What’s the hardest part of learning German? For English speakers, it is most probably German word order. It’s one of the many obstacles that need to be overcome for German learners.

It might seem confusing and bizarre at first, but in time it will eventually begin to click. Learn the rules of German word order and practice them so that you can you use the language more confidently.

1. Learn which conjunctions change word order in German and which don’t

There are different kinds of conjunctions that have different effects on the sentence.
The “normal” word order, as we expect it to be, is Subject Verb Object.

Ich werfe den Ball.

Coordinating conjunctions have no effect on word order: und, denn, sondern, aber, and oder.

Ich renne vorwärts und ich werfe den Ball.
Ich kann den Ball nicht gut treten, aber ich werfe den Ball ziemlich gut.
Entweder sagst du mir die Wahrheit, oder ich werfe dir den Ball ins Gesicht!
Ich bin stark, denn ich werfe jeden Tag im Basketball-Training den Ball.

Subordinating conjunctions do something much more confusing—they kick the first verb in the clause to the end of the clause. The most common subordinating conjunctions are: während, bis, als, wenn, da, weil, ob, obwohl, and dass.

Ich kann ihn nicht leiden, weil er so ein egoistischer Idiot ist.

Normally, the word order would be:

Er ist so ein egoistischer Idiot.

But if you use a subordinating conjunction, then the verb gets moved to the end of the clause:

Ich habe auch schon immer gedacht, dass er ein egoistischer Idiot ist.
Obwohl er ein egoistischer Idiot ist, sollten wir nett zu ihm sein.

2. Learn when to hold the verbs until the end

In German, there are many situations where the verb absolutely has to come at the end of the sentence. This is one of the reasons why German is considered to be such a strange and difficult language.

Modal Verbs

In German, the infinitive of the verb is usually easy to spot – almost every verb in the entire language ends in “-en.” (there are some like sammeln– to collect, and segeln– to sail, which are a little different!)

Laufen, gehen, sagen, singen, lieben, führen, usw. (und so weiter…)

Modal verbs are a very common kind of “helping verb,” and in German you’ll see them, in various forms, all of the time.

müssen, können, sollen, möchten

When you use a modal verb, the second verb in the sentence is always in the infinitive and comes at the end of the sentence.

It’s not going to feel natural for you at first to put the infinite at the end of sentence! Just imagine picking it up, juggling it, and putting it down in the right place.

Müssen wir ihm mit seinem blöden Umzug nochmal helfen?

NEVER: Müssen wir helfen mit seinem blöden Umzug?

Relative Clauses

In German, in every relative clause (Nebensatz), the verb comes at the end.

Kommt auch der Idiot, der mich so nervt,  zur Party?
Kommt Magdalena, die letztes Wochenende so witzig war, auch ins Kino?

If there are two verbs in a relative clause, the verb that gets booted to the end of the sentence is always the first verb. That means the “habe” in “habe…. geschlafen” or the “ist” in “ist… gegangen,” or the “muss” in “muss… lernen.” The other verb stays in its normal position. (past participle is the jargon but i can understand you leaving that out!)

Das Geschenk, das ich meinem Vater gekauft habe, ist nicht mehr in meinem Auto!
Ich möchte nur Mitarbeiter in meinem Café haben, die richtig gut Latte Art machen können.

3. When in German invert you the sentence?

These Yoda-esque inversions are another reason why Germans who are bad at English might say things like “Today can we going to the store?” Any time a temporal adverb or prepositional phrase comes at the beginning of the sentence, the verb has to come in the second position.

Morgen gehen wir feiern.
1914 fing der Erste Weltkrieg an.

It’s still correct for you to put adverbs in another part of the sentence:

Wir gehen morgen feiern.

But don’t mess this up! You can even put the object at the beginning of the sentence and invert it to add emphasis on the object.

Seine Umzüge habe ich niemals gemocht – Er hat einfach zu viele Möbel!

Do you see? habe comes before ich in the sentence.

Here are some examples of prepositional phrases at the beginning of the sentence that put the verb at the end:

Gestern hat sie mir etwas unglaublicheerzählt.
Gegenüber von mir sitzen zwei andere Deutsche.

4. Putting adverbs in the right word order in German

The basic rule for a German sentence is: Subject, Verb, Indirect Object (dative), Direct Object

Ich warf ihm den Ball.
Sie gab mir ein Geschenk.

Finally, when you’re putting together a long string of information in a sentence, all of the information should come in in the order Time Manner Place (TMP). That means that adverbs describing when something happened should come first, followed by how adverbs, and finally where adverbs.

Try looking at long German sentences that you find in newspapers or books so that you can get some real-life examples of how to use adverbs correctly.

Ich ging gestern gelangweilt in die Uni.
Toby kam heute morgen ins Büro gelaufen und sagte, dass Tanja heute Kuchen mitgebracht hat. Ich musste mich beeilen, weil ich noch etwas davon kriegen wollte!

Here, the modal verb wollte is booted to the end of the sentence because weil is that kind of conjunction. Dass does the same thing, moving hat to after mitgebracht.

• Time: heute Morgen
• Manner – laufend
• Place- in das Büro (note that here it’s in das Büro and not im Büro because Toby ran in, so it’s a verb with movement and that means that in takes the accusative case)

Remember, even if it seems difficult, that’s just German! Stick with it. Good luck!

Using these words will definitely make you sound like a true German!

1. “Krass”, “Hammer”, “Wahnsinnig” and “Geil”

If you love it, it’s krass. If you hate it, it’s krass. If it makes you roll around on the floor laughing, it’s krass. If it makes your hair stand on end with fear, yes you’ve guessed it, it’s also krass.

The phrase “Das ist der Hammer!” in fact has nothing to do with hammers, but actually implies that something is completely extraordinary.

“Wahnsinnig” has quite a similar meaning. Feeling the adrenaline pump through your body as you plunge down a crazy rollercoaster? “Das ist ja wahnsinnig!” will convey that you think it’s insanely fun or even exhilarating.

Do you think something’s cool, awesome, great or amazing? Don’t stick with your textbook classics of “toll”, “spannend” or “ausgezeichnet” – why not try the less standard “geil” instead?

The adjective “geil” gained superstar status in Germany when “Supergeil”, a promotional music video by supermarket giant Edeka, went viral.

But just a word of warning: be careful as to when you use this word, as in some contexts it can mean “horny” instead.

2. “Quasi”, “sozusagen”, “naja” and “halt”

If you want to avoid umming and ahhing when lost for words, these fillers are your go-to. “Quasi” and “sozusagen” are the equivalent of “so to speak”, and “naja” (“well…”) can be used if you’re a bit hesitant about a statement.

Have you heard British and American teens throwing the word “like” into sentences as if a phrase is utterly incomplete without it? It’s exactly the same here in Germany, where “halt” is sprinkled into phrases like there’s no tomorrow.

So next time you chat to your German friend, try throwing in a few fillers – you might end up with a bizarre sentence like “Naja…es war denn…halt…quasi schrecklich, sozusagen”.

3. “Bescheuert”

While you were probably taught the adjectives “schlecht” and “schrecklich” over and over again until you could say them standing on your head, you probably haven’t heard of the more colloquial “bescheuert”.

Whether something’s rubbish, annoying, or depressing – if it brings you down, it can be described as “bescheuert”.

But when you get to Germany, you’ll hear anyone and everyone uttering the phrase “das ist total bescheuert!” as they dash onto the station platform only to have missed the train by a few seconds.

4. “Na?”

Forget “Wie geht es Ihnen heute?”, “Wie geht’s dir?”, or even “Was geht ab?”. Why trot out all those long phrases when you can stick to the one-syllable word “Na?” to ask how someone is?

You can also use “Na” to ask how something went. When your friend comes back from a date, no lengthy question is required, just a simple “Naaaa?” will get across that you want to know all the details.

But try not to confuse it with the rather more sarcastic “Na und?” (“so what?”).

5. “Alter”

In America you’d say “buddy”, in England you’d say “mate” and in Scotland “pal”. But how do you refer to a male friend very casually in German? “Alter” or “Alta” is the way.

“Alter, was geht ab?” (“Dude, what’s up?”) is often heard among German teens. As you can tell, this kind of slang is very colloquial, so it’s generally only used by younger people.

6. “Quatsch”

“Das ist totaler Quatsch”, you might think when someone shamelessly declares that they are an authority on a particular subject when they clearly don’t know the first thing about it.

If you say that something is “Quatsch”, it means that it’s utter nonsense or complete gibberish.

7. “Bock auf etwas haben”

If you know the expression “Lust haben” (“to want to do something” or “to be up for doing something”), the phrase “Bock haben” means roughly the same thing.

Not really up for the day trip that your German friends are organising? “Ich habe keinen Bock darauf” will convey your lack of enthusiasm.

Completely down for a night out, though? “Ja, ich hab’ Bock drauf” will show that you’re interested.

8. “Auf jeden Fall”

“Bock haben” and “auf jeden Fall” go hand in hand on the enthusiasm scale.

Instead of using “natürlich” (“of course”), a piece of vocab which was probably drummed into you at school, try out the more casual “auf jeden Fall” (“definitely” or “for sure”).

And if you want to be really down with the kids, you can shorten it to a simple ‘auf jeden’.

9. “Jein”

Another way of expressing uncertainty, “jein” is a mashup of, yep you’ve guessed it, “ja” and nein”.

So if you want to express that you’re quite doubtful about something, or you just don’t want to come down really strongly on one side or the other, “jein” is the one to use.

10. “Mach’s gut!” 

Forget the textbook ways of saying goodbye – the casual “Tschüß” and the more formal “Auf Wiedersehen” – by throwing in a “Mach’s gut!” to your friends instead.

Literally translated as “Make it good!”, the phrase is the equivalent of “Have a good one!” in English.

These expressions will have your mouth watering! It’s impossible in one article to discuss all the idioms in German that refer to food. But we can look at some of the most common ones with the literal translation and the meaning.

1. Er glaubt, er bekommt eine Extrawurst

Literally: He thinks he gets an extra sausage.

Does he think he’s special? Like he gets an extra sausage? We all know someone like this.
2. Du armes Würstchen!

Literally: You poor little sausage.

You have a cold! Oh you poor little sausage. Let me make you some soup. (Careful, as this one is also frequently used condescendingly, which I have to say seems extraordinarily appropriate.)

3. Die beleidigte Wurst spielen

Literally: Acting the insulted sausage

Pay no mind to Sally over there. She’s just acting the insulted sausage: pouting, because she didn’t get her way.

4. Sich die Wurst vom Brot nehmen lassen

Literally: To let someone take the sausage off your bread.

Stand up for yourself! Don’t let anyone take the sausage off your bread. You’re too good to be taken advantage of like that.

5. Das ist mir Wurst

Literally: That is sausage to me.

I don’t care about that at all. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a sausage.

6. Sieht wie eine Presswurst aus

Literally: Looks like a stuffed sausage.

She might want to rethink the size of her clothing. She looks a bit like a stuffed sausage in that top.

7. Es geht um die Wurst

Literally: It’s about the sausage.

Okay now, there are two minutes left in the game! It’s crunch time people! It’s all about the sausage!

8. Alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei

Literally: Everything has an end, only the sausage has two.

9. um den heißen Brei herumreden

Literally: To talk around the hot soup/porridge.

He simply will not get to the point. He keeps talking around the hot porridge/ hot soup, or, as we say in English, beating around the bush.

10. Jemandem Honig um den Mund schmieren

Literally: To smear honey around the mouth.

Before you ask Tim for that favor, make sure you give him lots of compliments – you know, smear honey around his mouth. (English equivalent: “to butter someone up.”)

11. Jemanden ausnehmen wie eine Weihnachtsgans

Literally: To gut someone like a Christmas goose.

If I get another passive aggressive email from Bob I swear I will tear him a new one. I will take him to the cleaners. I will gut him like a Christmas goose.

12. Dreikäsehoch

Literally: Three-cheeses-high.

Little Clara is celebrating her fourth birthday today. She’s not but a wee little thing, barely three cheeses high! I don’t know what it is, but I just love this one. It literally refers to the height of three wheels of cheese stacked on top of each other.

People are often a little afraid of getting into awkward situations where they have no clue how to express what they want to say. So, by learning how to express things such as your language level or how to ask for clarification and help with understanding or explaining, you can keep the conversation flowing and you open yourself up to a whole new dimension of language learning.

Armed with these phrases, every native speaker you encounter is a potential tutor.

 

ENGLISH I only speak a little German.	GERMAN Ich spreche nur ein wenig Deutsch.
I am learning German, but I am only a beginner.	Ich lerne Deutsch, aber ich bin noch ein Anfänger.
I have been learning German for 2 days / 2 weeks / 2 months / 1 year / 2 years.	Ich lerne seit 2 Tagen / 2 Wochen / 2 Monaten / 1 Jahr / 2 Jahren Deutsch.
Will you correct me please?	Könnten Sie mich bitte korrigieren?
What does ___ mean?	Was bedeutet ___?
What does that mean?	Was bedeutet das?
Can you explain in German/English to me?	Können Sie das auf Deutsch/Englisch für mich erklären?
What does that mean in this context?	Was bedeutet das in diesem Zusammenhang?
What is the German word for ___?	Was ist das deutsche Wort für ___?
Is this/that correct?	Ist das korrekt?
Am I wrong?	Liege ich falsch?
Am I correct?	Liege ich richtig?
Do you understand?	Verstehen Sie?
I do not understand	Ich verstehe nicht
I want to improve my level in German	Ich möchte mein Sprachniveau in Deutsch verbessern
I need to practice German	Ich brauche Übung in Deutsch
Do you mind if we speak in German?	Stört es Sie, wenn wir Deutsch sprechen?
Can you please speak in German? it helps me to learn.	Können Sie bitte Deutsch sprechen? das hilft mir beim Lernen.
How do you say ‘___’ in German?	Wie sagt man ‚___’ auf Deutsch?
I struggle with spelling / reading / writing / listening / pronunciation.	Ich habe Schwierigkeiten mit der korrekten Rechtschreibung / mit der korrekten Aussprache / damit, zu lesen / zu schreiben / das Gehörte zu verstehen.
Can you please repeat? I did not understand.	Können Sie das bitte wiederholen? Ich habe es nicht verstanden.
I don’t speak German fluently.	Ich spreche Deutsch nicht fließend.
I am confused.	Ich bin verwirrt.
I don’t know how to say it in German.	Ich weiß nicht, wie man das auf Deutsch sagt.
Sorry (or ‘pardon’), what did you say?	Entschuldigung, was haben Sie gesagt?
I’ve never heard of that.	Davon habe ich noch nie gehört.
That makes sense.	Das ergibt Sinn.
That does not make sense.	Das ergibt keinen Sinn.
What’s happening? / What’s going on?	Was passiert hier? / Was ist los?
What do you mean by ‘___’ ?	Was meinen Sie mit ‚___’?

An easy, fun way to learn German adjectives! A series of pictures by Delia Tello is so self-explanatory, no translations are needed.

An easy, fun way to learn German adjectives! A series of pictures by Delia Tello is so self-explanatory, no translations are needed.

An easy, fun way to learn German adjectives! A series of pictures by Delia Tello is so self-explanatory, no translations are needed.

Known for its precision and clarity of expression, German seems perfect for describing some of the conditions other nations may also be experiencing but couldn’t quite put a finger on it enough to give it a specific name.

1. Fernweh

“Wanderlust”. Fernweh is the opposite of homesickness. It is the longing for travel or the cabin fever, the desire to be away from home.

2. Frühjahrsmüdigkeit

“Spring fatigue”. Is it from the change in the weather? Changing sunlight patterns? Hormone imbalance? As afflictions go, Frühjahrsmüdigkeit is much less fun that “spring fever” which is instead associated with increased energy and vigor.

3. Werthersfieber

“Werther’s fever”. An old-fashioned kind of miserable lovesickness named after Goethe’s character Werther from Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (published in 1774). Refers to a generation of sensitiveness young men who made Werthersfieber a fashionable affliction in the late 18th century. 

4. Föhnkrankheit

“Foehn disorder”. Föhn is the name for a specific wind that cools air as it draws up one side of a mountain, and then warms it as it compresses coming down the other side. These winds are believed to cause headaches and other unpleasant sensations. Similar to the illness above, many genteel 19th century German ladies took to their fainting couches with a jar of smelling salts and a cold compress, suffering from Föhnkrankheit.

5. Ostalgie

“Nostalgia for the old way of life in East Germany”. (“Ost” means East). If you miss your old Trabant and those weekly visits from the secret police, you may have Ostalgie.

6. Kreislaufzusammenbruch

“Circulatory collapse”. It might sound serious and if it happened to a person, it would mean certain death, but it’s used quite commonly and anticlimactically in Germany to mean something like “hypochondria“ or “feeling woozy”.

7. Weltschmerz

“World pain”. Weltschmerz is a feeling of despair brought on by a realization that life isn’t fair and the world cannot be the way you want it to be. It’s more emotional than pessimism, and is more publicly expressed than depression.

8. Hörsturz

“Acute hearing loss”. A condition which in Germany is apparently frequently caused by stress. Curiously, while every German knows at least 5 people who have had a bout of Hörsturz, it is practically unheard of anywhere else.

9. Kevinismus

At some point in the last couple of decades, parents in Germany started coming down with Kevinismus— a strange tendency to give their kids wholly un-German names like Justin, Mandy, Dennis, Chantal, Cindy, and Kevin. Kids with these names tend to be less successful and have more behavior problems in school. Studies of the Kevinismus phenomenon attribute these effects to a combination of teachers’ prejudices toward the names, and the lower social status of parents who choose names like Kevin.

10. Putzfimmel

“Cleaning obsession”. Apparently, some people in Germany are overly obsessed with cleaning. It is not unheard of outside of Germany, but elsewhere it is less culturally defined and, let’s face it, less fun to say.

11. Lebensmüdigkeit

“Life tiredness.” When someone does something stupidly dangerous, you might sarcastically ask, “What are you doing? Are you lebensmüde?!” Meaning, “are you suicidal”?

12. Torschlusspanik

“Gate-closing panic”. Apparently the term dates back to the Middle Ages in reference to the panic medieval peasants might have experienced as they rushed to make it back inside the city gates before they closed at nightfall. Torschlusspanik is a feeling of time draining quickly and the realization that actually, you haven’t done very much with your life, and if you don’t act soon, you may miss out on more opportunities as time passes and the ‘gate closes’. You must remember, however, that Torschlusspanik is a bad advisor.

13. Zeitkrankheit

“Time sickness” or “illness of the time we live in.” It’s a general term for whatever the damaging mindset or preoccupations of a certain era are. Can also be described as the condition of the modern times, whose extreme consequences are clearest in the area of sexual identity, where, we are told, children should be allowed (if not encouraged) to select the gender of the bathroom they use, regardless of their sex at birth.

14. Ichschmerz

Ichschmerz is like Weltschmerz, but it is dissatisfaction with the self rather than the world. Which is probably what Weltschmerz really boils down to most of the time.

15. Zivilisationskrankheit

“Civilization sickness” is a set of consequences caused by the progress and generally living in the modern world. Stress, obesity, eating disorders, and diseases like type 2 diabetes are all examples.

Everyone is certainly familiar with short informal words that sprang up relatively recently across the English-speaking web, like LOL (“laugh out loud”), brb (“be right back”), idk (“I don’t know”), etc. German-speaking segment has lots of similar acronyms too:

8tung Achtung – watch out
ads alles deine Schuld – all your fault
akla? alles klar? – everything o.k?
aws auf Wiedersehen – good bye
bb bis bald – see you soon
bda bis dann – till then
bidunowa? Bist du noch wach? – Are you still awake?
braduhi? brauchst du Hilfe? – Do you need help?
bs bis später – till later
dad denke an dich – thinking of you
div danke im Voraus – thank you in advance
dubido du bist doof – you are dumb
ff Fortsetzung folgt – to be continued

g grinsen – smirk
g&k Gruß und Kuss – hug and kiss
gn8 gute Nacht – good night
hdl hab dich Lieb – love you
hegl herzlichen Glückwunsch – congratulations
ild ich liebe dich – I love you
jon jetzt oder nie – now or never
lg liebe Grüße – heartfelt regards
mamim a mail mir mal – e-mail me
mumidire muss mit dir reden – have to talk with you
n8 Nacht – night
nfd nur für dich – only for you
pg Pech gehabt – bad luck
rumian ruf mich an – call me
sfh Schluss für heute- enough for today
siw soweit ich weiß- as far as I know
sz schreib zurück – write back
vlg viele Grüße
vv viel Vergnügen – lots of fun
wamaduheu? was machst du heute? – What are you doing today?
Waudi warte auf dich – wait for you
We Wochenende – weekend

If there are only a few phrases you are willing to learn before your trip to Germany, it should be these. They could help you out if tight situations. If in a German speaking country the natives will also be more friendly and helpful even when only trying to speak in German. Talk to a person in his own language and you talk to his heart!

1. Wie geht’s? – How are you?
2. Mir geht’s gut. – I’m doing well.
3. Mir geht’s nicht gut. – I’m not doing well.
4. Ich heiße… – My name is…
5. Wie heißen Sie? – What is your name?
6. Können Sie bitte langsamer sprechen? – Could you say that more slowly please?
7. Es tut mir leid. – I’m sorry.
8. Verzeihen Sie. – Forgive me.
9. Ich habe mich verlaufen.– I’m lost.
10. Schreiben Sie das bitte für mich auf. – Please write that down for me.
11. Macht nichts. – Never mind.
12. In Ordnung. – All right.
13. Ich stimme dir zu. – I agree with you.
14. Haben Sie schon auf? – Are you open yet?
15. Darf ich mal vorbei?– May I pass by?
    
16. Schön, Sie kennenzulernen. – Nice to get to know you.
    
17. Können Sie das bitte wiederholen?-Could you say that again please?
18. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag. – Happy Birthday.
19. Entschuldigung! – Excuse me!
20. Entschuldigung, darf ich Sie etwas fragen? – Excuse me, could I ask you something?
21. Ich möchte nach… – I want to go to…
22. Wie lange dauert das?– How long does it take?
23. Zeigen Sie mir das bitte auf der Karte? – Can you show me on the map?
24. Geht es hier lang? – Is it this way?
25. Gibt es ein Krankenhaus in der Nähe? – Is there a hospital near here?
26. Es tut hier weh. – It hurts here.
27. Ich suche ein nettes Café in der Nähe. – I’m looking for a nice cafe in the area.
28. Stimmt so. – Keep the change.
29. Das gefällt mir. – I like it.
30. Ich möchte /  Ich hätte gern… – I’d like…
31. Sonst noch etwas? – Anything else?
32. Alles ist in Ordnung. – Everything is fine.
33. Keine Ahnung. – I have no idea.