so you may assume that the rule is the same.

But in fact, our word order is all about one big star diva called the verb. Your sentence doesn’t revolve around the order of those three parts together, but much more around where the verb stands.

And where is that verb? In simple statement sentences in the German language, the verb will stand in position two. That means once you add in anything else BEFORE the sentence kicks off, you need to put the verb before the subject.

Let’s have an example to bring light into this system:
Standard sentence structure in English and German:

My sister drives an Audi.
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

Meine Schwester fährt einen Audi.
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

Let’s add something else in position 1, such as a time signal:

Today my sister drives an Audi.
TIME SIGNAL SUBJECT VERB OBJECT

Heute fährt meine Schwester einen Audi.
TIME SIGNAL VERB SUBJECT OBJECT

In the German sentence, the verb stayed firmly in the second position. In the English sentence, the verb stayed behind the subject.
When learning German, it helps to focus on how the word order centres around the verb and not the order of the different parts. Once you figure that out and focus on putting the verb in the second position, your simple sentences will always sound right.

9. Don’t forget your separables

In German, many of the verbs take a range of prefixes. Some examples of these are auf-, ab-, um-, zu- or hin-. Every time a prefix is added to a verb, the meaning of the verb is altered.

For example, the word sehen means “to see” but the word aussehen means “to look”, referring to its appearance. They’re completely different words and show up separately in the dictionary.

The trick is to know that the prefix aus- separates from the stem sehen when you insert the verb in a sentence and it will sit at the end of the sentence.

Many learners know this in theory, but they often forget all about the prefix when they put this knowledge into practice. So this leads to sentences like Wow, diese Pizza sieht lecker! meaning “wow, this pizza sees deliciously!”. What the speaker meant to use was the word aussehen, but forgot the second half of the separable word and caused a misunderstanding. Said correctly, it should be, Wow, die Pizza sieht lecker aus. Guten Appetit!

10. Use Sie with strangers

Germans take their formality seriously. The English word “you” can be translated in several ways so it’s important to choose the correct one.

Use du when you are talking to friends, children, or animals.
Use Sie when you are talking to adult strangers, anyone in a formal or shop environment, and on the phone.
Use ihr when you are talking to a group of friends.

If you are worried about sounding too formal with Sie, don’t worry. Most Germans will happily guide you along in the conversation,and they may “offer the du” by saying wir können du sagen or du kannst du zu mir sagen? (we can use du, you can call me du?).

11. Choose the right past tense verb

In German, the most common way of speaking about the past is to use the Perfekt, a tense that is very similar to the past perfect in English. For example, you say Ich habe gegessen for “I have eaten”. The trick with the German past tense is to know when to use the verb sein and when to use the verb haben (to have).

In English, you almost always say “I have” in these tenses: I have eaten, I have jumped, I have studied. But in German, the verb sein (to be) is sometimes used and you’ll need to learn when to use each one. Luckily, there’s a pretty straightforward rule. In the German Perfekt, you use a form of sein for verbs of motion or transition.

For example:

gehen (to walk, to go)
laufen (to run)
springen (to jump)
fahren (to drive, to go)
sinken (to sink)
werden (to become)
sterben (to die – yep, death is a transition)

Actually, the exact German equivalent to “hi” is, well, “hi”. It’s not really German, as you might assume, but Germans adopted it and it’s quite usual among younger and less conservative people.

From “hallo” to “na”, learn the different ways to say “hello” in the German language. You’ll fit right in regardless of where you are in the country.

1. Hallo – “Hello”

This is the simplest way to say “hello” in German. It’s a friendly, all-purpose greeting that can be used in pretty much any situation, formal or informal.

2. Guten Tag – “Good day”

Guten Tag is the German “hello” that’s best-known to English speakers. It’s slightly formal, but only slightly.

Guten means “good” (it’s the masculine accusative form of gut). Easy! Now just add the right word for the time of day:

• Before midday: say guten Morgen (good morning)
• Midday until approximately 6pm: say guten Tag (good day)
• 6pm until bedtime: say guten Abend (good evening)

A common question: why is it guten Tag and not gut Tag? I.e., why is it guten (the accusative form of the adjective) and not gut (the nominative)?

First of all, note that Morgen, Tag, and Abend are all masculine nouns, so we know that gut must be masculine in all three phrases. But what case are the nouns?

Think about it like this. When you say “good day” to somebody, what are you actually saying? Probably something like “I wish you a good day”. In German that’s ich wünsche dir einen guten Tag.

In that sentence the word Tag is the direct object of the verb wünsche, so it (and any associated adjectives) must be accusative. Therefore we must use the masculine accusative form of gut, i.e. guten. Simple!

3. Alles klar – “All clear”

If you live or travel in Germany, you’ll hear people saying alles klar all the time. It means “everything (is) clear!”.

It can be used as a question (alles klar?) a statement, or merely to fill empty space. What we care about here is that it’s also used as a greeting, especially by young people.

Greeting someone with “alles klar?” is a lot like greeting someone with “what’s up?” in English. The best way to answer alles klar? is with a simple ja, meaning “yes”. You could also reply with “Ja, alles klar, danke, meaning “Yes, everything is good thanks.

4. Was ist los? – “What’s up?”

Was ist los? is hard to translate directly.

The adjective los roughly means “separate” or “free”. Asking someone was ist los? is like saying “what’s up?” or “what’s going on?”, very similar to greeting someone with alles klar?

The confusing thing is that was ist los? can also mean “what’s the matter?”, i.e. it implies that you perceive that something is strange or wrong.

However, from the context and the tone of voice it’s usually obvious which meaning of was ist los? is being used.

It’s similar to how some English speakers, especially Brits, use “are you alright?” (or just “alright?”) as a greeting. Depending on the context, “are you alright?” may be a genuine question and a sign of concern. But when used as a greeting, it probably doesn’t require a thought-out answer.

5. Wie geht es dir? – “How’s it going?”

“How does it go to you?” is the literal translation of this essential German phrase. You can guess at a better translation: this is a common German way of saying “how’s it going?”

When you use dir, it’s informal. In a more formal situation, you should probably say wie geht es Ihnen?

When informally addressing a group, say Wie geht es euch?

The phrase is often shortened to wie geht’s? The easiest response is a simple gut, danke – “good, thanks”.

6. Grüß Gott! – “God bless you”

Within and between the German-speaking countries, there’s a lot of linguistic and cultural diversity.

Not every greeting is in equal use across the entire Germany. So for the next few items on this list, we’ll look at some greetings that are unique to certain areas.

Grüß Gott is an expression that’s mainly used in Bavaria (south-eastern Germany) and Austria. Literally, it means something like “greetings (from) God”. A better, less literal translation is “God bless you”. It’s a very formal way of saying hello.

Bavarians also use Grüß dich!, which essentially means “greetings to you!”. This is less formal, but it tends to be used more by the older generation than the younger.

7. Servus – “At your service”

Servus is Latin for “servant”, and its use as a greeting comes from a Latin phrase meaning “at your service”.

Like Grüß Gott, servus is mainly used in Bavaria and Austria. It can also be used to say goodbye.

8. Moin! – “Hi!”

Let’s move to the other end of the German map. Moin is a common greeting in northern Germany, especially in and around Hamburg. You also sometimes hear people doubling it up: moin moin!

The origins of the word “moin” are uncertain. Many think that it comes from a regional pronunciation of Morgen (“morning”), but it’s possible that it also comes from a Low German word meaning “good”.

Whatever the case, you can use moin at all times of day. The people of Schleswig-Holstein will love you for it.

9. Na – “Hi, how are you? Fine thanks, how are you?”

Na is another regional German greeting. It’s common in the north, and people from Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland tend to struggle with it.

There’s no easy way to translate na into English. It’s best explained by example: when two (northern) Germans meet, one might say “na”, to which the other replies “na” – and then the conversation begins. It’s like “hey”, “how are you?”, and “fine, thanks” all rolled into one versatile syllable. Germans are famous for their efficiency, after all.

10. Hier ist… – “It’s…”

This one might not technically count as a greeting, but it’s still worth including, because you’re likely to say it when meeting someone… but only if you’re not meeting face-to-face.

Imagine you’re calling, texting, emailing, or otherwise communicating at a distance with someone who already knows you. If they don’t recognize your voice/number/address, what do you say to let them know who it is?

In English you’d say “it’s Benny”, but you can’t translate this directly into German (i.e. I can’t say es ist Benny). Instead you’d have to say hier ist Benny – “here is Benny.”

This is a subtle detail, but it’s absolutely something you should know!

11. Tschüss – “Goodbye”

Now let’s look at some ways to say “goodbye” in German. Probably the most common way to do this is to say Tschüss – “bye”!

Don’t be intimidated by the spelling. The cluster of consonants “tsch” is pronounced just like a “ch” in English.

12. Ciao – “Bye”

Ciao is Italian in origin, but it’s common in Germany, as it is in many other parts of Europe!

13. Auf Wiedersehen – “See you again”

Wieder means “again” and sehen means “to see”. So auf wiedersehen essentially means “when we see each other again!”

While this is a well-known phrase that every German will understand, it’s very formal-sounding and a bit old-fashioned.

14. Bis bald – “See you soon”

This literally means “until soon”. So it’s like saying “see you soon!”. It’s a friendly, informal way of saying goodbye.

Quotes can make you laugh, cry, or think. They can help you find that tiny bit of truth that kept evading you. In other words, quotes evoke emotion. And when you have an emotional connection to something, you are more likely to remember it. Besides, it’s a fun way to learn new words!

“Dumme Gedanken hat jeder, aber der Weise verschweigt sie”. – Wilhelm Busch, German humorist

Translation: “Everyone has stupid thoughts, but the sage keeps quiet about them.”

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“Zwei Dinge sind unendlich, das Universum und die menschliche Dummheit, aber bei dem Universum bin ich mir noch nicht ganz sicher.” – Albert Einstein, German scientist

Translation: “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. Although I’m not yet sure about the universe.”

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“Kein Mensch ist so beschäftigt, daß er nicht die Zeit hat, überall zu erzählen, wie beschäftigt er ist.” – Robert Lembke, German television presenter

Translation: “No one is so busy that he does not have time to tell everyone how busy he is.”

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“Die Eintagsfliege wird bereits zwölf Stunden nach ihrer Geburt von ihrer Midlife-Crisis erwischt. Das muss man sich mal klarmachen“ – Loriot, German comic

Translation: “The mayfly [which lives for one day] goes through its midlife crisis after twelve hours! That’s hard to comprehend.”

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“Sei mir gegrüßt, mein Sauerkraut, holdselig sind deine Gerüche.“ – Heinrich Heine, German poet and essayist

Translation: “Greetings my sauerkraut, sweet are your smells.”

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”Wir denken selten an das, was wir haben, aber immer an das, was uns fehlt.” – Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher

Translation: “We rarely think of what we have but always what we lack.”

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“Wenn die Menschen nur über das sprächen, was sie begreifen, dann würde es sehr still auf der Welt sein.” – Albert Einstein, German scientist

Translation: “If people only talked about things they understand, then it would be very quiet in the world.”

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“Man reist nicht, um anzukommen, sondern um zu reisen.“ – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and statesman

Translation: “You do not travel to arrive, but to travel.”

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“Wenn ein Mann sofort macht, was eine Frau will, bekommt er nicht mehr Liebe, sondern mehr Aufträge.” – Stefan Schwarz, German actor

Translation: “When a man immediately does what a woman wants, he doesn’t receive love, but more orders.”

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“Der Vorteil der Klugen besteht darin, dass sie sich dumm stellen können. Das Gegenteil ist schon schwieriger.” – Kurt Tucholsky, German writer

Translation: “The advantage of the wise is that they can be stupid. The opposite is more of a challenge.”

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“Fast jede Frau wäre gern treu. Schwierig ist es bloß, den Mann zu finden, dem man treu sein kann.” – Marlene Dietrich, German actress

Translation: “Almost every woman would like to be faithful. It is difficult to find the man to whom you can be.”

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“Es ist ein Brauch von Alters her, wer Sorgen hat, hat auch Likör.” – Wilhelm Busch, German humorist

Translation: “It is a tradition for the elderly: whoever has worries also has liqueur.”

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“Wussten Sie schon, dass der Walfisch das kleinste lebende Säugetier sein könnte, wenn er nur nicht so groß wäre?” – Loriot

Translation: “Did you know that the whale could be the smallest living mammal if it were not so big?”

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“Glück entsteht oft durch Aufmerksamkeit in kleinen Dingen, Unglück oft durch Vernachlässigung kleiner Dinge.” – Wilhelm Busch, German humorist

Translation: “Happiness often comes from attention to small things, misfortune often from neglecting little things.”

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”Wenn ich mein Leben noch einmal leben könnte, würde ich die gleichen Fehler machen. Aber ein bisschen früher, damit ich mehr davon habe.” – Marlene Dietrich, German actress

Translation: “If I could live my life again I’d make exactly the same mistakes. Just a little earlier, so I have more of them.”

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”Glücklich allein ist die Seele, die liebt.“ – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and statesman

Translation: “Happy alone is the soul that loves.”

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”Nicht alles, was zählt, ist zählbar, und nicht alles, was zählbar ist, zählt.” – Albert Einstein, German scientist

Translation: “Not everything that counts is countable, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

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”Sage nicht alles, was du weißt, aber wisse alles, was du sagst.” – Matthias Claudius, German poet and journalist

Translation: “Don’t say everything you know; but know everything you say.”

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”Je älter ich werde, desto intensiver lebe ich und desto mehr registriere ich, was ich erreicht habe.” – Steffi Graf, German tennis player

Translation: “The older I get, the more intensely I live, and the more I realize what I have achieved.”

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”Schön ist eigentlich alles, was man mit Liebe betrachtet.” – Christian Morgenstern, German author and poet

Translation: “Beautiful is everything one looks at with love.”

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”Tatsachen gibt es nicht, nur Interpretationen.“ – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

Translation: “There are no facts, only interpretations.”

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“Aus den Steinen, die Dir in den Weg gelegt werden, kannst du etwas Schönes bauen.” – Erich Kästner, German poet

Translation: “From the stones that block your way, you can build something beautiful.”

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”Arbeit ist schwer, ist oft genug ein freudloses und mühseliges Stochern; aber nicht arbeiten – das ist die Hölle.“ – Thomas Mann, German novelist and social critic

Translation: “Having a job is hard, and is often enough a joyless and laborious game; but to not work – that’s hell.”

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“In uns selbst liegen die Sterne unseres Glücks.” – Heinrich Heine, German poet and essayist

Translation: “Within ourselves lie the stars of our happiness.”

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”Nicht in die ferne Zeit verliere dich! Den Augenblick ergreife. Nur er ist dein.“ – Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, German writer

Translation: “Don’t lose yourself in distant times! Seize the moment. Only that is yours.”

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“Man muss das Unmögliche versuchen, um das Mögliche zu erreichen.” – Hermann Hesse, German writer

Translation: “You have to try the impossible to achieve the possible.”

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“Für das Können gibt es nur einen Beweis: das Tun.“ – Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Austrian writer

Translation: “There is only one proof of skill: doing.”

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“Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker.“ –Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

Translation: “What does not kill me makes me stronger.”

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”Die Gewohnheit ist ein Seil. Wir weben jeden Tag einen Faden, und schließlich können wir es nicht mehr zerreißen.” – Thomas Mann, German novelist and social critic

Translation: “A habit is a rope. Weave a thread into it every day and eventually it becomes unbreakable.”