100 important German words for traveling in Germany
Are you planning to go to Germany? You don’t want to learn a whole phrasebook and still get around? I might have just what you want! Check out and learn this list of 100 important German words you might need to get around or to get in contact with locals, who don’t really speak English. Especially with older people, you can win them over by knowing some words, as Germany are often quite annoyed when someone can’t speak their language.
Pronunciation
| ai/ei/ay = i (as in cry) |
| i/ie = e (as in see) |
| ö as in turn (but without the r) |
| ü as in lure (there’s no exact equivalent in English) |
| ä = a (as in say (without e-sound)) |
| au = ou (as in loud) |
| äu/eu = oy (as in boy) |
| s = z (as in zone) |
| sch = sh (as in shoe) |
| sp and st = shp and sht |
| ß = s (as in boss) |
| z = ts (as in pizza) |
| w = v (as in vine; English w-sound does not exist in German) |
The List Of 100 German Travel Words
If you are confused by some of the following words, you can read the explanations underneath the list. So here it is:
| hallo | Hello/Hi |
| tschüss | Bye/see you |
| entschuldigung | Sorry & excuse me |
| Danke | Thanks |
| Bitte | You’re welcome & please |
| Die Liebe | The love |
| Das Hotel | The Hotel |
| Das Zimemr | The room |
| Das Auto | The car |
| Das Fahrrad | The bicycle |
| Der Bus | The bus |
| Der Zug | The train |
| Das Flugzeug | The airplane |
| Der Bahnhof | The train station |
| Der Flughafen | The airport |
| Die Rechnung | The bill |
| Das Geld | The money |
| Das Wasser | The water |
| Das Glas | The glass |
| Die Flasche | The bottle |
| Das Essen | The food |
| Das Getränk | The drink |
| essen | to eat |
| trinken | to drink |
| gehen | to go |
| fahren | to drive & go by |
| laufen | to walk |
| sehen | to see |
| hören | to hear |
| (zu)schauen | to watch |
| rennen | to run |
| fliegen | to fly |
| reden | to talk |
| sprechen | to speak |
| erklären | to explain |
| telefonieren | to phone |
| wandern | to hike |
| sitzen | to sit |
| stehen | to stand |
| bleiben | to stay(remain) |
| Die Toilette | The toilet |
| Die Hilfe | The help |
| Der Arzt | The physician/doctor |
| krank | sick |
| Das Krankenhaus | The hospital |
| Der Strand | The beach |
| Das Meer | The sea |
| Der Berg | The mountain |
| Der Urlaub | The holiday |
| Der Mensch | The human |
| Der Schnee | The snow |
| Das Eis | The ice |
| Das Eis | The ice cream |
| Der Eiswürfel | The ice cube |
| Die Uhr | The watch/clock/o’clock |
| Die Zeit | The time |
| Die Stunde | The hour |
| Die Minute | The minute |
| Die Sekunde | The second |
| Der Tag | The day |
| Die Nacht | The night |
| heute | today |
| morgen | tomorrow |
| Der Morgen | The morning |
| Der Abend | The evening |
| früh | early |
| spät | late |
| kalt | cold |
| heiß | hot |
| gut | good |
| schlecht | bad |
| nett | nice |
| schön | beautiful |
| hübsch | pretty |
| hässlich | ugly |
| angenehm | compfortable/nice |
| laut | loud |
| leise | quiet |
| vorne | front (of) |
| hinten | behind/ in the back |
| oben | on top/above/up |
| unten | below/underneath/down |
| Der Norden | The North |
| Der Osten | The East |
| Der Süden | The South |
| Der Westen | The West |
| Die Straße | The street |
| Die Kreuzung | The crossroad/junction |
| Das Haus | The house |
| Der Baum | The tree |
| Der Park | The park |
| Der Garten | The garden |
| Das Schild | The street sign |
| Der Mann | The man |
| Die Frau | The woman |
| Das Kind | The child |
| prost! | Cheers! |
| Das Bier | The beer |
| Der Wein | The wine |
| Der Alkohol | The alcohol |
Further Explanations
Hello: There are several ways how to say hello. “Hallo” is the most common one, a lot of Germans also use the word “hi” as in English, with the same pronunciation. A more formal way would be “guten Tag” (=good day). Depending on the area you will be in, they will probably have other words for hello, like “grüß Gott”, “servus”, “moin” or even just “na”. The use of the words would also differ between the different ages.
Tschüss: There are also several ways how to say bye. A formal way would be “auf Wiedersehen” which means “see you again”. The word “später” basically means “later” yet in German most of the time it refers to the same day. So if you want to say “see you later”, which is “bis später”, keep in mind that you’d mean the same day. If you don’t refer your “see you later” to the same day, you can say “bis dann”. Other than that there are phrases like “bis morgen” (see you tomorrow), “bis [day of the week]”, “bis bald” (= see you soon), “bis gleich” (= see you on a bit), “bis die Tage” (= see you within the next few days) and many more of those “bis”-phrases (“bis” literally means “until”). If you want to say farewell, as in “I’ll never see you again”, you’d say “leb’ wohl” (= literally “live well”)
Entschuldigung: With only one word you can learn two meanings: “sorry” and “excuse me”. When you ask someone and want to start with excuse me would therefore be the same word as accidentally bumping into someone.
Danke: Only that word would be the same as “thanks”. You can make it more polite by saying “danke dir/Ihnen” (thank you informal/formal), danke sehr (thanks a lot), or vielen Dank (thank you very much).
Bitte: Same here, one word for two meanings. Someone says “danke” (= thanks/thank you), you can reply with “bitte”. You want to politely ask for something adding please, then you can do the same in German adding “bitte”.
Fahren: Whenever you take a vehicle, you use the word fahren (= drive) in German. Even if you go by bus/bike/train, in German you drive by bus/bike/train. “Ich fahre Auto” means “I drive cars”. “Ich fahre mit dem Auto” would mean “I will go by car”. So the difference wouldn’t be a different verb, it’s adding the word “mit” (= by) and the dative article (“dem”, “den” or “der”), to differentiate between drive and go by.
Bleiben: It translates to “to stay”, yet it can’t be used in the context “I stay at a hotel”. In this context, you’d use the word “übernachten” (= stay overnight). The word “bleiben” refers to the word stay when the meaning is more similar to remain.
Eis: When you talk to a native German person, you might want to focus on that, because they often say it wrong. You might hear them talk about ice cream, but they only use the word ice. That’s because Germans use one word for both: “Eis”. Usually, it’s understood in the context, which of the two you’re referring to. In case it isn’t, you can say “Speiseeis” or “Eiscreme”, which is technically the long and proper version, but unless it’s really necessary, Germans would only say “Eis” when talking about “ice cream”.
Learn German
If you want to learn German or if you have already started, you might want to do so the easiest way. How? Just download the Readle – learn German App, where you’ll find interesting stories, read by a native German speaker, where you can see every translation of any word in the text. This way, you can learn it through context and won’t forget all those difficult words!
