Image: Lumi Images/Hudolin-Kurtagic/Getty Images
About This Quiz
Who said that learning a new language has to be difficult? Sure, maybe some languages like Japanese, Chinese or Russian are fairly hard, but that's not the case with German. In fact, many German words, such as "Hallo," "Kalender" and "April," sound a lot like their English translations.
The German alphabet is pretty similar to our English one, except for a few additions. There's a letter "ß," which is called a ligature and is pronounced like an "S." There are also vowels with dots called umlauts, and these marks change the pronunciation. These vowels are "Ä," "Ö" and "Ü." So, for example, if you wanted to say the word "fünf" (which means "five" in German), then you would pronounce this as "foonf" instead of "funf."
Once you've got the pronunciation of these letters down, then you can move on to memorizing simple words and phrases. Maybe you want to order some "Fisch" at a restaurant, or perhaps your "Kaffee" needs to be heated up. But just remember to use your manners — "Bitte" and "Danke" mean "Please" and "Thank you."
Now if you think this stuff is easy, then maybe you should try taking the rest of our German quiz to find out if you can score 100%!
Schön
The actual phrase here is "Bitte schön," which means "You're welcome." Some people also use the phrase "Gern geschehen" or "Gern" for short, though the latter is used for informal conversations.
Kein
Dank
Sie
Advertisement
Richtig
Danke
Nein
Ja
"Ja" means "yes" in German. It's pronounced by saying "yah." This is because the letter "j" in German is spoken as the letter "y" in English. For example, "Jo-Jo" would be pronounced "Yo-Yo."
Advertisement
No thanks.
I don't understand.
No problem.
The giveaway here is the word "problem." It not-so-subtly hints at the translation, which is "no problem" in English. It's also a way of saying "You're welcome" in the German language.
I need help.
Advertisement
Es
Sie
"Sie" kind of sounds like "she," don't you think? And, as a bonus, we'll throw in some other German-English translations here: "ich" means "I," "es" means "it," and "wir" means "we." (Unfortunately, to confuse matters, "sie" also means "they," and "Sie" is a formal way of saying "you.")
Wir
Ich
Advertisement
Darth
Der
Maybe "der Vater" inspired George Lucas to name his iconic villain as "Darth Vader," especially since this means "the Father" in German. For "the mother," you would say "die Mutter."
Das
Dee
Advertisement
Spreche
The phrase above translates to "I speak English." So let's break it down: "Ich" means "I," "spreche" means "speak," and "Englisch," of course, means "English." German isn't that hard after all!
Nicht
Brauchen
Brauche
Advertisement
Excuse me
Sorry
Of course
"Natürlich" means "of course," but there are different ways to say this. You could use "sicherlich," which means "certainly," or "selbstverständlich," which is a more complex way of saying "of course."
Nature
Advertisement
Tun Agteg
Tegun Tag
"Nuget Gat" is correct.
Guten Tag
Were you able to spot "Guten Tag" from this anagram? If so, then you might be a German genius! But did you know that "Guten Tag" also means "Hello" and "Good afternoon"? You could also say "Guten Morgen" during the morning hours.
Advertisement
Dank
Schuld
The next time you need to ask a German-speaking stranger a question, start with "Entschuldigung," which means "Excuse me." It also means "I'm sorry." Saying "Verzeihung" is a bit more formal, more like "Pardon me."
Ursache
Schön
Advertisement
Keine
Gute
Auf
The correct phrase is "Auf Wiedersehen," which translates to"See you again" or "Goodbye." It's considered to be formal and polite — you could use "Tschüß" for a more informal approach.
Gern
Advertisement
Klar
"Alles klar" kind of sounds like "all clear," right? It also means "Is everything all right?" as this translation is actually used as an informal greeting in German. And the best response would be "Ja," which means "yes."
Es
Tut
Leid
Advertisement
Wis est los?
Wes ist los?
Was ist los?
If you know a close friend or family member in Germany, then you might wanna say "Was ist los?" to them, as this translates to "What's up?" But, depending on the context, it could also mean "What's the matter?"
Wes est los?
Advertisement
See you soon.
The German phrase "Bis bald" means "See you soon," but it literally translates to "Until soon." This is often used as an informal way of departing from friends or family members. It's certainly shorter than the famous "Auf Wiedersehen."
Nice to meet you.
My name is ...
Where are you from?
Advertisement
Ein
Ommen
Reut
If you want to say "Nice to meet you" in the German language, then you might use the "Freut mich" approach. It also means "I am glad," which in turn, means that you're glad to meet someone.
Anke
Advertisement
Macht langsamer
Macht bedeutet
"Macht ordnung" is correct.
Macht nichts
"Macht nichts" actually has several meanings, and one of them is "Never mind." It also translates to "It doesn't matter," especially in response to an apology, and it can be used to end a conversation.
Advertisement
Sechs
Vier
Drei
Do you know your German numbers? If so, then you might be able to guess that "drei" means "three," which is the next number in this sequence. Subsequent numbers would be "vier," "fünf," "sechs" and so forth.
Acht
Advertisement
Was empfehlen Sie?
Bitte wählen Sie etwas
Haben Sie schon auf?
Die Rechnung, bitte
When you need the check in a German restaurant, you could use the phrase "Die Rechnung, bitte." And if the server isn't around, you could say, "Entschuldigung," which means "Excuse me."
Advertisement
Muss
Kostet
"Was kostet das?" is the correct way of saying "How much is it?" in the German language. And just for fun, if you wanted to ask "What time is it?" you would say, "Wie spät ist es (jetzt)?"
Lange
Nach
Advertisement
Where is California on the map?
If you know that "Karte" means "map," then you might imagine that "Where is California on the map?" is the correct translation. And if you wanted to say "Can you show me on the map?" you would say "Zeigen Sie mir das bitte auf der Karte?"
How do I get to California?
Is California far from here?
What's the weather in California?
Advertisement
Komme
"Wie komme ich dahin?" translates to "How can I get there?" It's a useful phrase for getting around in Germany. To simply explain that you are lost, you would say "Ich habe mich verlaufen."
Habe
Mich
Auf
Advertisement
Suche
Ja
Moment
We're not playing any tricks here, because "Moment, bitte" actually means "Just a moment." The word "bitte" also has several meanings, which include "Please" and "Pardon?" and "You're welcome."
Nein
Advertisement
Danke
Ich
Was
Das
The common phrase "Das gefällt mir" translates to "I like this," which is particularly useful if you're shopping in a store. But if the said item is too pricey, you could always say, "Das ist mir zu teuer."
Advertisement
Ö
Y
Fortunately, our English alphabet is relatively similar to the German one. However, the letter "y" generally appears only in words that came to German from other languages. Even the word "Germany" is a foreign word in Deutschland.
ß
Ü
Advertisement
Tremotzd danke
"Merotzdt eankd" looks good to me.
Demtrotz danke
Trotzdem danke
"Trotzdem danke" translates to "Thank you anyway," but only for situations when someone cannot help. So if a person cannot give you the directions you asked for, you would say "Trotzdem danke."
Advertisement
Liebe
Glück
"Glück" sounds like a pretty happy German word, doesn't it? But just be careful not to pronounce it as "Gluck," because the "ü" in German sounds similar to the "u" in French. There is no equivalent in English.
Katze
Lächeln
Advertisement
o
ü
a
u
The word "Hund" means "dog," but don't pronounce it like "hund." The ending "d" is pronounced like a "t," so it should really be pronounced "hunt." Similarly, an ending "b" in German is pronounced like a "p," and an ending "g" is pronounced like a "k."
Advertisement
Gute Nacst
Gate Nacht
Gute Nacht
Next time you want to say "Good night" to a friend or family member, trying saying "Gute Nacht." Other common "Good night" phrases are "Träum süß," "Schlaf gut" and "Ab in die Heia."
Gate Nacxt
Advertisement
Uhr
Minute
Stunde
"Stunde" means "hour" in German, and it's used to tell what time it is. "Sekunde" means "second," "Uhr" means "o'clock" (so you would say "4 Uhr" for "4 o'clock"), and "Minute" means "minute."
Sekunde
Advertisement
Halt
Verlangsamen
Lachen
Gehen
The word "gehen" means "go" in English, and it's useful for driving through green stoplights. But if you see a yellow light, be sure to "verlangsamen," which means to "slow down."
Advertisement
Sehen
You "sehen" with your eyes, right? This word means "see," but let's talk about verbs for the other senses too. "Hören" means "hear," to "riechen" is to "smell," "berühren" means "touch," and "schmecken" means "taste."
Weit
Klein
Können
Advertisement
A
E
I
If a task or a test seems rather difficult, then you might use the word "schwierig" to describe it. On the other hand, if something seems very easy to you, then you would probably use the word "einfach."
O
Advertisement
Donnerstag
Dienstag
Montag
Mittwoch
Everyone loves the middle of the week, which is known as "Mittwoch," right? But let's be real — people go crazy for "Freitag," "Samstag" and "Sonntag" even more, which are Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Advertisement
C
Z
In the German language, "Dezember" refers to the last month of the year, December. For the most part, these calendar months are fairly easy to learn, with common German months like "Oktober," "November" and "Juli."
S
N
Advertisement
Polizist
If "Polizist" sounds like "police officer" to you, then you are correct. But more formally, you would refer to the Federal Police in Germany as "Bundespolizei," or BPOL for short.
Koch
Ingenieur
Lehrerin
Advertisement
Food items
Beverages
These German beverage phrases sound a lot like their English translations, don't they? For instance, "Tee" means "tea," "Wasser" means "water," and "Kaffee" means "coffee." And if you wanted to say "soda," you would just say "die Soda." In German, all nouns are capitalized.
Toiletries
Articles of clothing
Advertisement
You Got:
/35
