The five German phrases that do 80% of the work
First time? Do this
- Audio is built in. Tap any phrase to hear it in a native voice — pre-recorded and cached, so it just works offline, no setup. (The voice bar can still pick a phone voice as a backup.)
- Phrases — drilled by situation: the Gasthaus, beer gardens, directions, the train. Hit play, then say it back out loud.
- Sounds — nine letters unlock almost everything. Ten minutes here pays off the most.
- Customs — the unspoken rules. This is where tourists actually give themselves away.
- Practice — hear / read / recall / speak. Use it on the plane.
Right thing, right moment.
Tap a chip to jump to a scene — or just search. Common holds the go-anywhere basics (hello, thanks, where's the toilet); a few phrases like drinks live under more than one scene.
Common — useful everywhere · greetings · basics · the toilet
Greetings & manners · the social handshake
At the Gasthaus (restaurant) · ordering & dining
Gasthaus GAHST-howss — a village inn-restaurant, hearty plates and beer
Beer gardens & bars · your scene
At the winery · tasting & buying
Finding your way · asking directions
Taxis & getting around · rides & fares
Trains & stations · life on the Bahn
Shops & getting by · everyday
Forests, lakes & mountains · quick vocab
Numbers 1–100 · prices & ordering
Same alphabet, and it never lies.
German spelling is ruthlessly consistent: a letter makes the same sound every time, so once you know six or seven of them you can read any sign in the country. Even the terrifying long words are just short words glued end to end.
Knowing what a letter sounds like isn't the same as being able to make it. These five are where English mouths actually go wrong: what to do, what to stop doing, and a native recording you can slow down and copy.
What your mouth doesFor ü: say "ee", freeze your tongue, and round your lips into a tight whistle — fünf. For ö: say "ay" and do the same lip-rounding — schön. The lips change; the tongue must not move.
The mistakeSubstituting "oo" and "er" — "foonf", "shern". The rounded-lip version is not decoration; it is a different letter to German ears.
What your mouth doesAfter e or i, ch is a soft hiss through a wide smile — the h of huge, held: ich. After a, o or u it moves to the back of the throat, a gentle rasp: acht.
The mistake"ik" or "itch" for ich, "akt" for acht. There is no k in either — the air never fully stops.
What your mouth doesw is the English v: Wein is "vine". v is an f: vier is "feer". Two shifts, both completely regular.
The mistakeThe English w. "Wine" for Wein is the classic — the German letter never has that lip-rounding.
What your mouth doesA crisp t and s said together, like the end of cats moved to the front of the word: zwei is "tsvy", and Zum Wohl! begins "tsoom".
The mistakeThe English buzzing z. "zway" is instantly foreign; the t in front is what makes the letter.
What your mouth doesei sounds like "eye": drei is "dry". ie sounds like "ee": Bier is "beer". When the two letters swap, so does the vowel — the trick is to say the SECOND letter's English name.
The mistakeReading both as "ee" or both as "eye". Bier and a hypothetical Beir would be different words — the order is the sound.
- The spelling never lies. A letter makes the same sound every time, so a word you've never seen is still readable on sight. There is no silent-letter list to memorise.
- Long words are short words glued together. Hauptbahnhof is Haupt + Bahn + Hof — main + rail + yard. Find the seams and read the pieces.
- Final b, d and g harden. At the end of a word they turn into p, t and k: und = "oont", Tag = "tahk", halb = "halp".
- Stress leans to the front. DAN-ke, BAHN-hof. The unstressed prefixes be-, ge-, ver- and ent- are the exception — ent-SCHUL-di-gung.
- Every noun is capitalised. Not a sound, but the fastest way to read a menu or a sign: the capitalised words are the things.
The rules nobody prints on the menu.
Your German rarely outs you. These do. Read once, and you'll move differently.
Greet the room, not just the person
Walk into a bakery, a small shop, a doctor's waiting room or even a lift and say Guten Tag (GOO-ten TAHK) out loud — Grüß Gott (grewss GOT) in Bavaria, Moin (moyn) up north. Say Tschüss (CHEWSS) on the way out.
Tip by saying the number out loud
Round up 5–10% and tell the server the total as you hand over the money — on an €18 bill you say "zwanzig, bitte" or Stimmt so (SHTIMT zoh). You pay the server at the table, not at a till.
Cash is still king
Bakeries, bars, Imbiss (IM-biss) stands and plenty of restaurants are nur Bargeld (noor BAR-gelt) — cash only — and some places that take "cards" mean German EC cards, not Visa. Ask before you order and carry more cash than you planned to.
Don't cross on a red light
Waiting at an empty street for the little green man is a civic ritual, and stepping out early in front of children will get you told off by a total stranger. Just wait.
Sunday closes the country
Supermarkets and shops shut all day Sunday — only station kiosks, bakeries and restaurants stay open. Quiet hours (Ruhezeit (ROO-uh-tsyte)) also apply overnight and all Sunday: no drilling, no loud music. Shop on Saturday.
Gemütlichkeit is the whole point
Gemütlichkeit (guh-MEWT-likh-kite) is the warm, unhurried, wooden-table-and-candlelight feeling of a good evening — the word that explains why one beer takes three hours and nobody clears your plate. You're not being ignored; settle in.
Take the bluntness as helpfulness
Germans say exactly what they mean: "no", "that's wrong", "you can't do that here" arrive with no cushioning. It isn't hostility — softening and small talk are simply seen as wasting everyone's time.
Clink every glass, meet every eye
Say Prost (PROHST), touch glasses with each person at the table individually, and hold their eyes as you do it. Drinking before the round is finished is genuinely bad form.
Your empty bottle is worth money
Most bottles and cans carry a deposit — Pfand (pfahnt), usually 8–25 cents — refunded by machines in any supermarket. Don't bin them; if you can't be bothered to return them, stand them beside a bin for collectors.
Nazi salutes and symbols are a crime
Not an edgy joke and not a photo op: displaying the salute or Third Reich symbols is illegal under §86a, and tourists are fined and arrested for it every year. Memorials and camp sites are visited in silence, with no selfies.
The plates and glasses worth going out of your way for — each with the name as you'd say it out loud.
Test the four channels.
Understanding German by ear, reading, recall, and your own mouth. Quick rounds — do them twice.