German language
Template:Infobox language The German language (German: Deutsch or (die) deutsche Sprache) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family.
It is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg; natively by around 100 million people. It is the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. There are some people who speak German in Belgium and in the Netherlands, as well as in France and Northern Italy. There are people who speak German in many countries, including the United States and Canada, where many people emigrated from Germany. In Eastern Europe, too, in Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, etc.
German is a part of the West Germanic language family (a group of languages that are similar) and is much like English and Dutch. A lot of the vocabulary in German is related to English, but the grammar is more complicated. German has a system of cases, and when helping verbs are used, the main part of the verb must be moved to the end of the sentence. For example, "Someone has stolen my car" is Jemand hat mein Auto gestohlen (Someone has my car stolen) or, "Someone called me last night" is Jemand hat mich letzte Nacht angerufen (Someone has me last night called).
In German writing, every noun must start with a capital letter. English and Danish also did this long ago, but not now. Today, German is the only language that has this rule.
While German is an official language in Switzerland, the Swiss dialect of German is difficult for native speakers from Germany, and even for Swiss who are not native to speaking German, to understand. One reason why the dialects are still so different today is that even though Switzerland adopted Standard German, mostly as a written standard, German Swiss in WWII wanted to separate themselves from the Nazis by choosing to speak the Swiss dialect over the standard dialect.[1] Swiss German also has some differences in writing, for example, the letter ß, which is only seen in German, is always replaced by ss.
Contents
Dialects
- Alsatian
- Bavarian dialect
- Franconian Dialect
- Kölsch
- Low Saxon
- Swiss dialect
- Mannheimerisch dialect
- Palatinate German
Examples
Some German words with English translations
| null | zero, nil |
| eins | one |
| zwei | two |
| drei | three |
| vier | four |
| fünf | five |
| sechs | six |
| sieben | seven |
| acht | eight |
| neun | nine |
| zehn | ten |
| elf | eleven |
| zwölf | twelve |
| dreizehn | thirteen |
| vierzehn | fourteen |
| fünfzehn | fifteen |
| sechzehn | sixteen |
| siebzehn | seventeen |
| achtzehn | eighteen |
| neunzehn | nineteen |
| zwanzig | twenty |
| ja | yes |
| nein | no |
| ich | I |
| du | you (friendly) |
| er | he |
| sie | she |
| es | it |
| wir | we |
| ihr | you (plural, friendly) |
| Sie | you (polite) |
| sie | they |
| Schweiz | Switzerland |
| Österreich | Austria |
| Deutschland | Germany |
| wer | who |
| wie | how |
| wo | where |
| was | what |
| der | the (masculine) |
| die | the (feminine) |
| das | the (neuter (neutral)) |
Basic German expressions
| Guten Morgen | Good morning |
| Guten Abend | Good evening |
| Guten Tag | "Hello" (meaning 'Good day', used between morning and evening) |
| Gute Nacht | Good night |
| Wie geht es dir/Ihnen/euch? | How are you? |
| Mir geht's gut, danke! | I'm fine, thank you! |
| bitte | please (can also mean "you are welcome" in response to some form of danke, but not literally) |
| danke | Thank you |
| Auf Wiedersehen | Goodbye |
| Ich heiße ... | My name is ... |
| Wie heißt du/Wie heißen Sie | What's your name? |
| Entschuldigung/Entschuldigen Sie | Excuse me |
| Woher kommst du?/Woher kommen Sie? | Where are you from? |
| Ich komme aus Deutschland/Österreich | I'm from Germany/Austria |
| Wo wohnst du?/Wo wohnen Sie? | Where do you live? |
| Was ist los? | What's up? |
| Ich wohne in Hamburg, in der Marienstraße im Norden Hamburgs. | I'm living in Hamburg, in the Marienstraße (Mary's street) in the north of Hamburg. |
| Hast du Lust auf Pizza? Ich mache gerade eine. | Do you want to have a pizza? I'm preparing one. |
| Entschuldigen Sie. Wo ist der Bahnhof? | Excuse me. Where is the train station? |
| Wie viel kostet dieser Pullover? | How much is this pullover (sweater)? |
| Wie viel kostet diese Jeans? | How much are these jeans? |
| Fräulein (generally obsolete German) | Miss |
| Frau | Mrs., Ms. |
| Herr | Mr. |
References
- ↑ "Languages of Switzerland". YouTube.
Notes
Other websites
| 40x40px | German edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
- Online German Language Course An online German language course that includes lessons covering pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
- German phrasebook at Wikivoyage
- Learn to Speak German Student Resource
- Free German Language Course
- German Thesaurus
